Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.
The men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah that none of them would give his daughter to Benjamin as wife. That oath belongs to the account of the crime committed at Gibeah and of the tribe of Benjamin making common cause with the men of Gibeah. It stands in chapters 17-21, whereas the main narrative of the book closes with chapter 16, and those closing chapters record events belonging to the early part of the judges' history.
It is one detail in the portrayal of Israel's low condition near the close of the period of the judges, a backsliding that brought disgrace and punishment in its train. The moral condition laid bare was one in which tribal clannishness was esteemed more important than the rendering of justice, and conventional hospitality was placed above female virtue, a state of things still to be seen. Such backsliding gives no ground to suppose that any may turn away from God with impunity, and it never furnishes any excuse for sin. Those whom God used for the deliverance of His people in that time are not held up as patterns for others to imitate, for He employed the very best material at hand even when it was crude and rough, as was seen in Samson.
The men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah that none of them would give his daughter to Benjamin as wife. That oath belongs to the account of the crime committed at Gibeah and of the tribe of Benjamin making common cause with the men of Gibeah. It stands in chapters 17-21, whereas the main narrative of the book closes with chapter 16, and those closing chapters record events belonging to the early part of the judges' history.
It is one detail in the portrayal of Israel's low condition near the close of the period of the judges, a backsliding that brought disgrace and punishment in its train. The moral condition laid bare was one in which tribal clannishness was esteemed more important than the rendering of justice, and conventional hospitality was placed above female virtue, a state of things still to be seen. Such backsliding gives no ground to suppose that any may turn away from God with impunity, and it never furnishes any excuse for sin. Those whom God used for the deliverance of His people in that time are not held up as patterns for others to imitate, for He employed the very best material at hand even when it was crude and rough, as was seen in Samson.