C. Lewis - C. S. Lewis Bible - New Revised Standard Version

8 Then they said, “Is there anyone from the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the LORD to Mizpah?” It turned out that no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the camp, to the assembly. 9For when the roll was called among the people, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there. 10So the congregation sent twelve thousand soldiers there and commanded them, “Go, put the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead to the sword, including the women and the little ones. 11This is what you shall do; every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction.” 12And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man and brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

13 Then the whole congregation sent word to the Benjaminites who were at the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. 14Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead; but they did not suffice for them.

15 The people had compassion on Benjamin because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 16So the elders of the congregation said, “What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since there are no women left in Benjamin?” 17And they said, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, in order that a tribe may not be blotted out from Israel. 18Yet we cannot give any of our daughters to them as wives.” For the Israelites had sworn, “Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin.” 19So they said, “Look, the yearly festival of the LORD is taking place at Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.” 20And they instructed the Benjaminites, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, 21and watch; when the young women of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and each of you carry off a wife for himself from the young women of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. 22Then if their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Be generous and allow us to have them; because we did not capture in battle a wife for each man. But neither did you incur guilt by giving your daughters to them.’” 23The Benjaminites did so; they took wives for each of them from the dancers whom they abducted. Then they went and returned to their territory, and rebuilt the towns, and lived in them. 24So the Israelites departed from there at that time by tribes and families, and they went out from there to their own territories.

25 In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.

For reflection: Judges 21:25

Evil comes from the abuse of free will.

—from The Problem of Pain

[ 1] That is Basins of Water

[ 2] Gk: Heb lacks Hobab

[ 3] See 1 Sam 15.6: Heb people

[ 4] OL Vg Compare Gk: Heb sides

[ 5] That is Weepers

[ 6] Heb he said

[ 7] Heb his

[ 8] With Tg Vg: Meaning of Heb uncertain

[ 9] Meaning of Heb uncertain

[ 10] Heb covering his feet

[ 11] Heb from the Kain

[ 12] Heb adds to the sword ; compare verse 16

[ 13] Or You who offer yourselves willingly among the people, bless

[ 14] Meaning of Heb uncertain

[ 15] Gk: Heb me

[ 16] Cn: Heb From Ephraim their root

[ 17] Gk: Heb in Amalek

[ 18] Gk Compare Tg: Heb exclaimed

[ 19] Heb Asherah

[ 20] Heb Asherah

[ 21] Heb he

[ 22] Heb from

[ 23] Cn: Heb home, and depart from Mount Gilead’”

[ 24] Heb places the words putting their hands to their mouths after the word lapped in verse 6

[ 25] Cn: Heb So the people took provisions in their hands

[ 26] Another reading is Zeredah

[ 27] Gk: Heb pursuing

[ 28] With verse 7, Compare Gk: Heb he taught

[ 29] Heb they

[ 30] Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain

[ 31] Heb might come

[ 32] Gk: Heb and he said

[ 33] Cn See 9.41. Heb Tormah

[ 34] Cn: Heb are besieging

[ 35] That is Diviners’ Oak

[ 36] Heb mouth

[ 37] Vg and some Gk Mss: Heb companies that were

[ 38] Heb lacks Did I not deliver you

[ 39] Or Sea of Reeds

[ 40] Cn: Heb go down

[ 41] Gk OL, Syr H: Heb lacks who oppressed us

[ 42] Meaning of Heb uncertain: Gk omits because . . . Manasseh

[ 43] Gk: Heb in the towns of Gilead

[ 44] That is one separated or one consecrated

[ 45] Or the angel

[ 46] Gk Vg: Heb and working

[ 47] Heb wonders, while Manoah and his wife looked on

[ 48] Cn: Heb my

[ 49] Gk Syr: Heb seventh

[ 50] Heb them

[ 51] Gk Tg Vg: Heb lacks and

[ 52] That is The Hill of the Jawbone

[ 53] That is The Spring of the One who Called

[ 54] Gk: Heb lacks were told

[ 55] Compare Gk: in verses 13–14, Heb lacks and make it tight . . . into the web

[ 56] That is one separated or one consecrated

[ 57] Gk: Heb She began to torment him

[ 58] Or so that I may be avenged upon the Philistines for one of my two eyes

[ 59] The words but now I will return it to you are transposed from the end of verse 3 in Heb

[ 60] Or Ephraim, continuing his journey

[ 61] Heb living, and the Levite went

[ 62] Cn Compare 18.10: Meaning of Heb uncertain

[ 63] Meaning of Heb uncertain

[ 64] Symmachus: Heb with anyone

[ 65] That is Camp of Dan

[ 66] Compare 17.4, 5; 18.14: Heb teraphim and the cast metal

[ 67] Cn Compare verse 7: Heb with anyone

[ 68] Another reading is son of Manasseh

[ 69] Gk OL: Heb prostituted herself against

[ 70] Gk: Heb she brought him to

[ 71] Compare verse 7 and Gk: Heb they

[ 72] Cn: Heb Linger

[ 73] Gk: Heb lacks and drank

[ 74] Gk Compare 19.29. Heb to the house of the L ORD

[ 75] Compare Gk: Heb 30 And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has not happened or been seen

[ 76] Gk: Heb lacks we will go up

[ 77] Compare Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain

[ 78] Verses 22 and 23 are transposed

[ 79] Gk Vg: Heb in the plain

[ 80] This sentence is continued by verse 45.

[ 81] Compare Vg and some Gk Mss: Heb cities

[ 82] Compare Syr: Meaning of Heb uncertain

[ 83] Gk: Heb Surrounding

[ 84] Gk: Heb pursued them at their resting place

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. 2The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, 5both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.