Judges 21:3
And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel? And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?
Judges 21:3 stands in the closing chapters of Judges, chapters 17 to 21. In study order it comes after Joshua 23-24 and Judges 1-10, where Joshua near the end of his life rehearses God's dealings before the people, solemnly charges them to choose, and declares that he and his house will serve the Lord. Although placed at the end of the book, chapters 17-21 record events from the early part of the period of the judges, while the continuous story of the book ends with chapter 16. These closing chapters show the low state into which Israel had fallen before Samuel the prophet was called.
The immediate setting of the verse is the crime at Gibeah and its consequences, in which the tribe of Benjamin had identified itself with the guilty people of Gibeah, leaving a whole tribe lacking in Israel. The verse expresses Israel's grief and questioning before the Lord over the loss of the tribe. It belongs to a pitiful record of backsliding that brings disgrace and punishment. It shows a condition in which loyalty to a tribe is counted as more important than rendering justice and conventional hospitality is counted as higher than female virtue, a condition still seen today and for which there is never an excuse for sin.