¹⁶ So the leaders of the gathering said, “There are no more women in the tribe of Benjamin. What shall we do to provide wives for the men who are left? ¹⁷ Israel must not lose one of its twelve tribes. We must find a way for the tribe of Benjamin to survive, ¹⁸ but we cannot allow them to marry our daughters, because we have put a curse on anyone who allows a Benjaminite to marry one of our daughters.”