9
For the people were numbered, and behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead there.
10
And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the most valiant and commanded them, saying, "Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, along with the women and the children.
11
And this is the thing that ye shall do: Ye shall utterly destroy every male and every woman that hath lain with a man."
12
And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins who had known no man by lying with any male; and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13
And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon and to proclaim peace unto them.
14
And Benjamin came again at that time, and they gave them wives whom they had saved alive from the women of Jabeshgilead; and yet so they sufficed them not.
15
And the people repented for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
16
Then the elders of the congregation said, "What shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?"
17
And they said, "There must be an inheritance for those who have escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.
18
However that be, we may not give them wives from our daughters; for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, `Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.'"
19
Then they said, "Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah."