21 Now the men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: “None of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjaminite.”
2The people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening. They wailed and wept bitterly, 3and they said, “O LORD God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that one tribe must now be missing from Israel?” 4Early the next day, the people built an altar there, and they brought burnt offerings and offerings of well-being.
5The Israelites asked, “Is there anyone from all the tribes of Israel who failed to come up to the assembly before the LORD?” For a solemn oath had been taken concerning anyone who did not go up to the LORD at Mizpah: “He shall be put to death.” 6The Israelites now relented toward their kinsmen the Benjaminites, and they said, “This day one tribe has been cut off from Israel! 7What can we do to provide wives for those who are left, seeing that we have sworn by the LORD not to give any of our daughters to them in marriage?”
8They inquired, “Is there anyone from the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the LORD at Mizpah?” Now no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the camp, to the assembly. 9For, when the roll of the troops was taken, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was present. 10So the assemblage dispatched 12,000 of the warriors, instructing them as follows: “Go and put the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead to the sword, women and children included. 11This is what you are to do: Proscribe every man, and every woman who has known a man carnally.” 12They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 maidens who had not known a man carnally; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.a
13Then the whole community sent word to the Benjaminites who were at the Rock of Rimmon, and offered them terms of peace. 14Thereupon the Benjaminites returned, and they gave them the girls who had been spared from the women of Jabesh-gilead. b-But there were not enough of them.-b
15Now the people had relented toward Benjamin, for the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 16So the elders of the community asked, “What can we do about wives for those who are left, since the women of Benjamin have been killed off?” 17For they said, “There must be a saving remnant for Benjamin, that a tribe may not be blotted out of Israel; 18yet we cannot give them any of our daughters as wives,” since the Israelites had taken an oath: “Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin!”
19They said, “The annual feast of the LORD is now being held at Shiloh.” (It lies north of Bethel, east of the highway that runs from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.)
20So they instructed the Benjaminites as follows: “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards. 21As soon as you see the girls of Shiloh coming out to join in the dances, come out from the vineyards; let each of you seize a wife from among the girls of Shiloh, and be off for the land of Benjamin. 22And if their fathers or brothers come to us to complain, we shall say to them, b-‘Be generous to them for our sake! We could not provide any of them with a wife on account of the war, and you would have incurred guilt if you yourselves had given them [wives].”’-b
23The Benjaminites did so. They took to wife, from the dancers whom they carried off, as many as they themselves numbered. Then they went back to their own territory, and rebuilt their towns and settled in them. 24Thereupon the Israelites dispersed, each to his own tribe and clan; everyone departed for his own territory.
25In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did as he pleased.
* This is the traditional rendering of shophetim, which, however, in the text is rendered “chieftains.” The corresponding verb shaphat is usually translated not “judged” but “ruled” or “led.”
a Cf. Josh. 14.6, 14.
b-b Cf. Josh. 15.18–19 and notes.
c Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “Amalekites”; cf. 1 Sam. 15.6.
d I.e., “Proscribed.” Cf. notes at Num. 21.2–3.
e Septuagint reads “But Judah did not capture Gaza.&ldots;” Gaza is in the coastal plain referred to in v. 19.
f Lit. “watchmen.”
g Some Septuagint mss. read “Edomites.”
a So Targum and other ancient versions. Meaning of Heb: uncertain.
b I.e., “weepers.”
c Some mss. read “Timnath-serah”; cf. Josh. 24.30.
d Canaanite female deities.
e Lit. “plunderers.”
f-f Lit. “their fathers.”
a The sentence structure of vv. 1–2 is uncertain.
b-b Lit. “them formerly.”
c Lit. “lords.”
d See note at Num. 13.21.
e Heb. “his.”
f Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
g-g Or “the Beth-anathite.”
a-a Lit. “at his feet.”
b-b Lit. “from Cain”; cf. 1.16.
c-c Lit. “at the edge of the sword before Barak.”
a In many parts of this poem the meaning is uncertain.
b-b Apparently an expression of dedication; cf. Num. 6.5.
c Taking nazelu as a by-form of nazollu; cf. Targum.
d-d Or “the Beth-anathite.”
e Or “roads.”
f Heb. qamti, archaic second-person singular feminine.
g-g Meaning of Heb. uncertain; others “then was war in the gates.”
h-h Or “thunder peals”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
i Reading ‘am (with pathah) Adonai; so many Heb. mss.
j-j Or “at Onioth,” a presumed designation of Dan’s region.
k-k Lit. “belittled its life to die.”
l I.e., the kings of Canaan (v. 19).
m-m Lit. “From the gallopings, the gallopings of his steeds.”
n Or “against.”
o Or “gazed”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b I.e., by grazing their livestock.
c-c I.e., “My lord, ‘All-is-well.”’
d I.e., Gideon.
e Heb. “them.”
a Or “the Spring of Harod.”
b Or “the Hill of Moreh.”
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d Lit. “smelt.”
e-e Actually, using their hands as a dog uses its tongue; see v. 6.
f Lit. “descend upon”; so in vv. 10 and 11.
g The loaf of bread symbolizes the agricultural Israelites; the tent, the nomadic Midianites.
h-h Emendation yields “He sounded the horn and smashed the jar that he had with him.”
i Meaning of rest of verse uncertain.
a-a Lit. “Is the palm of Zebah and Zalmunna in your hand.”
b I.e., throw them naked in a bed of thorns and trample them; but exact meaning uncertain.
c Lit. “men who drew the sword.”
d Heb. “him.”
e Meaning of Heb. uncertain; emendation yields “threshed”; cf. v. 7.
f-f Others “Where are they?”
g I.e., the Midianites. The author explains that the Midianites wore earrings like the Ishmaelites, who were better known to his contemporaries.
h-h Heb. “it.”
a-a Lit. “bone and flesh.”
b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c Septuagint reads “I.”
d Called “Arumah” in v. 41.
e Cf. “Tormah” in v. 31.
f Heb. “columns.”
g Perhaps identical with Beth-millo of vv. 6 and 20.
h Cf. 1 Sam. 13.6; others “citadel.”
i Called “Baal-berith” in v. 4.
j Heb. plural.
a Imitating the pun in the Heb., which employs ‘ayarim first in the sense of “donkeys” and then in the sense of “towns.”
b I.e., “the villages of Jair”; cf. Num. 32.41.
c Meaning of Heb. uncertain; perhaps “enough for” or “continuing for.”
d Septuagint reads “Midian.”
a Lit. “another woman.”
b-b Lit. “opened my mouth.”
c Lit. “descend,” i.e., with weeping; cf. Isa. 15.3.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b I.e., Bethlehem in Zebulun; cf. Josh. 19.15.
a Lit. “in the day.”
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a Heb. “my.”
b Heb. “they.”
c I.e., the people of Timnah.
d Septuagint and Syriac read “fourth.”
e Reading halom, with some Heb. mss. and Targum.
a So Targum.
b Heb. “his.”
c Many mss. read “her father’s household”; cf. 14.15.
d-d Lit. “He smote them leg as well as thigh, a great smiting.”
e I.e., “Jawbone Heights.”
f Understood as “The Spring of the Caller.”
a Meaning of parts of verse uncertain.
b Septuagint reads “were told.”
c For use as bowstrings.
d Septuagint adds “and pin it with a peg to the wall, I shall become as weak as an ordinary man. So Delilah put him to sleep and wove the seven locks of his head into the web.”
e Septuagint adds “to the wall.”
f Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
g Taking wattahel as equivalent to wattahal; cf. vv. 7, 11, and 17.
h This verse would read well after v. 25.
a “Micaihu” here and in v. 4.
b Cursing anyone who knew the whereabouts of the silver and did not disclose it; cf. Lev. 5.1; 1 Kings 8.31.
c In order to nullify the imprecation.
d-d Force of Heb. uncertain.
a Lit. “voice.” The men could tell by his dialect that he came from Judah and was therefore a former neighbor of the Danites; cf. vv. 11–12.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c-c Lit. “the sculptured image of the ephod, and the household gods, and the molten image.”
d
