In those days there was no king in Israel, &c.— The sacred writer, no doubt, repeats this observation to account for the disorders and enormities mentioned in the four preceding Chapter s, which, as they exhibit a most depraved state of things, so are they, we apprehend, by no means to be justified. It is a natural inference, that men ought to be extremely thankful for lawful authority: and, if they would preserve their happiness, ought to be zealous to support that authority, as well as to discourage all licentious approaches toward its dissolution. The Persians have a custom which justifies this reflection. When any of their kings die, they suffer the people to do as they please for five days; that, by the disorders then committed, they may see the necessity of legal government, and learn submission to it. In general, the four Chapter s which conclude this book shew us to what a degree the Israelites were degenerated, in the short space from the death of Caleb to the election of his younger brother to be their judge: we discover the true cause of the chastisements wherewith God punished them from time to time, though he delivered them from their enemies, under whose yoke they must infallibly have fallen, if God had not beheld them with compassion, and raised them up judges to save them from ruin. We just remark, in conclusion, that it would be unreasonable to draw any inference from the tumultuous and irregular actions of a tribe or people to the lessening of the authority of the writer of any history. The writer of the present book ought rather to be admired for the impartiality with which he relates facts so little to the credit of his nation.
REFLECTIONS.—We have here the expedient used to provide wives for the remaining two hundred men of Benjamin without violation of their oaths. A bad expedient, it is true; but better than none.
1. At one of the annual feasts, probably the feast of tabernacles, the daughters of Shiloh used to meet, in a place at some distance from the city, to rejoice before the Lord, as David afterwards did, with sacred music and dancing. It was not a mixed company or lewd assembly; all men were excluded, which made the following scheme more easily put in execution. Note; They who plead Scripture to countenance the modern mixed assemblies, neither consider the manner nor the end of the precedents they quote.
2. The elders advise the two hundred men to lie in wait near the place where this solemnity was kept, and, when the virgins came thither, to rush in, take each a wife, and retire; promising to be their advocates with the enraged fathers of the damsels, whose oath was not broken, because they were forcibly taken; and who need not think their daughters ill disposed of, when among these few survivors the whole inheritance of Benjamin must now be divided. Note; (1.) One rash step draws on a train of bad consequences. Had they been more considerate in their vow, they had not been reduced to so disagreeable an expedient. (2.) Though a stolen match is both sinful before God, and unjust towards man, parents must not be implacable in their resentments, but, on proper submission, receive their children into favour again.
3. The men of Benjamin followed the advice, and succeeded; and thus the survivors of the tribe are again settled, and in a way to repair its desolations. The children of Israel disband; every man returns to his inheritance; and it is again repeated, that there was no king in Israel, as the cause of all the evil and confusions related in the foregoing Chapter s. Note; Next to a good ministry, we have reason to esteem magistracy among the chief of earthly blessings; and if we know our own mercies, we have much reason to be thankful to God, that there is not only a king in England, but such a King!