Judges 21 Chapter Introduction

Structure and Formatting

In this chapter, the author concludes the story he began in chapter 19 by showing the benefits of Israel having a godly king. He tells how the Israelites realized that they had gone too far in destroying the Benjaminites and how they resorted to further violence and deceit in order to provide wives for the surviving Benjaminites so that they could continue their family lines. The implied information in [21:5](../21/05.md) is that the Israelites thought that if they killed all the people of that city except its young women, they could give them as wives to the surviving men from the tribe of Benjamin.

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

Sin and immorality

At the end of Judges, there is much sin and immorality. The people are doing wrong and are trying to fix their wrongs by doing more evil things. The period of the Judges is typified by this final account and summarized by the author’s closing statement, “A man did the right in his eyes” (ULT), which means that “everyone did what they thought they should do” (UST). The book of Judges ends this way in order to lead into the following part of the biblical narrative, which describes how God chose David to be a godly king of the Israelite people. (See: sin and evil and righteous)