Judges 21:10-16

New Living Translation

¹⁰ So the assembly sent 12,000 of their best warriors to Jabesh-gilead with orders to kill everyone there, including women and children. ¹¹ “This is what you are to do,” they said. “Completely destroy^[a] all the males and every woman who is not a virgin.” ¹² Among the residents of Jabesh-gilead they found 400 young virgins who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹³ The Israelite assembly sent a peace delegation to the remaining people of Benjamin who were living at the rock of Rimmon. ¹⁴ Then the men of Benjamin returned to their homes, and the 400 women of Jabesh-gilead who had been spared were given to them as wives. But there were not enough women for all of them.

¹⁵ The people felt sorry for Benjamin because the Lord had made this gap among the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶ So the elders of the assembly asked, “How can we find wives for the few who remain, since the women of the tribe of Benjamin are dead?