Judges 21:1 says, Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.  The men of Israel swore that they would not give their daughters as wives to any man from the tribe of Benjamin.  Matthew Henry said this was like an article of war, that anyone who would marry his daughter to a man from Benjamin did not take seriously the great sin that some of the men of Benjamin had committed and that others fought against those who would have punished them.  Verse two states, And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;   Then the people of Israel came to the house of God, and stayed there till evening, and wept.  They were not celebrating the victory over the tribe of Benjamin, but were mourning their demise of the people of Benjamin.  Matthew Henry says it was more a sorrow for the people of Benjamin then for their own dead.  We should mourn those today who are killed without knowing God, because even though the men of Benjamin were a part of the children of God in name, they did not know Him spiritually.  Verse three declares, And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?  The people of Israel then asked God the question that we too often ask, and that is why?  They wanted to know how it had happened that a tribe of Israel could become so corrupt as to be totally cut out of the people of Israel.  What we can be certain of is that it wasn't God's responsibility, but it was the lack of obedience on the part of the people of Benjamin.  Verse four says, And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.  The next morning, the people arose early and built an altar to God and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.  Their questioning of God did not stop their worshipping God, and neither should ours today.  We are not always going to understand why things happen in this world, but we should never allow that to stop us from worshipping God if we are His people.  Verse five states, And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the LORD to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death.  They next asked if there were those of the people of Israel who had not come there to worship.  If so, this would have meant that they did not take this solemn occasion seriously, and they were ordered to be put to death if they had not.  The people of Israel were very serious about being in a right relationship with God.  Though I don't believe that we should kill those who profess to be Christians today and yet do not obey God, we need to take our relationship with God seriously, both individually and collectively.  Verse six adds, And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.  The rest of the people of Israel repented for the fact that the tribe of Benjamin had been cut off from the nation of Israel.  We should always be saddened when anyone who professes to be a part of the followers of Christ is proven by his or her actions to not be, as the actions of the tribe of Benjamin proved in that day.  Verse seven asks, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?  Even though they had sworn not to allow their daughters to be wives to the men of Benjamin who may have remained, they asked how these men were going to get wives.  They were not plotting the demise of the rest of the men of Benjamin, but were attempting ot figure out how they might be preserved.  Our concern today should not be the eradication of evil people, but it should be a concern for how to bring them to salvation.  Verse eight declares, And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the LORD? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabeshgilead to the assembly.  They then asked if there were any of the people of Israel who had not come to the assembly.  There were none there from the people of Jabeshgilead.  Verse nine adds, For the people were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead there.  The people gathered there were numbered and it was found that the people of Jabeshgilead were not there.  If God's people were numbered today, would we be among them, or would we be found to be missing.  Verse ten says, And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.  The people of Israel dispatched twelve thousand men to Jabeshgilead to kill all the men and married women in the city.  Verse eleven  states, And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.  The command was repeated in this verse.  We are not told if the people consulted God about this plan or not.  We need to make sure that our plans are God's plans if we are His people.  This was the solution of the people of Israel to provide wives for the remainder of the men of Benjamin, as we shall see.