Judges 21:12

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) They brought them.—It can hardly be doubted that the “them” means the young virgins, although the pronoun is masculine (otham), as in Judges 21:22. If so, the idiom is like the Greek one in which a woman speaking of herself in the plural uses the masculine (Brief Greek Syntax, p. 61). There is no other trace of this idiom in Hebrew, but we can hardly suppose that many Jabesh-Gileadite captives were brought to Shiloh, and then put to death in cold blood in accordance with the ban.

Unto the camp to Shiloh.—The Israelites, now that the war with Benjamin was over, appear to have moved their stationary camp to Shiloh, the normal and more central seat of the tabernacle at this period (Judges 18:31).

Which is in the land of Canaan.—We find the same addition in Joshua 21:2; Joshua 22:9. Perhaps there was another Shiloh on the east of the Jordan; but see Note on Judges 21:19. The mere fact of Jabesh being in Gilead does not seem sufficient to account for it.

Benson Commentary

Jdg 21:12. They brought them into the camp — If the vow they had made would admit of their sparing the virgins, why could they not also, in consistency with that oath, have spared the other women and children, and innocent persons, and only punished the guilty? But it is evident “that convenience, rather than justice or piety, induced them to spare the virgins, that they might extricate themselves from the difficulties in which their rash oath had involved them.” — Scott.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

To Shiloh - Whither, as the usual place of meeting for the national assembly, the Israelites had moved from Bethel (a distance of about 10 miles), during the expedition of the 12,000 to Jabesh-Gilead.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly—This city lay within the territory of eastern Manasseh, about fifteen miles east of the Jordan, and was, according to Josephus, the capital of Gilead. The ban which the assembled tribes had pronounced at Mizpeh seemed to impose on them the necessity of punishing its inhabitants for not joining the crusade against Benjamin; and thus, with a view of repairing the consequences of one rash proceeding, they hurriedly rushed to the perpetration of another, though a smaller tragedy. But it appears (Jud 21:11) that, besides acting in fulfilment of their oath, the Israelites had the additional object by this raid of supplying wives to the Benjamite remnant. This shows the intemperate fury of the Israelites in the indiscriminate slaughter of the women and children.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Young virgins; not married, yet marriageable. It is probable there were other and younger virgins; but whether they were slain or spared Scripture determines not, and the learned do not agree. But these could not serve the present and urgent occasion, and therefore he takes notice only of these four hundred which were of riper age.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins,.... Or damsel virgins (e); damsels that were virgins: that had known no man by lying with any male: which was judged of by their age, and by their unmarried state, and by common report, unless it can be thought they were examined by matrons; but how it was that they were not obliged, or did not think themselves obliged by their oath to put these to death, as well as others, is not easy to say; whether they thought the necessity of the case would excuse it, or they had a dispensation from the Lord for it, on consulting him; however, so it was:

and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan; this is observed because that Jabeshgilead was not in the land of Canaan, from whence they were brought, but in the land of Og king of Bashan; only what was on this side Jordan was the land of Canaan, and in that Shiloh was, to which they were brought; and this shows that not the city Bethel, but Shiloh, was the place whither the people or army of Israel came to offer sacrifice after the war was ended.

(e) "puellam viginem", Montanus; "puellas virgines", Pagninus, Tigurine version, Drusius, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. unto the camp] From the foregoing one would naturally conclude that the main body of the Israelites was at Beth-el.

to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan] What can be the point of this remark? ‘which is in the land of Canaan,’ by way of contrast to the Israelite territory E. of the Jordan, is intelligible in Joshua 22:9 but not so suitable here. The sentence can hardly have stood originally in B; it looks like an editorial addition designed to prepare the way for A’s narrative: all Israel must be brought upon the scene of Jdg 21:23. Probably the words were borrowed from Joshua 21:2; Joshua 22:9; cf. Joshua 18:9; behind them lies the tradition that Shiloh was the meeting-place and sanctuary of the tabernacle for all Israel after the conquest under Joshua; Joshua 18 :1 P.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - To Shiloh, whither it should seem they had now taken the tabernacle back, the war with Benjamin no longer requiring its presence at Bethel Them. It is masculine in the Hebrew, though it refers to the women. So again in ver. 22, their fathers and their brothers in the masculine (see above, Judges 19:23, and vers. 21, 22). It is perhaps an archaism. In the land of Canaan. This is inserted to contrast it with Jabesh in Gilead (Genesis 33:17, 18, and ch. 8:5, note). Judges 21:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

To punish this unlawful conduct, the congregation sent 12,000 brave fighting men against Jabesh, with orders to smite the inhabitants of the town with the edge of the sword, together with their wives, and children, but also with the more precise instructions (Judges 21:11), "to ban all the men, and women who had known the lying with man" (i.e., to slay them as exposed to death, which implied, on the other hand, that virgins who had not lain with any man should be spared). The fighting men found 400 such virgins in Jabesh, and brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan. אותם (Judges 21:12) refers to the virgins, the masculine being used as the more common genus in the place of the feminine. Shiloh, with the additional clause "in the land of Canaan," which was occasioned by the antithesis Jabesh in Gilead, as in Joshua 21:2; Joshua 22:9, was the usual meeting-place of the congregation, on account of its being the seat of the tabernacle. The representatives of the congregation had moved thither, after the deliberations concerning Jabesh, which were still connected with the war against Benjamin, were concluded.