Judges 21 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Jud 21:1-25

1 The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: ‘Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjaminite.’

2 The people went to Bethel, where they sat before God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly. 3 ‘Lord, God of Israel,’ they cried, ‘why has this happened to Israel? Why should one tribe be missing from Israel today?’

4 Early the next day the people built an altar and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.

5 Then the Israelites asked, ‘Who from all the tribes of Israel has failed to assemble before the Lord?’ For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to assemble before the Lord at Mizpah was to be put to death.

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 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 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 and every woman who is not a virgin.’ 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 in Canaan.

13 Then the whole assembly sent an offer of peace to the Benjaminites at the rock of Rimmon. 14 So the Benjaminites 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.

15 The people grieved for Benjamin, because the Lord had made a gap in the tribes of Israel. 16 And the elders of the assembly said, ‘With the women of Benjamin destroyed, how shall we provide wives for the men who are left? 17 The Benjaminite survivors must have heirs,’ they said, ‘so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out. 18 We can’t give them our daughters as wives, since we Israelites have taken this oath: “Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to a Benjaminite.” 19 But look, there is the annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh, which lies north of Bethel, east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.’

20 So they instructed the Benjaminites, saying, ‘Go and hide in the vineyards 21 and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, rush from the vineyards and each of you seize one of them to be your wife. Then return to the land of Benjamin. 22 When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, “Do us the favour of helping them, because we did not get wives for them during the war. You will not be guilty of breaking your oath because you did not give your daughters to them.”’

23 So that is what the Benjaminites did. While the young women were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife. Then they returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled in them.

24 At that time the Israelites left that place and went home to their tribes and clans, each to his own inheritance.

25 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

A. Find Out:

1. After the fighting over what caused anguish? v.1-6
2. What was their particular problem? v.1,7
3. Who had not turned out & what punishment was decreed? v.8-11
4. Who did they save and what happened to them? v.12-14
5. Yet what problem still remained? v.14b-18
6. How did they overcome that? v.19-24

B. Think:

1. How was there regret in Israel after the fighting?
2. How did an act of judgement become a help?
3. What other means did they use to help?

C. Comment:

     Our last sight of Israel in this book is somewhat bizarre. In the previous chapter we saw how six hundred Benjamin warriors had fled to the hills but everyone else in the towns was killed in the rampant slaughter that when on, in the fury of Israel against the wrong things that had happened. Benjamin had become a pariah among the tribes and the rest of the tribes had even taken an oath in their anger not to let their daughters marry into Benjamin. Now the fighting is over and the anger subsides, Israel realises that for the first time since Jacob, one of the tribes will soon be completely extinguished because there are simply six hundred Benjamin men left and no women. There is anguish over this.

     However, at the same time there is an awareness that not everyone had responded to the solemn call, and death had been the penalty decreed for whoever had not come. They realise that it is the people of Jabesh Gilead who had not come and in the process of bringing judgement they spare the young girls to become wives for the Benjamin men – but there are not enough. A way is suggested – that the remaining Benjamin men be permitted to take girls from Shiloh at the celebrations there- thus the people of Shiloh would not be giving their daughters. A strange way to circumnavigate their oath, but these were strange, largely godless times as the final verse shows!

D. Application:

1. Unrestrained anger leaves us with big problems to sort out.
2. Promises before God are not to be dismissed lightly.