Judges 21:2

_AND THE PEOPLE CAME TO THE HOUSE OF GOD, AND ABODE THERE TILL EVEN BEFORE GOD, AND LIFTED UP THEIR VOICES, AND WEPT SORE;_ The people ... lifted up their voices, and wept. The characteristic fickleness of the Israelites was not long in being displayed; because scarcely had they cooled from the fierceness of their sanguinary vengeance than they began to relent, and rushed to the opposite extreme of self-accusation and grief at the desolation which their impetuous zeal had produced. Their victory saddened and humbled them. Their feelings on the occasion were expressed by a public and solemn service of expiation at the house of God. And yet this extraordinary observance, though it enabled them to find vent for their painful emotions, did not afford them full relief; because they were fettered by the obligation of a religious vow, heightened by the addition of a solemn anathema on every vi...

Verse Judges 21:2. _THE PEOPLE CAME TO THE HOUSE OF GOD_] Literally, _the_ _people came_ בית־אל to Bethel; this is considered as the name of a _place_ by the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint. _AND WEPT SORE_] Their revenge was satisfied, and now reflection brings them to contrition for what they had done....

TO THE HOUSE OF GOD - It should be, “to Bethel.” See Judges 20:18....

AND THE PEOPLE CAME TO THE HOUSE OF GOD,.... Not to the city Bethel, as the Targum, Septuagint, and other versions, but to Shiloh, where were the tabernacle and ark; and this is to be understood of the army after they had utterly destroyed the Benjaminites: hence we read of the camp in Shiloh, Judges 21:12, here they came not so much to rejoice, and be glad, and to return thanks for the victory they had at last obtained, as to lament the unhappy case of the tribe of Benjamin, and to have counsel and advice, and consider of ways and means to repair their loss: AND ABODE THERE TILL EVEN BEFORE GOD; fasting and praying, instead of feasting and rejoicing: AND LIFTED UP THEIR VOICES, AND WEPT SORE; not so much, or at least not only for the 40,000 Israelites that were slain, but for the tribe of Benjamin, in danger of being lost, as follows....

CHAPTER 21 THE REPENTANCE ABOUT BENJAMIN _ 1. Sorrow of the people and Jabesh-Gilead smitten (Judges 21:1)_ 2. The restoration of Benjamin (Judges 21:16) A tribe of the nation was almost entirely exterminated. Then the oath they had made not to give their daughters to wife to the Benjamites left assured the complete extinction of the tribe. The dreadful work they had done dawned suddenly upon them and weeping before Jehovah they said, “Why is this come to pass in Israel that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel?” The answer surely was, it came to pass on account of their departure from God and their sins. Thus people ask when they behold the scenes of bloodshed and war, as we see in our times, why is this? and are even ready to blame God, instead of thinking of sin and

JUDES 21. BENJAMIN SAVED FROM EXTINCTION. Two versions of this story have been editorially combined. The second is evidently the older. It was stated that the children of Israel came together as one man (Judges 20:1; Judges 20:11), but it now appears that Jabesh-gilead, the city that was so loyal to Saul the Benjamite (1 Samuel 11:1 f; 1 Samuel 31:11 f., 2 Samuel 2:5 f; 2 Samuel 21:12 f.), did not send a single man to fight against Benjamin. For this sin, all the inhabi

THE HOUSE OF GOD. Probably Shiloh, Compare Judges 21:12 with Judges 18:31. GOD. Hebrew. _ha-'Elohim,_ "the [true] God". App-4. WEPT SORE. Figure of speech _Polyptoton_ (App-6), "wept. great weeping". See note on Genesis 26:28. Benjamin is indeed, now, "a son of sorrow" (_Ben-oni,_. son of sorrow. Genesis 35:18)....

_came to Beth-el_ The characteristics of the B narrative reappear in this chapter: the resort to Beth-el _till even_cf. Judges 20:18; Judges 20:26; the weeping, intensified each time, cf. Judges 20:23; Judges 20:26; the offering of sacrifices Judges 21:4 cf. Judges 20:26; the post-exilic _congregation_(Judges 21:10;...

_Mourning for Benjamin Judges 21:1-7_ Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife. 2 And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore; 3 And said, O Lord God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel? 4 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. 5 And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the Lord? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the Lord to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death, 6 And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and sa

THE MIGRATIONS OF THE DANITES, AND THE FEUD BETWEEN BENJAMIN AND THE OTHER TRIBES (JUDGES 17-21) This concluding section is really an appendix. Instead of describing a further deliverance, it recounts two tribal stories m which the rough manners and primitive religious ideas of the time are shown with most valuable and vivid detail. Redundancies and discrepancies in the narratives (see on Judges 17:3; Judges 18:17) as well as differences in the language, suggest that more than one account has been used in each of the stories. This is no sign, however, that they are not historical; and they must probably be placed earlier rather than later in the general framework of the period. WIVES ARE GIVEN TO THE BENJAMITE SURVIVORS 1-6. The lamentation for Benjamin....