The Israelis make another foolish promise, namely that none of them will agree to marry their daughters to the tribe of Benjamin. Then--oops!--they remember that they value the continuance of all Israeli tribes. How will the men of Benjamin find wives? The Israelis decide to kill everyone in Jabesh Gilead, except for unmarried women. Those virgins will be given to the Benjaminite men!
But there are more Benjaminite men than unmarried women in Jabesh Gilead. How are they to find wives? They are instructed to kidnap Jewish brides at Shiloh. The fathers of those brides are to be placated by the statement, "Do us a kindness by helping them, because we did not get wives for them during the war, and you are innocent, since you did not give your daughters to them." (Judges 21:22b)
Truly, "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit." (Judges 21:25) I believe this is a backhanded way of saying that Israel did a poor job of dealing with injustices, and that the saga of Benjamin (Judges 19-21) is a case in point.
No comments:
Post a Comment