This passage is often misinterpreted as divine endorsement of genocide or indiscriminate slaughter, ignoring that it records human actions in a chaotic era without a king, not a direct command from God; others wrongly view it through modern ethical lenses as justifying violence against women and children without recognizing the ancient Near Eastern context of total war against covenant violators or the narrative's critique of Israel's depravity; some cherry-pick it to attack biblical morality, missing its role in illustrating the need for righteous judges and ultimately a king like David, pointing toward messianic hope.
Judges 21:10
King James Version (1769)
10 And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh–gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.
Judges 21:10 depicts the Israelites' desperate and morally compromised measures during a time of tribal crisis after nearly exterminating the tribe of Benjamin due to civil war and rash vows; the congregation sends 12,000 valiant men to destroy Jabesh-gilead for failing to join the assembly against Benjamin, sparing only virgin girls as wives for the survivors, underscoring the book's theme of anarchy in Israel where 'every man did that which was right in his own eyes,' revealing the destructive cycle of sin, vengeance, and human solutions absent godly leadership.