Judges 21:10

10 So they (the meeting) sent twelve thousand of the best fighting-men, and gave them orders, saying, Go and put the people of Jabesh-gilead to the sword without mercy, with their women and their little ones.

Judges 21:10 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 21:10

And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the
valiantest
That were in their army; in the Vulgate Latin version it is only 10,000; but the Targum, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and Josephus ^F3, agree with the Hebrew text. This place, according to Bunting, to which this army was sent, was fifty two miles from Shiloh ^F4:

and commanded them, saying;
these were the orders they gave them, when they marched out:

go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the
sword, with the women and the children;
which it seems was according to the oath they had made, ( Judges 21:5 ) .

---

FOOTNOTES:

F3 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10.)
F4 Travels p. 121.

Judges 21:10 In-Context

8 And they said, Which one of the tribes of Israel did not come up to Mizpah to the Lord? And it was seen that no one had come from Jabesh-gilead to the meeting.

9 For when the people were numbered, not one man of the people of Jabesh-gilead was present.

10 So they (the meeting) sent twelve thousand of the best fighting-men, and gave them orders, saying, Go and put the people of Jabesh-gilead to the sword without mercy, with their women and their little ones.

11 And this is what you are to do: every male, and every woman who has had sex relations with a man, you are to put to the curse, but you are to keep safe the virgins. And they did so.

12 Now there were among the people of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had never had sex relations with a man; these they took to their tents in Shiloh in the land of Canaan.