Judges 21:18

18 and we -- we are not able to give to them wives out of our daughters, for the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed [is] he who is giving a wife to Benjamin.'

Judges 21:18 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 21:18

Howbeit, we may not give them wives of our daughters
Though their case was so very necessitous and desperate:

for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, cursed be he that giveth
a wife to Benjamin,
( Judges 21:1 ) and therefore without the violation of their oath could not give any of their daughters in marriage to them: wherefore some other way must be devised to help them.

Judges 21:18 In-Context

16 And the elders of the company say, `What do we do to the remnant for wives -- for the women have been destroyed out of Benjamin?'

17 And they say, `A possession of an escaped party [is] to Benjamin, and a tribe is not blotted out from Israel;

18 and we -- we are not able to give to them wives out of our daughters, for the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed [is] he who is giving a wife to Benjamin.'

19 And they say, `Lo, a festival of Jehovah [is] in Shiloh, from time to time, which [is] on the north of Beth-El, at the rising of the sun, by the highway which is going up from Beth-El to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.'

20 And they command the sons of Benjamin, saying, `Go -- and ye have laid wait in the vineyards,