The Koine Bible

And a man of Israel swore in Mizpah, saying, No man of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife.

And all the people came to Mizpeh and Bethel, and they sat there until evening before God, and they lifted up their voice and wept a great weeping

And they said, Why, Lord, God of Israel, has this happened in Israel, to make today one tribe lacking in Israel?

And it came to pass on the next day, and the people rose early and built there an altar and offered burnt offerings of deliverance

And the sons of Israel said, Who is the one who did not go up in the assembly from all the tribes of Israel to the Lord? For there was a great oath against the one who did not go up to the Lord to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death.

And the sons of Israel were comforted concerning Benjamin their brother, and they said, One tribe has been taken away today from Israel.

What shall we do for them, for those left over for wives, since we have sworn by the Lord not to give them from our daughters for wives?

And they said, Which one of the tribes of Israel did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah? And behold, no man came from Jabesh Gilead to the camp, to the assembly.

And the people were reviewed, and behold, there was not there a man from those dwelling in Jabesh-gilead

And the assembly sent there twelve thousand men from the sons of might, and they gave them a charge, saying, Go and strike all those dwelling in Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, and the women and the people.

And this is the matter that you shall do: every male and every woman knowing a male’s bed you shall devote to destruction.

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known a man for a male’s bed, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

And all the assembly sent and they spoke to Benjamin who was in the rock of Remmon, and they called them to peace

And Benjamin returned to the sons of Israel at that time, and they gave them the women who were from the women of Jabesh-gilead, and so it was pleasing to them.

And the people were comforted for Benjamin, because the Lord had made a breach among the tribes of Israel.

And the elders of the assembly said, What shall we do for the remaining ones for wives, since a wife has been destroyed from Benjamin?

And they said, An inheritance preserved for Benjamin, and a tribe shall surely not be blotted out from Israel

And we shall not be able to give them wives from our daughters, for we swore, the sons of Israel, saying, Cursed is the one giving a wife to Benjamin.

And they said, A feast to the Lord in Shiloh from days to days, which is from the north of Bethhel east of the sun, on the road that goes up from Bethhel to Sikima, and from the south of Lebanon of Lebona

And they commanded the sons of Benjamin, saying, Go through and lie in wait in the vineyards

And you shall watch, and behold, when the daughters of those inhabiting Shiloh come out in Shiloh to dance in dances, then you shall come out from the vineyards and seize for each man himself a wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and you shall go away to the land of Benjamin.

And it shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to contend with you, that we will say to them, Have mercy on them, because they did not take each man his wife in the war; for you did not give them according to the time, you acted wrongly

And the sons of Benjamin did thus, and they took wives according to their number from among the dancing women whom they seized, and they went away and returned to their inheritance, and they built cities for themselves and dwelt in them

And the sons of Israel went about from there at that time, each man to his tribe and to his kinship, and they went away from there, each man to his inheritance.

In those days there was no king in Israel; each man was doing what was right in his own eyes.