The Koine Bible

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

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

And they said, For what, O Lord God of Israel, has this happened, to visit today from Israel one tribe?

And it came to be on the next day, and the people rose early, and they built there an altar and offered up whole burnt offerings and complete offerings

And the sons of Israel said, Who did not go up in the assembly from all the tribes of Israel to the Lord? For the great oath was for those who had not gone up to the Lord to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death.

And the sons of Israel were comforted toward Benjamin their brother, and they said, One tribe has been cut off today from Israel.

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

And they said, Which one is there from the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the Lord to Mizpah? And behold, there did not come a man from Jabesh Gilead to the camp, to the assembly.

And the people were inspected, and there was not there a man from among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead

And the assembly sent there twelve thousand men from the sons of the force, and they gave them orders, saying, Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the mouth of the sword.

And this you shall do: every male and every woman knowing a man’s bed you shall devote to destruction, but the virgins you shall keep alive; and they did so.

And they found from 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 into the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

And all the assembly sent and spoke to the sons of Benjamin in the rock of Rimmon and called them to peace

And Benjamin returned to the sons of Israel at that time, and the sons of Israel gave them the wives whom they had kept alive from the daughters of Jabesh-gilead, and so it pleased them.

And the people were comforted over 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 rest, for wives, since a woman has vanished from Benjamin?

And they said, An inheritance for the survivors for Benjamin, and a tribe shall not be blotted out from Israel.

For we shall not be able to give them wives from our daughters, for we swore by the sons of Israel, saying, Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin

And they said, Behold now, a feast of the Lord is in Shiloh from days to days, which is from the north of Bethel, eastward of the sun, on the road going up from Bethel to Shechem, and from south of Lebonah.

And they instructed the sons of Benjamin, saying, Go, lie in wait in the vineyards.

And you shall watch, and behold, if the daughters of those dwelling in Shilon come out to dance in the dances, then you shall come out from the vineyards and seize for yourselves, each man a wife from the daughters of Shilon, and go 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, Show us favor with them, because we did not take a man his wife in the battle array, because you did not give them at the time you committed offense.

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

And the sons of Israel departed from there at that time, each man to his tribe and to his kindred, and each man went out from there to his inheritance.

And in those days there was no king in Israel; each man was doing what was right before him.