So they said, “Behold, there is a feast of the Lord from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south side of Lebonah.”
Parallel translations
- WEB They said, “Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.”
- KJV Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
- BSB “But look,” they said, “there is a yearly feast to the LORD in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel east of the road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”
- NKJV Then they said, “In fact, there is a yearly feast of the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”
- NLT Then they thought of the annual festival of the Lord held in Shiloh, south of Lebonah and north of Bethel, along the east side of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The elders recalled an annual feast of Yahweh at Shiloh, where young women would dance.
Overview
They pointed to a yearly festival at Shiloh, the location of the tabernacle, as an opportunity to obtain wives. The detailed directions locate Shiloh precisely for the plan that follows. That a sacred feast becomes the setting for an abduction scheme shows how distorted Israel's spiritual life had become in this lawless era.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Exod 23:14–16“You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.
- Ps 81:3Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.
- Num 29:12“‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. You shall keep a feast to Yahweh seven days.
- Num 28:26“‘Also in the day of the first fruits, when you offer a new meal offering to Yahweh in your feast of weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work;
- Lev 23:2“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The set feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my set feasts.
- Lev 23:4“‘These are the set feasts of Yahweh, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed season.
- Lev 23:6On the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to Yahweh. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
- Lev 23:34“Speak to the children of Israel, and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tents for seven days to Yahweh.
- Lev 23:10“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest:
- Judg 18:31So they set up for themselves Micah’s engraved image which he made, and it remained all the time that God’s house was in Shiloh.
- Deut 16:1Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
- Deut 16:13You shall keep the feast of tents seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press.
- Deut 16:10You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you.
- Josh 18:1The whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled themselves together at Shiloh, and set up the Tent of Meeting there. The land was subdued before them.
- 1 Sam 1:3This man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice to Yahweh of Armies in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests to Yahweh, were there.
- John 7:2Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.
- Num 10:10“Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God. I am Yahweh your God.”
- John 5:1After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
- Num 28:16“‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is Yahweh’s Passover.
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Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 21:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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