16 And the elders of the company say, 'What do we do to the remnant for wives—for the women have been destroyed out of Benjamin?' 17 And they say, 'A possession of an escaped party 'is' to Benjamin, and a tribe is not blotted out from Israel; 18 and we—we are not able to give to them wives out of our daughters, for the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed 'is' he who is giving a wife to Benjamin.' 19 And they say, 'Lo, a festival of Jehovah 'is' in Shiloh, from time to time, which 'is' on the north of Beth-El, at the rising of the sun, by the highway which is going up from Beth-El to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.' 20 And they command the sons of Benjamin, saying, 'Go—and ye have laid wait in the vineyards, 21 and have seen, and lo, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances—then ye have gone out from the vineyards, and caught for you each his wife out of the daughters of Shiloh, and gone to the land of Benjamin; 22 and it hath been, when their fathers or their brethren come in to plead unto us, that we have said unto them, Favour us 'by' them, for we have not taken 'to' each his wife in battle, for ye—ye have not given to them at this time 'that' ye are guilty.'
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Judges 21:16-22
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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.