Judges 21:10-18

New International Version

¹⁰ So the assembly sent twelve thousand fighting men with instructions to go to Jabesh Gilead and put to the sword those living there, including the women and children. ¹¹ “This is what you are to do,” they said. “Kill every male^(A) and every woman who is not a virgin.^(B)” ¹² They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shiloh^(C) in Canaan.

¹³ Then the whole assembly sent an offer of peace^(D) to the Benjamites at the rock of Rimmon.^{(E) 14} So the Benjamites returned at that time and were given the women of Jabesh Gilead who had been spared. But there were not enough for all of them.

¹⁵ The people grieved for Benjamin,^(F) because the Lord had made a gap in the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶ And the elders of the assembly said, “With the women of Benjamin destroyed, how shall we provide wives for the men who are left? ¹⁷ The Benjamite survivors must have heirs,” they said, “so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out.^{(G) 18} We can’t give them our daughters as wives, since we Israelites have taken this oath:^(H) ‘Cursed be anyone who gives^(I) a wife to a Benjamite.’