The Benjamin men get wives
1When the Israelites were together at Mizpah, they promised that not one of them would let their daughter marry a man from the Benjamin tribe. 2After the war_against the Benjamin tribe, the Israelites went to the town of Bethel and there they sat before God until that evening. They kept on crying loudly. 3They said: ‘Lord, God of Israel, why did this happen? Why did the Benjamin tribe disappear from the Israelites?’
4The next day they got up and they built an altar and they gave burnt-offerings and meal-offerings to the Lord.
5The Israelites asked: ‘Which tribe_of_Israel did not come to the tent of the Lord in the town of Mizpah?’
They had promised before that they would kill everyone who did not come to the tent of the Lord in Mizpah. 6They now felt sorry for their brothers, the Benjamin people, and they said: ‘The nation of Israel has lost one of its tribes. 7There are only a few of the Benjamin people who did not die. What can we do to help them get wives? We made a promise, and God was our Witness, that we would not let our daughters marry them.’
8-9Then they asked again: ‘Which tribe_of_Israel did not come to the tent of the Lord in Mizpah?’ They looked to see who was not there and they saw that no one from the town of Jabesh-Gilead had come to the meeting. When the Israelites saw that there were no people from Jabesh-Gilead who had come, 10they sent 12 000 of their best soldiers and told them: ‘You must go and kill the people of Jabesh-Gilead, as well as the women and children. 11You must kill all the men and boys and all the women who are not virgins.’
12The men went and they found 400 young girls, who had never slept with a man, who were virgins in Jabesh-Gilead, and they took the girls to the camp in the town of Shiloh in the land of Canaan. 13Then the Israelites sent messengers to the Benjamin people at Rimmon Rock and said they wanted to make peace. 14The people of Benjamin went home and the Israelites gave them the women who had come from Jabesh-Gilead. But there were not enough women. 15The Israelites were very sad about the people of Benjamin because the Lord had taken away a tribe_of_Israel. 16The elders of Israel asked each other: ‘What can we do to get wives for the other men of Benjamin? There are not enough women alive in the Benjamin tribe.’
17They said: ‘The people of Benjamin must have children because if they do not have children, their tribe will disappear from Israel. 18But we can not let our daughters marry them, because we said we would curse everyone who gives his daughter as a wife to a man from Benjamin, and God was our Witness when we said that.’
19But then the elders said: ‘Every year there is a feast for the Lord in the town of Shiloh.’ Shiloh was north of the town of Bethel, east of the road between Bethel and the town of Shechem and south of the town of Lebona. 20The elders told the men of Benjamin: ‘You must go into the vineyards. Lie down and wait there. 21When you see the girls of Shiloh come out to dance, then you must come out of the vineyards and each man must catch one of the girls from Shiloh to be his wife. Then you must go back to the land of Benjamin. 22And when the fathers of the girls or their brothers complain to us, we will tell them: “Please help the Benjamin people. We did not get wives for them in the war_against Jabesh-Gilead. God will not punish you if you give your daughters to them. You are not guilty because you did not give your daughters to them.” ’
23The Benjamin men did what the elders told them to do. When the girls came out to dance, each man caught a girl and took her to be his wife. Then they went back to their land and they built their towns again and they lived there. 24After that the Israelites went back to their homes and families. 25During that time the land_of_Israel did not have a king and everyone did what he wanted to do.
