1Now the men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah, saying, “None of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife.”
2So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, and they lifted up their voice and wept a great weeping.
3And they said, “Why, O Yahweh, God of Israel, has this happened in Israel, that today one tribe should be missing from Israel?”
4And it happened on the next day that the people rose early and built there an altar and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings.
5And the sons of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that did not come up in the assembly to Yahweh?” For the great oath had been sworn concerning anyone who did not come up to Yahweh at Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.”
6And the sons of Israel were moved to compassion concerning Benjamin their brother, and they said, “Today one tribe has been cut off from Israel.”
7“What shall we do for the ones who remain, for wives, since we have sworn by Yahweh not to give them any of our daughters as wives?”
8And they said, “Which one from the tribes of Israel did not come up to Yahweh at Mizpah?” And behold, no man had come to the camp from Jabesh-gilead, to the assembly.
9For when the people were mustered, behold, none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there.
10So the congregation sent there twelve thousand men from the sons of valor, and they 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“And this is the thing that you shall do: every male, and every woman who has known the bed of a male, you shall devote to destruction.”
12And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young women, virgins, who had not known a man by lying with a male, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13Then the whole congregation sent word and spoke to the sons of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon, and they proclaimed peace to them.
14So Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had kept alive from the women of Jabesh-gilead; but there were not enough for them in this way.
15And the people were moved to compassion concerning Benjamin, because Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
16And the elders of the congregation said, “What shall we do for the ones who remain, for wives, since the women have been destroyed out of Benjamin?”
17And they said, “There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe may not be blotted out from Israel.”
18“But we cannot give them wives from our daughters, for the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, ‘Cursed is the one who gives a wife to Benjamin.’”
19So they said, “Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh at Shiloh from year to year, which is north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”
20And they commanded the sons of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards.”
21“And you shall watch, and behold, when the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then you shall come out from the vineyards and each of you seize his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and you shall go to the land of Benjamin.”
22“And it shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, ‘Show them favor for our sake, since we did not take for each man his wife in the war; for it was not you who gave them to them, in which case you would now be guilty.’”
23And the sons of Benjamin did so, and they carried off wives according to their number from the dancers whom they seized. Then they went and returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the cities and dwelt in them.
24And at that time the sons of Israel departed from there, each to his tribe and to his clan; and they went out from there, each to his inheritance.
25In those days there was no king in Israel; each man did what was right in his own eyes.
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