Judges 21:25

25 At that time there was no king in Isra'el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.

Judges 21:25 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 21:25

In those days there was no king in Israel
No supreme magistrate, Joshua being dead, and as yet no judge in Israel had risen up; for all related in the five last chapters of this book were done between the death of Joshua and the time of the judges:

every man did that which was right in his own eyes;
there being none to restrain him from it, or punish him for it; and this accounts for the many evil things related, as the idolatry of Micah and the Danites, the base usage of the Levite's concubine, the extreme rigour and severity with which the Israelites treated their brethren the Benjaminites, the slaughter of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead, and the rape of the daughters of Shiloh.

Judges 21:25 In-Context

23 So the men of Binyamin did this - they took wives for themselves from the girls who were dancing, as many as they needed. They carried them off, went back to the land of their inheritance, rebuilt the cities and lived in them.

24 The people of Isra'el then left that place, each man returned to his tribe and family, and each man went out from there to the land he had inherited.

25 At that time there was no king in Isra'el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.