World English Bible · The judges
Judges 21
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Now the men of Israel had in , saying, "None of us will give his daughter to as a wife." The people came to and sat there until evening before , and lifted up their voices, and wept severely. They said, ", the of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?" On the next day, the people rose early and built an there, and offered burnt offerings and . The said, "Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn't come up in to ?" For they had made a great concerning him who didn't come up to to , saying, "He shall surely be put to ." The grieved for their brother, and said, "There is one tribe Israel today. How shall we provide wives for , since we have by that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?" They said, "What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn't come up to to ?" Behold, no one came from to the camp to . 9For when the people were counted, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of there. sent twelve thousand of the most valiant men there, and commanded them, saying, "Go and strike the inhabitants of with the edge of , with the women and the little ones. This is the thing that you shall do: you shall every male, and every woman who has lain with a man." They found among the inhabitants of four hundred young virgins who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to , which is in the land of . The whole sent and spoke to the children of who were in of , and proclaimed peace to them. returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had alive of the women of . There still weren't enough for them. The people grieved for , because had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 16Then the of said, "How shall we provide wives for , since the women are destroyed out of ?" They said, "There must be an for those who are escaped of , that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel. However, we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the had , saying, ' is he who gives a wife to .'" They said, "Behold, there is a feast of from year to year in , which is on the north of , on the east side of the highway that goes up from to , and on the south of Lebonah." 20They commanded the children of , saying, "Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, and see, and behold, if the daughters of come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each man catch his wife of the daughters of , and go to the land of . It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, 'Grant them graciously to us, because we didn't take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them; otherwise you would now be guilty.'" The children of did so, and took wives for themselves according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their , built the cities, and lived in them. 24The departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they each went out from there to his own . In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.
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The world at this moment · The judges, 1200 BC to 1050 BC ›
No central government and no standing army. The great empires are weak, which is precisely why Israel's troubles come from close neighbors: Moab, Ammon, Midian, and the newly arrived Philistines on the coast.
- Egypt
- Broken into competing power centres and no longer able to project force into Canaan. Its withdrawal is the single biggest reason this period has no imperial overlord.
- Mesopotamia
- Assyria exists but is dormant, hemmed in and looking east. The century that would have crushed a stateless Israel simply has not arrived yet.
- The coast
- The Philistines settle their five cities after arriving from the Aegean world, bringing Mycenaean-style pottery, a taste for pork, and an early advantage in ironworking. Further north the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon start the trading expansion that will eventually give the alphabet to Greece.
- Further afield
- Greece has entered its dark age: the palaces are gone, Linear B is forgotten, and writing disappears from the Aegean for three centuries. In China the Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang in 1046 BC and issues the doctrine that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings, an idea with an interesting resemblance to the book of Judges.