Judges 21:16

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.

Then the elders of the congregation said.... This being the case, that there were not wives enough for them, they were obliged to consult again, and consider of another expedient to provide for them; and this motion came from the elders of the people, not only in years, but in office: how shall we do for wives for them that remain: the other two hundred, who had none: seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin? and so no wives to be had there; and as for the Israelites which came to Mizpeh, who were of all the tribes of Israel, they had solemnly sworn that they would not give any of their daughters to them, and therefore it was a very difficult thing to provide wives for them.

16 . the elders of the congregation ] See on Jdg 20:1 , and cf. Leviticus 4:15 . That this half of the verse does not belong to the old story is further shewn by the reference to wives for the Benjamites who had not secured any of the 400 virgins from Jabesh; like the last words of Jdg 21:14; Jdg 21:16 a is a harmonizing addition. 16b may well continue Jdg 21:15 and belong to A.

Jud 21:16-21. The Elders Consult How to Find Wives for Those That Were Left. 16. the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain—Though the young women of Jabesh-gilead had been carefully spared, the supply was found inadequate, and some other expedient must be resorted to.

(16) How shall we do . . .? — They want to keep their vow in the letter, while they break it in the spirit. The sense of the binding nature of the “ban” was intensely strong ( Exodus 20:7 ; Ezekiel 17:18-19 ), but, as is so often the case among rude and ignorant people, they fancied that it was sufficient to keep it literally, while in effect they violated it. Similarly in Herodotus (iv. 154), Themison having sworn to throw Phronima into the sea—the intention having been that she should be drowned—feels himself bound to throw her into the sea, but has her drawn out of it again. Their want of moral enlightenment revealed itself in this way, and still more in having ever taken this horrible oath, which involved the butchery of innocent men, and of still more innocent women and children. In point of fact, the cherem often broke down under the strain which it placed on men’s best feelings ( 1Samuel 14:45 ) as well as on their lower temptations. The guilt of breaking a guilty vow is only the original guilt of ever having made it. What the Israelites should have done was not to bathe their hands in more rivers of fraternal blood, but to pray to God to forgive the brutal vehemence which disgraced a cause originally righteous, and to have allowed the remnant of the Benjamites to intermarry with them once more.

As it was, they were led by ignorance and rashness into several vows which could not be fulfilled without horrible cruelty and bloodshed, and the fulfilment of which they after all casuistically evaded, and that at the cost of still more bloodshed. As all these events took place under the guidance of Phinehas, they give us a high estimate indeed of the zeal which was his noblest characteristic ( Psalm 106:30 ), yet a very low estimate of his state of spiritual insight; and clearly to such a man the fulfilment of Jephthah’s cherem by sacrificing his daughter (see Note on Judges 11:39 ) would have seemed as nothing compared to the extermination of tribes and of cities, involving the shedding of rivers of innocent blood. But why should we suppose that the grandson of Aaron, in such times as these—when all was anarchy, idolatry, and restlessness, against which he either did not strive or strove most ineffectually—should stand on so much higher a level than his schismatical and semi-idolatrous cousin, the wandering grandson of Moses?

Of the six hundred Benjaminites who had escaped, there still remained two hundred to be provided with wives. To these the congregation gave permission to take wives by force at a festival at Shiloh. The account of this is once more introduced, with a description of the anxiety felt by the congregation for the continuance of the tribe of Benjamin. Judges 21:15 , Judges 21:16 , and Judges 21:18 are only a repetition of Judges 21:6 and Judges 21:7 , with a slight change of expression. The "breach (perez) in the tribes of Israel" had arisen from the almost complete extermination of Benjamin. "For out of Benjamin is (every) woman destroyed," viz., by the ruthless slaughter of the whole of the people of that tribe ( Judges 20:48 ). Consequently the Benjaminites who were still unmarried could not find any wives in their own tribe. The fact that four hundred of the Benjaminites who remained were already provided with wives is not noticed here, because it has been stated just before, and of course none of them could give up their own wives to others.

[Reformed Biblical] The Lord had made a breach; the Benjamites were the only authors of the sin, but God was the chief author of the punishment, and the Israelites were but his executioners. ## Judges 21:16 For them that remain; for the two hundred who are yet unprovided of wives. Judges 21:17 The inheritance promised by Jacob and Moses, and given by Joshua to the tribe of Benjamin, doth all of it belong to those few which remain of that tribe, and cannot be possessed by any other tribe; and therefore we are obliged to procure wives for them all, that they may make up this breach, and be capable of possessing and managing all their land, that this tribe and their inheritance may not be confounded with or swallowed up by any of the rest. Heb. the inheritance (to wit, belonging to the whole tribe of Benjamin) is or belongs ## to them that be escaped of Benjamin . Judges 21:18 i.e. To this generation of Benjamites who have made themselves guilty of this foul wickedness; but this oath did not extend to their posterity. And some think it had another exception, to wit, unless the surviving Benjamites could not otherwise be supplied with wives. ## Judges 21:19 Yearly; on the three solemn feasts, in which they used some honest and holy recreations; among which dancing was one, Exo_15:20 1Sa_18:6 2Sa_6:14; and probably it was the feast of tabernacles, which they did celebrate with more than ordinary joy, Deu_16:13-15. ## Which is on the north side of Beth-el, Heb. which is on the north of Beth-el .