8 And they said, What one is thereof the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the
LORD? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabeshgilead to the assembly.
9 For the people were numbered, and, behold, there werenone of the inhabitants of
Jabeshgilead there.
10 And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded
them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the
women and the children.
11 And this isthe thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman
that hath lain by man.
12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had
known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is
in the land of Canaan.
13 And the whole congregation sent someto speak to the children of Benjamin that werein the
rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.
14 And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive
of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
15 And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a breach in the
tribes of Israel.
16 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain,
seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?
17 And they said, There must bean inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a
tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.
18 Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn,
saying, Cursed behe that giveth a wife to Benjamin.
19 Then they said, Behold, there isa feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a placewhich ison
the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem,
and on the south of Lebonah.
20 Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the
vineyards;
21 And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye
out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the
land of Benjamin.
22 And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will
say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his
wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, thatye should be guilty.
23 And the children of Benjamin did so, and took themwives, according to their number, of
them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and
repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.
24 And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his
family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.
25 In those days there wasno king in Israel: every man did that which wasright in his own
eyes.