[1] Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any
of us give his daughter to Benjamin as wife. [2] The people came to Bethel,
and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and
wept sore. [3] They said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened
in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel? [4] It
happened on the next day that the people rose early, and built there an
altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings. [5] The children of
Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn`t come up
in the assembly to Yahweh? For they had made a great oath concerning him
who didn`t come up to Yahweh to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to
death. [6] The children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother,
and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. [7] How shall we
do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by Yahweh that we
will not give them of our daughters to wives? [8] They said, What one is
there of the tribes of Israel who didn`t come up to Yahweh to Mizpah?
Behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly. [9]
For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the
inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there. [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. [11] This is the thing that you shall do: you shall
utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain by man. [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. [13] The whole congregation sent
and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and
proclaimed peace to them. [14] Benjamin 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. [15] The people
repented them for Benjamin, because that Yahweh had made a breach in the
tribes of Israel. [16] Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall
we do for wives for those who remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of
Benjamin? [17] They said, There must be an inheritance for those who are
escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel. [18]
However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of
Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin. [19]
They said, Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh 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 children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, [21]
and see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the
dances, then come you out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his
wife of 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
for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else
would you now be guilty. [23] The children of Benjamin did so, and took
them wives, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they
carried off: and they went and returned to their inheritance, and built the
cities, and lived in them. [24] The children of Israel 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. [25] In those days there was no king in
Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
