Judges 19-21

These chapters tell one long heartbreaking story filled with murder, rape, foolish vows, and a civil war that decimates the tribe of Benjamin. Their solution to the decimation of Benjamin is more murder and rape.

We get a time stamp in this as well. It turns out that Aaron's grandson is still alive, so this probably occurred relatively soon after the Conquest.

This story begins and ends with the Bible saying that there was no king in Israel and people did what they wanted.

It all begins because a Levite's concubine leaves him and goes back to her dad. He goes to her father's place to convince her to come back to him. She does, but her father keeps pressuring them to stay longer. Finally, they leave but it is late in the day.

Darkness falls as they pass through Gilead, a Benjamite city. No one will take them in except an old man. That night, townspeople from Gilead pound on the old man's door demanding the privilege of raping the male visitor. The old man refuses and offers his virgin daughter and the visitor's concubine. The visitor ends up pushing his concubine out the door. The townspeople rape her all night long and she is found dead on the doorstep the next morning. So, her husband cuts her into 12 pieces and sends a piece to each tribe of Israel.

It gets worse.

Israel unites to punish Gilead, but the people of Benjamin coalesce to defend Gilead. The Israelites lay siege to Gilead and are beaten in two days of fighting, despite asking God which tribe should lead. God did not predict a positive outcome.

On the third day of fighting, the Israelites win, destroy Gilead, and then go on a rampage destroying the cities of Benjamin. Finally, they stop and realize what they have done - the tribe of Benjamin is nearly extinct.

So, now they want to repopulate Benjamin. They had previously taken vow that (1) they would not give their daughters to Benjamin and (2) whoever did not attack Benjamin would die. A city (Jabesh-Gilead) did not provide soldiers for the war, so they attack the city, killing all except 400 virgin girls. They give these girls to the survivors of Benjamin, but they are not enough for every surviving man of Benjamin. So, they hatch the idea to let the Benjamites take the young girls of Shiloh during the annual feast. In this way, the people of Shiloh do not "give" their daughters, so the people of Shiloh would not break their vow to not "give" their daughters.

That's how the book of Judges end. There was no king in Israel and people did whatever they wanted.

To me, it is remarkable how they feel that vows should be fulfilled, regardless how bad it would be to fulfill the vow.