ndred; and persuaded them to take it patiently;
and to come and unite with them, and not, so far as in them lay, to give
their suffrage to the utter destruction of the tribe of Benjamin; and
said to them, "We give you leave to take the whole land of Benjamin to
yourselves, and as much prey as you are able to carry away with you." So
these men with sorrow confessed, that what had been done was according
to the decree of God, and had happened for their own wickedness; and
assented to those that invited them, and came down to their own tribe.
The Israelites also gave them the four hundred virgins of Jabesh Gilead
for wives; but as to the remaining two hundred, they deliberated about
it how they might compass wives enough for them, and that they might
have children by them; and whereas they had, before the war began, taken
an oath, that no one would give his daughter to wife to a Benjamite,
some advised them to have no regard to what they had sworn, because the
oath had not been taken advisedly and judiciously, but in a passion, and
thought that they should do nothing against God, if they were able to
save a whole tribe which was in danger of perishing; and that perjury
was then a sad and dangerous thing, not when it is done out of
necessity, but when it is done with a wicked intention. But when the
senate were affrighted at the very name of perjury, a certain person
told them that he could show them a way whereby they might procure the
Benjamites wives enough, and yet keep their oath. They asked him what
his proposal was. He said, "That three times in a year, when we meet
in Shiloh, our wives and our daughters accompany us: let then the
Benjamites be allowed to steal away, and marry such women as they can
catch, while we will neither incite them nor forbid them; and when their
parents take it ill, and desire us to inflict punishment upon them,
we will tell them, that they were themselves the cause of what had
happened, by neglecting to guard their daughters, and that they ought
not to be over angry at the Benjamites, since that anger was permitted
to rise too high already." So the Israelites were persuaded to follow
this advice, and decreed, That the Benjamites should be allowed thus to
steal themselves wives. So when the festival was coming on, these two
hundred Benjamites lay in ambush before the city, by two and three
together, and waited for the coming of the virgins, in the vineyards
and other places where they could li