Judges 21:20

Study note

Setting — Judges 21:20 records the Israelite leaders issuing a direct command to the surviving Benjamites immediately after identifying the location of the Shiloh feast. The order is delivered at the precise moment the community prepares to execute its plan for securing wives.

The words — The verse hinges on לְכ֖וּ (le.Khu, "go") and וַ/אֲרַבְתֶּ֥ם (va./'a.rav.Tem, "and you will lie in wait") directed at the descendants of Benjamin. These imperatives establish the physical positioning required before the daughters of Shiloh emerge from the gathering.

The thread — Judges 21:20 functions as the middle step in a three-part instruction that spans Judges 21:19 through Judges 21:21. The text moves sequentially from location identification to concealment in the vineyards, then to the observation and capture of the dancing women.

Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to track a calculated procedure rather than a spiritual event. It asks you to note how the command structures movement, timing, and action within a single narrative sequence.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.