3. The preservation of Benjamin ch. 21

In chapter 20 Israel tried desperately to destroy the tribe of Benjamin.³⁶⁷In chapter 21 she tried just as hard to deliver this tribe from the extinction that her own excessive vengeance threatened to accomplish. The anarchy of God's people complicated the problems that her apostasy had initiated. The moral degeneracy of chapter 19 proceeded from political disorganization in chapter 20 to social disintegration in chapter 21.

"Interpreting biblical narrative can be like trying to figure out someone who has a dry sense of humor. The person may give no visible indication that he intends humor, so that you have to divine it as best you can. Judges 21 is noncommittal like that. The writer reports but hardly critiques, so that we are left asking how we are to take the story."³⁶⁸

The way to determine the rightness or wrongness of Israel's actions is to compare them with God's revealed will in the Mosaic Law.

 The plight of the Benjamites 21:1-4

The "wife oath"that the Israelites had taken at Mizpah (20:8-11) may have had some connection with God's commands concerning Israel's treatment of the Canaanites (Lev. 7:1-3). Israel was to destroy these enemies utterly and not intermarry with them. However this was how Israel was to deal with Canaanites, not her own brethren. Obviously the remaining Benjamites needed wives and children to perpetuate the tribe.

The civil war had left only 600 Benjamite warriors alive (20:47). The population of this endangered tribe was so small now that it could easily have become extinct. Returning to Bethel and the ark, the victorious Israelites reflected on the situation they had created (v. 2). The thrill of victory turned to the agony of defeat as they realized the consequences of their actions. The dilemma that their "wife oath"(v. 1) and their sorrow (v. 2) posed is the subject of this chapter. How could they resolve these two things?

The Israelites' initial reaction was to blame God for the situation (v. 3). The real reason for it was their failure to seek and follow God's will earlier (cf. 20:8-11).

Then they sought the Lord more seriously (v. 4). It seems strange that the Israelites built an altar at Bethel since they had recently offered sacrifices on the one before the tabernacle there (20:26). Perhaps they rebuilt or enlarged the altar at Bethel, or they may have built another one.

 Israel's first insufficient solution: a previous oath 21:5-15

Verses 5-7 stress the sorrow and the dilemma the Israelites felt because of the Benjamites' situation. The "great oath"(v. 5) seems to have been that any Israelites who did not participate in the nation's battles against her enemies should suffer God's punishment (cf. Num. 32:20-33).

Verses 8-9 record the Israelites' solution to their dilemma having asked themselves, "What shall we do?"(v. 7; cf. v. 16). They should have confessed their mistake in making the "wife vow"and asked for God's solution (cf. 20:8-11). Jabesh-Gilead ("well-drained soil of Gilead") was about 48 miles northeast of Shiloh on the east side of the Jordan River.

Next, the Israelites commanded 12,000 assailants to attack the uncooperative Israelite town (vv. 10-11). This was another sinful plan born out of self-will and vengeance.

"The action [against Jabesh-gilead] appears cruel in the extreme to the modern reader, but the virtual sacredness of the bond linking the several tribes into the amphictyony must be appreciated, and the sin of Jabesh-gilead seen in its light."³⁶⁹

This oppressive action provided only 400 women for the 600 remaining Benjamites, an insufficient number (vv. 12-14). The failure of the plan confirms that it was not God's will, though He permitted it.

This section closes with the people's response to the continuing problem due to the failure of the plan (v. 15). The Lord had made a breach or gap in the ranks of the Israelites in the sense that He permitted it to happen. However, He would not permit the annihilation of Benjamin in view of His promises concerning the future of Israel.

 Israel's second sufficient solution: a technical loophole 21:16-24

The writer constructed this section parallel to the previous one (vv. 5-15) to highlight the dilemma Israel continued to face.³⁷⁰About 200 Benjamites still needed wives. Verses 16-18 repeat the dilemma that the Israelites' "wife oath"had created (v. 1).

The elders of Israel proposed a second plan (v. 19; cf. vv. 8-9). It would give the Benjamites wives without causing the Israelites to break the letter of their "wife vow,"though it violated a more basic law. The problem with this plan was that it required the forcible kidnapping and raping of 200 women from Shiloh. Undoubtedly if the elders had sought the Lord's counsel He would have given them a better plan. There is no evidence in the text that they did so.

The annual feast of Yahweh was probably the Passover ". . . as the dances of the daughters of Shiloh was apparently an imitation of the dances of the Israelitish women at the Red Sea under the superintendency of Miriam (Ex. xv. 20)."³⁷¹Another possibility is that this was the Feast of Tabernacles ". . . in the time of the vintage-harvest."³⁷²A third option is that it was a festival of the Israelites' own making.³⁷³

Verses 20-22 record the Israelites' command to the assailants (cf. vv. 10-11). The fathers and brothers of the women would complain because of the treatment these women would receive and because these men would not receive doweries from their sons-in-law as was customary. The Israelites also expected these fathers and brothers to find some consolation in the fact that they had not technically broken the "wife oath."

This second provision of wives proved to be sufficient for the Benjamites (v. 23; cf. vv. 12-14) even though the plan involved the violation of basic human rights.

With this resolution of the problem the Israelites returned to their homes (v. 24; cf. v. 15).

"There is a certain rightness and a certain wrongness about what Israel does. They justifiably requite Jabesh-gilead with unjustifiable severity (vv. 5, 10). They stand consistently upon their wife-oath (vv. 7, 16-18) but trample happily upon the rights of the Shiloh girls and their families (vv. 19-22). It is a mix of consistency and confusion. . . .

"The ambivalence pervading chapter 21 simply fits the pattern of incongruities throughout the story from the beginning of chapter 19."³⁷⁴

"Through Moses Yahweh had warned that if the Israelites stoop to behaving like Canaanites, then they can expect the same fate (Deut 8:19-20). The narrator never declares so outrightly, but the present account, coming as it does at the end of the book affirms the total Canaanization of the tribe of Benjamin and the Israelites' falsely based sympathy for their brothers."³⁷⁵

 The concluding key 21:25

Verse 25 concludes the story of the atrocity of the men of Gibeah and the Benjamites (chs. 19-21). This second vignette from the period of the judges began and ends with the same statement (cf. 19:1). It reflects the failure of Israel in this event in its history to acknowledge the sovereignty of Yahweh in a practical way.

"The motivation for including this second narrative of the Bethlehem trilogy is evident. It reflects badly on Benjamin and by implication on the Saulide ancestry and dynasty. The pro-David sentiment is crystal clear."³⁷⁶

However the verse also summarizes the whole period of the judges surveyed in this book. It forms a fitting concluding statement that explains why life in Israel was as it was during this era. For this reason many Bible students regard this verse as the key verse in the book.³⁷⁷

"Judges 19-21 gives us the ugliest story in the Bible. The key to it is that, at every stage, men were acting on the basis of what was right in their own eyes. As far as the men of Gibeah were concerned, rape was all right. To the farmer and the Levite in the house, homosexual rape was unthinkable, but other rape was acceptable. The men of Benjamin thought it was right to overlook sin and to defend evil men. To Israel, revenge and retaliation would be justified, and to solve their problems about marriage for the Benjamites, the massacre of innocent people and kidnapping could be condoned.

"The interesting thing is that none of this had anything [?] to do with idolatry or Baal worship. It began with individuals ignoring the law of God, doing what was right in their own eyes, and it led a whole nation into moral collapse."³⁷⁸

The Israelites needed no judge or king to lead them into apostasy or battle. They did both on their own.