In Judges 21.1-25 we learn that a curse was put upon anyone who gave their daughters as wives to Benjamin at Mizpeh, but they realize that a whole tribe is on the verge of extinction now. So they wanted a way out of this dilemma. The Lord was not in this oath and the withholding of wives at all, and they wept before the Lord for not allowing wives and that one tribe is cut off. A wife is symbolic of life and with no wife there is no “life.” Their grief is like feeling sorry for our unsaved loved ones who have “no life.”
As a result, they wanted to do something to provide wives (life) to those who were left (the 600) without violating the curse. So, they wanted to know who from the tribes did not come up to the Lord at Mizpeh and participate in the oath. They found out that nobody from Jabesh-Gilead (“dry heap of witness”) came out to be mustered for war, so they sent 12,000 valiant warriors to the city and as a result of the slaughter of Jabesh-gilead, 400 virgins were spared. They were brought to Shiloh. However, they were 200 short because there were 600 men from Benjamin.
So the elders of the congregation did not know what to do for those 200 who were left. They could not give them their daughters because of their oath, so they came up with this plan. There was a feast of the Lord from year to year in Shiloh (21.19). The Mishnah in Ta’anit 4.8 says that on Yom Kippur the daughters used to go out in white to dance in the vineyards and be chosen for wives by the young men, so that was what they planned to do here (v 19). Shiloh was where the Mishkan was and on the north (side of wisdom/intellect) of Bethel (“house of God”), on the east side of the highway (man is on the east side, away from God, on the highway of life) that goes up from Bethel to Shechem (“shoulder” symbolic of security and strength) and on the south side (faith brings salvation) of Lebonah (“frankincense”, symbolizing prayer).
They told the sons of Benjamin to go wait in the vineyard and watch. When the daughters of Shiloh came out to dance then they could come out and catch his wife from these daughters, and then go back to Benjamin. When the fathers and brothers come to complain about the kidnapping of their daughters and sisters they were told that these daughters were not given to the sons of Benjamin for wives. They were taken and not given in marriage to Benjamin (willingly “kidnapped) so they did not “violate” their oath, but for the sake of all Israel they were advised to just let it go. Rather than just repent of their ungodly oath, they went to all this trouble to make things right. So, the women were taken back to Benjamin and the tribe of Benjamin was restored to the point that it provided Israel with their first king (Saul).
In Judges 21.25 we come to one of the saddest verses in the Bible, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The chaos we have read about in Judges could only happen in a society where the people forgot about God as their king, and there was no anointed king over Israel to administer Torah justice. When they rejected the rule of Torah over their lives, they accepted the standard of their own making to rule in their individual life. This is what is happening today. People reject the Torah so they do what their “heart” tells them to do. There is nothing restraining people from doing what they want now because they follow their heart, and how can that be wrong? How can you judge someone for that? That is why there is so much evil today.
Torah-based believers have a code to go by and we are not to judge things based on ourselves. The Torah is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but there is a counterfeit tree also (the heart and instinct, how one “feels”). There is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way of death (Prov 14.12). That is the sad story of the Book of Judges. When man follows his own instincts and “heart” it leads to ruin because there is nothing to restrain him, and that is the situation in the book of Judges.
v 1…Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, “None of us shall give his daughters to Benjamin in marriage.”
v 2…So the people came to Bethel (the city, or to the house of God in Shiloh where the Mishkan was) and sat before God until evening, and lifted up their voices and wept bitterly (to find out how to get out of this dilemma-v 5).
v 3…And they said, “Why, O Lord, God of Israel, has this come about in Israel, so that one tribe should be missing in Israel?”
v 4…And it came about the next day that the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings (which was not lawful if this was in Bethel, and it was not lawful if they were at the Mishkan-Mishnah Zevachim 4.8)?
v 5…Then the sons of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up in the assembly of the Lord?” For they had taken a great oath concerning him who did not come up to the Lord at Mizpah, saying, “He shall be put to death (Yehovah is not in all of this, there was no command to do this oath and in withholding or finding wives).”
v 6…And the sons of Israel were sorry for their brother Benjamin and said, “One tribe is cut off from Israel.
v 7…What shall we do for wives (wives symbolize “life”-Gen 2.15) for those who are left, since we have sworn by the Lord not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?”
v 8…And they said (their human solution), “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 (heap of witness) to the assembly.
v 9…For when the people were numbered, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there.
v 10…And the congregation sent 12,000 of the valiant warriors there, and commanded them, saying, “Gzo and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with women and the little ones.
v 11…And this is thing that you shall do; you shall utterly destroy every man and every woman who has lain with a man.”
v 12…And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them into the camp at Shiloh (peace bringer; how they got around their oath to put them to death is not clear; perhaps they thought that this was an emergency or they thought that they had the Lord’s permission to do so, we don’t know) which is in the land of Canaan (Jabesh was on the east side of the Jordan).
v 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.
v 14…And Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had kept alive from the women of Jabesh-gilead, yet they were not enough for them (200 short).
v 15…And the people were sorry (they had killed so many) for Benjamin because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel (by almost destroying them all by permission of the Lord).
v 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?”
v 17…And they said, “There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, that a tribe may not be blotted out from Israel.
v 18…”But we cannot give them wives (due to their oath in 21.1) of our daughters.” For the sons of Israel had sworn, saying, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.”
v 19…So they said, “Behold, there is a feast (“hag”) of the Lord from year to year in Shiloh which is on the north side of Bethel (according to the Mishnah in Taanit 4.8 this was Yom Kippur, and the virgins would dress in white and go out to dance in the vineyards and be chosen as a wife; that is what they are planning to do here), on the east side of the highway (man is on the east side of the highway, away from God) that goes up from Bethel to Shechem (shoulder speaking of security) and on the south side of Lebonah (frankincense, a symbol of prayer; faith brings salvation and a life of prayer).
v 20…And they commanded the sons of Benjamin (the 200), saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
v 21…and watch, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to 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.
v 22…And it shall come about, when their father of 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 a wife in battle (they will say that this was voluntary and were not “given” as wives to Benjamin, and this was the plan of the elders to begin with, and this was for the sake of Israel and save a tribe from disappearing), nor did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty (of violating the oath).”
v 23…And the sons of Benjamin did so, and took wives according to their number from those who danced, whom they carried away to their inheritance, and rebuilt the cities and lived in them.
v 24…And 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.
v 25…In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (this whole plan came about because there was no king in Israel who could administer justice and enforce the Torah. We have a code to go by, and we don’t judge for ourselves. The Torah is the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” but there is counterfeit tree in any type of replacement theology also, where everyone does what is right in their own eyes).
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