שופטים, פרק כ״א, פסוק כ״ד

Following the bloody civil war and the effort to secure wives for the surviving men of Benjamin, the Israelite nation scatters, with every man returning to his own home. This moment marks the conclusion of the crisis [מצודת דוד], but it also stands as a significant historical milestone. For a long time afterward, this dispersal would be the last action the tribes of Israel took as a single, united body [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The peaceful return to their own lands highlights a profound moral correction and restraint among the victorious tribes. Despite their overwhelming military success, no tribe took advantage of the situation to seize Benjamin's ruined territories. Having learned a hard lesson from the recent tragedy, the Israelites left the entire inheritance of the twenty-six thousand fallen Benjaminites exclusively for the six hundred survivors [מצודת דוד, אלשיך]. This restraint allowed the men of Benjamin to return home and rebuild their cities, reflecting the providence of God, as He ensured that no tribe would be erased from Israel [רלב״ג].

However, this swift return home is also viewed as a tragic missed opportunity for the nation. While the entire people were already gathered together, they should have used the moment to repair their deep spiritual and social fractures by appointing a king or a judge to lead them. Instead, they merely scattered, leaving their fragile and unstable reality exactly as it was [מלבי״ם]. This reality, where every person simply went his own way without any central guidance, was the root cause of the chaotic and disorganized decisions that plagued the end of the war, such as the destruction of Jabesh-gilead and the kidnapping of the young women in Shiloh [אברבנאל].

The exact timing of this national dispersal and the events leading up to it remains a subject of discussion. Some place these events at the very beginning of the era of the Judges, shortly after the death of Joshua and before any new leadership had been established. Others argue that these incidents occurred much later in history, after the era of Samson, which is why they are recorded at the very end of the era's history [מלבי״ם, אברבנאל].