Judges 20:46-21:3

New International Version

⁴⁶ On that day twenty-five thousand Benjamite^(A) swordsmen fell, all of them valiant fighters. ⁴⁷ But six hundred of them turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months. ⁴⁸ The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire.^(B)

Wives for the Benjamites

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

² The people went to Bethel,^[a] where they sat before God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly. ³ “Lord, God of Israel,” they cried, “why has this happened to Israel? Why should one tribe be missing^(F) from Israel today?”