Judges 21
Wives for the
Benjamites |
1 |
Now the men of Israel had sworn in
Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto
Benjamin to wife.
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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;
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3 |
and said, O LORD God
of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be
today one tribe lacking in Israel?
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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.
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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.
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6 |
And the children of Israel repented them
for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off
from Israel this day.
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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?
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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
Ja'besh-gil'e-ad to the assembly.
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9 |
For the people were numbered, and,
behold, there were none of the inhabitants of
Ja'besh-gil'e-ad there.
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10 |
And the congregation sent thither twelve
thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and
smite the inhabitants of Ja'besh-gil'e-ad with the edge of the
sword, with the women and the children.
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11 |
And this is the thing that ye
shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that
hath lain by man.
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12 |
And they found among the inhabitants of
Ja'besh-gil'e-ad 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.
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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.
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14 |
And Benjamin came again at that time; and
they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of
Ja'besh-gil'e-ad: and yet so they sufficed them not.
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15 |
And the people repented them for
Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a
breach in the tribes of Israel.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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 Beth-el, on the east
side of the highway that goeth up from Beth-el to Shechem, and on
the south of Lebo'nah.
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20 |
Therefore they commanded the children of
Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
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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.
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22 |
And it shall be, when their fathers or
their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them,
Be favorable 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.
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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.
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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.
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25 |
In those days there was no king
in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own
eyes. Judg. 17.6
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