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Judges 21 Bible study: One tribe lacking
The oath that kept Benjamin from wives was told only after the war (21:1), and the elders' plan kept its word gives by having Benjamin's men take instead (21:18, 21:22). The Hebrew verb behind "one tribe lacking" (21:3) is the count that found no one from Jabesh Gilead (21:9). And the book's last words are 17:6's, word for word (21:25).
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“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.”
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“In Judges 21, the four hundred young women from Jabesh Gilead were brought to the camp at Shiloh.”
Is that in Judges 21, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
An oath told after the war
Chapter 20 tells how "the congregation was assembled as one man" at Mizpah (20:1) and went to war against Benjamin. Only now does the book tell what they swore there: "Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, “None of us will give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife.”" (21:1) (tap sworn). A second oath comes out too: "they had made a great oath concerning him who didn’t come up to the LORD to Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.”" (21:5) (tap oath). The whole chapter turns on those two oaths. The first comes back twice: "we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives" (21:7), and "the children of Israel had sworn, saying, ‘Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.’" (21:18).
Where it leads to Jesus
God knows your hearts
Judges 21:25leads toLuke 16:15
Judges ends, "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes" (21:25). Proverbs uses the Hebrew words for right in his own eyes again, and sets the LORD beside them: "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts" (Proverbs 21:2). Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts" (Luke 16:15). Jesus doesn't cite Judges or Proverbs here, so setting them side by side is a reading. Some set them together: Judges ends on what each person counted right, and Proverbs and Jesus both set what people count right beside what God sees in the heart. Others keep Jesus' words in their setting, spoken to Pharisees "who were lovers of money" and who "scoffed at him" (Luke 16:14), and read 21:25 as the book's word about the days when there was no king in Israel, and don't look from one to the other.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Judges 21
That was a taste
The rest of Judges 21 is waiting in Favor
- "One tribe lacking"
- The words of the oaths
- The book's last words
- Jabesh Gilead again
- Benjamin after the breach
- A feast of the LORD at Shiloh
- 19 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Judges 21 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
פָּקַדpaqadsay pa-KAD
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "attend to, visit, muster, appoint", and for the form in 21:3, "be (sought, i.e. needed) missed, lacking". The people ask, "why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?" (21:3). Six verses later the same verb, in the form Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "be mustered", is the count: "When the people were counted, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there" (21:9). Numbers uses the form of 21:3 when the officers count their men after battle: "there lacks not one man of us" (Numbers 31:49). Here one tribe is lacking. Judges uses the verb six times; the others are Samson's visit (15:1) and the counts of chapter 20 (twice in 20:15, and 20:17).
For your group
Judges 21 Bible study questions
- 1Israel swore an oath at Mizpah (21:1) and the rest of the chapter turns on its words (21:7, 21:18, 21:22). Have you ever made a promise in a hard moment that you later found hard to keep? What did you learn about your words?
- 2The people wept before God and asked, "why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?" (21:3). When something goes badly wrong, what helps you bring God an honest "why"?
- 3Judges ends, "Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes" (21:25). Where in your life do you most need something beyond your own eyes to show you what is right? Who or what helps you see it?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Judges 21 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home