Context No. 3844 of 4322 · Judges

Judges 21:13-25: in context

13The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. 14Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead. There still weren’t enough for them. 15The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 16Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?” 17They said, “There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel. 18However, we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, ‘Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.’” 19They said, “Behold, there is a feast of the LORD from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.” 20They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, 21and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each man catch his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. 22It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, ‘Grant them graciously to us, because we didn’t take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them; otherwise you would now be guilty.’” 23The children of Benjamin did so, and took wives for themselves according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them. 24The children of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they each went out from there to his own inheritance. 25In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

The book of Judges ends in a tangle of tragedy and desperate improvisation, as Israel scrambles to provide wives for the survivors of Benjamin so that a whole tribe will not die out, resorting to means we read soberly and do not commend. And the book closes with a line that explains everything that has gone wrong: in those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

This is the key to the whole book. Without a king, without submission to God as their true ruler, the people had descended into chaos, each person their own authority, doing whatever seemed right to them, and the result was a downward spiral of confusion and horror. There is a warning here that reaches far beyond ancient Israel. When each person becomes the final judge of right and wrong for themselves, with no authority above their own eyes, the result is not freedom but disorder. We need a king; we need to submit to God as our rightful Lord rather than making ourselves the measure of all things. The chaos of Judges is what a life, or a society, looks like when everyone does what is right in his own eyes.

Have I made myself the final judge of right and wrong, doing what is right in my own eyes, or do I submit to God as my rightful King, the authority above my own limited sight?

Sources

Judges 21:25: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes."
Judges 21:15: "The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel."
Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."