¹⁶ The elders in the assembly said, “How are we going to provide wives for the rest of them? For the women of Benjamin have been annihilated.” ¹⁷ They said, “The Benjaminite survivors must have an inheritance, so that a tribe of Israel will not be blotted out. ¹⁸ We cannot give them our daughters as wives, for the Israelites have sworn an oath saying, ‘Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin!’ ”