Judges 21, Benjamin Rebuilds

After the rape and murder of a concubine, the tribe of Benjamin has attacked by the other tribes in a horrific civil war.  Benjamin is on the edge of extinction. 

Judges 21: 1-5, Two angry oaths

The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: "Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite."

The people went to Bethel, where they sat before God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly. "O LORD, the God of Israel," they cried, "why has this happened to Israel? Why should one tribe be missing from Israel today?" 

Early the next day the people built an altar and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Israelites asked, "Who from all the tribes of Israel has failed to assemble before the LORD?" For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to assemble before the LORD at Mizpah should certainly be put to death.

A flashback describes two foolish oaths taken in anger at the beginning of this civil war. There is an oath to not allow the Benjamite men to have wives and an oath to kill anyone who does not show up for the sacrifice at Mizpah. The second oath has led to extensive genocide putting the tribe of Benjamin on the edge of extinction.  The first oath essentially guarantees that the remnant from Benjamin will not have descendants.

Judges 21: 6-15, Jabesh Gilead

Now the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the Benjamites. "Today one tribe is cut off from Israel," they said. "How can we provide wives for those who are left, since we have taken an oath by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?" 

Then they asked, "Which one of the tribes of Israel failed to assemble before the LORD at Mizpah?" They discovered that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the camp for the assembly. For when they counted the people, they found that none of the people of Jabesh Gilead were there. So the assembly sent twelve thousand fighting men with instructions to go to Jabesh Gilead and put to the sword those living there, including the women and children.

"This is what you are to do," they said. "Kill every male and every woman who is not a virgin"

They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan. Then the whole assembly sent an offer of peace to the Benjamites at the rock of Rimmon. So the Benjamites returned at that time and were given the women of Jabesh Gilead who had been spared. But there were not enough for all of them. 

The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of Israel.

The result of the past bloodshed is a decision to kill more Israelites.  In this attack, young women are captured from Jabesh Gilead to be given to the Benjamites. In the perverse logic of the Israelite oaths, this is permissible since the passive people of Jabesh Gilead, having not shown up for war, had also not made the oaths to prevent Benjamites from marrying their women.

Judges 21: 16-19, Another festival

And the elders of the assembly said, "With the women of Benjamin destroyed, how shall we provide wives for the men who are left? The Benjamite survivors must have heirs," they said, "so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out. We can't give them our daughters as wives, since we Israelites have taken this oath: `Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to a Benjamite.' But look, there is the annual festival of the LORD in Shiloh, to the north of Bethel, and east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and to the south of Lebonah."

There are 600 Benjamites hiding at the rock at Rimmon.  The attack on Jabesh Gilead has captured 400 women to marry these men and so help bring a new generation of Benjamites. But 400 women is not enough and so the Israelites arrange a second chance for the Benjamites to have wives. This will be done at a festival in Shiloh.

Judges 21: 20-22, Dancing girls

So they instructed the Benjamites, saying, "Go and hide in the vineyards and watch. When the girls of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, then rush from the vineyards and each of you seize a wife from the girls of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin. When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, `Do us a kindness by helping them, because we did not get wives for them during the war, and you are innocent, since you did not give your daughters to them.'"

In the ancient Hebrew culture, women often celebrated by dancing. (See Miriam's dance in Exodus 15: 20, women dancing at David's victory in I Samuel 18: 6 and a promise that "virgin Israel" will someday dance in Jeremiah 31: 4.) Dancing women would thus be expected at this upcoming festival. The single Benjamite men are instructed to hide in the vineyards at this festival and, when the young women come out dancing, the men are to run out and capture a woman to marry. In this way the people of Israel do not violate their vow since they did not give women to the Benjamites! 

Judges 21: 23-24, Benjamin rebuilds

So that is what the Benjamites did. While the girls were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife. Then they returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled in them. At that time the Israelites left that place and went home to their tribes and clans, each to his own inheritance.

We have seen rape, murder, then mass murder and genocide. Now young women are abducted as they dance. The Israelites have creatively solved the problems caused by their foolish oaths. Our narrator makes no comment about the morality of these actions but merely describes this history. 

Judges 21: 25, No king

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.

This final verse is the summary of this violent (and depressing) book.