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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Judges 21:15 - 21:25
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Wives for the Remaining Benjamites from the Daughters of Shiloh
v. 15. And the people repented them, they were again filled with anxious care, for Benjamin, because that the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel, since this one tribe had been almost exterminated.
v. 16. Then the elders of the congregation said, in discussing other possibilities of securing wives for the remaining Benjamites, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin? So far as the members of their tribe were concerned, there were no women for them.
v. 17. And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, ways and means had to be found to that end, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.
v. 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.
v. 19. Then they said, as an expedient was finally suggested to them, Behold, there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh yearly, year after year,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, this detailed description being added for the sake of the Benjamites, who might thus reach the designated locality without attracting attention.
v. 20. Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
v. 21. and see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, at the designated time, probably the festival of the Passover, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, the virgin which he intended to make his wife, and go to the land of Benjamin.
v. 22. And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, to make this robbery of the virgins a court case, 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. This has been transcribed as follows: "Be quiet and gentle; give the maidens kindly to us. You know that we did not take them in war, as booty, as, for instance, at Jabesh. We have indeed allowed them to betaken (for which no grudge is to be held against Benjamin); but in peace, not for injury; and as you did not give them, no guilt attaches to you. " (Lange. )
v. 23. And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught, a total of two hundred virgins; and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, which had been burned down, and dwelt in them.
v. 24. And the children of Israel, all those who had been engaged in the campaign of punishment against Benjamin, 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.
v. 25. In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes, a notice once more inserted by the author, in order to intimate that such things would probably not have happened if there had been a strong central government dispensing justice in the entire nation. Just as the congregation of Israel accepted the remaining Benjamites after they had been punished and acknowledged their wrong, so a Christian congregation will remit the sins of the penitent sinners when they apply for readmission to the Lord's assembly.