15
And the people relented for Benjamin, because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
16
And the elders of the congregation said, What shall we do for wives for them that remain? for the women have been destroyed out of Benjamin.
17
And they said, an inheritance of them that are escaped of Benjamin; and a tribe shall not be destroyed out of Israel.
18
For we shall not be able to give them wives of our daughters, because we swore among the children of Israel, saying, Cursed he that gives a wife to Benjamin.
19
And they said, Lo! now a feast of the Lord from year to year in Selom, which is on the north of Baethel, eastward on the way that goes up from Baethel to Sychem, and from the south of Lebona.
20
And they charged the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
21
and ye shall see; and lo! if there come out the daughters of the inhabitants of Selom to dance in dances, then shall ye go out of the vineyards and seize for yourselves every man a wife of the daughters of Selom, and go ye into the land of Benjamin.
22
And it shall come to pass, when their fathers or their brethren come to dispute with us, that we will say to them, Grant them freely to us, for we have not taken every man his wife in the battle: because ye did not give to them according to the occasion, ye transgressed.
23
And the children of Benjamin did so; and they took wives according to their number from the dancers whom they seized: and they went and returned to their inheritance, and built the cities, and dwelt in them.
24
And the children of Israel went thence at that time every man to his tribe and his kindred; and they went thence every man to his inheritance.
25
And in those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own sight.