Mourning the Tribe of Benjamin
1 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, “None of us will give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife.” 2 The people came to Bethel and sat there until evening before the Lord and raised their voices and wept bitterly. 3 They said, “Lord, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?”
4 The next day, the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
5 The Israelites said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up in the assembly to the Lord?” For they had made a great oath concerning him who did not come up to the Lord to Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.”
6 The Israelites grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, “There is one tribe cut off from Israel today. 7 How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them wives from our daughters?”
Provision for Benjamin’s Survival
8 They said, “Which one from the tribes of Israel did not come up to the Lord to Mizpah?” No one had come to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly. 9 For when the people were counted, indeed, none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead were there.
10 The congregation sent 12,000 of the most valiant men there, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, along with the women and the little ones. 11 This is the thing that you shall do: You shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain with a man.” 12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead 400 young virgins who had not known any man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13 The whole congregation sent messengers to the Benjaminites who were at the rock of Rimmon and proclaimed peace to them. 14 Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had kept alive from the women of Jabesh Gilead. There still were not enough for them.
15 The people grieved for Benjamin, because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 16 Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the Benjaminite women have been destroyed?” 17 They said, “There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel. 18 However, we may not give them wives from among our daughters, for the Israelites had sworn, saying, ‘Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.’ ” 19 They said, “There is a feast of the Lord 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.”
20 They commanded the Benjaminites, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards 21 and watch, and if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and each man catch his wife from the daughters of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin. 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 didn’t take a wife for each man in battle, nor did you give them to them, otherwise you would now be guilty.’ ”
23 The Benjaminites did so and took wives for themselves 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. 24 The Israelites departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they each went out from there to his own inheritance. 25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.