Judges 21:1-12

New King James Version

Wives Provided for the Benjamites

21 Now ^(A)the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah, saying, “None of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife.” ² Then the people came ^(B)to ^[a]the house of God, and remained there before God till evening. They lifted up their voices and wept bitterly, ³ and said, “O Lord God of Israel, why has this come to pass in Israel, that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel?”

⁴ So it was, on the next morning, that the people rose early and ^(C)built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. ⁵ The children of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up with the assembly to the Lord?” ^(D)For they had made a great oath concerning anyone who had not come up to the Lord at Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.” ⁶ And the children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, “One tribe is cut off from Israel today. ⁷ What shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them our daughters as wives?”

⁸ And they said, “What one is there from the tribes of Israel who did not come up to Mizpah to the Lord?” And, in fact, no one had come to the camp from ^(E)Jabesh Gilead to the assembly. ⁹ For when the people were counted, indeed, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead was there. ¹⁰ So the congregation sent out there twelve thousand of their most valiant men, and commanded them, saying, ^(F)“Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, including the women and children. ¹¹ And this is the thing that you shall do: ^(G)You shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has known a man intimately.” ¹² So they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known a man intimately; and they brought them to the camp at ^(H)Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.