17 They said, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be wiped out from Israel.
18 Yet we cannot give them any of our daughters in marriage.” For the Israelites had taken an oath, “Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin!”
19 Then they thought of the yearly feast of the Lord at Shiloh, north of Bethel, east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.
20 And they instructed the Benjaminites, “Go and set an ambush in the vineyards.
21 When you see the women of Shiloh come out to join in the dances, come out of the vineyards and catch a wife for each of you from the women of Shiloh; then go on to the land of Benjamin.
22 When their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we shall say to them, ‘Release them to us as a kindness, since we did not take a woman for every man in battle. Nor did you yourselves give your daughters to them, thus incurring guilt.’”
23 The Benjaminites did this; they carried off wives for each of them from the dancers they had seized, and they went back each to his own heritage, where they rebuilt the cities and settled them.