Judges 21:13

RECONCILIATION WITH BENJAMIN (Judges 21:13-15)

"And the whole congregation sent and spake to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace unto them. And Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-Gilead: and yet so they sufficed them not. And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that Jehovah had made a breach in the tribes of Israel."

"The whole congregation ... proclaimed peace unto them" (Judges 21:13). Josephus relates that the surviving Benjamites confessed their sins and accepted this offer of peace:

"These men, with sorrow, confessed that what had been done was according to the decree of God, and that it had happened because of their own wickedness; and they assented to those that invited them, and came down to their own tribe."[8]

Josephus did not mention it, but it is clear that all Israel also repented of their own sins and confessed them.

Commenting upon the emotional thrust of this chapter, Moore remarked that, "The feeling and action of the Israelites here are entirely in the spirit of primitive times, and by no means indicate that the story was invented at a later period."[9]

Matthew Henry pointed out that in this provision of wives for the Benjamites, only one wife was allotted to each person, the same standing as another indication of the divine approval of monogamy.

"They gave them the women whom they had saved alive from the women of Jabesh-Gilead" (Judges 21:14). Our hearts cannot fail to be touched with the heartbreak, apprehension and fear which undoubtedly filled the hearts of these four hundred young women. They had witnessed the destruction of their city, the ruthless butchering of their sisters, mothers, fathers, and brothers by the overwhelming army that descended in fury upon their helpless village, and they could have had no clear idea whatever of what was to be their fate. We shall comment on this again under Judges 21:24.

"And yet so they sufficed them not" (Judges 21:14). This refers to the remaining two hundred Benjamites who were still without a wife, It was the problem of supplying that deficiency that next engaged the whole congregation.