Judges 21:8-14 – Look before you leap

Feeling sorry that they could lose the whole tribe of Benjamin completely, the Israelites began to feel remorse. They regretted their action of making the pledge not to allow them to marry any of the women from the other tribes. They thought of a way to circumvent the path that they had made. They remembered that when they called for all of Israel to gather at Mizpah to deal with the Benjamites, there was a group of brethren visibly absent from the assembly. They were the men from Jabesh-gilead, for not a single one of them turned up for what considered as an urgent task.

In another rash decision, they sent a troop of 12.000 men to annihilate the whole city. They were told, in verses 10-11“Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every man and every woman who has lain with a man.” They were told to spare the virgins. So, when they came to punish the people of Jabesh-gilead, they found 400 virgins whom they spared. They did this because they wanted to erase the effect of one rash vow. In their scheme, they selected to implement another so that they could circumvent the one made rashly earlier.   

The 12,000 who went up to punish the people of Jabesh-gilead and brought the 400 virgins back to Shiloh where the Tabernacle was pitched. The united tribes then raised an olive branch to the 600 Benjamites hiding in the Rock of Rimmon. So those remnants of the Benjamites returned and married the virgins. However, there was a shortage and 200 of them who could not find a wife.

The people of Israel had shown that they were men who were given to impulse.  They had consistently shown how impetuous they could be. They would be better served had they taken time to reflect and think through before the act. The paradox of life is that while we are asked to strike while the iron is hot, we are also required to look before we leap. Let’s remember to strike while the iron is hot but with after thoughtful and careful deliberation. It is always more difficult to undo a wrong move taken. Hence, we must always keep in view the God-honoring objective we desire to accomplish. May the name of our God be glorified in every endeavor we undertake!