When the young women of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, rush from the vineyards and each of you seize one of them to be your wife. Then return to the land of Benjamin. – Judges 21:21

Today's Scripture Reading (April 20, 2025): Judges 21

It is a mathematical principle but not a moral one. I remember learning in math class in grade school that a negative number multiplied by a second negative number results in a positive number. I guess that makes sense, but don't ask me to explain it to you. On a moral plain, we sometimes seem to think that a second wrong can correct the first wrong we committed. But another principle I was taught in grade school says that isn't true. Two wrongs don't make a right. 

But that doesn't seem to stop us. So, we try to cover up for a lie by telling a bigger lie. When we are caught doing something wrong, we follow the advice of those who have gone before us and deny, deny, deny. 

In the wake of the disaster at Gibeah, Israel has a problem. If the tragedy at Gibeah was not enough, it was about to be compounded by a second tragedy, the destruction of the Tribe of Benjamin. And so, Israel gathers one more time to discuss what should take place next. The most obvious answer was that the tribes should give their daughters in marriage to the 400 warriors of Benjamin who were left after the war. But the tribes had sworn an oath not to give their daughters to Benjamin because of the sin at Gibeah. It was a foolish oath.

Maybe the appropriate response was to admit that the oath was a mistake, ask for forgiveness, and move on. But that is not what the tribes decide to do. Instead, they seem to believe the first mistake could be corrected with a second one. They decide that the men of Benjamin could be set up to kidnap their wives from the other tribes. There is some understanding that maybe the women were in on the set-up and were willing participants in the kidnapping, but we don't know that. Essentially, the plan was to have the warriors of Benjamin steal the women without the tribal leaders having to agree with the marriage. The leaders of Israel were telling these men to do something illegal but promising not to prosecute them for their sins. Maybe it somehow made sense to them, but there was an easier way.

All of this is summed by the phrase that encapsulates the time of the judges. "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit." The plan had originated within the fallible minds of men instead of in the will of the God they pretended to serve. And the second wrong was complicating the situation instead of making it right.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Judges 1