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Chapter 21
- 21:1
- Now the men of Israel had sworn in
Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto
Benjamin to wife.
- 21:2
- And the people came to the house
of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their
voices, and wept sore;
- 21:3
- And said, O LORD God of Israel,
why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one
tribe lacking in Israel?
- 21:4
- And it came to pass on the morrow,
that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered
burnt offerings and peace offerings.
- 21:5
- And the children of Israel said,
Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the
congregation unto the LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning
him that came not up to the LORD to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be
put to death.
- 21:6
- And the children of Israel
repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe
cut off from Israel this day.
- 21:7
- How shall we do for wives for them
that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give
them of our daughters to wives?
- 21:8
- And they said, What one is there
of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the LORD? And,
behold, there came none to the camp from Jabeshgilead to the assembly.
- 21:9
- For the people were numbered, and,
behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead there.
- 21:10
- And the congregation sent thither
twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go
and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword,
with the women and the children.
- 21:11
- And this is the thing that ye
shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that
hath lain by man.
- 21:12
- And they found among the
inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known
no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to
Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
- 21:13
- And the whole congregation sent
some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon,
and to call peaceably unto them.
- 21:14
- And Benjamin came again at that
time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women
of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
- 21:15
- And the people repented them for
Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of
Israel.
- 21:16
- Then the elders of the
congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain,
seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?
- 21:17
- And they said, There must be an
inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not
destroyed out of Israel.
- 21:18
- Howbeit we may not give them wives
of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying,
Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.
- 21:19
- Then they said, Behold, there is a
feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north
side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from
Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
- 21:20
- Therefore they commanded the
children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
- 21:21
- And see, and, behold, if the
daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of
the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of
Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
- 21:22
- And it shall be, when their
fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say
unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved
not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at
this time, that ye should be guilty.
- 21:23
- And the children of Benjamin did
so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that
danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their
inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.
- 21:24
- And the children of Israel
departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his
family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.
- 21:25
- In those days there was no king in
Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
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