¹⁶ The Israelite leaders asked, ‘How can we find wives for the other men of Benjamin? We killed all their own women. ¹⁷ Benjamin's people who are still alive must have children. If they do not, their whole tribe will disappear. ¹⁸ But we cannot allow our daughters to marry them. We promised that we would never do that. We said, “God himself will punish anyone who allows his daughter to marry a man of Benjamin.”