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- When the Israelites had met at Mizpah before the war with Benjamin, they had made this sacred promise: "None of us will ever let our daughters marry any man from Benjamin."
- After the war with Benjamin, the Israelites went to the place of worship at Bethel and sat there until sunset. They cried loudly and bitterly
- and prayed, "Our LORD, you are the God of Israel. Why did you let this happen? Now one of our tribes is almost gone."
- Early the next morning, the Israelites built an altar and offered sacrifices to please the LORD and to ask his blessing.
- Then they asked each other, "Did any of the tribes of Israel fail to come to the place of worship? We made a sacred promise that anyone who didn't come to the meeting at Mizpah would be put to death."
- The Israelites were sad about what had happened to the Benjamin tribe, and they said, "One of our tribes was almost wiped out.
- Only a few men of Benjamin weren't killed in the war. We need to get wives for them, so the tribe won't completely disappear. But how can we do that, after promising in the LORD's name that we wouldn't let them marry any of our daughters?"
- Again the Israelites asked, "Did any of the tribes stay away from the meeting at Mizpah?" After asking around, they discovered that no one had come from Jabesh in Gilead.
- (SEE 21:8)
- So they sent twelve thousand warriors with these orders: "Attack Jabesh in Gilead and kill everyone, except the women who have never been married."
- (SEE 21:10)
- The warriors attacked Jabesh in Gilead, and returned to their camp in Canaan with four hundred young women.
- The Israelites met and sent messengers to the men of Benjamin at Rimmon Rock, telling them that the Israelites were willing to make peace with them.
- So the men of Benjamin came back from Rimmon Rock, and the Israelites let them marry the young women from Jabesh. But there weren't enough women.
- The Israelites were very sad, because the LORD had almost wiped out one of their tribes.
- Then their national leaders said: All the women of the Benjamin tribe were killed. How can we get wives for the men of Benjamin who are left?
- If they don't have children, one of the Israelite tribes will die out.
- But we can't let the men of Benjamin marry any of our daughters. We made a sacred promise not to do that, and if we break our promise, we will be under our own curse.
- Then someone suggested, "What about the LORD's Festival that takes place each year in Shiloh? It's held north of Bethel, south of Lebonah, and just east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem."
- The leaders told the men of Benjamin who still did not have wives: Go to Shiloh and hide in the vineyards near the festival.
- Wait there for the young women of Shiloh to come out and perform their dances. Then rush out and grab one of the young women, then take her home as your wife.
- If the fathers or brothers of these women complain about this, we'll say, "Be kind enough to let those men keep your daughter. After all, we couldn't get enough wives for all the men of Benjamin in the battle at Jabesh. And because you didn't give them permission to marry your daughters, you won't be under the curse we earlier agreed on.
- The men of Benjamin went to Shiloh and hid in the vineyards. The young women soon started dancing, and each man grabbed one of them and carried her off. Then the men of Benjamin went back to their own land and rebuilt their towns and started living in them again.
- Afterwards, the rest of the Israelites returned to their homes and families.
- In those days Israel wasn't ruled by a king, and everyone did what they thought was right.
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Judges - Chapter 21 (Contemporary English Version)
Judges - Chapter 21
Entered: November 07, 2007
The account continues regarding the annihilation of the Benjaminites. Whatever regrets the people of Israel had about the bloodbath of the Benjaminites, they did not want to have one of the twelve tribes disappear. There were only 600 survivers of this tribe - all men - and the rest of Israel had made an oath at an earlier time not to give any of their daughters to the Benjaminites for marriage. So Israel gathered at Bethel and wept loudly before the Lord, wondering, "What should we do about wives for the survivors?" It's mind-boggling the games people play when they are caught up in legalism without any real relationship with the Lord. The first solution Israel hit upon to gain wives for the Benjaminites involved another bloodbath. They asked themselves who had not been present to help in the battle against the Benjaminites. The answer was Jabesh-gilead. Therefore, their solution was to take 12,000 warriors and kill all the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead except the virgin women. When this was done, there were 400 surviving virgins - 200 short of the number needed. Their problem was not completely solved. Their next plan was to take advantage of the annual festival to the Lord in Shiloh. This may have been the Feast of Tabernacles. The plan they contrived was for the Benjaminites who did not yet have a wife to hide in the vineyards outside the festival area, and when the young women came out to perform the dances, they were to come out of hiding and catch themselves a wife. In this manner, the Israelites would not be going against their vow since they were not actually giving them their daughters. So the remainder of the Benjaminites acquired wives and returned home to rebuild their cities. Perhaps to preclude the Lord's involvement in all this, the writer concludes the chapter with the words, "In those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did whatever he wanted."
Entered: April 08, 2013
Dysfunctional is a term that comes to mind in reading these last chapters of Judges. The writer of Judges has repeatedly mentioned in these last chapters that "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever he wanted." (21:25) Evidently the writer saw this lack of central leadership to be the reason for this dysfunction, but God's intent was that He be their king and that they listen to Him and follow His leading. They had turned their backs on God, though, which was the real reason for their dysfunction. The result was that they were victims of their own rash decisions.
The Israelites had vowed to kill all of the Benjamites because of their vile actions at Gibeah, but once they had nearly annihilated the tribe they lamented the near loss of a whole tribe. Then they set about to find loopholes in their vows to correct the destruction caused by the initial vow. Only 600 men remained of the tribe of Benjamin and they needed brides for them to keep the tribe from extinction. They remembered their vow to kill any Israelites that didn't come out to help them kill the Benjaminites (another rash vow) so they used this vow to kill the people of Jabesh-gilead who had not helped. However, they spared the young women who had never been married which turned out to be 400. This was 200 short the number they needed for the 600 surviving Benjamites.
To get the needed 200 brides for the Benjamites without breaking their vow not to give them their own daughters, they looked for a loophole in the vow and found it. They could not give them their daughters but their was nothing to keep the Benjamites from taking a daughter. They remembered a festival at Shiloh that was approaching and arranged with the Benjamites to hide in the vineyard and when the young girls came out to dance each man would slip out and grab a girl and run off with her. Thus they could round out the number of wives needed without breaking any vows. What a farse! As Matthew Henry states, "They would have acted better if they had repented of their rash oaths, brought sin-offerings, and sought forgiveness in the appointed way, rather than attempt to avoid the guilt of perjury by actions quite as wrong."