Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.

For as to our own daughters we cannot give them, being bound with an oath and a curse, whereby we said: Cursed be he that shall give Benjamin any of his daughters to wife.

Yet we cannot give them wives of our daughters.| For the people of Israel had sworn, |Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin.|

But, we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.

and we, we are not able to give to them wives out of our daughters, for the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed is he who is giving a wife to Benjamin.'

Seeing that we may not give them our daughters as wives? For the children of Israel had taken an oath, saying, Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.

As for our own daughters, we are not able to give them, being bound by an oath and a curse, when we said, 'Accursed is he who will give any of his daughters to Benjamin as a wife.' "

For the children of Israel have sworn - See Judges 21:1. Compare Saul's rash oath 1-Samuel 14:24, and his breach of the oath made to the Gideonites 2-Samuel 21:2. For the guilt of a broken oath, see Ezekiel 17:15-20; Exodus 20:7.

Howbeit, we may not give them wives of our daughters,.... Though their case was so very necessitous and desperate:
for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin, Judges 21:1 and therefore without the violation of their oath could not give any of their daughters in marriage to them: wherefore some other way must be devised to help them.