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Now the
men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There
shall not any of us give his daughter unto
Benjamin to wife.
02 And the people came to the house of God, and
abode there till even before God, and lifted up
their voices, and wept sore;
03 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?
04 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.
05 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.
06 And the children of Israel repented them for
Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one
tribe cut off from Israel this day.
07 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?
08 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.
09 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.
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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 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.
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