{ "schemaVersion": 1, "kind": "event", "id": "wives-for-benjamin", "era": "conquest-judges", "order": 101, "title": "More violence in the attempt to preserve Benjamin", "group": "early-settlement", "date": { "kind": "relative", "label": "After the war against Benjamin · Within the early judges’ period" }, "pin": [ 35.289536, 32.055703 ], "pinConfidence": "Identified site", "pinPlace": "openbible-aa4680a", "summary": "Israel laments the near loss of Benjamin but has sworn not to give its daughters to the survivors. The proposed remedies bring further violence: people at Jabesh-gilead are killed and young women taken, and the remaining men abduct women from the festival at Shiloh.", "context": "The chapter reports the elders’ decisions without presenting them as instructions from God. Its closing refrain about everyone doing what was right in their own eyes underlines the breakdown, not a model for repairing community life.", "question": "Who bears the cost when the leaders try to solve the consequences of their own oath?", "locationNote": "Shiloh is an identified locality and the named festival setting. The pin does not identify the vineyards or the separate attack on Jabesh-gilead.", "passages": [ { "reference": "Judges 21:1–25", "range": [ 7021001, 7021025 ], "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2021%3A1%E2%80%9325&version=BSB", "availability": "bundled", "verses": [ { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 1, "text": "Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 2, "text": "So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, lifting up their voices and weeping bitterly." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 3, "text": "“Why, O LORD God of Israel,” they cried out, “has this happened in Israel? Today in Israel one tribe is missing!”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 4, "text": "The next day the people got up early, built an altar there, and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 5, "text": "The Israelites asked, “Who among all the tribes of Israel did not come to the assembly before the LORD?” For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to come up before the LORD at Mizpah would surely be put to death." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 6, "text": "And the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the Benjamites, and said, “Today a tribe is cut off from Israel." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 7, "text": "What should we do about wives for the survivors, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them our daughters in marriage?”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 8, "text": "So they asked, “Which one of the tribes of Israel failed to come up before the LORD at Mizpah?” And, in fact, no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the camp for the assembly." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 9, "text": "For when the people were counted, none of the residents of Jabesh-gilead were there." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 10, "text": "So the congregation sent 12,000 of their most valiant men and commanded them: “Go and put to the sword those living in Jabesh-gilead, including women and children." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 11, "text": "This is what you are to do: Devote to destruction every male, as well as every female who has had relations with a man.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 12, "text": "So they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young women who had not had relations with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 13, "text": "Then the whole congregation sent a message of peace to the Benjamites who were at the rock of Rimmon." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 14, "text": "And at that time the Benjamites returned and were given the women who were spared from Jabesh-gilead. But there were not enough women for all of them." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 15, "text": "The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a void in the tribes of Israel." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 16, "text": "Then the elders of the congregation said, “What should we do about wives for those who remain, since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 17, "text": "They added, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 18, "text": "But we cannot give them our daughters as wives.” For the Israelites had sworn, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to a Benjamite.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 19, "text": "“But look,” they said, “there is a yearly feast to the LORD in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel east of the road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 20, "text": "So they commanded the Benjamites: “Go, hide in the vineyards" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 21, "text": "and watch. When you see the daughters of Shiloh come out to perform their dances, each of you is to come out of the vineyards, catch for himself a wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 22, "text": "When their fathers or brothers come to us to complain, we will tell them, ‘Do us a favor by helping them, since we did not get wives for each of them in the war. Since you did not actually give them your daughters, you have no guilt.’”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 23, "text": "The Benjamites did as instructed and carried away the number of women they needed from the dancers they caught. They went back to their own inheritance, rebuilt their cities, and settled in them." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 24, "text": "And at that time, each of the Israelites returned from there to his own tribe and clan, each to his own inheritance." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 21, "verse": 25, "text": "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." } ] } ], "related": [ { "range": [ 5012008, 5012009 ], "kind": "teaching", "note": "The language of doing what seems right recalls a concern Moses had already addressed.", "reference": "Deuteronomy 12:8–9", "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2012%3A8%E2%80%939&version=BSB" }, { "range": [ 5024007, 5024007 ], "kind": "teaching", "note": "The prohibition of kidnapping provides a comparison for the treatment of the women; narration does not make the acts lawful.", "reference": "Deuteronomy 24:7", "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2024%3A7&version=BSB" } ], "places": [ { "id": "openbible-aa4680a", "name": "Shiloh", "coordinate": [ 35.289536, 32.055703 ], "kind": "City", "confidence": "Identified site", "confidenceSource": "editorial", "sources": [ { "label": "OpenBible · site identifications", "url": "https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/aa4680a/shiloh" } ] } ], "mapPeriod": "iron-i", "further": [ { "label": "OpenBible · site identifications", "url": "https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/aa4680a/shiloh" } ], "provenance": { "sources": [ { "name": "editorial", "ref": "content/authored/conquest-judges.json" } ], "review": "draft" }, "eraName": "Conquest & Judges", "interactiveUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/?event=wives-for-benjamin", "attribution": [ "Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.", "Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.", "Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm" ], "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/wives-for-benjamin/", "markdownUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/wives-for-benjamin/index.md", "jsonUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/wives-for-benjamin/index.json", "cautions": "Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.", "revision": "c1e2e7610f0d7121" }