600 Brides for 600 Brothers
21:1 The Israelites had taken an oath in Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will allow his daughter to marry a Benjaminite.”
Since all of the men, women, and children of the Benjaminites were killed (except for 600 soldiers), then the Benjaminites would die out and cease to exist as a tribe of Israel.
21:2 So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, weeping loudly and uncontrollably.
Bethel means “house of God." Since the tabernacle was located in Shiloh at this time, some theologians teach that this meeting occurred at Shiloh. Verse 4 will teach otherwise.
21:3 They said, “Why, O Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel?” An entire tribe has disappeared from Israel today!”
The reason for this weeping was given in question form, paraphrased as “Why did God’s sovereignty allow one tribe to disappear from Israel today?”
21:4 The next morning the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered up burnt sacrifices and token of peace.
Shiloh already had built an altar, so this location must have been Bethel.
21:5 The Israelites asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes has not assembled before the Lord?” They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed.
If this oath was kept, then other tribes would be exterminated as well.
21:6 The Israelites regretted what had happened to their brother Benjamin. They said, “Today we cut off an entire tribe from Israel!
The Hebrew word for “cut off” is גָּדַע (gada), meaning to “hack off." Israel's rash promise caused them to hack off Benjamin as a tribe of Israel.
21:7 How can we find wives for those who are left? After all, we took an oath in the Lord’s name not to give them our daughters as wives.”
There were only six hundred male Benjaminites left alive. All other tribes took an oath not to allow their daughters to marry the Benjaminites. It was against the Mosaic Law for the Benjaminites to marry foreign wives. If Israel kept their oath, then the Benjaminite tribe would die out.
21:8 So they asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah?” Now it just so happened no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the gathering.
Jabesh Gilead was a city in the Transjordan area, which was a great distance away.
21:9 When they took roll call, they noticed none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead were there.
The roll call confirmed their theory.
21:10 So the assembly sent 12,000 capable warriors against Jabesh Gilead. They commanded them, “Go and kill with your swords the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, including the women and little children.
Israel applied the חֵ֫רֶם (cherem) curse upon Jabesh Gilead. Israel was slow to administer the חֵ֫רֶם (cherem) curse against the Canaanites, but they were quick to administer the חֵ֫רֶם (cherem) upon their own people.
21:11 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.
This text does not show how the soldiers knew which girls were virgins. The rabbis came up with their own solution, as follows. The soldiers set all of the women on top of barrels of wine. If the smell of wine came out of their mouths, then it was a sign that they were not virgins. This was pure rabbinic imagination. Most of the rabbinic oral writings are filled with superstitions similar to this excerpt. This is why Jesus condemned the man-made oral traditions of the rabbis. It was pure rabbinic mythology.
21:12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls who were virgins – they had never had sexual relations with a male. They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.
The Hebrew word for “virgins” is בְתוּלָ֔ה (betulah), which means young woman. The author had to explain that these בְתוּלָ֔ה (betulah) were young women who were still virgins. The Hebrew word for “virgin” is עלמה (almah), meaning virgin. Isaiah 7:14 predicted that the Messiah would be born of an עלמה (almah), not a בְתוּלָ֔ה (betulah). Some rabbis and liberals intentionally mistranslate Isaiah 7:14 as “young woman” in an attempt to discredit the virgin-birth prophecy of Jesus. This is a very deceptive argument which will work on those who are not grounded in Hebrew. However, Hebrew students who know this verse will not be fooled by such dishonest exegesis.
Shiloh was the location of the Tabernacle. Since the 400 virgins were on the other side of the Jordan, the soldiers had to bring them into Canaan. Since this is the only time that Israel is called “Canaan” after the conquest, then this incident must have happened early in Judges' history. A second possibility is that the author was emphasizing the Canaanization of Israel.
21:13 The entire assembly sent messengers to the Benjaminites at the cliff of Rimmon and assured them they would not be harmed.
The 600 surviving Benjaminites had been taken captive in the cliffs of Rimmon for over four months. They thought that they were going to be part of the Benjaminite genocide. However, God made promises to the patriarchs that all twelve tribes would enter into the Messianic Kingdom. If Israel would have attempted to perform genocide on these Benjaminite survivors, then God would have found a way to help at least one of them survive so that the Benjaminite tribe could exist to receive their Millennial Kingdom promise of land.
21:14 The Benjaminites returned at that time, and the Israelites gave to them the women they had spared from Jabesh Gilead. But there were not enough to go around.
Israel was 200 wives short.
21:15 The people regretted what had happened to Benjamin because the Lord had weakened the Israelite tribes.
Civil war weakens the nation by depleting the male population and leaving young virgins without husbands.
21:16 The leaders of the assembly said, “How can we find wives for those who are left? After all, the Benjaminite women have been wiped out.
Israel did not know how to find 200 more wives for the Benjaminites.
21:17 The remnant of Benjamin must be preserved. An entire Israelite tribe should not be wiped out.
400 Benjaminites would not be able to hold their tribal land inheritance. This loss of land to the Canaanites would weaken all of Israel.
21:18 But we can’t allow our daughters to marry them, for the Israelites took an oath, saying, ‘Whoever gives a woman to a Benjaminite will be destroyed!’
All of Israel took an oath which would not allow other tribes to intermarry with the Benjaminites.
21:19 However, there is an annual festival to the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel (east of the main road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem) and south of Lebonah.”
The Passover Feast was near. This feast would occur in Shiloh. All of Israel was required to be at this feast. There was a dance of the virgins which took place at this festival. This may have been an imitation of Miriam’s dance from Exodus 15:20.
21:20 So they commanded the Benjaminites, “Go hide in the vineyards,
Hiding in the vineyards meant that this must have been the Spring Passover, and not the Fall Feast of Pentecost.
21:21 and keep your eyes open. When you see the daughters of Shiloh coming out to dance in the celebration, jump out from the vineyards. Each one of you, catch yourself a wife from among the daughters of Shiloh and then go home to the land of Benjamin.
To get around the fulfilling of this oath, the Benjaminites were commanded to hide in the vineyards and then steal a dancing virgin.
21:22 When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us, we’ll say to them, “Do us a favor and let them be, for we could not get each one a wife through battle. Don’t worry about breaking your oath! You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.’”
The elders would protect the Benjaminites from the wrath of the virgin’s fathers. They would tell the fathers that since their daughters were stolen and not given away, that their oath was not broken. This was a sneaky way for the Israelites to get around this oath. The Israelites were always trying to find tricky ways of getting around their oaths to God. Jesus later condemned the Pharisees for placing these kinds of loopholes in their man-made Oral Laws.
21:23 The Benjaminites did as instructed. They abducted two hundred of the dancing girls to be their wives. They went home to their own territory, rebuilt their cities, and settled down.
Peace was restored in Israel. It is important to note that God never ordered the genocide of His own people. Israel acted without God and almost hacked off an entire tribe. The Apostle Paul would later come from the tribe of the Benjaminites.
21:24 Then the Israelites dispersed from there to their respective tribal and clan territories. Each went from there to his own property.
The Israelites departed from Shiloh and returned to their homes.
21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
There was no king in Israel to destroy idolatry, to enforce proper worship, to conquer the enemies of Israel, to bring law and order into the country, to enforce the Mosaic Law, to bring order among the tribes, to punish wicked cities, and to enforce a just way of solving problems (such as the Benjaminite problem). The result of not having a king was that every man did that which was right in his own eyes, instead of what was right in God’s eyes.
The main purpose of the Book of Judges was to give a reason why Israel needed a king. It also demonstrated that the king should not come from the Benjaminites, but the king must come from Judah. King Saul was from Gibeah, a city which replaced hospitality with homosexual gang rape. King David was from Bethlehem, a town which honored and protected hospitality, even to the extreme. The Book of Judges offered a divine viewpoint transition into the Book of Samuel.