שופטים, פרק כ״א, פסוק כ״ב

The leaders of Israel are caught in a delicate balancing act, preparing to face the fury of the families whose daughters were taken from Shiloh. They must craft a careful diplomatic and legal defense to calm the outraged relatives, ensure the survival of the tribe of Benjamin, and navigate the complex religious dilemma caused by a national oath forbidding anyone from marrying their daughters to the Benjaminites.

The leaders anticipate that the fathers and brothers of the taken girls will soon arrive to demand justice. The relatives might seek legal intervention to force the return of the young women [מצודת דוד, שטיינזלץ], or they might even go so far as to launch a full-scale war [רש״י]. To defuse the tension, the leaders plan to appeal directly to the families' sense of compassion and forgiveness. The primary approach among commentators is that the leaders will make a deeply personal request: they will ask the families to accept the situation for the sake of the leadership, to have mercy on the Benjaminites, and to leave the young women with them as a sort of gift [רד״ק]. They will emphasize that this is a time of desperate need, as the surviving men of Benjamin have no other way to rebuild their shattered lives [רש״י, רלב״ג, מצודת דוד]. Offering a different perspective, [מלבי״ם] understands the leaders' response not as a plea, but as a rhetorical challenge, asking the families if they truly expect the nation to fight the kidnappers and retrieve the women now that they have already been taken and married.

To further justify the extreme measures taken, the leaders present a practical and historical argument. They explain that during their previous military campaign in Yabesh Gilead, they simply did not capture enough women to provide a wife for every surviving Benjaminite [רש״י, מצודת דוד, שטיינזלץ]. While taking a wife by force is certainly not the normal way of the world, in this specific instance, it is an absolute necessity to prevent an entire tribe from being wiped out [רלב״ג]. The obligation to preserve the tribe is paramount; as [רד״ק] notes, God had promised Jacob that kings would descend from him, a promise that specifically pointed toward the tribe of Benjamin, which had not yet been born at that time.

Finally, the leaders address the families' greatest moral and religious fear: the dread of violating the severe national oath that forbade giving Israelite daughters to the men of Benjamin. The commentators agree that the solution rests on the precise nature of the vow. The prohibition only applied to willingly handing over a woman, as is done in a standard marriage. Because the families did not give their daughters away, but rather the women were taken by force, the families bear absolutely no sin and have not broken the oath [רש״י, מצודת דוד, שטיינזלץ, מלבי״ם]. In fact, several commentators turn the concept of guilt entirely around, warning the families that if they now insist on fighting to take the young women back, they themselves will bear the heavy burden of guilt for causing a tribe of Israel to be erased forever [רלב״ג, אלשיך].