Mourning Lost Tribe

21 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, “None of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin ^[a]in marriage.” ² So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, and lifted up their voices and wept ^[b]bitterly. ³ They said, “Why, O Lord, God of Israel, has this come about in Israel, so that one tribe should be missing today in Israel?” ⁴ It came about the next day that the people arose early and built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

⁵ Then the sons of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up in the assembly to the Lord?” For ^[c]they had taken a great oath concerning him who did not come up to the Lord at Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.” ⁶ And the sons of Israel were sorry for their brother Benjamin and said, “One tribe is cut off from Israel today. ⁷ What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the Lord not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?”

Provision for Their Survival

⁸ And they said, “What one is there of the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the Lord at Mizpah?” And behold, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly. ⁹ For when the people were ^[d]numbered, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there. ¹⁰ And the congregation sent 12,000 of the valiant warriors there, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. ¹¹ This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every man and every woman who has ^[e]lain with a man.” ¹² And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with ^[f]him; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

¹³ Then the whole congregation sent word and spoke to the sons of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. ¹⁴ Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had kept alive from the women of Jabesh-gilead; yet they ^[g]were not enough for them. ¹⁵ And the people were sorry for Benjamin because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

¹⁶ Then the elders of the congregation said, “What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?” ¹⁷ They said, “There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be blotted out from Israel. ¹⁸ But we cannot give them wives of our daughters.” For the sons of Israel had sworn, saying, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.”

¹⁹ So they said, “Behold, there is a feast of the Lord from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south side of Lebonah.” ²⁰ And they commanded the sons of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, ²¹ and watch; and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to ^[h]take part in the dances, then you shall come out of the vineyards and each of you shall catch his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. ²² It shall come about, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we shall say to them, ‘Give them to us voluntarily, because we did not take for each man of Benjamin ^[i]a wife in battle, ^[j]nor did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty.’” ²³ The sons of Benjamin did so, and took wives according to their number from those who danced, whom they carried away. And they went and returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the cities and lived in them. ²⁴ The sons of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and family, and each one of them went out from there to his inheritance.

²⁵ In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Warnings

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you ^[a]defeat them, then you shall ^[b]utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. ³ Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your ^[c]daughters to ^[d]their sons, nor shall you take ^[e]their daughters for your ^[f]sons. ⁴ For ^[g]they will turn your ^[h]sons away from ^[i]following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. ⁵ But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their ^[j]Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. ⁶ For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His ^[k]own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the ^[l]earth.

⁷ “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of ^[m]slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps ^[n]His covenant and ^[o]His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ but repays those who hate Him to ^[p]their faces, to destroy ^[q]them; He will not delay ^[r]with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

Promises of God

¹² “Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you ^[s]His covenant and ^[t]His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers. ¹³ He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, ^[u]in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle. ¹⁵ The Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will lay them on all who hate you. ¹⁶ You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’ ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ¹⁹ the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish. ²¹ You shall not dread ^[v]them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. ²² The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, for the ^[w]wild beasts would grow too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them before you, and will ^[x]throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will deliver their kings into your hand so that you will make their name perish from under heaven; no man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and like it come under the ban; you shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is something banned.