Judges 21:5-12

EasyEnglish Bible

⁵ Then the Israelites asked, ‘Which people from Israel's tribes did not join us when we all met together at Mizpah?’ They asked this because they had made a serious promise at Mizpah. They had said, ‘We must punish with death anyone who does not join us here to meet with the Lord.’

⁶ The Israelites were very upset about what had happened to Benjamin's tribe. They said, ‘We have destroyed a whole tribe of Israel. They were our relatives. ⁷ How can we find women to marry the few men who are left? We all made a serious promise to the Lord that we would not let them marry our daughters.’

⁸ So they asked, ‘When we met with the Lord at Mizpah, which people from all Israel's tribes did not come with us?’ They realized that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the meeting. ⁹ When they had counted the people, there had been no men from Jabesh Gilead among them.

¹⁰ So all the Israelites decided to send an army of 12,000 soldiers to attack Jabesh Gilead. They commanded them, ‘Use your swords to kill everyone there, including the women and children. ¹¹ This is what you must do: Kill every male and every woman who has slept with a man. But do not kill the women who have never had sex.’

¹² The Israelite army attacked Jabesh Gilead. They found 400 young women who had not had sex with anyone. They took the women back to their camp at Shiloh in Canaan.