1. The sons of Israel had also taken an oath at Mizpah, and they said, "None of us shall give his daughters as a wife to the sons of Benjamin."
2. And they all went to the house of God at Shiloh. And sitting in his sight until evening, they lifted up their voice, and they began to weep, with a great wailing, saying,
3. "Why, O Lord, God of Israel, has this evil happened among your people, so that this day one tribe would be taken away from us?"
4. Then, rising at first light on the next day, they built an altar. And they offered holocausts and victims of peace offerings there, and they said,
5. "Who, out of all the tribes of Israel, did not ascend with the army of the Lord?" For they had bound themselves with a great oath, when they were at Mizpah, that whoever was not present would be slain.
6. And the sons of Israel, having been led to repentance over their brother Benjamin, began to say: "One tribe has been taken away from Israel.
7. From where shall they receive wives? For we have all sworn in common that we will not give our daughters to them."
8. For this reason, they said, "Who is there, out of all the tribes of Israel, that did not ascend to the Lord at Mizpah?" And behold, the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead were found not to have been among that army.
9. (Likewise, in the time when they had been at Shiloh, not one of them was found to be there.)
10. And so they sent ten thousand very robust men, and they instructed them, saying, "Go and strike down the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead with the edge of the sword, including their wives and little ones."
11. And this shall be what you ought to do: "Everyone of the male gender, as well as all the women who have known men, shall be put to death. But the virgins you shall reserve."
12. And four hundred virgins, who had not known the bed of a man, were found from Jabesh-Gilead. And they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan.