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, 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 Benjamites at the rock of Rimmon. 14 So the Benjamites 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 Benjamite 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 Benjamite.’ 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 Benjamites, 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 favor 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 Benjamites 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.
Here's the link to the commentary I use.Everyone did what was right in his own eyes: Generally, the 400-year period of the Judges was marked by this radical individualism. They rejected the standard of God’s word and accepted the individual standard of what was right in their own eyes.
OK... A recap is necessary here. There was a Levite who was traveling with his concubine. They went through a town that was apparently run by the descendants of Benjamin, Jacob's youngest son. A family took them in.
Meanwhile, in the town, there were some men who took exception to the Levite staying in their town.... for whatever reason. So, they went to the house where the Levite was staying and demanded the Levite come out so they could do horrid things to him... "frick him up" as we would say.
The sniveling coward of a Levite put his concubine out there instead. The men raped her to death. In the morning the Levite found his concubine dead on the doorstep. He cut her into pieces and sent a piece of her dead body to the head of each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Then that lying Levite told everyone he was her "husband". She was never his wife. He only said he was her husband to get the Israelites to do his dirty work of revenge for him. He didn't mention the fact he threw her to her rapists to avoid getting "fricked up" himself.
The tribes got together and found that the men who did this were from a town of the Benjamites. The Israelites told the men in charge to hand over the man how did this to the woman. The Benjamites refused to do so. After all, the Levite gave the concubine to them. They went in with their finest troops and destroyed everyone and everything in the town. They left the Benjamites with no virgins, no women, no children, no slaves, no livestock... they murdered everyone.....
And then in this chapter... they realized without women... the Benjamites that were left had no women to bring children. Because of the Levite and his whore, they had cut off one of the tribes of Jacob, the man God called Israel.
So, they got together and calmly decided what to do. There was a party coming up.... and there would be virgins at the party... so, they agreed the boys who didn't have a wife... would go to the party and snag them a virgin and take them out into the woods to be their wife.
I thought "oh they had a Sadie Hawkins dance" when I read the verses at first. But then I realized... those 400 women didn't ask the men to the dance... they were lined up for rape at the dance instead. This was no Sadie Hawkins dance... This was a "come get your wife" dance. It was a way to bypass the legal way in order to allow the Benjamite tribe to survive.
Women were a commodity. These girls were not warned. These girls were ripe for the picking.
The book of Judges ends with the snagging of 400 virgins... and these words.... " everyone did as they saw fit".
Everyone did as they saw fit.
They were just like us... free spirits!
Everyone did as they saw fit.
