Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, April 15th, 2026
the Second Week after Easter
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Bible in Basic English

Judges 21:7

What are we to do about wives for those who are still living? For we have taken an oath by the Lord that we will not give them our daughters for wives.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Armies;   Discipline;   Rashness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Benjamin, Tribe of;   Oaths;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Mizpah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Judges, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Benjamin;   Jabesh, Jabesh-Gilead;   Marriage;   Priests and Levites;   Samson;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Gibeah;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Oath;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Yiẓḥaḳ Bar Redifa;  

Parallel Translations

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.”
Hebrew Names Version
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?
King James 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?
Lexham English Bible
What will we do for them—for the ones being left over—for wives? For we have sworn by Yahweh not to give to them our daughters as wives."
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?"
New Century Version
We swore before the Lord that we would not allow our daughters to marry a Benjaminite. How can we make sure that the remaining men of Benjamin will have wives?"
New English Translation
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."
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?"
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?"
Geneva Bible (1587)
How shal we do for wiues to them that remaine, seeing we haue sworne by the Lorde, that we will not giue them of our daughters to wiues?
Legacy Standard Bible
Wat kan ons doen vir hulle wat oorgebly het, wat vroue aanbetref? Want ons het by die HERE gesweer dat ons nie van ons dogters aan hulle as vroue sal gee nie.
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?"
Complete Jewish Bible
How are we going to obtain wives for those who remain alive, since we've sworn by Adonai that we won't let our daughters marry them?"
Darby Translation
What shall we do for wives for them that remain? since we have sworn by Jehovah that we will not give them of our daughters for wives.
Easy-to-Read Version
We made a promise with an oath before the Lord . We promised not to allow our daughters to marry a man from Benjamin. How can we make sure that the men of Benjamin will have wives?"
George Lamsa Translation
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?
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."
Literal Translation
What shall we do for them, for those who are left, for wives? For we surely have sworn by Jehovah not to give them of our daughters for wives.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
How wyll we do that the remnaunt maye haue wyues? For we haue sworne by the LORDE, that we wyl not geue the wyues of oure doughters.
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?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
What shall we do vnto the remnaunt of them, that they may haue wiues? we haue sworne by the Lorde, that we wyl not geue the of our daughters to wiues.
JPS Old Testament (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?'
King James Version (1611)
How shall wee doe for wiues for them that remaine, seeing wee haue sworne by the Lord, that wee will not giue them of our daughters to wiues?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
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.
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?
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?"
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
wherof schulen thei take wyues? for alle we sworen in comyn, that we schulen not yyue oure douytris to hem.
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?'
Update Bible Version
What shall we do for wives for those that remain, seeing we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them our daughters as 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 do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by Yahweh 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 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?"
New Life Bible
What will we do for wives for those who are left? We have promised by the Lord not to give them any of our daughters in marriage."
New Revised Standard
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?"
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
What are we to do for them who remain, for wives, - seeing that, we ourselves, have sworn by Yahweh, not to give them of our daughters, for wives?
Douay-Rheims Bible
Whence shall they take wives? For we have all in general sworn, not to give our daughters to them.
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 for wives?"
New American Standard Bible (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?"

Contextual Overview

1 Now the men of Israel had taken an oath in Mizpah, saying, Not one of us will give his daughter as a wife to Benjamin. 2 And the people came to Beth-el, waiting there till evening before God, and gave themselves up to bitter weeping. 3 And they said, O Lord, the God of Israel, why has this fate come on Israel, that today one tribe has been cut off from Israel? 4 Then on the day after, the people got up early and made an altar there, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings. 5 And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel, who did not come up to the Lord at the meeting of all Israel? For they had taken a great oath that whoever did not come up to Mizpah to the Lord was to be put to death. 6 And the children of Israel were moved with pity for Benjamin their brother, saying, Today one tribe has been cut off from Israel. 7 What are we to do about wives for those who are still living? For we have taken an oath by the Lord that we will not give them our daughters for wives. 8 And they said, Which one of the tribes of Israel did not come up to Mizpah to the Lord? And it was seen that no one had come from Jabesh-gilead to the meeting. 9 For when the people were numbered, not one man of the people of Jabesh-gilead was present. 10 So they (the meeting) sent twelve thousand of the best fighting-men, and gave them orders, saying, Go and put the people of Jabesh-gilead to the sword without mercy, with their women and their little ones.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

sworn: Judges 21:1, Judges 21:18, 1 Samuel 14:28, 1 Samuel 14:29, 1 Samuel 14:45

Reciprocal: Leviticus 5:4 - to do evil Judges 21:22 - give unto Matthew 14:9 - the oath's

Cross-References

Genesis 21:11
And this was a great grief to Abraham because of his son.
Genesis 21:12
But God said, Let it not be a grief to you because of the boy and Hagar his mother; give ear to whatever Sarah says to you, because it is from Isaac that your seed will take its name.
Genesis 21:32
So they made an agreement at Beer-sheba, and Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, went back to the land of the Philistines.
Genesis 21:34
And Abraham went on living in the land of the Philistines as in a strange country.
Numbers 23:23
No evil power has effect against Jacob, no secret arts against Israel; at the right time it will be said of Jacob and of Israel, See what God has done!
Psalms 86:8
There is no god like you, O Lord; there are no works like your works.
Psalms 86:10
For you are great, and do great works of wonder; you only are God.
Isaiah 49:21
Then you will say in your heart, Who has given me all these children? when my children had been taken from me, and I was no longer able to have others, who took care of these? when I was by myself, where then were these?
Isaiah 66:8
When has such a story come to men's ears? who has seen such things? will a land come to birth in one day? will a nation be given birth in a minute? For when Zion's pains came on her, she gave birth to her children straight away.
Ephesians 3:10
So that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavens might be made clear through the church the wide-shining wisdom of God,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

How shall we do for wives for them that remain,.... By which it seems, as well as by what is after related, that they knew of the six hundred men hid in the rock Rimmon:

seeing we have sworn by the Lord; by the Word of the Lord, as the Targum; and such an oath with them was a sacred thing, and to be kept inviolable, even to their own hurt:

that we will not give them of our daughters to wives; as in

Judges 21:1 and therefore they must either marry among the Heathens, which was forbidden, or they must make void their oath, or the tribe in a little time would be extinct; these were difficulties they knew not how to surmount, and this was the object of their inquiry.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Judges 21:7. How shall we do for wives for them — From this it appears that they had destroyed all the Benjamitish women and children! They had set out with the purpose of exterminating the whole tribe, and therefore they massacred the women, that if any of the men escaped, they might neither find wife nor daughter; and they bound themselves under an oath not to give any of their females to any of the remnant of this tribe, that thus the whole tribe might utterly perish.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile