Judges 21:15 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And the people had compassion on Benjamin because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

NIV: The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of Israel.

NASB: And the people were sorry for Benjamin, because the Lord had created a gap in the tribes of Israel.

CSB: The people had compassion on Benjamin, because the Lord had made this gap in the tribes of Israel.

NLT: The people felt sorry for Benjamin because the Lord had made this gap among the tribes of Israel.

KJV: And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

NKJV: And the people grieved for Benjamin, because the Lord had made a void in the tribes of Israel.

The people of eleven of Israel's tribes do not want to lose the twelfth tribe, Benjamin. They have pity on its survivors (Judges 20:47–48). This emotion is inspired, so the text says, by God causing a gap in their people. This picture is of a wall with a section missing. The people saw each tribe as part of the structure of the entire nation. Taken out of context, this Scripture might imply God demanded the near extinction of the tribe of Benjamin. Yet the passage is clear this is not the case: the Lord is never quoted as saying Israel should completely wipe out the people of Benjamin. He is never referenced as telling the Israelites to withhold their daughters as brides from Benjamin or to "devote to destruction" any peoples that did not participate in the judgment of Benjamin.

While God didn't intervene in what Israel has done, it does not seem to have been His command that they would create this breach in their own nation. Earlier verses showed the people asking God "why" such a thing had happened, though they themselves were the cause (Judges 21:3). This statement, in one sense, might be an echo of that attitude. It may also be a simple reminder that anything which happens must be allowed by God, even when He does not directly cause it.

Judges 21:8–25 closes the book of Judges by describing a convoluted process. Israel has made several ill-considered vows and gone too far in punishing the tribe of Benjamin. Without a creative way to find wives for the surviving men, the tribe will quickly die out. First, Israel destroys Jabesh-gilead for not joining in the war. The young women are spared and given to Benjaminites. The remaining two hundred men of Benjamin obtain wives through a staged kidnapping near Shiloh, so Israel can claim they never "gave" wives to Benjamin. The book ends with a reminder that Israel was without a king during this era.

Israel grieves the near extinction of the tribe of Benjamin, though the situation is the result of their own excessive force. Worse, the other eleven tribes vowed not to give wives to Benjamin. To prevent the loss of a tribe, two schemes are enacted. First, the Israelites of Jabesh-gilead are wiped out for not sending anyone to support the civil war; the young women are spared and given as wives to Benjamin. Next, the remaining unmarried men of Benjamin stage an arranged kidnapping to "take" wives they cannot be "given." The book ends with another reminder of Israel's lawlessness in this era.

Judges 21 finds the people of Israel reeling after they killed nearly every person in the tribe of Benjamin. This began as an effort to enact justice and turned into a wide-ranging massacre. To keep Benjamin from dying out, Israel's leaders must work around their own mistakes and two ill-considered vows. The book ends with another reminder that Israel was without a king in this era. The nation was literally leaderless, and spiritually rebellious. Soon, the judge-and-prophet Samuel will rise to guide the people into the era of kings.

The Book of Judges describes Israel's history from the death of Joshua to shortly before Israel's first king, Saul. Israel fails to complete God's command to purge the wicked Canaanites from the land (Deuteronomy 7:1–5; 9:4). This results in a centuries-long cycle where Israel falls into sin and is oppressed by local enemies. After each oppression, God sends a civil-military leader, labeled using a Hebrew word loosely translated into English as "judge." These appointed rescuers would free Israel from enemy control and govern for a certain time. After each judge's death, the cycle of sin and oppression begins again. This continues until the people of Israel choose a king, during the ministry of the prophet-and-judge Samuel (1 Samuel 1—7).