What Does Judges 21:22 Mean?
And it shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to us to strive, that we will say to them, Show them favor for our sake, because we did not take for each man his wife in the war, for you did not give to them at this time, so that you would be guilty.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.THE KEY
A plea for “favor” is used to soften the taking of women, while the defense recasts it as someone else’s failure to give.
THE MEANING
The verse exposes how a group can script a defense that makes coercion sound like a debt owed and places responsibility on the families who object. The women are treated as the answer to Benjamin’s survival, while their own consent is absent from the argument.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Survival does not turn coerced taking into consent, and shifting blame to the women’s families does not remove the takers’ responsibility.
THE ROOT
חָנַן
ḥānan
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
to show favor, be gracious
“Show them favor” in this verse is ḥānan. The elders ask the families to extend favor to the men who take the women. The root holds a plea for graciousness beside the coercion, without making that coercion disappear.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: favor, grace
חֵן
This is the favor the elders ask the families to show the men.
ḥannûn: gracious
חַנּוּן
The same root can describe graciousness itself, making its use here as a plea for leniency stand out.
לָרִיב
lā-rîv
GROWS FROM
ריב
r-y-b
to contend, dispute, bring a case
“strive” in this verse is lā-rîv. The word translated “complain” carries the sense of contending or disputing. The elders prepare their answer before the families arrive, framing their objection as a dispute to be managed rather than a harm to be addressed.
ALSO GROWS
rîb: contention, dispute
רִיב
This noun makes clear that the families’ response is a direct contention with the elders.
merîvāh: quarrel, strife
מְרִיבָה
This branch shows how contention can be framed as interpersonal strife, obscuring the taking at its center.
נְתַתֶּם
netatem
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
to give, set, place
The defense says the families did not “give” women to the men, using transfer language while the women’s own consent remains unspoken. The root’s range, giving, setting, placing, shows how the argument treats them as something men can allocate.
ALSO GROWS
mattān: gift, present
מַתָּן
This branch exposes the transfer logic behind saying the families did not give wives to the men.
mattānāh: gift, present
מַתָּנָה
The shared root links the verse’s language of giving with the language of gifts, though the women are persons rather than gifts.
THE PATTERN
Communities can protect their order by recasting harm as lawful necessity and shifting blame onto those who object.
And two men, sons of Belial, came in and settled before him, and the men of Belial bore witness against him, even against Naboth, before the people, saying, Naboth blessed God and the king. Then they brought him out of the city, and stoned him with stones, and he died.Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who set darkness for light, and light for darkness, who set bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!You have judged against the aligned one and struck him down, and he does not set himself against you.THE THREAD
The LORD is compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, and abounding in faithful love.Both verses draw on חנן (ḥ-n-n), the root of showing favor and being gracious. Psalm 103 names graciousness as a quality of the LORD; Judges shows the same language invoked as a plea to soften the consequences of taking women.
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