16
the community elders said, "What can we do to provide wives for the ones who are left, seeing that the Benjaminite women have been destroyed?
17
There must be a surviving line for those who remain from Benjamin," they continued, "so that a tribe won't be erased from Israel.
18
But we can't allow our daughters to marry them, for we Israelites have made this pledge: ‘Let anyone who provides a wife for Benjamin be cursed!'
19
However," they said, "the annual festival of the LORD is under way in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the main road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah."
20
So they instructed the Benjaminites, "Go and hide like an ambush in the vineyards
21
and watch. At the moment the women of Shiloh come out to participate in the dances, rush out from the vineyards. Each one of you, capture a wife for yourself from the women of Shiloh and go back to the land of Benjamin.
22
When their fathers or brothers come to us to object, we'll tell them, ‘Do us a favor for their sake. We didn't capture enough women for every man during the battle, and this way you are not guilty because you didn't give them anything willingly.'"
23
And that is what the Benjaminites did. They took wives for their whole group from the dancers whom they abducted. They returned to their territory, rebuilt the cities, and lived in them.
24
Likewise, the Israelites set out from there at that time, heading home to their respective tribes and clans. They all left there for their own territories.
25
In those days there was no king in Israel; each person did what they thought to be right.