Bible Strands
Judges 21:4
The next day the people got up early, built an altar there, and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Following the Israelites’ mourning over a missing tribe and their binding oath at Mizpah, the assembled community gathers at the sacred site to address the crisis.
The words — מִזְבֵּ֑חַ (miz.Be.ach) = an altar [H4196]; וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֣ימוּ (va/i.yash.Ki.mu) = and/ they rose early [H7925]. The text records the people rising at dawn to construct a local altar and present offerings.
The thread — This pattern of immediate altar-building and sacrifice appears in Exodus 20:24 as the prescribed response to divine presence, is repeated by David in 2 Samuel 24:25 after a plague, and echoes the command in Judges 6:26 to establish a proper altar on a stronghold.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that ritual action precedes political resolution, showing the community turning to prescribed worship before investigating the oath violation or addressing the missing tribe.
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.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 24:25 And there he built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then the LORD answered the prayers on behalf of the land, and the plague upon Israel was halted.
- Exodus 20:24 You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.
- Judges 6:26 Then build a proper altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold. And with the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down, take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering.”
- 2 Samuel 24:18 And that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
- 1 Kings 8:64 On that same day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD, and there he offered the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to contain all these offerings.
- Psalms 78:34 When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God.
- Hosea 5:15 Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
- Hebrews 13:10 We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat.