1-7 The people bewail the desolation of Benjamin 8-15 By the destruction of Jabesh-gilead they provide them four hundred wives. 16-25 They advise the remainder to surprise the virgins that danced at Shiloh

had sword Jud 20:1,8,10 Jer 4:2

There Jud 21:5 11:30,31 1Sa 14:24,28,29 Ec 5:2 Mr 6:23 Ac 23:12 Ro 10:2

his daughter Ex 34:12-16 De 7:2,3

2 And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;

the house Jud 21:12 20:18,23,26 Jos 18:1

lifted Jud 2:4 Ge 27:38 1Sa 30:4

3 And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?

why is De 29:24 Jos 7:7-9 Ps 74:1 80:12 Pr 19:3 Isa 63:17 Jer 12:1

4 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

rose early Ps 78:34,35 Ho 5:15

built there Jud 6:26 Ex 20:24,25 2Sa 24:18,25 1Ki 8:64 Heb 13:10

5 And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the LORD to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death.

a great oath Jud 21:1,18 5:23 Le 27:28,29 1Sa 11:7 Jer 48:10

6 And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.

repented them Jud 21:15 11:35 20:23 2Sa 2:26 Ho 11:8 Lu 19:41,42

7 How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?

sworn Jud 1:18 1Sa 14:28,29,45

8 And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the LORD? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabeshgilead to the assembly.

Jabesh-gilead This place, as its name imports, was situated at Gilead, east of Jordan. Eusebius and Jerome say it was a great town in their time, standing upon a hill, six miles south from Pella, in the way to Geresa, now Djerash. The {Wady Yabes}, mentioned by Burckhardt, which empties itself into the Jordan, in the neighbourhood of Bisan or Beth-shan (see 1Sa 31:11) and upon which Pliny, 1.v.c.18, for its fine waters,) seems to have taken its name from Jabesh. near this spot, we must therefore look for its site; and the place called Kalaat Rabbad seem to correspond, very nearly, to the spot, though it probably still retains among the Arabs its ancient name. 1Sa 11:1-3 31:11-13 2Sa 2:5,6

9 For the people were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead there.

10 And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.

Go and smite As they had sworn to destroy those who would not assist in the war (ver. 5) they determined to destroy the men of Jabesh, and to leave none except the virgins; and to give these to the 600 Benjamites who had escaped to the rock of Rimmon. The whole account is dreadful. The crime of the men of Gibeah was of the deepest dye; the punishment involving both the guilty and innocent, was extended to the most criminal excess, and their mode of remedying the evil they had occasioned was equally abominable. Jud 21:5 5:23 De 13:15 Jos 7:24 1Sa 11:7 15:3

11 And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.

every male Nu 31:17,18 De 2:34

hath lain by man [heb] knoweth the lying with man.

12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

virgins [heb] women, virgins
Shiloh Jud 20:18,23 Jos 18:1 Ps 78:60 Jer 7:12

13 And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.

to speak [heb] and spake and called.
the rock Rimmon Jud 20:47 Jos 15:32

call peaceably. or, proclaim peace De 20:10 Isa 57:19 Lu 10:5 Eph 2:17

14 And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.

suffice them not Jud 21:12 20:47 1Co 7:2

15 And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

repented Jud 21:6,17

a breach 1Ch 13:11 15:13 Isa 30:13 58:12

16 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?

17 And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.

an inheritance Nu 26:55 36:7

18 Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.

sworn Jud 21:1 11:35

19 Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.

a feast Ex 23:14-16 Le 23:3,4,6,10,34 Nu 10:10 28:16,26 29:12 De 16:1,10 De 16:13 Ps 81:3 Joh 5:1 7:2

yearly [heb] from year to year.
on the east side. or, toward the sun rising.
of the highway.
or, on
Lebonah Maundrell supposes, that either Khan Leban, which is situated on the eastern side of a `delicious vale,' four leagues south from Shechem, and two leagues north from Bethel, or the village of Leban, which is on the opposite side, occupies the site of the ancient Lenonah. It is eight hours, or about 24 miles, from Jerusalem, according to Dr. Richardson.

20 Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;

21 And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

dance Jud 11:34 Ex 15:20 1Sa 18:6 2Sa 6:14,21 Ps 149:3 150:4 Ec 3:4 Jer 31:13 Mt 10:17 Lu 17:25

22 And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favorable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.

Be favourable unto them. or, Gratify us in them Phm 1:9-12

each man Jud 21:14 Ge 1:27 7:13 Mr 10:6-8 1Co 7:2

give unto Jud 21:1,7,18 Pr 20:25

23 And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.

and they went It appears that the Benjamites acted in the most honourable way to the women they had thus violently carried off, and we may rest assured, that they took them to an inheritance more than equal to their own. But this transaction, as well as the indiscriminate massacre of the people of Jabesh-gilead, as Dr. Gray observes, was certainly stamped with injustice and cruelty; and must be condemned on those principles which the Scriptures elsewhere furnish.

repaired Jud 20:48

24 And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.

25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

no Jud 17:6 18:1

right Jud 18:7 De 12:8 Ps 12:4 Pr 3:5 14:12 Ec 11:9 Mic 2:1,2