---
title: "Judges 21 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/judges/21/
description: "The tribe of Benjamin is saved from being utterly extinct, by providing wives… Judges 21 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Judges 21

Judges 21 is chapter 21 of 21 in the Book of Judges. Here are all 24 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The tribe of Benjamin is saved from being utterly extinct, by providing wives for the six hundred that remained.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Judges 21 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. The sons of Israel had also taken an oath at Mizpah, and they said, “None of us shall give his daughters as a wife to the sons of Benjamin.”
2. And they all went to the house of God at Shiloh. And sitting in his sight until evening, they lifted up their voice, and they began to weep, with a great wailing, saying,
3. “Why, O Lord, God of Israel, has this evil happened among your people, so that this day one tribe would be taken away from us?”
4. Then, rising at first light on the next day, they built an altar. And they offered holocausts and victims of peace offerings there, and they said,
5. “Who, out of all the tribes of Israel, did not ascend with the army of the Lord?” For they had bound themselves with a great oath, when they were at Mizpah, that whoever was not present would be slain.
6. And the sons of Israel, having been led to repentance over their brother Benjamin, began to say: “One tribe has been taken away from Israel.
7. From where shall they receive wives? For we have all sworn in common that we will not give our daughters to them.”
8. For this reason, they said, “Who is there, out of all the tribes of Israel, that did not ascend to the Lord at Mizpah?” And behold, the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead were found not to have been among that army.
9. (Likewise, in the time when they had been at Shiloh, not one of them was found to be there.)
10. And so they sent ten thousand very robust men, and they instructed them, saying, “Go and strike down the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead with the edge of the sword, including their wives and little ones.”
11. And this shall be what you ought to do: “Every one of the male gender, as well as all the women who have known men, shall be put to death. But the virgins you shall reserve.”
12. And four hundred virgins, who had not known the bed of a man, were found from Jabesh-Gilead. And they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan.
13. And they sent messengers to the sons of Benjamin, who were at the rock of Rimmon, and they instructed them, so that they would receive them in peace.
14. And the sons of Benjamin went, at that time, and wives were given to them from the daughters of Jabesh-Gilead. But others were not found, whom they might give in a similar manner.
15. And all of Israel was very saddened, and they did penance for destroying one tribe out of Israel.
16. And those greater by birth said: “What shall we do with the remainder, those who have not received wives? For all the females of Benjamin have been cut down,
17. and we must take great care, and make provision with a very great diligence, so that one tribe may not be wiped away from Israel.
18. As for our own daughters, we are not able to give them, being bound by an oath and a curse, when we said, ‘Accursed is he who will give any of his daughters to Benjamin as a wife.’”
19. And they took counsel, and they said, “Behold, there is a yearly solemnity of the Lord at Shiloh, which is situated to the north of the city of Bethel, and on the eastern side of the way that one takes from Bethel to Shechem, and to the south of the town of Lebonah.”
20. And they instructed the sons of Benjamin, and they said: “Go, and hide in the vineyards.
21. And when you will have seen daughters of Shiloh being led out to dance, according to custom, go forth suddenly from the vineyards, and let each one seize one wife from among them, and travel into the land of Benjamin.
22. And when their fathers and brothers arrive, and they begin to complain against you and to argue, we will say to them: ‘Take pity on them. For they have not seized them by right of war or conquest. Instead, begging to receive them, you did not give them, and so the sin was on your part.’”
23. And so the sons of Benjamin did just as they had been ordered. And according to their number, they seized for themselves one wife each, out of those who were led out dancing. And they went into their own possession, and they built up their cities, and they lived in them.
24. The sons of Israel also returned, according to their tribes and families, to their tents. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Instead, each one did what seemed right to himself.

## Judges 21 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Juraverunt quoque filii Israël in Maspha, et dixerunt: Nullus nostrum dabit filiis Benjamin de filiabus suis uxorem.
2. Veneruntque omnes ad domum Dei in Silo, et in conspectu ejus sedentes usque ad vesperam, levaverunt vocem, et magno ululatu cœperunt flere, dicentes:
3. Quare, Domine Deus Israël, factum est hoc malum in populo tuo, ut hodie una tribus auferretur ex nobis?
4. Altera autem die diluculo consurgentes, exstruxerunt altare: obtuleruntque ibi holocausta, et pacificas victimas, et dixerunt:
5. Quis non ascendit in exercitu Domini de universis tribubus Israël? grandi enim juramento se constrinxerant, cum essent in Maspha, interfici eos qui defuissent.
6. Ductique pœnitentia filii Israël super fratre suo Benjamin, cœperunt dicere: Ablata est tribus una de Israël:
7. unde uxores accipient? omnes enim in commune juravimus, non daturos nos his filias nostras.
8. Idcirco dixerunt: Quis est de universis tribubus Israël, qui non ascendit ad Dominum in Maspha? Et ecce inventi sunt habitatores Jabes Galaad in illo exercitu non fuisse.
9. (Eo quoque tempore cum essent in Silo, nullus ex eis ibi repertus est.)
10. Miserunt itaque decem millia viros robustissimos, et præceperunt eis: Ite, et percutite habitatores Jabes Galaad in ore gladii, tam uxores quam parvulos eorum.
11. Et hoc erit quod observare debebitis: omne generis masculini, et mulieres quæ cognoverunt viros, interficite; virgines autem reservate.
12. Inventæque sunt de Jabes Galaad quadringentæ virgines, quæ nescierunt viri thorum: et adduxerunt eas ad castra in Silo, in terram Chanaan.
13. Miseruntque nuntios ad filios Benjamin, qui erant in petra Remmon, et præceperunt eis, ut eos susciperent in pace.
14. Veneruntque filii Benjamin in illo tempore, et datæ sunt eis uxores de filiabus Jabes Galaad: alias autem non repererunt, quas simili modo traderent.
15. Universusque Israël valde doluit, et egit pœnitentiam super interfectione unius tribus ex Israël.
16. Dixeruntque majores natu: Quid faciemus reliquis, qui non acceperunt uxores? omnes in Benjamin feminæ conciderunt,
17. et magna nobis cura, ingentique studio providendum est, ne una tribus deleatur ex Israël.
18. Filias enim nostras eis dare non possumus, constricti juramento et maledictione qua diximus: Maledictus qui dederit de filiabus suis uxorem Benjamin.
19. Ceperuntque consilium, atque dixerunt: Ecce solemnitas Domini est in Silo anniversaria, quæ sita est ad septentrionem urbis Bethel, et ad orientalem plagam viæ, quæ de Bethel tendit ad Sichimam, et ad meridiem oppidi Lebona.
20. Præceperuntque filiis Benjamin, atque dixerunt: Ite, et latitate in vineis.
21. Cumque videritis filias Silo ad ducendos choros ex more procedere, exite repente de vineis, et rapite ex eis singuli uxores singulas, et pergite in terram Benjamin.
22. Cumque venerint patres earum, ac fratres, et adversum vos queri cœperint atque jurgari, dicemus eis: Miseremini eorum: non enim rapuerunt eas jure bellantium atque victorum: sed rogantibus ut acciperent, non dedistis, et a vestra parte peccatum est.
23. Feceruntque filii Benjamin ut sibi fuerat imperatum: et juxta numerum suum, rapuerunt sibi de his quæ ducebant choros, uxores singulas: abieruntque in possessionem suam ædificantes urbes, et habitantes in eis.
24. Filii quoque Israël reversi sunt per tribus et familias in tabernacula sua. In diebus illis non erat rex in Israël: sed unusquisque quod sibi rectum videbatur, hoc faciebat.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).