Judges - Chapter 21

21:1 Now the men of Yisrael had sworn in Mizpah, saying, "There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benyamin as wife." 21:2 The people came to Bethel, and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept severely. 21:3 They said, "Mar-Yah, the God of Yisrael, why has this happened in Yisrael, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Yisrael?"

21:4 It happened on the next day that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. 21:5 The B'nai Yisrael said, "Who is there among all the tribes of Yisrael who did not come up in the assembly to Mar-Yah?" For they had made a great oath concerning him who did not come up to Mar-Yah to Mizpah, saying, "He shall surely be put to death." 21:6 The B'nai Yisrael grieved for Benyamin their brother, and said, "There is one tribe cut off from Yisrael this day. 21:7 How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by Mar-Yah that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?"

21:8 They said, "What one is there of the tribes of Yisrael who did not come up to Mar-Yah to Mizpah?" Behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly. 21:9 For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there. 21:10 The congregation sent there twelve thousand men of the most valiant, and commanded them, saying, "Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. 21:11 This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain with a man." 21:12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. 21:13 The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benyamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. 21:14 Benyamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead: and yet so they weren't enough for them. 21:15 The people grieved for Benyamin, because that Mar-Yah had made a breach in the tribes of Yisrael. 21:16 Then the elders of the congregation said, "How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed out of Benyamin?"

21:17 They said, "There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benyamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Yisrael. 21:18 However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the B'nai Yisrael had sworn, saying, 'Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benyamin.'" 21:19 They said, "Behold, there is a feast of Mar-Yah from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah." 21:20 They commanded the children of Benyamin, 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 the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each man catch his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benyamin. 21:22 It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, 'Grant them graciously to us, because we did not take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, otherwise you would now be guilty.'"

21:23 The children of Benyamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them. 21:24 The B'nai Yisrael departed there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from there every man to his inheritance. 21:25 In those days there was no king in Yisrael: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

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2:8 Mas. adds: "being one hundred and ten years old"

2:9 "in the royal valley", Mas. "border of his inheritance in Timnath Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Ga'ash."

6:15, "Adon", meaning "Lord"

9, chapter. This and various sections of other chapters do not appear in some manuscripts of the Assembly.