Judges 21:22

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.

Of this rape of their daughters or sisters, or to bring an action against them, and desire they might be summoned before them, the elders of the people, and be tried and judged according to law for what they had done; or to put them upon going to war with them again for such treatment of them: that we will say unto them, be favourable unto them for our sakes; for the sake of the elders, who advised them to do what they did; or for the sake of us Israelites, your sake and ours, who were too severe upon them, and prosecuted the war with too much vigour, which made what they have done necessary, or otherwise a tribe must have been lost in Israel: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war; either in the war with Benjamin, which they carried on with such wrath and fury as to destroy all the women, so that there were no wives left for the men that remained, which they now repented of; or in the war with Jabeshgilead, they did not reserve enough of the women taken, only four hundred virgins, whereas there were six hundred men: but the first seems best: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that you should be guilty; the meaning is, that if they had any uneasiness upon their minds about the oath which they had taken, not to give any of their daughters in marriage to Benjamin, they need not be disturbed at that, since they did not "give" them to them, but these "took" them by force; which was the scheme these elders contrived to secure from the violation of the oat

Verse 22. - Be favourable unto them for our sakes . Rather, Grant us them as a favour , the masculine them referring to the daughters of Shiloh , as in ver. 12, and the verb grant a favour being followed by a double accusative. We reserved not to each man his wife , etc. These words are somewhat difficult. If we may insert the word to, as the A.V. does, before each man (for it is wanting in the Hebrew), the sense is good. The Israelites acknowledge their own fault in not reserving women enough to be wives to the Benjamites, and ask the fathers and brothers of the daughters of Shiloh to do them a favour by enabling them to repair their fault. But it is rather a strain upon the words. The omission of the to is not natural in such a phrase ( Numbers 26:54 is hardly to the point, nor is Genesis 41:12 , where the to had been expressed before the us), and reserved is a forced interpretation of the verb. If the words were spoken by the Benjamites, all would be plain and easy: "We received not each man his wife in the war." Hence some put the speech into the mouth of Benjamin, as though the Israelites meant, We will say in your names, in your persons, as your attorneys, so to speak, "Grant them to us," etc. But this is rather forced. Others, therefore, follow the Peschito, and read, " because THEY received not each man his wife," etc., which makes very good sense, but has not MS. authority.

Ye did not give , etc., i.e. you need not fear the guilt of the broken oath, because you did not give your daughters, so as to violate the oath (ver. 7), but they were taken from you by force. The A.V. gives the probable meaning of the passage, though it is somewhat obscure. Judges 21:22

And it shall be, {i} 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. (i) Though they attempted to convince man that they had kept their oath, before God it was broken.

Ye did not give ... - i. e., they had not broken the oath mentioned in Judges 21:1 , so as to be guilty of taking the Lord's name in vain. They did not give their daughters to Benjamin: the Benjamites had taken them by force. Such casuistry as this condemns the system of oaths, and illustrates the wisdom of our Lord's precept Matthew 5:33-37 .

22 . The verse is difficult to understand owing to corruptions in the text. to complain unto us ] Follow marg., and read to strive with you (so LXX, Vulgate); the angry parents would naturally go to the captors with their grievance, rather than to the Israelites. When that happens, say the Israelites, we will put in a plea for you. Grant them graciously unto us etc.] To make sense the text may be emended as follows: Be gracious to them, because they received not each his wife in the war; for if ye (emphatic) had given them unto them, ye would surely now be guilty (of violating your oath). The correction they (for we ) received not is supported by some mss. of the LXX The war will be that against Jabesh-gilead; but since the verse as a whole seems to belong to the older narrative, which knows nothing of the expedition against Jabesh, the sentence because they received not each his wife in the war must be regarded as a harmonizing attempt to work in the narrative of B with that of A (cf. Jdg 21:14 b, 16a). Some scholars emend the text differently, reading Be gracious to them because they took each his wife in the war ; the omission of the negative is found in some mss. of the LXX, but the evidence is not weighty enough for treating this as the true text of the LXX; moreover the war is too strong a term to apply to the rape of the Shilonites.

Be favourable unto them; pass by their offence, if not for their sakes, whom necessity forced to this course; yet for our sakes, and indeed for your own sakes; for both you and we have done them a great injury in prosecuting them with so much fury, as to endanger the utter extinction of the whole tribe; and therefore this is the least we can do by way of reparation. In the war; either, first, In the war with Jabesh-gilead, wherein they should have taken care to reserve a sufficient number, which they might have done, by sparing either so many of the married women as were necessary, who, their former husbands being slain, might have been married to those Benjamites; or as many of the younger virgins, who, within a little time, might have been married to them, whom many suppose that they slew. Or, secondly, In the war with the Benjamites, in which they acknowledge their cruelty in destroying the women with such fury, as not to leave a competent number for the men which were left. See Judges 20:48 . Ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty. Quest. Whether this did really discharge them from their oath? Answ. First, It seems to excuse those parents of these virgins who were not acquainted with the plot, and did neither directly nor indirectly give their daughters to them, but they were taken away by force, without their knowledge and consent.

If it be said those parents might and should have retaken their daughters from them; it may be replied, that they could not do so before they were corrupted, and the rulers of Israel would not assist them with their power to recover them. And it is a maxim, That many things which ought not to be done, when once they are done, should not be undone. And for those parents who were conscious of the design, it is probable they kept their daughters at home to avoid this. Secondly, Either the oath was made with an exception of the case of the total extirpation of a tribe, or it was a rash oath to do what was out of their power, or what they could not lawfully do, to wit, utterly to destroy a tribe out of Israel, which therefore they here speak of with horror, Judges 21:3,6 ; and if so, as they sinned in making it, so they were not obliged to keep it; it being an acknowledged truth, that rash and sinful oaths are better broken than kept. Thirdly. Yet they cannot be wholly excused from sin in this matter; for as it was folly to take such an oath as it is expressed, so the manner of freeing themselves from their own snare is fraudulent and injurious to the parents, in disposing of their children without their consent.

21, 22. daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances—The dance was anciently a part of the religious observance. It was done on festive occasions, as it is still in the East, not in town, but in the open air, in some adjoining field, the women being by themselves. The young women being alone indulging their light and buoyant spirits, and apprehensive of no danger, facilitated the execution of the scheme of seizing them, which closely resembles the Sabine rape in Roman history. The elders undertook to reconcile the families to the forced abduction of their daughters. And thus the expression of their public sanction to this deed of violence afforded a new evidence of the evils and difficulties into which the unhappy precipitancy of the Israelites in this crisis had involved them.

(22) Be favourable unto them for our sakes. —Rather, Present them ( otham, masc., as in Judges 21:12 ) to us; or (as in the margin), Gratify us in them. The verse is somewhat obscure, but its general drift is a promise to pacify the parents of the damsels, by showing them that thus they did not violate the cherem, and that the cause was pressing. Perhaps they would be more readily consoled, because the land of these six hundred Benjamites must now have been far more than was necessary for their wants. They had become possessors of the lot of the whole tribe. Perhaps the reading should be, Gratify us as regards these damsels, for they ( the Benjamites ) have not received every man his wife through the war. At this time.—Rather, perhaps, in that case (i.e., “if you had given them your daughters in marriage, ye would be guilty”). We are left to assume that the appeal of the elders to the parents whose two hundred daughters were thus seized was sufficient to pacify them.