And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.
There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day - i:e., in danger of becoming extinct; for, as it appears from Judges 21:7, they had massacred all the women and children of Benjamin, and 600 men alone survived of the whole tribe. The prospect of such a hole in the catalogue of the twelve tribes-such a gap in the national arrangements-was too painful to contemplate, and immediate measures must be taken to prevent this great catastrophe.