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Monday, August 25th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
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Complete Jewish Bible

Judges 21:11

Completely destroy every man and every woman who has had sex with a man."

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Armies;   Captive;   Discipline;   Jabesh-Gilead;   Rashness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Armies of Israel, the;   Benjamin, Tribe of;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Gibeah;   Gilead;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Jabesh-Gilead;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Jabesh (1);   Holman Bible Dictionary - Accursed;   Jabesh-Gilead;   Judges, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Ban;   Benjamin;   Jabesh, Jabesh-Gilead;   Marriage;   Priests and Levites;   Samson;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Excommunication (2);   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Gibeah;   Jabesh;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Ja'besh;  

Encyclopedias:

- The Jewish Encyclopedia - Ban;   Jabesh;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
This is what you should do: Completely destroy every male, as well as every woman who has gone to bed with a man.”
Hebrew Names Version
This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain by man.
King James Version
And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
Lexham English Bible
This is the thing you will do: you will destroy every man and every woman who had sex with a man."
English Standard Version
This is what you shall do: every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction."
New Century Version
"This is what you must do: Kill every man in Jabesh Gilead and every married woman."
New English Translation
Do this: exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male. But spare the lives of any virgins." So they did as instructed.
Amplified Bible
"And this is the thing that you shall do; you shall utterly destroy every male and every woman who is not a virgin."
New American Standard Bible
"And this is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has slept with a male."
Geneva Bible (1587)
And this is it that ye shall do: ye shall vtterly destroye all the males and all the women that haue lien by men.
Legacy Standard Bible
En dit is die ding wat julle moet doen: Alles wat manlik is, en al die vroue wat die gemeenskap met die man ken, moet julle met die banvloek tref.
Darby Translation
And this is the thing which ye shall do: ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain with man.
Easy-to-Read Version
You must do this! You must kill every man in Jabesh Gilead and every woman who has had sexual relations with a man. But do not kill any woman who has never had sex with a man." So the soldiers did these things.
George Lamsa Translation
And this is the thing that you must do, You must utterly destroy every male and every woman that has lain with a man.
Good News Translation
Kill all the males, and also every woman who is not a virgin."
Literal Translation
And this is the thing which you shall do. You shall destroy every male and every woman who has been known by lying with a male.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
but so that ye do after this maner: Se that ye damne all them that are males, and all the wemen that haue lyen with men.
American Standard Version
And this is the thing that ye shall do: ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
Bible in Basic English
And this is what you are to do: every male, and every woman who has had sex relations with a man, you are to put to the curse, but you are to keep safe the virgins. And they did so.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And this is it that ye shall do: ye shall vtterly destroy all the males, and al the women that haue lyen by men.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And this is the thing that ye shall do: ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.'
King James Version (1611)
And this is the thing that yee shall doe, Yee shall vtterly destroy euery male, and euery woman that hath lien by man.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And this shall ye do: every male and every woman that has known the lying with man ye shall devote to destruction, but the virgins ye shall save alive: and they did so.
English Revised Version
And this is the thing that ye shall do; ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
Berean Standard Bible
This is what you are to do: Devote to destruction every male, as well as every female who has had relations with a man."
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And this thing schal be, which ye `owen to kepe, sle ye alle of male kynde, and the wymmen, that knewen men fleischli; reserue ye the virgyns.
Young's Literal Translation
And this [is] the thing which ye do; every male, and every woman knowing the lying of a male, ye devote.'
Update Bible Version
And this is the thing that you shall do: you shall completely destroy every male, and every woman that has had sex with a man.
Webster's Bible Translation
And this [is] the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
World English Bible
This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain by man.
New King James Version
And this is the thing that you shall do: You shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has known a man intimately."
New Living Translation
"This is what you are to do," they said. "Completely destroy all the males and every woman who is not a virgin."
New Life Bible
This is what you must do. Destroy every man and every woman who has had a man."
New Revised Standard
This is what you shall do; every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction."
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, this, is the thing that ye shall do, - Every male, and every woman that hath cohabited with man, shall ye devote to destruction.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And this is what you shall observe: Every male, and all women that have known men, you shall kill, but the virgins you shall save.
Revised Standard Version
This is what you shall do; every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall utterly destroy."
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every man and every woman who has lain with a man."

Contextual Overview

1 The men of Isra'el had sworn in Mitzpah that none of them would let his daughter marry a man from Binyamin. 2 The people came to Beit-El and stayed there before God till evening crying out and weeping. 3 They said: " Adonai , why has this come about in Isra'el? Why should there be today in Isra'el one tribe missing?" 4 The next day the people got up early, built an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. 5 The people of Isra'el asked, "Who among the tribes of Isra'el did not come up to assemble before Adonai ? For they had made a great oath to put to death whoever didn't come up to Adonai at Mitzpah. 6 The people of Isra'el became sorry for Binyamin their brother and said, "Today one tribe has been cut off from Isra'el. 7 How are we going to obtain wives for those who remain alive, since we've sworn by Adonai that we won't let our daughters marry them?" 8 Then they asked who from the tribes of Isra'el had not come up to Adonai at Mitzpah and found that none had come from Yavesh-Gil‘ad to the camp where the assembly was; 9 since when the people were counted, none of the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil‘ad were found there. 10 So the gathering sent 12,000 warriors there and ordered them, "Go, and put the people who live in Yavesh-Gil‘ad to death with the sword, including women and children.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

every male: Numbers 31:17, Numbers 31:18, Deuteronomy 2:34

hath lain by man: Heb. knoweth the lying with man

Reciprocal: Leviticus 27:28 - no devoted Numbers 31:7 - all Jeremiah 44:7 - to cut

Cross-References

Genesis 17:18
Avraham said to God, "If only Yishma‘el could live in your presence!"
Genesis 21:1
Adonai remembered Sarah as he had said, and Adonai did for Sarah what he had promised.
Genesis 21:2
Sarah conceived and bore Avraham a son in his old age, at the very time God had said to him.
2 Samuel 18:33
David took a census of the people who were with him and appointed over them commanders of thousands and of hundreds. Then David dispatched the people, a third of them under the command of Yo'av, a third under Avishai the son of Tz'ruyah, Yo'av's brother, and a third under Ittai the Gitti; and the king said to the people, "I will also go out with you, myself." But the people replied, "Don't go out; because if we flee, they won't care about us. Even if half of us die, they won't care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us; so it is better now that you stay in the city and be ready if we need help." The king answered them, "I will do whatever you think best." So the king stood at the side of the gate, while all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. The king gave orders to Yo'av, Avishai and Ittai, "For my sake, deal gently with young Avshalom." All the people were listening when the king gave all the commanders this order concerning Avshalom. So the people went out into the field against Isra'el; the battle took place in the forest of Efrayim. The people of Isra'el were defeated there by David's servants; there was a terrible slaughter that day of 20,000 men. For the battle there was spread all over the countryside; the forest devoured more people that day than did the sword. Avshalom happened to meet some of David's servants. Avshalom was riding his mule, and as the mule walked under the thick branches of a big terebinth tree, his head got caught in the terebinth, so that he was left hanging between earth and sky, as the mule went on from under him. Someone saw it and told Yo'av, "I saw Avshalom hanging in a terebinth." Yo'av asked the man who told him, "Here now, you saw it; so why didn't you strike him to the ground then and there? I would have had to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt besides." The man replied to Yo'av, "Even if I were to get a thousand pieces of silver, I still wouldn't raise my hand against the son of the king! After all, while we were listening, the king ordered you, Avishai and Ittai, ‘Be careful that no one touches young Avshalom.' Or, if I had pretended that I didn't know, the king would have known otherwise anyway; and you wouldn't have interceded for me either." Yo'av said, "I can't waste time arguing with you!" He took three darts in his hand and rammed them through Avshalom's heart while he was still alive, hanging from the terebinth. Then Yo'av's ten young armor-bearers surrounded Avshalom, struck him and killed him. Yo'av sounded the shofar, and the people returned from pursuing Isra'el, because Yo'av held back the troops. They took Avshalom and threw him into a big pit in the forest and piled a big heap of stones over him. All Isra'el fled, each one to his tent. In his own lifetime Avshalom had taken and raised for himself the pillar which stands in the King's Valley; because he said, "I don't have a son to preserve the memory of my name." So he named the pillar after himself, and it's called Avshalom's Monument to this day. Then Achima‘atz the son of Tzadok said, "Let me run now and bring news to the king that Adonai has judged in his favor by releasing him from his enemies." Yo'av said to him, "You are not to be the one to bring the news today; you can convey news another day; but today you will not bring news, because the king's son is dead." Then Yo'av said to the Ethiopian, "Go, tell the king what you saw." The Ethiopian bowed to Yo'av, then ran off. But Achima‘atz the son of Tzadok said again to Yo'av, "Come what may, please let me also run after the Ethiopian." Yo'av answered, "Why do you want to run, my son? You won't receive any reward for bringing the news." "I don't care — whatever happens, I want to run." So he said to him, "Run." Then Achima‘atz ran by the road through the desert flats and outran the Ethiopian. David was sitting between the two gates. A watchman went up to the roof of the gate and out onto the wall, raised his eyes, looked, and saw there a man running by himself. The watchman cried out and told the king. The king said, "If he's alone, he has good news to tell." As he ran along and came close, the watchman saw another man running and called to the gatekeeper, "There's another man running by himself." The king said, "He too must have good news." The watchman said, "The first one runs like Achima‘atz the son of Tzadok." The king said, "He's a good man, he comes with good news." Achima‘atz called to the king, "Shalom," prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground and said, "Blessed be Adonai your God, who has handed over the men who rebelled against my lord the king." The king asked, "Is everything all right with young Avshalom?" Achima‘atz answered, "When Yo'av sent the king's servant and me your servant, I saw a big commotion; but I didn't know what it was." The king said, "Go, and stand over there." So he went and stood there. Then up came the Ethiopian, and the Ethiopian said, "There's good news for my lord the king, for Adonai has judged in your favor and rid you of all those who rebelled against you." The king asked the Ethiopian, "Is everything all right with young Avshalom?" The Ethiopian answered, "May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rebel against you in order to harm you be as that young man is."
Matthew 10:37
Whoever loves his father or mother more than he loves me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than he loves me is not worthy of me.
Hebrews 12:11
Now, all discipline , while it is happening, does indeed seem painful, not enjoyable; but for those who have been trained by it, it later produces its peaceful fruit, which is righteousness.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And this is the thing that ye shall do,.... Which they gave them in charge to execute:

ye shall utterly destroy every male; without any reserve, young or old, married or unmarried:

and every woman that hath lain by man; whether lawfully or unlawfully, in a married or unmarried state.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye shall utterly destroy - More exactly, “Ye shall devote to utter destruction,” or “cherem” (Leviticus 27:28 note).


 
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