Israel grieves that a tribe is almost lost, having sworn not to give their daughters to Benjamin. They find wives for the Benjamites by attacking Jabesh-gilead and by letting them take women at Shiloh.
1 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh , saying , There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife .
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 ;
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 ?
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 .
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 .
6 And 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 them that remain , seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives ?
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 .
9 For the people were numbered , and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead there.
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 .
11 And this is the thing that ye shall do , Ye shall utterly destroy every male , and every woman that hath lain by man .
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 .
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.
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.
15 And the people repented them for Benjamin , because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel .
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 ?
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 .
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 .
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 .
20 Therefore 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 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 .
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 .
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.
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 .
25 In those days there was no king in Israel : every man did that which was right in his own eyes .