Judges 21

¹Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the Lord at Mizpah.

¹²When daylight came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

¹⁸But we cannot give them our daughters as wives.” For the Israelites had sworn, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to a Benjamite.”

²³And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give you, up to half my kingdom!”

²Do not be quick to speak, and do not be hasty in your heart to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. So let your words be few.

⁸Then all the people stood as one man and said, “Not one of us will return to his tent or to his house.

²⁶Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, where they sat weeping before the Lord. That day they fasted until evening and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord.

¹⁸The Israelites set out, went up to Bethel, and inquired of God, “Who of us shall go up first to fight against the Benjamites?” “Judah will be first,” the Lord replied.

⁴So David and the troops with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no strength left to weep.

²³They went up and wept before the Lord until evening, inquiring of Him, “Should we again draw near for battle against our brothers the Benjamites?” And the Lord answered, “Go up against them.”

¹Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them,

¹²So they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young women who had not had relations with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹²Why have You broken down its walls, so that all who pass by pick its fruit?

¹Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

⁷“O, Lord God,” Joshua said, “why did You ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to be destroyed? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!

⁸O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned its back and run from its enemies?

¹A Maskil of Asaph. Why have You rejected us forever, O God? Why does Your anger smolder against the sheep of Your pasture?

²⁴So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’

³A man’s own folly subverts his way, yet his heart rages against the Lord.

²⁵And there he built an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then the Lord answered the prayers on behalf of the land, and the plague upon Israel was halted.

²⁶Then build a proper altar to the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold. And with the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down, take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering.”

¹⁵Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

²⁴You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

²⁵Now if you make an altar of stones for Me, you must not build it with stones shaped by tools; for if you use a chisel on it, you will defile it.

¹⁸And that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

³⁴When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

²³‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of the Lord. ‘Bitterly curse her inhabitants; for they did not come to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty.’

¹⁰Cursed is the one who is remiss in doing the work of the Lord, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from bloodshed.

²⁸Nothing that a man sets apart to the Lord from all he owns—whether a man, an animal, or his inherited land—can be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the Lord.

²⁹No person set apart for destruction may be ransomed; he must surely be put to death.

¹⁸But we cannot give them our daughters as wives.” For the Israelites had sworn, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to a Benjamite.”

¹Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.”

⁷He took a pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent them by messengers throughout the land of Israel, proclaiming, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not march behind Saul and Samuel.” Then the terror of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out together as one man.

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

²³They went up and wept before the Lord until evening, inquiring of Him, “Should we again draw near for battle against our brothers the Benjamites?” And the Lord answered, “Go up against them.”

²⁶Then Abner called out to Joab: “Must the sword devour forever? Do you not realize that this will only end in bitterness? How long before you tell the troops to stop pursuing their brothers?”

³⁵As soon as Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have brought me to my knees! You have brought great misery upon me, for I have given my word to the Lord and cannot take it back.”

⁸How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!

⁴¹As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it

⁴²and said, “If only you had known on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes.

¹Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.”

¹⁸But we cannot give them our daughters as wives.” For the Israelites had sworn, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to a Benjamite.”

⁴⁵But the people said to Saul, “Must Jonathan die—he who accomplished such a great deliverance for Israel? Never! As surely as the Lord lives, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground, for with God’s help he has accomplished this today.” So the people rescued Jonathan, and he did not die.

²⁸Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father bound the troops with a solemn oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats food today.’ That is why the people are faint.”

²⁹“My father has brought trouble to the land,” Jonathan replied. “Just look at how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey.

¹¹When the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹²all their men of valor set out, journeyed all night, and retrieved the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. When they arrived at Jabesh, they burned the bodies there.

¹Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and laid siege to Jabesh-gilead. All the men of Jabesh said to him, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.”

²But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you on one condition, that I may put out everyone’s right eye and bring reproach upon all Israel.”

⁵So David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead to tell them, “The Lord bless you, because you showed this kindness to Saul your lord when you buried him.

⁶Now may the Lord show you loving devotion and faithfulness, and I will also show you the same favor because you have done this.

⁷He took a pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent them by messengers throughout the land of Israel, proclaiming, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not march behind Saul and Samuel.” Then the terror of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out together as one man.

⁵The Israelites asked, “Who among all the tribes of Israel did not come to the assembly before the Lord?” For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to come up before the Lord at Mizpah would surely be put to death.

²³‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of the Lord. ‘Bitterly curse her inhabitants; for they did not come to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty.’

²⁴Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the cloak, the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his oxen and donkeys and sheep, his tent, and everything else he owned, and brought them to the Valley of Achor.

¹⁵you must surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword. Devote to destruction all its people and livestock.

³Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

¹⁷So now, kill all the boys, as well as every woman who has had relations with a man,

¹⁸but spare for yourselves every girl who has never had relations with a man.

³⁴At that time we captured all his cities and devoted to destruction the people of every city, including women and children. We left no survivors.

¹Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them,

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men.

¹²But go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for My Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

¹⁸The Israelites set out, went up to Bethel, and inquired of God, “Who of us shall go up first to fight against the Benjamites?” “Judah will be first,” the Lord replied.

²³They went up and wept before the Lord until evening, inquiring of Him, “Should we again draw near for battle against our brothers the Benjamites?” And the Lord answered, “Go up against them.”

¹⁰When you approach a city to fight against it, you are to make an offer of peace.

⁴⁷But 600 men turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months.

¹⁷He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

⁵Whatever house you enter, begin by saying, ‘Peace to this house.’

³²Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain, and Rimmon—twenty-nine cities in all, along with their villages.

¹⁹bringing praise to their lips. Peace, peace to those far and near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal them.”

²But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

⁴⁷But 600 men turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months.

¹²So they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young women who had not had relations with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

⁶And the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the Benjamites, and said, “Today a tribe is cut off from Israel.

¹³It was because you Levites were not with us the first time that the Lord our God burst forth in anger against us. For we did not consult Him about the proper order.”

¹¹Then David became angry because the Lord had burst forth against Uzzah. So he named that place Perez-uzzah, as it is called to this day.

¹³this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!

¹²Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.

¹⁷They added, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out.

⁵⁵Indeed, the land must be divided by lot; they shall receive their inheritance according to the names of the tribes of their fathers.

⁷No inheritance in Israel may be transferred from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

¹Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.”

³⁵As soon as Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have brought me to my knees! You have brought great misery upon me, for I have given my word to the Lord and cannot take it back.”

³Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and at the full moon on the day of our Feast.

¹⁴Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to Me.

¹⁵You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread as I commanded you: At the appointed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days, because that was the month you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before Me empty-handed.

¹Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, because in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

³¹So they set up for themselves Micah’s graven image, and it was there the whole time the house of God was in Shiloh.

¹Some time later there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

¹Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them,

³⁴And when Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no son or daughter besides her.

²⁰Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.

¹³Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.

⁴Praise Him with tambourine and dancing; praise Him with strings and flute.

²⁵But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

³Let them praise His name with dancing, and make music to Him with tambourine and harp.

¹Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.”

¹⁸But we cannot give them our daughters as wives.” For the Israelites had sworn, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to a Benjamite.”

⁶However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’

⁷‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,

²⁵It is a trap for a man to dedicate something rashly, only later to reconsider his vows.

⁷What should we do about wives for the survivors, since we have sworn by the Lord not to give them our daughters in marriage?”

²But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

⁴⁸And the men of Israel turned back against the other Benjamites and put to the sword all the cities, including the animals and everything else they found. And they burned down all the cities in their path.

⁸You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes.

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

⁹Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

¹²There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

¹Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.