Judges 21:25

Green's Literal Translation

In those days there was no king in Israel. Each man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.

Hebrew Names Version
In those days there was no king in Yisra'el: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

King James Version
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Lexham English Bible
In those days there was no king in Israel; each one did what was right in his own eyes.

English Standard Version
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

New Century Version
In those days Israel did not have a king. All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

New English Translation
In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right.

Amplified Bible
In those days [when the judges governed] there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

New American Standard Bible
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Geneva Bible (1587)
In those dayes there was no King in Israel, but euery man did yt which was good in his eyes.

Legacy Standard Bible
to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Contemporary English Version
In those days Israel wasn't ruled by a king, and everyone did what they thought was right.

Complete Jewish Bible
At that time there was no king in Isra'el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.

Darby Translation
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Easy-to-Read Version
In those days the Israelites did not have a king, so everyone did whatever they thought was right.

George Lamsa Translation
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which seemed right in his own eyes.

Good News Translation
There was no king in Israel at that time. Everyone did whatever they pleased.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
At yt time was there no kynge in Israel, and euery man dyd ye thinge yt was right in his awne eies.

American Standard Version
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Bible in Basic English
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did what seemed right to him.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
In those dayes there was no king in Israel: but euery man dyd that whiche seemed right in his owne eyes.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

King James Version (1611)
In those dayes there was no King in Israel: euery man did that which was right in his owne eyes.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And in those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own sight.

English Revised Version
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Berean Standard Bible
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
In tho dayes was no kyng in Israel, but ech man dide this, that semyde ryytful to hym silf.

Young's Literal Translation
In those days there is no king in Israel; each doth that which is right in his own eyes.

Update Bible Version
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Webster's Bible Translation
In those days [there was] no king in Israel: every man did [that which was] right in his own eyes.

World English Bible
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

New King James Version
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

New Living Translation
In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

New Life Bible
There was no king in Israel in those days. Each man did what he thought was right.

New Revised Standard
In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
In those days, there was no king in Israel, - every man did, that which was right in his own eyes.

Douay-Rheims Bible
In those days [fn] there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Revised Standard Version
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

THE MESSAGE
At that time there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Contextual Overview

¹⁶ And the elders of the assembly said, What shall we do to the remnant for wives for the women have been destroyed out of Benjamin? ¹⁷ And they said, The one who escaped shall be a legacy of Benjamin, that a tribe may not be blotted out from Israel. ¹⁸ And we surely are not able to give wives to them from our daughters, for the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin. ¹⁹ And they said, Behold, there is a feast of Jehovah from year to year in Shiloh, on the north side of Bethel, toward the rising of the sun, by the highway which goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah. ²⁰ They commanded the sons of Benjamin, saying, Go, and you shall lie in wait in the vineyards. ²¹ And you shall watch. And, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then you shall go out from the vineyards and each of you catch his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. ²² And it shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to strive with us, we shall say to them, Favor us with them, for we did not take for each man of them a wife in battle, for if you did not give to them as at this time, you would beguilty. ²³ And the sons of Benjamin did so, and took women according to their number from the dancers whom they had seized. And they went and returned to their inheritance, and built the cities, and lived in them. ²⁴ And the sons of Israel went up and down from there at that time, each to his tribe, and to his family. And they departed from there, every man to his inheritance. ²⁵ In those days there was no king in Israel. Each man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

no: Judges 17:6, Judges 18:1, Judges 19:1

right: Judges 18:7, Deuteronomy 12:8, Psalms 12:4, Proverbs 3:5, Proverbs 14:12, Ecclesiastes 11:9, Micah 2:1, Micah 2:2

Reciprocal: Hosea 9:9 - Gibeah

Cross-References

Genesis 13:7
And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite lived then in the land.

Genesis 21:15
And the water from the skin was finished, and she put the boy under one of the shrubs.

Genesis 21:17
And God heard the voice of the young boy. And the angel of God called to Hagar out of the heavens. And He said to her, What ails you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy, there where he is .

Genesis 21:22
And it happened at that time Abimelech and Phicol, the general of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, God is with you in all that you do.

Genesis 29:8
And they said, We are not able until all the flocks are gathered and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.

Judges 1:15
And she said to him, Give a blessing to me. Since you have given me the land of the Negeb, also you shall give springs of water to me. And Caleb gave the upper springs and the lower springs to her.

Proverbs 17:10
A reproof enters more into one discerning than a hundred stripes into a fool.

Proverbs 25:9
Contend for your cause with your neighbor, and do not uncover the secret of another,

Proverbs 27:5
Better is revealed reproof than secret love.

Matthew 18:15
But if your brother may sin against you, go and reprove him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

In those days there was no king in Israel,.... No supreme magistrate, Joshua being dead, and as yet no judge in Israel had risen up; for all related in the five last chapters of this book were done between the death of Joshua and the time of the judges:

every man did that which was right in his own eyes; there being none to restrain him from it, or punish him for it; and this accounts for the many evil things related, as the idolatry of Micah and the Danites, the base usage of the Levite's concubine, the extreme rigour and severity with which the Israelites treated their brethren the Benjaminites, the slaughter of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead, and the rape of the daughters of Shiloh.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The repetition of this characteristic phrase (compare Judges 17:6; Judges 18:1; Judges 19:1) is probably intended to impress upon us the idea that these disorders arose from the want of a sufficient authority to suppress them. The preservation of such a story, of which the Israelites must have been ashamed, is a striking evidence of the divine superintendence and direction as regards the Holy Scriptures.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Judges 21:25. In those days there was no king in Israel — Let no one suppose that the sacred writer, by relating the atrocities in this and the preceding chapters, justifies the actions themselves; by no means. Indeed, they cannot be justified; and the writer by relating them gives the strongest proof of the authenticity of the whole, by such an impartial relation of facts that were highly to be discredit of his country.

I HAVE already referred to the rape of the Sabine virgins. The story is told by Livy, Hist. lib. i., cap. 9, the substance of which is as follows: Romulus having opened an asylum at his new-built city of Rome for all kinds of persons, the number of men who flocked to his standard was soon very considerable; but as they had few women, or, as Livy says, penuria mulierum, a dearth of women, he sent to all the neighbouring states to invite them to make inter-marriages with his people. Not one of the tribes around him received the proposal; and some of them insulted his ambassador, and said, Ecquod feminis quoque asylum aperuissent? Id enim demum compar connubium fore? "Why have you not also opened an asylum for WOMEN, which would have afforded you suitable matches?" This exasperated Romulus, but he concealed his resentment, and, having published that he intended a great feast to Neptune Equester, invited all the neighbouring tribes to come to it: they did so, and were received by the Romans with the greatest cordiality and friendship. The Sabines, with their wives and children, came in great numbers, and each Roman citizen entertained a stranger. When the games began, and each was intent on the spectacle before them, at a signal given, the young Romans rushed in among the Sabine women, and each carried off one, whom however they used in the kindest manner, marrying them according to their own rites with due solemnity, and admitting them to all the rights and privileges of the new commonwealth. The number carried off on this occasion amounted to near seven hundred; but this act of violence produced disastrous wars between the Romans and the Sabines, which were at last happily terminated by the mediation of the very women whose rape had been the cause of their commencement. The story may be seen at large in Livy, Plutarch, and others.

Thus ends the book of Judges; a work which, while it introduces the history of Samuel and that of the kings of Judah and Israel, forms in some sort a supplement to the book of Joshua, and furnishes the only account we have of those times of anarchy and confusion, which extended nearly from the times of the elders who survived Joshua, to the establishment of the Jewish monarchy under Saul, David, and their successors. For other uses of this book, see the preface.

MASORETIC NOTES ON THE BOOK OF JUDGES

The number of verses in this book is six hundred and eighteen.

Its Masoretic chapters are fourteen.

And its middle verse is Judges 10:8: And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel, &c.

Corrected for a new edition, December 1, 1827. - A. C.