Judges 21
1NOW the children of Israel had sworn at Massepha, saying, Not a man of us shall give his daughter to a Benjaminite to wife.
2So when the people came to Baithel they sat there till evening before God, then raising their voice, they wept bitterly
3and said, Why O Lord God of Israel hath this happened that there should be this day one tribe cut off from Israel?
4And on the day following the people arose early in the morning, and built there an altar, and offered whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
5Then the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who came not up before the Lord at the general assembly? For they had denounced the great curse against those who came not up before the Lord to Massepha, saying, Let him assuredly be put to death.
6Now the children of Israel had felt compassion for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is now one tribe cut off from Israel,
7What shall we do for wives for the few who are left, seeing we have sworn by the Lord, that we will not give them any of our daughters for wives?
8So when they said, Who is there among the tribes of Israel who came not up before the Lord to Massepha? and behold not a man had come to the camp from Jabis Galaad to the general assembly,
9and the people were reviewed, and there was not a man of the inhabitants of Jabis Galaad;
10the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men from among the young warriors, and gave them a charge saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabis Galaad with the edge of the sword:
11And this you shall do, You shall devote to destruction every male, and every woman who hath cohabited with man:
12but the virgins you shall preserve alive. And having done so they found among the inhabitants four hundred young virgins who had not cohabited with man, and brought them to the camp of Selom which is in the land of Chanaan.
13Then all the congregation sent, and spoke to the children of Benjamin at Rock Remmon, and invited them to peace.
14And when Benjamin returned to the children of Israel at that time, the Israelites gave them the women whom they had saved alive from among the daughters of Jabis Galaad.
15So they were pleased, and the people relented for Benjamin, because the Lord had made a breach among the tribes of Israel.
16Then the elders of the congregation said, What shall we do for wives for the rest? For all the women of Benjamin are destroyed:
17(Now they had determined that the inheritance of the Benjaminites should belong to them who had escaped, that a tribe might not be blotted out from Israel)
18for we cannot give them any of our daughters for wives, for we have sworn among the children of Israel, saying, Cursed be the man who giveth a wife to a Benjaminite.
19Then they said, Behold there is a festival of the Lord at Selom, which is kept yearly, on the north of Baithel, towards the rising of the sun, on the high way which goeth up from Baithel to Sychem, and on the south of Lebona.
20So they gave a charge to the Benjaminites saying, Go and lie in wait among the vineyards,
21and watch, and behold when the daughters of the inhabitants of Selom go out to dance in choirs, start out from the vineyards, and seize for yourselves every man a wife from among the daughters of Selom, and go to the land of Benjamin.
22And when their fathers or their brothers come to us, to enter a complaint before us, we will say to them, Grant them as a favour to us, because we did not take every man a woman at the battle. Seeing you have not given them, you have, as it were, accidentally transgressed.
23And the children of Benjamin did so. And having taken wives according to their number from among the choirs whom they surprised, they went, and returned to their inheritance, and rebuilt their cities and dwelt therein.
24And the children of Israel went at that time every man to his tribe, and to his kindred, and went out thence every man to his possession.
25And in those days, there being no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes.