After nearly annihilating the tribe of Benjamin, the Israelites repented, lamenting the loss of a tribe and their oath not to give their daughters as wives. To provide wives for the remaining 600 Benjamite men, they first destroyed Jabesh-Gilead, taking 400 virgins. When these were insufficient, they devised a plan for the Benjamites to seize wives from the dancing daughters of Shiloh during a feast, thus circumventing their oath.
The people of Isra'el asked, "Who among the tribes of Isra'el did not come up to assemble before ADONAI? For they had made a great oath to put to death whoever didn't come up to ADONAI at Mitzpah.
Then they asked who from the tribes of Isra'el had not come up to ADONAI at Mitzpah and found that none had come from Yavesh-Gil'ad to the camp where the assembly was;
So the gathering sent 12,000 warriors there and ordered them, "Go, and put the people who live in Yavesh-Gil'ad to death with the sword, including women and children.
Among the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil'ad they found 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Kena'an.
So Binyamin returned at that time, and the people of Isra'el gave them the women they had kept alive of the women from Yavesh-Gil'ad. But those weren't enough for them.
Then they said, "Look, each year there's a festival in honor of ADONAI in Shiloh, north of Beit-El, on the east side of the road that goes up from Beit-El to Sh'khem, and south of Levonah."
and keep watch. If the girls of Shiloh come out to do their dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each of you catch for himself a wife from the Shiloh girls, and go on to the land of Binyamin.
When their fathers or brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, 'Give them as a personal favor to us, because we didn't take wives for each of them in battle. You didn't give them to them; that would have made you guilty of breaking your oath.'"
So the men of Binyamin did this - they took wives for themselves from the girls who were dancing, as many as they needed. They carried them off, went back to the land of their inheritance, rebuilt the cities and lived in them.
The people of Isra'el then left that place, each man returned to his tribe and family, and each man went out from there to the land he had inherited.
Conclusion: Everyone Did What Was Right in His Own Eyes
At that time there was no king in Isra'el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.
Study Notes for Judges 21
Verse 1
The tribes of Israel had sworn a rash vow at Mizpeh, forbidding any intermarriage with the tribe of Benjamin. This oath, made in the heat of war and vengeance, now directly threatens the existence of one of God’s tribes.
Verse 2
The people came to the 'house of God,' likely Shiloh, the location of the Tabernacle. Their intense weeping reflects a genuine, though tragically delayed, remorse over the near-destruction of the tribe.
Verse 3
The irony here is profound: the tribes ask why God allowed this breach, failing to fully acknowledge that their own zealous actions and adherence to a human oath were the immediate cause of the crisis.
Verse 5
The solution to the marriage dilemma is sought through another act of violence. The Israelites prioritize finding a loophole to uphold their oath of vengeance against non-participants over finding a straightforward way to preserve Benjamin.
Verse 8
Jabesh-gilead, located across the Jordan, was identified as the only community that failed to participate in the judgment against Benjamin. According to the prior oath (v. 5), they were now subject to the death penalty.
Verse 11
The command for *herem* (utter destruction) is ruthlessly applied, yet it is modified for pragmatic purposes. Only virgins are spared, demonstrating that the primary motive was not justice alone, but securing biological continuity for Benjamin.
Verse 12
The four hundred virgins provided wives for only two-thirds of the six hundred Benjamite survivors. This insufficiency necessitated the second, more ethically troubling plan later in the chapter.
Verse 13
The survivors of Benjamin had fled to the Rock Rimmon (20:47). Having satisfied their vengeance and secured some wives, the congregation now seeks peace and reconciliation with their brothers.
Verse 15
The repetition of the people's repentance emphasizes the theological gravity of the situation. The preservation of the twelve tribes was essential for the integrity of the covenant nation.
Verse 16
The elders faced a legal dilemma: they must save Benjamin (v. 17) but cannot violate the oath sworn to God (v. 18). This conflict drives them to devise a complex, morally compromising scheme.
Verse 19
The 'feast of the LORD' refers to one of the annual pilgrimage festivals (likely Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths), held in Shiloh, the central location of the Tabernacle during the early period of the Judges.
Verse 21
This plan involves a mass abduction (a 'raid marriage'), justified by the legal loophole created by their earlier oath. They are commanded to 'catch' (or seize) the women while they are dancing outside the city.
Verse 22
The elders rationalize the abduction: since the fathers of Shiloh did not *give* their daughters, they did not violate the oath. This legalistic maneuvering highlights the moral relativism prevalent during the period of the Judges.
Verse 24
The chapter concludes the horrific civil war narrative. The Israelites return home, believing they have successfully resolved the crisis and preserved the tribal structure, though by profoundly flawed means.
Verse 25
This verse serves as the editorial thesis statement for the entire Book of Judges. It explains the cycle of moral decay and violence: without a king (central authority/covenant fidelity), Israel lacked a standard of righteousness, resulting in chaos and self-serving morality.
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