Benjaminites Saved from Extinction
At Mizpah, the Israelites swear that no daughter will marry a Benjaminite. Only 600 Benjamite soldiers are left alive. The Isrealites are are sorrowful over this situation.
The Israelites find a loophole: at the yearly festival at Shiloh, when the women dance in the vineyards, each Benjamite man will "carry off a wife for himself" - if the men don't complain, then they haven't "given their daughters up."
I think the last line sums this all up best: "In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes."
1 comment:
My notes have a good summary.
Israel has second thoughts about the slaughter of the Benjaminite brothers and caused them to grieve over the loss. Only 600 Benjamites survived the war. All the other tribes made an oath not to allow any of their women to marry a Benjamite. They then realized that the tribe would become extinct unless they came up with a plan so they had an assembly.
There was a rule that anyone who didn't attend an assembly would be punished. Jabesh Gilead (from the tribe of Gad) wasn't present. Each tribe sent 1000 soldiers to deal with them. They "killed every man and every woman who wasn't a virgin." They found 400 virgins who they decided to offer to the Benjamites. There weren't enough.
They heard of a festival at Shiloh and told the Benjamites who still needed wives to hide outside the festival and rush in and seize a wife. This is how Benjamin was saved from extinction.
Again, strange behavior for "God's chosen". People who profess to be Chrisian should resolve to "act like it".
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