Judges 21:7
New International Version
“How can we provide wives for those who are left, since we have taken an oath by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?”

New Living Translation
How can we find wives for the few who remain, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them our daughters in marriage?”

English Standard Version
What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them any of our daughters for wives?”

Berean Standard Bible
What should we do about wives for the survivors, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them our daughters in marriage?”

King James Bible
How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?

New King James Version
What shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them our daughters as wives?”

New American Standard Bible
What are we to do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters as wives?”

NASB 1995
“What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?”

NASB 1977
“What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?”

Legacy Standard Bible
What shall we do for wives for those who are left? But we have sworn by Yahweh not to give them any of our daughters in marriage.”

Amplified Bible
What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn [an oath] by the LORD that we will not give them any of our daughters as wives?”

Christian Standard Bible
What should we do about wives for the survivors? We’ve sworn to the LORD not to give them any of our daughters as wives.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
What should we do about wives for the survivors? We’ve sworn to the LORD not to give them any of our daughters as wives.”

American Standard Version
How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by Jehovah that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?

Contemporary English Version
Only a few men of Benjamin weren't killed in the war. We need to get wives for them, so the tribe won't completely disappear. But how can we do that, after promising in the LORD's name that we wouldn't let them marry any of our daughters?"

English Revised Version
How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
What will we do to provide wives for the men who are left? We swore to the LORD that we would not let any of our daughters marry them."

Good News Translation
What shall we do to provide wives for the men of Benjamin who are left? We have made a solemn promise to the LORD that we will not give them any of our daughters."

International Standard Version
What can we do to find wives for the survivors who remain, since we've already taken an oath in the LORD's presence not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?"

Majority Standard Bible
What should we do about wives for the survivors, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them our daughters in marriage??

NET Bible
How can we find wives for those who are left? After all, we took an oath in the LORD's name not to give them our daughters as wives."

New Heart English Bible
How shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?"

Webster's Bible Translation
How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD, that we will not give them of our daughters for wives?

World English Bible
How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?”
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
what do we do for them—for those who are left—for wives, since we have sworn by YHWH not to give to them from our daughters for wives?”

Young's Literal Translation
what do we do for them -- for those who are left -- for wives, and we -- we have sworn by Jehovah not to give to them of our daughters for wives?'

Smith's Literal Translation
What shall we do for them to those being left for wives, and we sware by Jehovah not to give to them from our daughters for wives?
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
Whence shall they take wives? For we have all in general sworn, not to give our daughters to them.

Catholic Public Domain Version
From where shall they receive wives? For we have all sworn in common that we will not give our daughters to them.”

New American Bible
What can we do about wives for the survivors, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?”

New Revised Standard Version
What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them any of our daughters as wives?”
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
And they said, What shall we do for those who are left without wives, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them our daughters to wife?

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
And they said: “What shall we do to those who are left without wives, for we have sworn to LORD JEHOVAH that we will not give them women?”
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?'

Brenton Septuagint Translation
What shall we do for wives for the rest that remain? whereas we have sworn by the Lord, not to give them of our daughters for wives.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Wives for the Benjamites
6And the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the Benjamites, and said, “Today a tribe is cut off from Israel. 7What should we do about wives for the survivors, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them our daughters in marriage?” 8So they asked, “Which one of the tribes of Israel failed to come up before the LORD at Mizpah?” And, in fact, no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the camp for the assembly.…

Cross References
Deuteronomy 7:3-4
Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, / because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.

Joshua 23:12-13
For if you turn away and cling to the rest of these nations that remain among you, and if you intermarry and associate with them, / know for sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you.

1 Samuel 14:1-3
One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let us cross over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.” But Jonathan did not tell his father. / Meanwhile, Saul was staying under the pomegranate tree in Migron on the outskirts of Gibeah. And the troops who were with him numbered about six hundred men, / including Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was the son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli the priest of the LORD in Shiloh. But the troops did not know that Jonathan had left.

1 Kings 11:1-2
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women. / These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

Ezra 9:12
Now, therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and may eat the good things of the land, leaving it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’

Nehemiah 13:25-27
I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves! / Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel—yet foreign women drew him into sin. / Must we now hear that you too are doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?”

Genesis 24:3-4
and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling, / but will go to my country and my kindred to take a wife for my son Isaac.”

Exodus 34:16
And when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.

Leviticus 18:24-30
Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves. / Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants. / But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations—neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you. ...

Numbers 36:6-9
This is what the LORD has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry anyone they please, provided they marry within a clan of the tribe of their father. / No inheritance in Israel may be transferred from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. / Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any Israelite tribe must marry within a clan of the tribe of her father, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers. ...

2 Corinthians 6:14-17
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? / What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? / What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” ...

Matthew 22:30
In the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.

1 Corinthians 7:39
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, as long as he belongs to the Lord.

1 Corinthians 9:5
Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?

1 Timothy 5:14
So I advise the younger widows to marry, have children, and manage their households, denying the adversary occasion for slander.


Treasury of Scripture

How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?

sworn

Judges 1:18
Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and Ekron with the coast thereof.

1 Samuel 14:28,29,45
Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint…

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Daughters Marriage Oath Provide Sworn Wives
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Daughters Marriage Oath Provide Sworn Wives
Judges 21
1. The people bewail the desolation of Benjamin
8. By the destruction of Jabesh Gilead they provide them four hundred wives.
16. They advise the remainder to surprise the virgins that danced at Shiloh














How can we provide wives
This phrase reflects a deep concern for the continuity and survival of the tribe of Benjamin. The Hebrew root for "provide" (נָתַן, natan) often implies giving or granting, suggesting a sense of responsibility and provision. Historically, the Israelites were a tribal society where lineage and inheritance were crucial. The question underscores the tension between the need to preserve a tribe and the constraints of an oath made before God.

for those who are left
The phrase "those who are left" refers to the remnant of the tribe of Benjamin after a devastating civil war with the other Israelite tribes. This remnant is a small group of survivors, highlighting the near extinction of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The historical context here is critical, as it shows the gravity of inter-tribal conflict and the importance of preserving the twelve tribes as a complete entity, which was seen as essential for the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel.

since we have sworn by the LORD
Swearing by the LORD (יהוה, Yahweh) indicates a solemn vow made with the utmost seriousness. In ancient Israel, oaths were binding and breaking them was considered a grave sin. This phrase emphasizes the Israelites' commitment to their word, reflecting a deep reverence for God and the sacredness of vows. It also presents a moral and spiritual dilemma, as they must reconcile their oath with the need to ensure the survival of the tribe of Benjamin.

not to give them our daughters in marriage
This part of the verse highlights the specific content of the oath: not to intermarry with the Benjamites. The cultural and religious significance of marriage in Israel was profound, as it was not only a personal union but also a means of maintaining tribal identity and purity. The Israelites' decision to withhold their daughters was likely intended as a punishment for the Benjamites' previous transgressions, yet it now poses a challenge to the tribe's survival. This reflects the complex interplay between justice, mercy, and the need for communal restoration within the covenant community.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
What
מַה־ (mah-)
Interrogative
Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what

should we do
נַּעֲשֶׂ֥ה (na·‘ă·śeh)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - first person common plural
Strong's 6213: To do, make

about wives
לְנָשִׁ֑ים (lə·nā·šîm)
Preposition-l | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 802: Woman, wife, female

for the survivors,
לַנּוֹתָרִ֖ים (lan·nō·w·ṯā·rîm)
Preposition-l, Article | Verb - Nifal - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 3498: To jut over, exceed, to excel, to remain, be left, to leave, cause to abound, preserve

since we
וַאֲנַ֙חְנוּ֙ (wa·’ă·naḥ·nū)
Conjunctive waw | Pronoun - first person common plural
Strong's 587: We

have sworn
נִשְׁבַּ֣עְנוּ (niš·ba‘·nū)
Verb - Nifal - Perfect - first person common plural
Strong's 7650: To seven oneself, swear

by the LORD
בַֽיהוָ֔ה (Yah·weh)
Preposition-b | Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

not
לְבִלְתִּ֛י (lə·ḇil·tî)
Preposition-l
Strong's 1115: A failure of, not, except, without, unless, besides, because not, until

to give
תֵּת־ (têṯ-)
Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

them
לָהֶ֥ם (lā·hem)
Preposition | third person masculine plural
Strong's Hebrew

our daughters
מִבְּנוֹתֵ֖ינוּ (mib·bə·nō·w·ṯê·nū)
Preposition-m | Noun - feminine plural construct | first person common plural
Strong's 1323: A daughter

in marriage?”
לְנָשִֽׁים׃ (lə·nā·šîm)
Preposition-l | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 802: Woman, wife, female


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OT History: Judges 21:7 How shall we do for wives (Jd Judg. Jdg)
Judges 21:6
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