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?” ^(A)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.”

⁷ So he took a yoke of oxen and ^(A)cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, ^(B)“Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen.”

And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out ^[a]with one consent.

¹⁸ However, we cannot give them wives from our daughters, ^(A)for the children of Israel have sworn an oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the one who gives a wife to Benjamin.’ ”

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.”

^28 (A)‘Nevertheless no ^[a]devoted offering that a man may devote to the Lord of all that he has, both man and beast, or the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted offering is most holy to the Lord. ^29 (B)No person under the ban, who may become doomed to destruction among men, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death.