Discovery BoxJudges 21:5 
Context21:5 The Israelites asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes has not assembled before the Lord?” They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed. 1
Judges 21:11
Context21:11 Do this: 2 exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male. 3 But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed. 4
Judges 21:18
Context21:18 But we can’t allow our daughters to marry them, 5 for the Israelites took an oath, saying, ‘Whoever gives a woman to a Benjaminite will be destroyed!’ 6
1 tn Heb “A great oath there was concerning the one who did not go up before the Lord at Mizpah, saying, ‘He must surely be put to death.’”
2 tn Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”
3 tn Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”
4 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.
5 tn Heb “But we are not able to give to them wives from our daughters.”
6 tn Heb “is cursed.”
