⚔️WEB · Judges 21:16
What does Judges 21:16 mean?
"Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?”"
— Judges 21:16 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.
Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead. There still weren’t enough for them.
The people grieved for Benjamin, because Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?”
They said, “There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel.
However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, ‘Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.’”
They said, “Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.”
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