1. Now the children of Israel had also sworn in Maspha, saying: None of us shall give of his daughters to the children of Benjamin to wife.
2. And they all came to the house of God in Silo, and abiding before him till the evening, lifted up their voices, and began to lament and weep, saying:
3. O Lord God of Israel, why is so great an evil come to pass in thy people, that this day one tribe should be taken away from among us?
4. And rising early the next day, they built an altar: and offered there holocausts, and victims of peace, and they said: