⁶ Now the Israelites grieved for the tribe of Benjamin, their fellow Israelites. “Today one tribe is cut off from Israel,” they said. ⁷ “How can we provide wives for those who are left, since we have taken an oath^(A) by the Lord not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?” ⁸ Then they asked, “Which one of the tribes of Israel failed to assemble before the Lord at Mizpah?” They discovered that no one from Jabesh Gilead^(B) had come to the camp for the assembly. ⁹ For when they counted the people, they found that none of the people of Jabesh Gilead were there.

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^(C) and every woman who is not a virgin.^(D)” 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^(E) in Canaan.

¹³ Then the whole assembly sent an offer of peace^(F) to the Benjamites at the rock of Rimmon.^{(G) 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.