21:1 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There
shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin for a wife.
21:2 And the people came to the house of God, and abode there
till evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept
bitterly;
21:3 And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in
Israel, that there should be to-day one tribe lacking in
Israel?
21:4 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose
early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt-offerings,
and peace-offerings.
21:5 And the children of Israel said, Who [is there] among all
the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation to
the LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning him that
came not up to the LORD to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be
put to death.
21:6 And the children of Israel repented for Benjamin their
brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this
day.
21:7 How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we
have sworn by the LORD, that we will not give them of our
daughters for wives?
21:8 And they said, What one [is there] of the tribes of Israel
that came not up to Mizpeh to the LORD? and behold, there came
none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly.
21:9 For the people were numbered, and behold, [there were] none
of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.
21:10 And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of
the most valiant, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the
inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with
the women and the children.
21:11 And this [is] the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly
destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
21:12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four
hundred young virgins that had known no man by lying with any
male: and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which [is]
in the land of Canaan.
21:13 And the whole congregation sent [some] to speak to the
children of Benjamin that [were] in the rock Rimmon, and to
call peaceably to them.
21:14 And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them
wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead:
and yet so they sufficed them not.
21:15 And the people repented for Benjamin, because the LORD had
made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
21:16 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do
for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed
out of Benjamin?
21:17 And they said, [There must be] an inheritance for them
that have escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed
out of Israel.
21:18 But, we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the
children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed [be] he that
giveth a wife to Benjamin.
21:19 Then they said, Behold, [there is] a feast of the LORD in
Shiloh yearly [in a place] which [is] on the north side of
Beth-el, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from
Beth-el to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
21:20 Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying,
Go, and lie in wait in the vineyards;
21:21 And see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out
to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and
catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go
to the land of Benjamin.
21:22 And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come
to us to complain, that we will say to them, Be favorable to
them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his
wife in the war: for ye did not give to them at this time,
[that] ye should be guilty.
21:23 And the children of Benjamin did so, and took [them]
wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom
they caught: and they went and returned to their inheritance,
and repaired the cities and dwelt in them.
21:24 And the children of Israel departed thence at that time,
every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went from
thence every man to his inheritance.
21:25 In those days [there was] no king in Israel: every man did
[that which was] right in his own eyes.
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