21:23 The Benjaminites did as instructed. 4 They abducted two hundred of the dancing girls to be their wives. 5 They went home 6 to their own territory, 7 rebuilt their cities, and settled down. 8
1 tn Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”
2 tn Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”
3 tc Some Greek witnesses (notably Codex Vaticanus [B]) add the words, “‘But the virgins you should keep alive.’ And they did so.” These additional words, which probably represent the original Hebrew text, can be retroverted: וְאֶת־הַבְּתוּלוֹת תְּחַיּוּ וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כֵן (ve’et-habbÿtulot tÿkhayyu vayya’asu khen). It is likely that a scribe’s eye jumped from the vav (ו) on וְאֶת (vÿ’et) to the initial vav of v. 11, accidentally leaving out the intervening letters. The present translation is based on this reconstruction.
4 tn Heb “did so.”
5 tn Heb “And they took wives according to their number from the dancing girls whom they abducted.”
6 tn Heb “went and returned.”
7 tn Heb “inheritance.”
8 tn Heb “and lived in them.”