⁵ Then the Israelites asked, “Who from all the tribes of Israel^(A) has failed to assemble before the Lord?” For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to assemble before the Lord at Mizpah was to be put to death.

⁷ He took a pair of oxen,^(A) cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers throughout Israel,^(B) proclaiming, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone^(C) who does not follow Saul and Samuel.” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out together as one.^(D)

¹⁸ We can’t give them our daughters as wives, since we Israelites have taken this oath:^(A) ‘Cursed be anyone who gives^(B) a wife to a Benjamite.’

Wives for the Benjamites

21 The men of Israel had taken an oath^(A) at Mizpah:^(B) “Not one of us will give^(C) his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.”

²⁸ “‘But nothing that a person owns and devotes^[a](A) to the Lord—whether a human being or an animal or family land—may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy^(B) to the Lord.

²⁹ “‘No person devoted to destruction^[b] may be ransomed; they are to be put to death.^(C)