Dual Panel1The Israelites had taken an oath at Mizpah that none of them would give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.
2The people now came to Bethel and remained there in God's presence till sunset, raising their voices in bitter lamentation.
3“LORD God of Israel,” they cried, “why has it happened among us that one tribe should this day be lost to Israel?”
4Early next morning the people built an altar there and offered whole-offerings and shared-offerings.
5At that the Israelites asked themselves whether among all the tribes of Israel there was any who did not go up to the assembly before the LORD; for under the terms of the weighty oath they had sworn, anyone who had not gone up to the LORD at Mizpah was to be put to death.
6The Israelites felt remorse over their kinsmen the Benjamites, because, as they said, “This day one whole tribe has been lopped off Israel.”
7They asked, “What shall we do to provide wives for those who are left, as we ourselves have sworn to the LORD not to give any of our daughters to them in marriage?
8Is there anyone in all the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the LORD at Mizpah?” Now it happened that no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the camp for the assembly;
9so when they held a roll-call of the people, they found that none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was present.
10The community therefore sent off twelve thousand valiant fighting men with orders to go and put the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead to the sword, men, women, and dependants.
11“This is what you are to do,” they said: “put to death every male person, and every woman who has had intercourse with a man, but spare any who are virgins.” This they did.
12Among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead they found four hundred young women who were virgins and had not had intercourse with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.
13The whole community sent messengers to the Benjamites at the Rock of Rimmon to parley with them, and peace was proclaimed.
14The Benjamites came back then, and were given those of the women of Jabesh-gilead who had been spared; but these were not enough.
15The people were still full of remorse over Benjamin because the LORD had made this gap in the tribes of Israel.
16The elders of the community said, “What can we do for wives for those who are left, as all the women in Benjamin have been wiped out?”
17They said, “Heirs there must be for the surviving Benjamites! Then Israel will not see one of its tribes destroyed.
18Yet we cannot give them our own daughters in marriage, because we have sworn that there shall be a curse on the man who gives a wife to a Benjamite.”
19They bethought themselves of the pilgrimage in honour of the LORD, made every year to Shiloh, the place which lies to the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway from Bethel to Shechem and to the south of Lebonah.
20They told the Benjamites to go and hide in the vineyards.
21“Keep watch,” they said, “and when the girls of Shiloh come out to take part in the dance, come from the vineyards, and each of you seize one of them for his wife; then be off to the territory of Benjamin.
22If their fathers or brothers come and complain to us, we shall say to them, ‘Let them keep them with your approval, for none of us has captured a wife in battle. Had you yourselves given them the women, you would now have incurred guilt.’”
23The Benjamites did this; they carried off as many wives as they needed, snatching them from the dance; then they went their way back to their own territory, where they rebuilt their towns and settled in them.
24The Israelites also dispersed by tribes and families, and every man returned to his own holding.
25In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.