Daughters of Shiloh Dance With Timbrels in the Vineyardsby emmanuel_higgins

Judges 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.

The events belong to the early period of the judges rather than to the chronological end of the book, whose main story ends with chapter 16, with chapter 21 standing among the final additional chapters. Those final additional chapters record the crime at Gibeah and the identification of the tribe of Benjamin with it. The background is that infamous immoral crime, after which the tribe was nearly destroyed, leaving surviving men in need of wives.

At Shiloh there was a yearly feast at the tabernacle where women gathered as worshipers. It was the custom for maidens to come out to dance in dances, as to greet returning victors, and that custom was used to provide wives for the survivors of Benjamin. The surviving men of Benjamin were to come out of the vineyards and catch every man his wife from among the dancing daughters of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin.

The episode displays Israel's backsliding with its resulting disgrace and punishment. It shows worship sunk toward heathen orgies in the yearly feast and dances at Shiloh. It puts loyalty to the tribe of Benjamin above rendering justice, a wrong still seen today for which there is never excuse. The mention of dancing is only an example of people dancing in the Bible and does not commend dancing or support fashionable social dancing.