Judges 21:6-15

6The Israelites were very upset about what had happened to Benjamin's tribe. They said, ‘We have destroyed a whole tribe of Israel. They were our relatives.

7How can we find women to marry the few men who are left? We all made a serious promise to the Lord that we would not let them marry our daughters.’

8So they asked, ‘When we met with the Lord at Mizpah, which people from all Israel's tribes did not come with us?’ They realized that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the meeting.

9When they had counted the people, there had been no men from Jabesh Gilead among them.

10So all the Israelites decided to send an army of 12,000 soldiers to attack Jabesh Gilead. They commanded them, ‘Use your swords to kill everyone there, including the women and children.

11This is what you must do: Kill every male and every woman who has slept with a man. But do not kill the women who have never had sex.’

12The Israelite army attacked Jabesh Gilead. They found 400 young women who had not had sex with anyone. They took the women back to their camp at Shiloh in Canaan.

13Then all the Israelites sent a message of peace to the men of Benjamin who were still at the rock of Rimmon.

14So the men returned from the rock at that time. The Israelites gave the women of Jabesh Gilead that they had not killed to them. But there were not enough women for all the men of Benjamin.

15The Israelite people were very sad about what had happened to Benjamin's tribe. The Lord had caused their tribe to become very weak.