Judges 21:14

And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) Came again—i.e., returned to their desolate towns.

Yet so they sufficed them not.—There would still be 200 Benjamites left without wives.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

To Shiloh - Whither, as the usual place of meeting for the national assembly, the Israelites had moved from Bethel (a distance of about 10 miles), during the expedition of the 12,000 to Jabesh-Gilead.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly—This city lay within the territory of eastern Manasseh, about fifteen miles east of the Jordan, and was, according to Josephus, the capital of Gilead. The ban which the assembled tribes had pronounced at Mizpeh seemed to impose on them the necessity of punishing its inhabitants for not joining the crusade against Benjamin; and thus, with a view of repairing the consequences of one rash proceeding, they hurriedly rushed to the perpetration of another, though a smaller tragedy. But it appears (Jud 21:11) that, besides acting in fulfilment of their oath, the Israelites had the additional object by this raid of supplying wives to the Benjamite remnant. This shows the intemperate fury of the Israelites in the indiscriminate slaughter of the women and children.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Benjamin; the poor remainders of the tribe of Benjamin.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Benjamin came again at that time,.... The six hundred Benjaminites returned with the messengers at the same time to the people of Israel, putting confidence in the assurances they had given them of peace and safety:

and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead; in doing which they supposed they had not violated their oath, since though they had sworn that they would not give their own daughters, they had not sworn they would not give the daughters of others; and besides, as the men of Jabeshgilead were not at Mizpeh when the oaths were made, they had taken none, and so their daughters might be given in marriage to the Benjaminites, notwithstanding that oath:

and yet so they sufficed them not; there were not wives enough for them all; for they were six hundred men, whereas the daughters of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead were but four hundred, so that there were two hundred more wanting. Abarbinel interprets the word we render "so" in a different manner, by "right", as in Numbers 27:7 and gives the sense thus, that it was not a point of justice and judgment to do this to the daughters of Jabeshgilead, namely, to save and give them in marriage; but they did this because the people repented for Benjamin, as follows.

Geneva Study Bible

And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet {f} so they sufficed them not.

(f) For they were short two hundred.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. and yet so they sufficed them not] i.e. the 400 virgins were not sufficient for the 600 Benjamite survivors; a prosaic attempt to harmonize with the old story in Jdg 21:15-23, as though the rape at Shiloh were a supplementary device to bring the number of wives up to the total required; cf. Jdg 21:16 a. Lit. the phrase may be rendered and they (the Israelites) did not find enough for them even so, cf. Numbers 11:22; as a rule enough is expressed in the Heb., Leviticus 12:8; Leviticus 25:26; Leviticus 25:28.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Benjamin came again, i.e. returned to their own homes in the tribe of Benjamin, as in ver. 23. Yet so they sufficed them net - or, Yet so they (the Israelites) did not provide enough for them (the Benjamites); or, Yet so they (the Benjamites) had not enough for themselves. Judges 21:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The congregation then sent to call the Benjaminites, who had taken refuge upon the rock Rimmon, and gave them as wives, when they returned (sc., into their own possessions), the 400 virgins of Jabesh who had been preserved alive. "But so they sufficed them not" (כּן, so, i.e., in their existing number, 400: Bertheau). In this remark there is an allusion to what follows.