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Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025
the Fourth Week of Advent
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Read the Bible

Bishop's Bible

Judges 21:7

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.

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?
Bible in Basic English
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.
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 And the men of Israel sware in Mispah, saying: Ther shal none of vs geue his daughter vnto any of Beniamin to wife. 2 And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till euen, before God, & lift vp their voyces, and wept sore, 3 And sayde: O Lorde God of Israel, why is this come to passe in Israel, that there shoulde be this day one tribe lacking in Israel? 4 And on the morowe the people rose vp betyme, and made there an aulter, and offered burnt offeringes and peace offeringes. 5 And the children of Israel sayd: Who is he among al the tribes of Israel, that came not vp with the congregation vnto the Lorde? for they had made a great othe concerning him that came not vp to the Lord to Mispah, saying: He shall surely dye. 6 And the children of Israel had pitie on Beniamin their brethren, and sayde: There is one tribe cut of from Israel this day: 7 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. 8 And they sayde: Is there any of the tribes of Israel, that came not vp to Mispah to the Lord? And behold, there came none of Iabes Gilead vnto the hoaste and congregation. 9 For the people were viewed, and beholde there were none of the inhabitauntes of Iabes Gilead there. 10 And the congregation sent thyther twelue thousand men of the strongest, and commaunded them, saying: Go, and smyte the inhabitauntes of Iabes Gilead with the edge of the sworde, both women and children.

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 saying was very greeuous in Abrahams sight, because of his sonne.
Genesis 21:12
And God sayde vnto Abraham, let it not be greeuous in thy sight, because of the lad and of thy bonde woman: In al that Sara hath said vnto thee, heare her voyce, for in Isahac shall thy seede be called.
Genesis 21:32
Thus made they a leage together at Beer seba: and Abimelech and Phicol his chiefe captayne rose vp, and turned agayne into the lande of the Philistines.
Genesis 21:34
And Abraham soiourned in the Philistines lande a long season.
Numbers 23:23
For there is no sorcerie in Iacob, nor soothsaying in Israel, according to this time it shalbe sayde of Iacob and Israel: What hath God wrought?
Psalms 86:8
Among the gods there is none like vnto thee O Lorde: there is not one that can do as thou doest.
Psalms 86:10
For thou art great and doest wonderous thinges: thou art God alone.
Isaiah 49:21
Then shalt thou thinke by thy selfe, who hath begotten me these, seeyng I am barren and alone, a captiue and an outcast? and who hath norished them vp for me? I am desolate and alone, but from whence come these?
Isaiah 66:8
Who euer heard or sawe such thinges? doth the grounde beare in one day? or are the people borne all at once, as Sion trauayled in childe birth and bare her sonnes?
Ephesians 3:10
To thintent that nowe vnto the rulers and power in heauenly [thynges] myght be knowen by ye Church, the very manyfolde wysedome 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.


 
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