Book of Judges Chapter 21
07_JUD_21_01 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.
07_JUD_21_02 And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;
07_JUD_21_03 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?
07_JUD_21_04 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.
07_JUD_21_05 And the children of Israel said, Who [is there] among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto 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.
07_JUD_21_06 And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.
07_JUD_21_07 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 to wives?
07_JUD_21_08 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 Jabeshgilead to the assembly.
07_JUD_21_09 For the people were numbered, and, behold, [there were] none of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead there.
07_JUD_21_10 And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.
07_JUD_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.
07_JUD_21_12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which [is] in the land of Canaan.
07_JUD_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 unto them.
07_JUD_21_14 And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
07_JUD_21_15 And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
07_JUD_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?
07_JUD_21_17 And they said, [There must be] an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.
07_JUD_21_18 Howbeit 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.
07_JUD_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 Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
07_JUD_21_20 Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
07_JUD_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.
07_JUD_21_22 And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, [that] ye should be guilty.
07_JUD_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 unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.
07_JUD_21_24 And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.
07_JUD_21_25 In those days [there was] no king in Israel: every man did [that which was] right in his own eyes.