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Judges 21:16

Verse 16 of 25. The 21st of 21 chapters in Judges, in History.

12They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

13The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.

14Benjamin 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.

15The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

16Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?”

17They said, “There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel.

18However, 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.’”

19They said, “Behold, there is a feast of the LORD 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.”

20They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards,

Read Judges 21

World English Bible. Public domain. Set as prose throughout, including the poetry, because the text is published to us without its lines.