Judges 21:25

Verse Judges 21:25. _IN THOSE DAYS_ THERE WAS _NO KING IN ISRAEL_] Let no one suppose that the sacred writer, by relating the atrocities in this and the preceding chapters, justifies the actions themselves; by no means. Indeed, they cannot be justified; and the writer by relating them gives the strongest proof of the authenticity of the whole, by such an impartial relation of facts that were highly to be discredit of his country. I HAVE already referred to the rape of the Sabine virgins. The story is told by _Livy_, Hist. lib. i., cap. 9, the substance of which is as follows: Romulus having opened an _asylum_ at his new-built city of Rome for all kinds of persons, the number of men who flocked to his standard was soon very considerable; but as they had few _women_, or, as Livy says, _penuria mulierum_, a dearth of women, he sent to

The repetition of this characteristic phrase (compare Judges 17:6; Judges 18:1; Judges 19:1) is probably intended to impress upon us the idea that these disorders arose from the want of a sufficient authority to suppress them. The preservation of such a story, of which the Israelites must have been ashamed, is a striking evidence of the divine superintendence and direction as regards the Holy Scriptures....

IN THOSE DAYS THERE WAS NO KING IN ISRAEL,.... No supreme magistrate, Joshua being dead, and as yet no judge in Israel had risen up; for all related in the five last Chapter s of this book were done between the death of Joshua and the time of the judges: EVERY MAN DID THAT WHICH WAS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES; there being none to restrain him from it, or punish him for it; and this accounts for the many evil things related, as the idolatry of Micah and the Danites, the base usage of the Levite's concubine, the extreme rigour and severity with which the Israelites treated their brethren the Benjaminites, the slaughter of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead, and the rape of the daughters of Shiloh....

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

NO KING. Note the structural arrangement of the four occurrences of this expression. See note on Judges 18:1. DID. did continually. This is the Divine summing up of the whole book, by way of Epilogue. All the evil follows as the result of the disobedience in Judges 1:27....

_there was no king in Israel_ Cf. Judges 17:6 _n._A suitable transition to the history of Samuel which relates the beginning of the monarchy....

DISCOURSE: 277 THE BENJAMITES’ WICKEDNESS Judges 21:25. _In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes_. SUCH is the depravity of human nature, that man is always prone to depart from God; and departures once begun, extend rapidly through individuals, communities, and kingdoms: the departure of a few righteous persons, like the removal of a dam, soon opens a way for iniquity to inundate a whole country. During the life of Joshua and his co-adjutors in the government, the Israelites retained a good measure of piety: but no sooner were they called to their eternal rest, than impiety began to deluge the land. The transactions recorded respecting the Danites in the 17th and 18th Chapter s, and of the Benjamites in the three last Chapter s, though placed after the history of the Judges, all took place whilst Phinehas, the son of E

IN THOSE DAYS THERE WAS NO KING IN ISRAEL, &C.— The sacred writer, no doubt, repeats this observation to account for the disorders and enormities mentioned in the four preceding Chapter s, which, as they exhibit a most depraved state of things, so are they, we apprehend, by no means to be justified. It is a natural inference, that men ought to be extremely thankful for lawful authority: and, if they would preserve their happiness, ought to be zealous to support that authority, as well as to discourage all licentious approaches toward its dissolution. The Persians have a custom which justifies this reflection. When any of their kings die, they suffer the people to do as they please for five days; that, by the disorders then committed, they may see the necessity of legal government, and learn submission to it. In general, the four Chapter s which conclude this book shew us to what a degree...

_Wives for the Benjamites Judges 21:8-25_ 8 And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the Lord? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly. 9 For the people were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there. 10 And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children. 11 And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man. 12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. 13 And the whole c