שופטים, פרק כ״א, פסוק ט״ז

The leadership of Israel faces a severe demographic and moral crisis following a devastating civil war. The tribe of Benjamin stands on the brink of total extinction. Every woman within the tribe has been killed, leaving the surviving men with no way to rebuild their families from within their own ranks [מצודת דוד, מצודת ציון].

Out of the six hundred men who survived the war, four hundred have already been provided with wives from Jabesh Gilead. The elders now seek a practical solution for the remaining two hundred men [מצודת דוד, אברבנאל]. Although the four hundred marriages could theoretically allow the tribe to continue, the elders remain deeply concerned. They fear that some of these men might die without sons or face a plague from God. To ensure the tribe is not permanently erased from Israel, they feel an existential need to secure wives for every remaining survivor to increase their numbers as much as possible [אברבנאל].

Driven by this distress, the elders, acting as the Sanhedrin, explore whether the national oath forbidding the Israelites from giving their daughters to the men of Benjamin can be annulled. They reason that when the oath was originally made, the intention was simply to avoid intermarriage, under the assumption that the Benjaminites would marry within their own tribe. The complete slaughter of Benjamin's women and children was never anticipated. This unforeseen reality provides a legal and moral opening to express regret over the initial vow [מלבי״ם].

However, despite this opening, the elders recognize that they still cannot give their daughters to the Benjaminites directly. Forced to navigate the binding nature of their vow, they must find a clever, alternative method to provide wives for the remaining men and ensure the survival of the tribe [אברבנאל, ביאור שטיינזלץ].