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Judges Chapter
Twenty-one
Judges 21
Chapter Contents
The Israelites lament for the Benjamites.
Israel lamented for the Benjamites, and were perplexed by
the oath they had taken, not to give their daughters to them in marriage. Men
are more zealous to support their own authority than that of God. They would
have acted better if they had repented of their rash oaths, brought
sin-offerings, and sought forgiveness in the appointed way, rather than attempt
to avoid the guilt of perjury by actions quite as wrong. That men can advise
others to acts of treachery or violence, out of a sense of duty, forms a strong
proof of the blindness of the human mind when left to itself, and of the fatal
effects of a conscience under ignorance and error.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Judges》
Judges 21
Verse 1
[1] Now
the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give
his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.
Had sworn — In
the beginning of this war, after the whole tribe had espoused the quarrel of
the men of Gibeah.
Saying —
They do not here swear the utter extirpation of the tribe, which fell out
beyond their expectation, but only not to give their daughters to those men who
should survive; justly esteeming them for their villainy, to be as bad as
Heathens, with whom they were forbidden to marry.
Verse 4
[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.
An altar —
Not for a monument of the victory, but for sacrifices, as the next words shew.
There might be in that place more altars than one, when the multitude of
sacrifices be required, which was the case, 1 Kings 8:64, and probably at this time, when
all the tribes being met, they had many sacrifices to offer, some in common for
all, and some peculiar to every tribe.
Verse 5
[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.
Great oath —
That is a solemn oath joined with some terrible execration against the offenders
herein.
Put to death —
Because by refusing to execute the vengeance due to such malefactors, they were
justly presumed guilty of the crime, and therefore liable to the same
punishment, as was the case of that city that would not deliver up an Idolater
dwelling among them, to justice.
Verse 6
[6] And
the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said,
There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.
Repented —
Not for the war, which was just and necessary, but for their immoderate
severity in the execution of it. That is no good divinity which swallows up
humanity. Even necessary justice is to be done with compassion.
Verse 15
[15] And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the LORD had made
a breach in the tribes of Israel.
The Lord, … —
The Benjamites were the only authors of the sin, but God was the chief author
of the punishment, and the Israelites were but his executioners.
Verse 17
[17] And
they said, There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin,
that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.
An inheritance —
The inheritance promised by Jacob and Moses, and given by Joshua to the tribe
of Benjamin, doth all of it belong to those few who remain of that tribe, and
cannot be possessed by any other tribe; and therefore we are obliged to procure
wives for them all, that they may make up this breach, and be capable of
possessing and managing all their land: that this tribe, and their inheritance
may not be confounded with, or swallowed up by any of the rest.
Verse 19
[19] Then
they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place
which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that
goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
A feast —
Probably it was the feast of tabernacles, which they celebrated with more than
ordinary joy. And that feast was the only season, at which the Jewish virgins
were allowed to dance. But even this was not mixed dancing. No men danced with
these daughters of Shiloh. Nor did the married women so forget their gravity,
as to join with them. However their dancing thus in public, made them an easy
prey: whence Bishop Hall observes, "The ambushes of evil spirits carry
away many souls from dancing to a fearful desolation."
Verse 21
[21] And
see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then
come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters
of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
Daughters of Shiloh — By
whom we may understand not those only who were born or settled inhabitants
there, but all those who were come thither upon this occasion, and for a time
sojourned there: for although only the males were obliged to go up to the three
solemn feasts; yet the women had liberty to go, and those who were most devout
did usually go.
Vineyards —
Which were near to the green where they danced.
Catch —
Take them away by force, which they might the better do, because the women
danced by themselves.
Verse 23
[23] And
the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their
number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto
their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.
And took, … —
That is, each man his wife. By which we may see, they had no very favourable
opinion of polygamy, because they did not allow it in this case, when it might
seem most necessary for the reparation of a lost tribe.
Repaired — By
degrees, increasing their buildings as their number increased.
Verse 25
[25] In
those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in
his own eyes.
Right in his own eyes — What wonder was it then, if all wickedness overflowed the land? Blessed
be God for magistracy!
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Judges》
21 Chapter 21
Verses 1-25
The men of Israel had sworn.
An unreasonable oath
1. It was an oath that flowed from rash rage rather than from real
zeal. Men must swear in judgment (Jeremiah 4:2), not when transported with
passion, as Israel was now against Benjamin; their fiery spirits stood now in
more need of a bridle than of a spur.
2. It was an uncharitable oath, as it was against the repairing of a
perishing tribe, which the law of charity bound them to support, and not to see
it perish out of the land through the want of their helping hand.
3. It appears unlawful, as it crossed the revealed will of God in
Jacob’s prophetical blessing upon this tribe (Genesis 49:27), and that of Moses also (Deuteronomy 33:12), both which prophecies
had been spoiled had this one of the twelve tribes been extinguished.
4. The performance of this unreasonable oath was likewise bloody and
barbarous, for by virtue of their oath their blind zeal transported them to
destroy many persons in all those cities of Benjamin who had no hand in that
foul act of the men of Gibeah. (C. Ness.)
One tribe lacking.
One lacking
This inquiry represents the spirit of the whole Bible; that is all
that I have to say. It is indeed not so much an inquiry as a wail, a burst of
sorrow, a realised disunion, a shattered kinship. Israel was meant to be
foursquare--twelve, without flaw, at every point a noble integer. Benjamin is
threatened with extinction, Benjamin is not in the house of God, Bethel, a city
literally, but a sanctuary spiritually, and Benjamin is outside. Men should not
take these facts with indifference. I have no faith in your indifferent piety,
in your piety that can allow any man to be outside, and never ask a question
about him or send a message to him. That is not Christianity. From the first
Benjamin was a little one, having only some thirty or forty thousand fighting
men, a figure that went for nothing in the numbering of old Israel, and over a
very delicate and difficult question he came into collision with the rest of
Israel. He was alone, and after an almost superhuman resistance he was
overborne, all but extirpated, and he went away and hid himself some four
months in the rock Rimmon, the inviolable rock of the pomegranate, and there he
took account of himself. How many am I? Thousands fell and thousands more;
eighteen thousand fell, all men of valour, over against Gibeah towards the sun
rising, and we are now dwindled into some six hundred men, and nobody cares for
us, and nobody seeks us out. Wait a moment. Perhaps at that very time all
Israel was saying, “Are we all here? All but Benjamin. And why is Benjamin not
here? O Lord God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there
should be to-day one tribe lacking in Israel?” But you are eleven! Yes. What of
one? What of one? “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, and one of them
being gone astray, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go
alter the one that is lost, until he find it?” Thrice repeated--that is the way
of the dear old Scriptures. Whenever the proper name is repeated, the
repetition is the sign of concern, solicitude, anxiety. “Martha, Martha”;
“Simon, Simon”; “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem”--the same pathos. “O Lord God of
Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to-day one
tribe lacking in Israel?” We see from Bethel what we never saw from the
battlefield. Until you have seen the world from the house of God you have never
seen it. You have never seen man till you have seen him from the Cross. Keep up
the Church. That is the specular tower that is the point of vision. Until you
have seen the world religiously you have not seen it, you twaddling, tinkering,
niggling reformer. Now you can look at this text as a sentiment, as a
discipline, as an encouragement.
I. A sentiment.
Why? Is not this the human aspect of the solicitude of God’s heart? In this
respect as well as in others is man made after the image and likeness of God.
In all such emotion there is a suggestion infinite in scope and tenderness, a
suggestion of humility, family completeness, absolute unselfishness,
redemption, forgiveness, reconstruction, everlasting joy, the gathered
fractions consolidated into an everlasting integer. But you will have that lost
man. And Paul, that marvellous compound of Moses and Christ, honouring the
majesty of the law as he always did, yet feeling its weakness in the presence
of sin, did he not tremble under the same emotion? He says, “I am in continual
sorrow.” Great heavens! what is the matter? It is not enough for him that the
forces of the Gentiles are moving towards the Cross, that from Midian, Ephraim,
and Sheba men are rising to show forth the praises of the Lord. Not enough;
what more do you want? “I could wish myself accursed; anathema from Christ and
my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. My heart’s desire and prayer to
God is that Israel might be saved. For see how the doves are flocking to the
windows! I know, I know: beautiful! Thank God for it, but”--and who is it that
speaks thus?--I would know this man. “I am of the seed of Israel.” What tribe?
Ah, what tribe? Hush! You want music now--not the blare of the organ but the
whisper of the harp. “Of the tribe of Benjamin.” Why, that is the tribe that is
lacking in the text. Yes. Thus history rolls round in ennobled and amplified
repetition and variety--evolution unimaginable in vastness and variety. He is
of the tribe of Benjamin. In Judges all Israel mourns that Benjamin was
lacking. In the Romans Benjamin mourns that all Israel is away. If you have
lost your tears, you have lost your Christianity. The Bible varies a good deal
in historical and even moral colour, but it never varies in pity, love, and
mercy. From the first God loved man with atoning and redeeming love. We want
all the genius, all the poetry, all the letters; we want them and welcome them
all if they will be servants in the house of God, and help us in the expression
of an inexpressible pity--a contradiction in words, a harmony in experience. I
challenge you--graciously and lovingly--and I think you will not find one bare
place in all the area of the Book. Let us try it. In Eden there is a promise;
in the wilderness there is a tabernacle--a mercy-seat. In Genesis there is “a
covenant.” In Malachi there is “a book of remembrance.” In Exodus “the Lord
keeps mercy for thousands, and forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.” In
Numbers there will be nothing! Yes, in Numbers “the Lord is long-suffering and
of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression.” Why, what more could He
do on Calvary? And that in Numbers, which you thought a bare place. In Judges,
“the Lord is grieved for the memory of Israel.” In Samuel, when the
avenging angel had gone forth He recalled the angel, and “let the lifted
thunder drop.” But Chronicles--they will be all details, annals, and a field
for the higher critics rather to pull to pieces. There will be nothing, I
think, in the Chronicles. Will there not? In the Chronicles, God says, “If His
people will seek His face and turn away from their wicked ways, He will hear
them from heaven. He will forgive their sins. He will heal their land.”
And as for the Psalms.
What need we say of them, or of Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel? They are golden
with the love of God. In Hosea God heals the backsliding of His people, and
loves them freely. Even James, a man without poetry, a church without a spire,
wrote his letter to the twelve tribes--twelve. They were scattered
abroad--but no scattering can kill the household of faith. Now is it possible
for any tribe to be lacking, to become extinct? Where, for example, is the
tribe of Dan? It disappeared beyond record in the 1st Chronicles,
and is not named in the Apocalypse, but its few thousand members amalgamated
with some other tribe, say, with this very tribe of Benjamin. Yet even in the
Apocalypse the number of the tribes is twelve, twelve foundations, and twelve
gates of twelve pearls. And we may be absentees, but God’s house shall
be filled. Now that is the text as a sentiment. A great moan, a most tender,
passionate, evangelistic feeling.
II. This high
feeling has also a disciplinary aspect, and therefore there is a whole field of
complete and ardent loyalty. When Deborah sang her triumphant song she
disclosed the sterner aspect of this case. She mentioned the absentees by name,
and consigned them to the withered immortality of oblivion. “Why should there?”
said that mother heart, “why should there have been one tribe lacking on that
day of the battle? Why?” “Reuben remained among the sheepfolds” and listened to
the bleatings of his flock when he ought to have answered the call of the
trumpet, and helped to repulse the nine hundred chariots of Sisera. “The Lord
will have hold of him yet.” Why was he lacking on that day? Oh, he was
preoccupied; he sent promises, but he remained at home among the flocks when he
ought to have been serving with the army. And some are criticising the sermon
who ought to be out saving sinners. Oh, these prior engagements, these domestic
excuses, these parliament and council and other engagements that prevent our
being at the war. And Gilead abode beyond Jordan, and Dan was concealed in
ships, and Asher peered from behind the creeks and wondered how the war was
going on. Is it not so with you? Do not hinder your fellow-soldiers if you
cannot help them. Any fool can do mischief. Stupidity can sneer at enthusiasm,
and we may remain away from the battle. Do you think that is going to interfere
with the success of these great evangelistic movements and missionary
movements? There is another variety, oh, very singular indeed! There is a
lacking, or an absence, which affects great indignation because it has not been
sent for. Do you know nothing about that? You do! They stand back for a space,
that they may see whether they will be missed. You have heard of these men?
They say, “We are just waiting to see whether a circular will be sent to us.
One has been sent next door, and we are simply waiting to see.” You are not!
You are grieving the Spirit of God. Now, there was a band in old Israel who
tried this trick in three instances, but I think the third was the last. Once
Gideon overthrew the Midianites, and held in his one hand the head of Prince
Oreb and in his other hand the head of Prince Zeeb. The Ephraimites chided him
severely because they were not sent for--they would have been very glad to have
held somebody’s dead head in their hands. It was the trick of Ephraim. They
tried it once upon the son
of the harlot of Gilead. Ephraim said to Jephthah, “When thou passedst over to
fight against the children of Ammon, why didst thou not call on us to go with
thee?” One can be fully valorous the day after the fight, and when all is dead
and gone they say, “Why were not we sent fort” And Jephthah was a bold and
plain-spoken man--base-born, but he could not help that--but the Spirit of the
Lord was in him, and the wrath of the Divine fire burned in his bones, and he
said I will tell you. “Ephraim, hear me; I did once send for you, and you did not
come. You did not come, and now that you are trying this stale trick upon
others I will put an end to you, at least to a considerable extent,” and that
day he choked the passages of the Jordan with the carcases of forty-two
thousand Ephraimites. So there are two kinds of lacking--a lacking that excites
pity and emotion and compassion, and a lacking that excites indignation. Find
opportunities. Be on the alert for chances. Watch; thou knowest not when the
enemy may come, or the Lord. Be faithful. Remember that Christianity is a
battlefield as well as a contemplation and doctrine. Is the whole fighting
strength of the Church on the field? Are any enjoying delights of civilisation
who ought to be taking part in the war?
III. Now, we are
looking at it as a discipline, but we may look at it next and finally as an
encouragement. Some are no longer in the battle, yet they are not lacking in
the sense of the text. They are not here--they are here. Even the mighty David
waxed faint. He was but seventy when he died. When I say “but seventy” do I not
speak carelessly? What a seventy! When he tottered under his weakness in one of
his closing battles he nearly fell. In one of his closing battles there was a
Philistine who had a sword and was pressing the king most heavily, and it was
going badly with King David. The Philistine was hard upon him; hard upon him
who slew the lion and the bear and the giant of Gath; hard upon him who made
Jerusalem rich with the golden shields of Hadad; and the royal captains rushed
to falling David and got around him and said, “Thou shalt go out with us no
more to the battle, that they quench not the light of Israel,” and they stood
up as iron might stand, and to the foe they said, “God save the king,” and to
David they said--they whispered--“You shall not go with us any more to the
battle, that they quench not the light of Israel.” Henceforth he was to be
lacking, yet not lacking. My dear old septuagenarian or octogenarian, or
whatever your age may be, no more to the battle. We would not say that to the enemy; but you shall
go out to no more wars; you shall still be with us; you shall pray for us and
help us in the Council Chamber, and give us the benefit of your rich
experience; but no more to the battle. No, my old friends, we still have you,
you are with us as reminiscences, examples, memories, inspirations. “I look
round my table,” says one and says another; “my boys are not with me as they
used to be. I miss them. They used to go with me to the village chapel, but
they are lacking now. O Lord God of Israel, why is my son lacking? He is taken
up with a language I do not understand. I was trained very simply, believingly,
in the great redeeming truths of the gospel, but he talks to me now in a
language I cannot understand, and he no more sings the old hymns and goes to
the dear old house of prayer.” Lacking! Have you brought no word for me this
morning? Yes, I have a word for you. He may return. He is going through a very
difficult process now; you know your son is a very prosperous man, and prosperity
takes a good deal of chastening in order to remain pious. But he may return. I
will tell you how he may return. He will have a little child, and she will be
the delight of his heart, and when she is about five or six she will sicken,
and in the deep dark night she will say to him, “Father, give me one long, long
kiss,” and she will pass away; and he will look round for some of his books.
They will have nothing to say to him, and he will alight upon an old, old book,
and he will read, “And Jesus called unto Him a little child”; and he will read,
“Suffer little children to come unto Me”; and in secret and in darkness he will
drop on his knees at the bedside, and angels will say, “Behold he prayeth.”
Adversity will do what prosperity cannot do. Loss will be gain. So he may
return. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Every man did that which
was right in his own eyes.--
Confusion and misery through want of orders
A visitor was once standing at a friend’s door. He knocked, and
knocked; but there was nobody to open. Perhaps no one was at home? Oh, yes;
there was a noise within, which plainly showed that more than one or two or
three were there. Again he knocked, and waited; then at last a servant came.
“She was very sorry, but she had been with the children who were all quarrelling.”
This, then, explained the noise. Sounds of crying and anger were now heard from
a room upstairs, while a little fellow ran forward to welcome the visitor.
“Why, what’s the matter?” “Oh, sir, father and mother are both out, and it is
so miserable!” “How so?” “Why, we are all left to do as we like; there is
nobody to manage us!” This was strange, was it not? Doing “as they liked”
seemed to bring nothing but disorder and misery until father came home again!
Now, I do not know whether those parents were wise and careful or not, or
whether they could have done better with their family than to leave it so. But
I know that at one time the people of God, dwelling in the promised land, were
left by Him very much as those children were left. This was perhaps partly a
punishment for their wilfulness and sin. They had thought they could manage for
themselves very well, and now God let them try. Then there was wisdom and kindness,
too, in thus showing them that they needed the care and power of a wiser, mightier One than they. (S.
G. Green, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》