Judges 21:11 (KJV)

What does Judges 21:11 mean?

Judges 21:11 commands the Israelites to kill every male and every woman who has slept with a man in Jabesh-gilead, sparing only the young women who are virgins. This instruction is part of a specific order given during a violent episode at the end of the book of Judges.

The leaders of Israel are speaking to their warriors after discovering that no one from Jabesh-gilead joined them in a previous assembly. In response, they order a complete destruction—except for the unmarried young women—so that these survivors can be given as wives to the tribe of Benjamin, which had been nearly wiped out. The verse reflects the harsh and chaotic period described in Judges, where the Israelites often acted out of desperation and without central leadership.

The Hebrew behind Judges 21:11

• "Destroy" (הַחֲרֵם, hacharem) means to put under a ban or devote to destruction, often used for total destruction in warfare. This word signals that the action was meant to be complete and without exception, except as specified.
• "Male" (זָכָר, zakar) and "woman" (אִשָּׁה, ishah) are both specific, making clear that all adult men and sexually active women were to be killed, not just combatants.
• "Lain" (מִשְׁכַּב, mishkav) comes from a word meaning to lie with sexually, clarifying that only women who had not had sexual relations (virgins) were to be spared.

Why Judges 21:11 matters

• This verse shows the extreme measures the Israelites took to solve the crisis of the tribe of Benjamin’s near extinction, highlighting the moral and social confusion of the time.
• The specific mention of sparing only virgins explains how the Israelites intended to provide wives for the surviving Benjaminites, connecting to the larger narrative of Judges 21.
• The harshness of the command can be troubling, but it helps readers understand the desperate and lawless context in which these decisions were made, emphasizing the repeated theme in Judges that “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”