Judges 21:1

Easy To Read Version

At Mizpah, the men of Israel made a promise. This was their promise: “Not one of us will let his daughter marry a man from the family group of Benjamin.”

Cross References

Ecclesiastes 5:2

Be careful when you make promises to God. Be careful about the things you say to God. Don’t let your feelings cause you to speak too soon. God is in heaven, and you are on the earth. So you need to say only a few things to God. This saying is true:

Jeremiah 4:2

If you do those things,\par then you will be able to use my name\par to make a promise:\par You will be able to say,\par ‘As the Lord lives.’\par And you will be able to use those words\par in a truthful, honest, and right way.\par If you do these things, then the nations\par will be blessed by the Lord.\par They will brag about the things\par that the Lord has done.”\par

Jeremiah 40:6

So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. Jeremiah stayed with Gedaliah among the people that were left behind in the land of Judah.

Mark 6:23

Herod promised her, “Anything you ask for I will give to you. I will even give you half of my kingdom.”

Acts 23:12

The next morning some of the Jews made a plan. They wanted to kill Paul. The Jews made a promise (vow) to themselves that they would not eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul.

Romans 10:2

I can say this about the Jews: They really try to follow God. But they don’t know the right way.

Judges 20:1

So all the people of Israel joined together. They all came together to stand before the Lord in the city of Mizpah. People came from everywhere in Israel. [166] Even the Israelite people from Gilead [167] were there.

Judges 20:10

We will choose ten men from every 100 from all the family groups of Israel. And we will choose 100 men from every 1,000. We will choose 1,000 men from every 10,000. Those men we have chosen will get supplies for the army. Then the army will go to the city of Gibeah in the area of Benjamin. The army will punish those people for the terrible thing they did among the people of Israel.”

Judges 20:48

The men of Israel went back to the land of Benjamin. They killed the people in every city they came to. They also killed all the animals. They destroyed everything they could find. They burned every city they came to.

Judges 20:8

Then all the people stood up at the same time. They said together, “None of us will go home. No, not one of us will go back to his house.

Judges 21:18

But we cannot allow our daughters to marry the men of Benjamin. We have made this promise: ‘Bad things will happen to anyone that gives a wife to a man of Benjamin.’

Judges 21:22

The fathers or brothers of those young women will come and complain to us. But we will say, ‘Be kind to the men of Benjamin. Let them marry those women. They took women from you, but they did not make war against you. They took the women, so you didn’t break your promise to God. You promised that you would not give them women to marry—you did not give the women to the men of Benjamin, they took the women from you! So you did not break your promise.’”

Judges 21:5

Then the people of Israel said, “Are there any family groups of Israel that did not come here to meet with us before the Lord?” They asked this question because they had made a serious promise. They had promised that anyone that did not come together with the other family groups at the city of Mizpah would be killed.

Judges 21:7

We made a promise before the Lord. We promised not to allow our daughters to marry a man from Benjamin. How can we make sure that the men of Benjamin will have wives?

1 Samuel 14:24

But Saul made a big mistake that day. [132] The Israelites were tired and hungry. This was because Saul forced the people to make this promise: Saul said, “If any man eats food before evening comes and before I finish defeating my enemies, then that man will be punished!” So none of the Israelite soldiers ate any food.