Bible Commentaries
Judges 21

Verse 1

Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Verse 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 people ... lifted up their voices, and wept. The characteristic fickleness of the Israelites was not long in being displayed; because scarcely had they cooled from the fierceness of their sanguinary vengeance than they began to relent, and rushed to the opposite extreme of self-accusation and grief at the desolation which their impetuous zeal had produced. Their victory saddened and humbled them. Their feelings on the occasion were expressed by a public and solemn service of expiation at the house of God. And yet this extraordinary observance, though it enabled them to find vent for their painful emotions, did not afford them full relief; because they were fettered by the obligation of a religious vow, heightened by the addition of a solemn anathema on every violator of the oath. There is no previous record of this oath; but the purport of it was, that they would treat the perpetrators of this Gibeah atrocity in the same way as the Canaanites, who were doomed to destruction; and the entering into this solemn league was of a piece with the rest of their inconsiderate conduct in this whole affair.

Verses 3-5

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?

No JFB commentary on these verses.

Verse 6

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

There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day - i:e., in danger of becoming extinct; for, as it appears from Judges 21:7, they had massacred all the women and children of Benjamin, and 600 men alone survived of the whole tribe. The prospect of such a hole in the catalogue of the twelve tribes-such a gap in the national arrangements-was too painful to contemplate, and immediate measures must be taken to prevent this great catastrophe.

Verse 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?

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Verse 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 Jabesh-gilead to the assembly. There came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly. This city lay within the territory of Eastern Manasseh, about 15 miles east of the Jordan, and was, according to Josephus, the capital of Gilead. The ban which the assembled tribes had pronounced at Mizpeh seemed to impose on them the necessity of punishing its inhabitants for not joining the crusade against Benjamin; and thus, with a view of repairing the consequences of one rash proceeding, they hurriedly rushed to the perpetration of another, though a smaller tragedy. But it appears (Judges 21:11) that, besides acting in fulfillment of their oath, the Israelites had the additional object by this raid of supplying wives to the Benjamite remnant. This shows the intemperate fury of the Israelites in the indiscriminate slaughter of the women and children.

Verses 9-15

For the people were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.

No JFB commentary on these verses.

Verse 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?

How shall we do for wives for them that remain. Though the young women of Jabesh-gilead had been carefully spared, the supply was found inadequate, and some other expedient must be resorted to.

Verse 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.

There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin. Since they were the only rightful owners of the territory, provision must be made for transmitting it to their legitimate heirs; and a new act of violence was mediated (Judges 21:19), the opportunity for which was afforded by the approaching festival-a feast generally supposed to be the feast of tabernacles. This, like the other annual feasts, was held in Shiloh, and its celebration was attended with more social hilarity and holiday rejoicings than the rest.

Verse 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.

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Verse 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.

On the east side of the highway that goeth up from Beth-el to Shechem. The exact site of the place was described evidently for the direction of the Benjamites, who would know it (see the note at Joshua 18:1).

Verse 20

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

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Verse 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.

Daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances. The dance was anciently a part of the religious observance; and it was done on festive occasions, as it is still in the East, not in town, but in the open air, in some adjoining field, the women being by themselves. The young women being alone, indulging their light and buoyant spirits, and apprehensive of no danger, facilitated the execution of the scheme of seizing them, which closely resembles the Sabine rape in Roman history. The elders undertook to reconcile the families to the forced abduction of their daughters. And thus the expression of their public sanction to this deed of violence afforded a new evidence of the evils and difficulties into which the unhappy precipitancy of the Israelites in this crisis had involved them.