Judges 19-21

WAR! The Benjaminites have just done a disgraceful thing in raping and killing a man's concubine. The rest of the Israelites are out to do justice. They said, "Surrender those wicked men of Gibeah so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel!"

That could have been it, right there. But the Benjaminites rose up to fight, defending the cause of those wicked men with 26,000 soldiers. 700 of those were left-handed special warriors, who could throw a stone at a hair and not miss. Israel didn't want to go to war against themselves, but God said that it must be done. 25,000 Benjaminites died, and after defeating the army, Israel went in and destroyed the city. All that was left of the tribe of Benjamin were 600 soldiers who fled and were hiding.

What do you think the Israelites did after winning the battle? Start celebrating over a fallen foe? Nope! They went to the house of God and offered sacrificed and wailed before God a whole day, saying, "Why has this happened to Israel? Why should one tribe be missing from Israel today?" It only made matters worse that all the Israelites had sworn not to give their daughters in marriage to any Benjaminite. There was no way the Benjaminites could live on now. What could they do? Well, together they devised a clever plan, saying:

"We can't give them our daughters as wives, since we Israelites have taken this oath: 'Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to a Benjamite.' But look, there is the annual festival of the LORD in Shiloh, to the north of Bethel, and east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and to the south of Lebonah."

So they instructed the Benjamites, saying, "Go and hide in the vineyards and watch. When the girls of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, then rush from the vineyards and each of you seize a wife from the girls of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin. When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, '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.' "

"That might work!" everyone agreed. So that is what they did. Hopefully they told the girls first so they wouldn't be scared out of their minds when a freak jumped out of the bushes and carried them away. They rebuilt the towns and slowly the tribe of Benjamin was rebuilt. A satisfying ending to something that never should've happened in the first place.