GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 21:19-24
19 So they said, “Look, soon there is an annual festival to the LORD in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”
20 Then they instructed the Benjamites: “Go and hide in the vineyards. 21 Watch. When you see the girls of Shiloh come out to dance, each of you rush out of the vineyards and catch a wife for yourself from those girls of Shiloh, and go back to the land of Benjamin. 22 When their fathers or brothers come to us and complain, we will say to them, ‘Be favorable to them for our sake. We did not get enough wives for them during the war. You are not guilty of breaking your oath, since you did not give your girls to them.”
The annual festival to the Lord mentioned here is not specified. There were three important annual festivals, Passover, Tabernacles and the Day of Atonement. At Passover, there would have been dancing, probably reflecting the dance of the Israelite women led by Miriam after passing through the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20). Also, there would have been dancing at the harvest festival (Tabernacles, Exodus 23:16). It’s not important for us to speculate about which one of these was meant; it could also have been a local festival at Shiloh that isn’t otherwise described in Scripture.
We also can’t say whether or not the girls at Shiloh knew what was going to happen. Could some of them have been in on the plan? I suppose it’s possible, but then again, they may have been ignorant of all of the behind-the-scenes dealings, like Job, who knew nothing of the Lord’s conversations with the devil (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7).
What we do know is that verse 19 contained very specific directions for the two hundred Benjamite bachelors. There is even a direction given about the vineyards for the men to hide in, like the arbor in Much Ado About Nothing II,3.
23 That is what the Benjamites did. When the girls were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife. They went back to their own inheritance, rebuilt their cities, and settled in them. 24 At that time, each of the Israelites returned from there to his own tribe and clan. Each went back to his own inheritance.
Out came the girls, whirling and moving in their practiced lines, drumming on tambourines (Psalm 68:25; Jeremiah 31:4). Out rushed the boys, hopefully having had a bath and with hair combed, and the sudden pairs were solemnified and made permanent, exactly like the “Sobbin’ Women” of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which draws on the Rape of the Sabine Women, a mythical incident in early Roman history. This is worth mentioning because of its similarity with Judges 21. The story, briefly, goes this way: Shortly after founding the new city of Rome, Romulus and his band of single men needed wives. The surrounding cities refused to let their daughters marry Romulus’ followers, so the Romans held a festival which attracted people from at least four nearby towns, the Caeninenses, the Crustumini, the Antemnates, and the Sabines. During the festivities, the Roman men each abducted a woman (mostly Sabines) and married them, after which there was a brief war, ended by the women themselves, who interposed themselves between their warring husbands and fathers.
Since Rome was founded in about 750 BC and this incident in Judges took place in about 1300 BC (more than 500 earlier), it’s mystifying why almost all commentators who equate the two events think that the Hebrew text borrows from Roman mythology. It would be like saying that because one of Luther’s Pentecost hymns has a similar chord progression as “Stay” by Zedd and Alessia Cara (currently the pop chart number one song) that Luther must have borrowed from them! It’s not worth our time discussing the ridiculous conclusions drawn by pagans disguising themselves as the devout.
Was the theft of the girls an acceptable crime? Was it a crime? Luther has a long commentary about this in his “Judgment on Monastic Vows” in which he also cites Provers 6:30-32 (appended below). Since we live in a completely different culture, we need to be careful how we judge this question. Fathers arranged their daughters’ marriages, and although a good father took his daughter’s wishes into consideration (Genesis 24:58), here was a case where the good of the nation was also a factor. So once again, we are left wondering whether the girls knew before they went out to dance whether they would soon be married, and to men of Benjamin? Whatever was the case, either Ehud or his father Gera, and also one of the ancestors of Saul’s father Kish (1 Samuel 9:1) were men who found wives at this time, either at Jabesh Gilead or here at Shiloh.
Seen from this perspective, the author of Judges has given some special background to us at the beginning and ending of the book (through Ehud and the abduction of the girls at Shiloh) of the special care given by God to his people in the tribe of Benjamin. This establishes the blessings of God even through the smallest of Israel’s branches, which culminated in the rise of Saul as Israel’s first king. In the broader tale of God’s saving work, the story of Benjamin and King Saul is only a harbinger of even greater things to come from an even smaller stump of a clan, as David is brought to the throne of Israel, and as David’s greater Son, Jesus Christ, is brought to the throne of the cross, to rescue all Israel and all mankind from our sinfulness. In Jesus we have the unexpected salvation, impossible in anyone else, but given as a gift from God himself to us all. The last son of the tribe of Benjamin mentioned in the Bible made his life’s work the preaching of Jesus Christ to the Gentile world. His tireless, indefatigable labor gave us thirteen books of the Bible. He was the greatest apostle of Christ, who “resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). He was, of course, the Apostle Paul.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Luther on whether a vow of celibacy is binding:
“It seems that this was laid down even by Solomon in Proverbs 6[:30–32], where the Hebrew literally says, “Men do not condemn a thief if he steals to feed himself because he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold and shall give all the substance of his house. But whoever commits adultery with a woman is lacking in understanding and will destroy his soul.” This means that a thief will not be condemned even if he is caught and punished before the law by someone determined to be without mercy, provided that he steals under the necessity of hunger.
“What more shall we say? What do we read in Judges 21[:19–23], where, with the approval of all Israel, the sons of Benjamin carried off the daughters of Shiloh for wives? Be that as it may. The sons of Israel sinned by taking a vow not to give their daughters in marriage, or at least by keeping their vow [Judg. 21:1]. But the sons of Benjamin did not sin in seizing the women since there were no other women at all for them to take in marriage, for both the Israelites and the Shilohnites had denied them their daughters. Yet how much less a thing is the theft of goods compared with the theft of daughters! This conduct was a violation and theft if you interpret the law strictly to the letter, that is, if you interpret it too scrupulously and stupidly. Therefore, the children of Israel make a sound spiritual interpretation of the affair when they say to the Shilohnites, “The sin is yours because you did not give your daughters when you were asked” [Judg. 21:22].
“Indeed, relying on the authority of Christ, I for my part would venture to assert that if there are any sons or daughters who had taken the vow of chastity and were able to care for their parents in no other way except by marriage to a wealthy person who could support them, they ought to give up their vow and the life that goes with the vow. (LW 44:391-393)
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota