19 Then they thought, “The yearly festival of the Lord at Shiloh is coming soon.” (Shiloh is north of Bethel, south of Lebonah, and east of the road between Bethel and Shechem.)
20 They said to the Benjaminites, “Go and hide in the vineyards
21 and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to dance during the festival, you come out of the vineyards. Each of you take a wife by force from among them and take her back to the territory of Benjamin with you.
22 If their fathers or brothers come to you and protest, you can say, ‘Please let us keep them, because we did not take them from you in battle to be our wives. And since you did not give them to us, you are not guilty of breaking your promise.’ ”
23 The Benjaminites did this; each of them chose a wife from the women who were dancing at Shiloh and carried her away. Then they went back to their own territory, rebuilt their towns, and lived there.
24 At the same time the rest of the Israelites left, and every man went back to his own tribe and family and to his own property.
25 There was no king in Israel at that time. All the people did just as they pleased.