seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Judges 21:1 The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.”
2 The people went to Bethel,[a] 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?”
2 The people went to Bethel,[a] 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?”
a. Judges 21:2 Or to the house of God
A short post this morning.... these postings have become novels lately.....
This, of course, is a problem. The Israelites were living in a Theocracy. God was in charge, judges were responsible for the daily activities. At this particular time, there was no judge in charge and people are doing what they think is the right thing to do. There has been a civil war. Vile men in a town in the territory allotted to the tribe of Benjamin raped and murdered a Levite's concubine. That Levite cut up her body and sent it to the other tribes, bringing on the war. Only a few hundred men from the old tribe of Benjamin survived the attacks.
Now that caused a problem.... they could only marry an Israelite.... and all the women in the territory allotted to the tribe of Benjamin were dead. What now? Without women to bare the children.... the tribe would cease to exist....
This is from the easy English site.
The Israelites thought again about their actions. They had fought a holy war. But they had made some promises that were too strong. They had promised that their daughters would not marry the men from Benjamin’s tribe. So they had not allowed them to marry them. They were sorry about that. Because it meant that the tribe would not continue
This came from Bible-studys.org.
It appears that the men of Israel had taken oaths, when they met at Mizpeh. They were so revolted by the terrible crime these men of Gibeah committed, that they refused to let their daughters marry a man of Benjamin. They undoubtedly took an oath also, that anyone who did not come against this terrible sin, by fighting against the Benjamites would be killed. This was to show their total disgust of this sin.
Now what are they going to do?
