Judges 21:1

Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
men	וְאִ֣ישׁ ve.'Ish	H376	a man as an individual or a male person · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel	יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל Yis.ra.'El	H3478	Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
sworn	נִשְׁבַּ֥ע nish.Ba'	H7650	to seven oneself · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Mizpeh	בַּמִּצְפָּ֖ה ba.mitz.Pah	H4709	Mitspah · preposition with the article + proper noun, a place name
saying	לֵאמֹ֑ר le.Mor	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
any	אִ֣ישׁ 'ish	H376	a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
give	יִתֵּ֥ן yi.Ten	H5414	to give · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
daughter	בִּתּ֛וֹ bi.To	H1323	a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Benjamin	לְבִנְיָמִ֖ן le.vin.ya.Min	H1144	Binjamin · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
wife	לְאִשָּֽׁה le.'i.Shah	H802	a woman · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Judges 20:1 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land…
Acts 23:12 And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink t…
Judges 20:8 And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house.
Judges 21:18 Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benja…
Ecclesiastes 5:2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: there…
Mark 6:23 And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom.
Deuteronomy 7:2-3 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with…
Judges 11:30-31 And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 21:1-15

We may observe in these verses, I. The ardent zeal which the Israelites had expressed against the wickedness of the men of Gibeah, as it was countenanced by the tribe of Benjamin. Occasion is here given to mention two instances of their zeal on this occasion, which we did not meet with before: - 1. While the general convention of the states was gathering together, and was waiting for a full house before they would proceed, they bound themselves with the great execration, which they called the Cherum, utterly to destroy all those cities that should not send in their representatives and their quota of men upon this occasion, or had sentenced those to that curse who should thus refuse (Jdg 21:5…

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John Gill on Judges 21:1

Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh,.... Where they were there convened, before the war began; after they had heard the account the Levite gave of the affair, which brought them thither; and after they had sent messengers to Benjamin to deliver up the men of Gibeah, that had committed the wickedness; and after they perceived that Benjamin did not hearken to their demand, but prepared to make war with them; then, as they resolved on the destruction of Gibeah, and of all the cities that sent out men against them, even all the inhabitants of them, men, women, and children, entered into an oath, that they would use those men that remained as Heathens, and not intermarry with them, as follo…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 21:1-14

The proposal to find wives for the six hundred Benjaminites who remained was exposed to this difficulty, that the congregation had sworn at Mizpeh (as is supplemented in Jdg 21:1 to the account in Jdg 20:1-9) that no one should give his daughter to a Benjaminite as a wife. Jdg 21:2-4 After the termination of the war, the people, i.e., the people who had assembled together for the war (see Jdg 21:9), went again to Bethel (see at Jdg 20:18, Jdg 20:26), to weep there for a day before God at the serious loss which the war had brought upon the congregation. Then they uttered this lamentation: "Why, O Lord God of Israel, is this come to pass in Israel, that a tribe is missing to-day from Israel?"…

The Church Fathers

And an oath was taken that no one would give his daughter to a man of that tribe in marriage, so that all chance of repairing the name was abolished.
— Ambrose of Milan, LETTER 33

What regard for virtue our forefathers had to avenge by a war the wrongs of one woman which had been brought on her by her violation at the hands of profligate men! No, when the people were conquered, they vowed that they would not give their daughters in marriage to the tribe of Benjamin! That tribe had remained without hope of posterity, had they not received leave of necessity to use deceit. And this permission does not seem to fail in giving fitting punishment for violation, since they were only allowed to enter on a union by a rape, and not through the sacrament of marriage. And indeed it was right that they who had broken another's intercourse should themselves lose their marriage rites.
— Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 3.19.111

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Jabesh-Gilead — A town on the east of Jordan, on the top of one of the green hills of Gilead, within the limits of the half tribe of Manasseh, and in full view of Beth-shan. It is first mentioned in connection with…
Benjamin, Tribe Of · Remnant of, provided with wives to preserve the tribe — Remnant of, provided with wives to preserve the tribe
Rashness · .Israel’ s vow to — .Israel’ s vow to

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).