Judges 21

Jud 21:1-15.

THE

PEOPLE

BEWAIL

THE

DESOLATION OF

ISRAEL.

2-5. the people came to the house of God, . . . and lifted up their

voices, and wept sore--The characteristic fickleness of the Israelites

was not long in being displayed; for scarcely had they cooled from the

fierceness of their sanguinary vengeance, than they began to relent and

rushed to the opposite extreme of self-accusation and grief at the

desolation which their impetuous zeal had produced. Their victory

saddened and humbled them. Their feelings on the occasion were

expressed by a public and solemn service of expiation at the house of

God. And yet this extraordinary observance, though it enabled them to

find vent for their painful emotions, did not afford them full relief,

for they were fettered by the obligation of a religious vow, heightened

There is no previous record of this oath; but the purport of it was,

that they would treat the perpetrators of this Gibeah atrocity in the

same way as the Canaanites, who were doomed to destruction; and the

entering into this solemn league was of a piece with the rest of their

inconsiderate conduct in this whole affair.

6. There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day--that is, in danger

of becoming extinct; for, as it appears from

Jud 21:7,

they had massacred all the women and children of Benjamin, and six

hundred men alone survived of the whole tribe. The prospect of such a

blank in the catalogue of the twelve tribes, such a gap in the national

arrangements, was too painful to contemplate, and immediate measures

must be taken to prevent this great catastrophe.

8. there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly--This

city lay within the territory of eastern Manasseh, about fifteen miles

east of the Jordan, and was, according to JOSEPHUS, the capital of

Gilead. The ban which the assembled tribes had pronounced at Mizpeh

seemed to impose on them the necessity of punishing its inhabitants for

not joining the crusade against Benjamin; and thus, with a view of

repairing the consequences of one rash proceeding, they hurriedly

rushed to the perpetration of another, though a smaller tragedy. But it

appears

(Jud 21:11)

that, besides acting in fulfilment of their oath, the Israelites had

the additional object by this raid of supplying wives to the Benjamite

remnant. This shows the intemperate fury of the Israelites in the

indiscriminate slaughter of the women and children.

Jud 21:16-21.

THE

ELDERS

CONSULT

HOW TO

FIND

WIVES FOR

THOSE

THAT

WERE

LEFT.

16. the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for

them that remain--Though the young women of Jabesh-gilead had been

carefully spared, the supply was found inadequate, and some other

expedient must be resorted to.

17. There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of

Benjamin--As they were the only rightful owners of the territory,

provision must be made for transmitting it to their legitimate heirs,

and a new act of violence was meditated

(Jud 21:19);

the opportunity for which was afforded by the approaching festival--a

feast generally supposed to be the feast of tabernacles. This, like the

other annual feasts, was held in Shiloh, and its celebration was

attended with more social hilarity and holiday rejoicings than the

other feasts.

19. on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Beth-el to

Shechem--The exact site of the place was described evidently for the

direction of the Benjamites.

21, 22. daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances--The dance was

anciently a part of the religious observance. It was done on festive

occasions, as it is still in the East, not in town, but in the open

air, in some adjoining field, the women being by themselves. The young

women being alone indulging their light and buoyant spirits, and

apprehensive of no danger, facilitated the execution of the scheme of

seizing them, which closely resembles the Sabine rape in Roman history.

The elders undertook to reconcile the families to the forced abduction

of their daughters. And thus the expression of their public sanction to

this deed of violence afforded a new evidence of the evils and

difficulties into which the unhappy precipitancy of the Israelites in

this crisis had involved them.

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