Judges 21:16-24

Judges 21:16-24

[16] Then the elders  of the congregation  said,  How shall we do  for wives  for them that remain,  seeing the women  are destroyed  out of Benjamin?  [17] And they said,  There must be an inheritance  for them that be escaped  of Benjamin,  that a tribe  be not destroyed  out of Israel.  [18] Howbeit we may  not give  them wives  of our daughters:  for the children  of Israel  have sworn,  saying,  Cursed  be he that giveth  a wife  to Benjamin.  [19] Then they said,  Behold, there is a feast  of the LORD  in Shiloh  yearly  in a place which is on the north side  of Bethel,  on the east side  of the highway  that goeth up  from Bethel  to Shechem,  and on the south  of Lebonah.  [20] Therefore they commanded  the children  of Benjamin,  saying,  and lie in wait  in the vineyards;  [21] And see,  and, behold, if the daughters  of Shiloh  come out  to dance  in dances,  then come ye out  of the vineyards,  and catch  you every man  his wife  of the daughters  of Shiloh,  and go  to the land  of Benjamin.  [22] And it shall be, when their fathers  or their brethren  come  unto us to complain,  that we will say  unto them, Be favourable  unto them for our sakes: because we reserved  not to each man  his wife  in the war:  for ye did not give  unto them at this time,  that ye should be guilty.  [23] And the children  of Benjamin  did so,  and took  them wives,  according to their number,  of them that danced,  whom they caught:  and returned  unto their inheritance,  and repaired  the cities,  and dwelt  in them. [24] And the children  of Israel  departed  thence at that time,  every man  to his tribe  and to his family,  and they went out  from thence every man  to his inheritance. 

What does Judges 21:16-24 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

The writer constructed this section parallel to the previous one ( Judges 21:5-15) to highlight the dilemma Israel continued to face. [1] About200 Benjamites still needed wives. Judges 21:16-18 repeat the dilemma that the Israelites" "wife oath" had created ( Judges 21:1).
The elders of Israel proposed a second plan ( Judges 21:19; cf. Judges 21:8-9). It would give the Benjamites wives without causing the Israelites to break the letter of their "wife vow," though it violated a more basic law. The problem with this plan was that it required the forcible kidnapping and raping of200 women from Shiloh. Undoubtedly, if the elders had sought the Lord"s counsel, He would have given them a better plan. There is no evidence in the text that they did so.
"Preoccupation with legalistic and technical obedience to certain rules or laws without an accompanying sense of the principles of faithfulness and love that undergird such laws and temper their rigid application is a recipe for disaster." [2]
"The rape of one has become the rape of six hundred." [3]
The annual feast of Yahweh was probably the Passover "... as the dances of the daughters of Shiloh was apparently an imitation of the dances of the Israelitish women at the Red Sea under the superintendency of Miriam (Ex. xv20)." [1]4 Another possibility is that this was the Feast of Tabernacles "... in the time of the vintage-harvest." [5] A third option is that it was a festival of the Israelites" own making. [6]
Judges 21:20-22 record the Israelites" command to the assailants (cf. Judges 21:10-11). The fathers and brothers of the women would complain because of the treatment these women would receive and because these men would not receive dowries from their sons-in-law as was customary. The Israelites also expected these fathers and brothers to find some consolation in the fact that they had not technically broken the "wife oath."
This second provision of wives proved to be sufficient for the Benjamites ( Judges 21:23; cf. Judges 21:12-14) even though the plan involved the violation of basic human rights. With this resolution of the problem the Israelites returned to their homes ( Judges 21:24; cf. Judges 21:15).
"There is a certain rightness and a certain wrongness about what Israel does. They justifiably requite Jabesh-gilead with unjustifiable severity ( Judges 21:5; Judges 21:10). They stand consistently upon their wife-oath ( Judges 21:7; Judges 21:16-18) but trample happily upon the rights of the Shiloh girls and their families ( Judges 21:19-22). It is a mix of consistency and confusion....
"The ambivalence pervading chapter21simply fits the pattern of incongruities throughout the story from the beginning of chapter19." [7]
"Through Moses Yahweh had warned that if the Israelites stoop to behaving like Canaanites, then they can expect the same fate ( Deuteronomy 8:19-20). The narrator never declares so outrightly, but the present account, coming as it does at the end of the book affirms the total Canaanization of the tribe of Benjamin and the Israelites" falsely based sympathy for their brothers." [1]2