1And the men of Israel took an oath in Mezpaya and they said: “No man of us shall give his daughter to the sons of Benjamin for a wife" 2And they came unto Bayth Eil, and they stayed there until evening before God, and they lifted up their voice and wept a great weeping 3And they said: “Why LORD JEHOVAH, God of Israel, did this happen in the household of Israel, that one tribe would be lost today from Israel?” 4And the day after, the people arose early and built up an altar there, and they offered up sacrifices and peace offerings

5And the sons of Israel said: “Who is it that did not go up into the assembly of all the tribes of Israel before LORD JEHOVAH?”, because there was a great oath that whoever did not go up before LORD JEHOVAH to Metspaya would surely die 6And the children of Israel were moved with sorrow over the children of Benjamin, their brethren, and they were saying, “Today, one tribe is taken away from Israel!” 7And they said: “What shall we do to those who are left without wives, for we have sworn to LORD JEHOVAH that we will not give them women?”

8And they were saying: “Which one of the tribes of Israel is it that did not come up before LORD JEHOVAH to Metspaya?” And the men from the inhabitants of Yabish of Gelad did not come to the encampment 9And the people were numbered there, and a man was not found there from the inhabitants of Yabish of Gelad 10And the people sent there twelve thousand men from the sons of power, and they commanded them and they said to them: “Go, destroy those inhabiting Yabish of Gelad with the mouth of the sword and the women and the children 11In this way, do: “Destroy every man and every woman with whom a man has had sexual intercourse”, 12And they found of the inhabitants of Yabish of Gelad four hundred girls, virgins with whom a man had no sexual relations, and they brought them to the encampment to Shiloh which is in the land of Canaan

13And all the people sent and they said to Benyamin which was at the cliff of Ramun, and they called to him: “Peace!” 14And Benjamin came at that time, and they gave to them the women whom they saved from the women of Yabish of Gelad, and it was not enough for them 15And the people were grieved for Benjamin, because LORD JEHOVAH made a breach in the tribes of Israel

16And the Elders of the people said: “What shall we do for those who are left without wives, these who are left, because the women of Benyamin are destroyed?” 17And they said: “A remnant of Benyamin shall be left and we shall not forget a tribe of Israel 18For we cannot give them women from our daughters, because the sons of Israel swore and they said, ‘Whoever will give a wife to Benyamin is cursed’”

19And they said: “Behold a feast of LORD JEHOVAH has been in Shilo from time to time, from the north of Bayth Eil, from the rising of the sun, from the road going up from Bayth Eil to Shekeem from the south of Lebuna 20And they commanded the children of Benjamin and they said to them: “Go lie in wait in the vineyards 21And whenever you see that some of the daughters come out of Shiloh to strike on tambourines, go out from the vineyard and each man catch for yourselves his woman from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benyamin 22And if their fathers or their brothers have come to judge before us, we will say to them: “Show compassion upon them, because they did not take each man his wife into war; it was not you who gave these to them, that you would sin” 23And the sons of Benjamin did so and they took to themselves all the women who struck tambourines, whom they caught, and they returned, and they came to their inheritance and they built up the towns and they dwelt in them 24And the sons of Israel went from there at that time, each man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from there, each man to his inheritance

25And in those days there was not a King in the house of Israel, and every man was doing what was pleasing in his eyes ?