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Judges 21:1–7, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Judges 21:1–7
Israel laments a crisis created by its own oaths and violence
An oath at Mizpah now traps the remnant
The men of Israel have sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife. The people come to the house of God and abide there till even before God, lifting up their voices and weeping sore. They say, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel?
They ask God why a tribe is missing as if the gap were a mystery. They themselves made the gap with sword and fire, and they themselves swore the marriage ban. Lament here is real grief still framed as a puzzle dumped on heaven.
They build an altar, then define the crisis as missing wives
On the next day the people rise early, build an altar, and offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. The children of Israel say, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the LORD? For they have made a great oath concerning any who came not up to the LORD to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death. The children of Israel repent them for Benjamin their brother and say, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?
"Repent" here is grief and regret, not completed repair. They notice that wives were destroyed in the Benjaminite towns. Their question is still how to supply women to surviving men without breaking their oath. The women already killed are a logistical problem. Living women are not yet persons with a say. God has not commanded this oath or the remedies they will invent.
How this should shape us
When your own policy and violence created the loss, say so. Do not keep a harmful oath by hunting a workaround that spends other people's daughters. Women are not a resource for male tribal survival.
Teach it back
Explain Judges 21:1–7 in your own words. Include its scene movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, and one conclusion or imitation the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Readers differ over the sincerity and depth of Israel's grief and the legal status of the oath. Its absence of divine command and the harm generated by preserving it are clear.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Judges 21:1–7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clause relationships, repeated terms, wordplays, and translation control.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Judg.xml, 21:1–7
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, poetic, geographical, social, and uncertainty notes.
NET Bible Judges PDF, printed pp. 488-489, translation and notes on 21:1–7
Supports: Recent whole-book literary organization, differentiated judge portraits, progressive decline, Abimelech, Samson, and the double epilogue within the limits of preview access.
Assis, Before There Were Kings, inspected contents and exposed summaries for the relevant literary section, printed pp. 341-402
Supports: Compositional alternatives, rhetorical relationships among prologue, central narratives, and epilogues, and the material YHWH-kingship alternative for the no-king refrain.
Wong, Compositional Strategy of the Book of Judges, University of Edinburgh repository abstract and chapter descriptions
Supports: The unnamed woman's exploitation, the host's and Levite's complicity, the Levite's selective retelling, and survivor-centered reading of chapters 19-21.
Pitts, 'Judges 19 as a Paradigm for Understanding and Responding to Human Trafficking,' complete 2023 reprint, PDF pp. 5-8
Supports: Marriage-by-capture framing, violence and social identity, Judges 21, and the proposed critique of superficial unity within preview-access limits.
Southwood, Marriage by Capture in the Book of Judges, official contents and chapter 1 summary, printed pp. 1-54
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Judges 21:1–7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Judges
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clause relationships, repeated terms, wordplays, and translation control.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Judg.xml, 21:1–7
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Judges with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, poetic, geographical, social, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Judges PDF, printed pp. 488-489, translation and notes on 21:1–7
Open source ↗modern scholarly monograph preview
Before There Were Kings: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Judges
Elie Assis
Penn State University Press / Eisenbrauns, 2024
Supports: Recent whole-book literary organization, differentiated judge portraits, progressive decline, Abimelech, Samson, and the double epilogue within the limits of preview access.
Exact location: Assis, Before There Were Kings, inspected contents and exposed summaries for the relevant literary section, printed pp. 341-402
Open source ↗doctoral thesis repository record
Compositional Strategy of the Book of Judges: An Inductive, Rhetorical Study
Gregory T. K. Wong
University of Edinburgh, 2005
Supports: Compositional alternatives, rhetorical relationships among prologue, central narratives, and epilogues, and the material YHWH-kingship alternative for the no-king refrain.
Exact location: Wong, Compositional Strategy of the Book of Judges, University of Edinburgh repository abstract and chapter descriptions
Open source ↗modern scholarly pastoral article
Judges 19 as a Paradigm for Understanding and Responding to Human Trafficking
Chuck Pitts
Priscilla Papers 29.4; reprinted in 37.1, 2015; reprint 2023
Supports: The unnamed woman's exploitation, the host's and Levite's complicity, the Levite's selective retelling, and survivor-centered reading of chapters 19-21.
Exact location: Pitts, 'Judges 19 as a Paradigm for Understanding and Responding to Human Trafficking,' complete 2023 reprint, PDF pp. 5-8
Open source ↗modern scholarly monograph preview
Marriage by Capture in the Book of Judges: An Anthropological Approach
Katherine E. Southwood
Cambridge University Press, 2017
Supports: Marriage-by-capture framing, violence and social identity, Judges 21, and the proposed critique of superficial unity within preview-access limits.
Exact location: Southwood, Marriage by Capture in the Book of Judges, official contents and chapter 1 summary, printed pp. 1-54
Open source ↗