And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
And this is what you must do: You must completely destroy every male, and every woman who has been with a man.
The writer is recording harsh military instructions to kill all men and non-virgin women in a conquered city.
📚 Historical Context
This verse is part of the tragic conclusion to the book of Judges, describing the civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and the other Israelite tribes. The Israelites had sworn not to give their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites, but then realized this would cause Benjamin to disappear as a tribe. They devised a plan to attack Jabesh-gilead (who hadn't joined the war against Benjamin) and take virgin women as wives for the surviving Benjamite men.
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