Self-disciplined?

by Ben

I decided to go back and finish off Judges, which I had been reading earlier in the year and was so rudely interrupted by the summer camp season.

I read Judges 17-21. There were many different stories within this section: from Micah's servant priest to the slaughter and then forgiveness of the tribe of Benjamin. The real thing that gets me with this section is that there are so many things that the Israelites do that there is no comment of whether they are good or ill. Most of which seem awful by today's mindset. Take their solution to the fact that the tribe of Benjamin may die out from not having anymore women (who, by the way, were killed by the other Israelites):

The people decide that the remaining men of Benjamin who do not have wives should wait until there is a festival in Shiloh and they should "go and hide in the vineyards. When the women of Shiloh come out for their dances, rush out from the vineyards, and each of you can take one of them home to be your wife!" This gets them around the promise to God that Israel made saying that none of them would give their daughters to the member of another tribe. It's not giving if the men of Benjamin just take them! Yet there is no comment on this behavior, save one line which is repeated throughout the book of Judges: "In those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes."

Well, isn't that just lovely.