6 The Israelites felt sorry for their relatives, the Benjaminites. They said, “Today one tribe has been cut off from Israel.
7 We swore before the Lord that we would not allow our daughters to marry a Benjaminite. How can we make sure that the remaining men of Benjamin will have wives?”
8 Then they asked, “Which one of the tribes of Israel did not come here to Mizpah?” They found that no one from the city of Jabesh Gilead had come.
9 The people of Israel counted everyone, but there was no one from Jabesh Gilead.
10 So the whole group of Israelites sent twelve thousand soldiers to Jabesh Gilead to kill the people with their swords, even the women and children.
11 “This is what you must do: Kill every man in Jabesh Gilead and every married woman.”
12 The soldiers found four hundred young unmarried women in Jabesh Gilead, so they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.