XXI. Judges 21:1. Remorse of the Israelites at the extirpation of a tribe in consequence of their oath not to give their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites. Judges 21:8. Expedient of destroying Jabesh-Gilead to furnish wives from thence. Judges 21:16. As there was still an insufficient number... [ Continue Reading ]
HAD SWORN. — The circumstance has not been mentioned in the account of the proceedings at Mizpeh. It is clear from the sequel (Judges 21:18) that the oath was not only an oath but “a vow under a curse,” as in Acts 23:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
TO THE HOUSE OF GOD. — Rather, _to Bethel,_ as in Judges 20:18; Judges 20:27. WEPT SORE. — As after their defeat (Judges 20:26); but this time they were remorseful for the fate of those whom they were then pledged to destroy.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHY IS THIS COME TO PASS...? — This is not so much an inquiry into the cause, which was indeed too patent, but a wail of regret, implying a prayer to be enlightened as to the best means of averting the calamity. The repetition of the name “Israel” three times shows that the nation had not yet lost i... [ Continue Reading ]
BUILT THERE AN ALTAR. — We find David doing the same at the threshing-floor of Araunah (2 Samuel 24:25), and Solomon at Gibeon. Unless the entire tabernacle had, for the time, been removed to Bethel, there was no regular altar there. It has been suggested that in any case this altar must have been n... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS THERE...? — This verse is anticipatory of Judges 21:8. THEY HAD MADE A GREAT OATH. — Another detail which has been omitted up to this point. The spirit of this _cherem_ was exactly the same as that which we find in Judges 5:23 : “Curse ye Meroz... because they came not to the help of the Lord... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE CAME NONE TO THE CAMP FROM JABESH-GILEAD. — Jabesh-Gilead, which Josephus calls the metropolis of Gilead (_Antt. vi._ 5, § 1), is probably to be identified with the ruins now called El-Deir in the Wady Yabes (Robinson, 3:319). It was six miles from Pella, on the top of a hill which lies on the... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE PEOPLE WERE NUMBERED. — It is doubtful whether this implies another numbering besides that at Mizpeh (Judges 20:1). In the tale which had then been made up, the absence of inhabitants of a single town might for the present escape notice. It would be sufficient now merely to refer to the list... [ Continue Reading ]
TWELVE THOUSAND MEN. — The Vulgate has 10,000, but it is doubtless meant to imply that each tribe sent a thousand “valiant men” (Genesis 47:6, &c.), as in the war against the Midianites, in which Balaam was slain and at which Phinehas had been present (Numbers 31:6).... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL UTTERLY DESTROY. — The verb is _tacharîmû_ — i.e., _Ye shall place under the ban_ (_cherem_)_, ye shall devote to destruction._ The words of the _cherem_ are almost identical with those of the indignant command of Moses after the war with Midian alluded to in the last verse (Numbers 31:17),... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY BROUGHT THEM. — It can hardly be doubted that the “them” means the young virgins, although the pronoun is masculine (_otham_)_,_ as in Judges 21:22. If so, the idiom is like the Greek one in which a woman speaking of herself in the plural uses the masculine (_Brief Greek Syntax,_ p. 61). There... [ Continue Reading ]
TO CALL PEACEABLY — i.e., proclaim peace.... [ Continue Reading ]
CAME AGAIN — i.e., returned to their desolate towns. YET SO THEY SUFFICED THEM NOT. — There would still be 200 Benjamites left without wives.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD HAD MADE A BREACH. — The breach (_perets,_ 1 Kings 11:24) had been caused by their own headstrong fury and unreasoning passion, even though it had been in a righteous cause; but in the Hebrew conception the results even of man’s sin and follies is referred to Jehovah as overruled by Him (Am... [ Continue Reading ]
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), but, as is so often the case among rude and ignorant people, they fancied that it was sufficient to ke... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE MUST BE AN INHERITANCE. — Rather, _possession of the remnant shall be for Benjamin_ — _i.e.,_ We will leave untouched their land and possessions. “We give you leave to take the whole land of Benjamin to yourselves” (Jos. _Antt. v._ 3, § 12). THAT A TRIBE BE NOT DESTROYED. — Benjamin never qui... [ Continue Reading ]
A FEAST OF THE LORD IN SHILOH. — It is unlikely that the reference is to a local feast; but it is impossible to say which of the three yearly feasts is meant. The most natural would be the Feast of Tabernacles. We see from 1 Samuel 1:3 that even among pious families the trying custom of going up to... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY COMMANDED. — Rather, _they gave notice._ This is the _keri_ or marginal reading of the Hebrew; the _kethib,_ or written text, has the verb in the singular, in which case we must take it impersonally, “It was bidden,” and suppose that some leading personage — probably Phinehas, the impress of wh... [ Continue Reading ]
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 vi... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THOSE DAYS... This verse, already occurring in Judges 17:6; Judges 18:1; Judges 19:1, is here added once more by way of apology for the lawless crimes, terrible disasters, evaded vows, and unhallowed excesses of retribution, which it has been the painful duty of the sacred historian thus faithful... [ Continue Reading ]