Meaning, commentary and cross references
Judges 21:25
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”In other translations
KJV · King James Version
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
NIV · New International Version
In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.
WEB · World English Bible
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.
What does Judges 21:25 mean?
John Gill · Exposition of the Entire Bible, on Judges 21:25
In those days there was no king in Israel,.... No supreme magistrate, Joshua being dead, and as yet no judge in Israel had risen up; for all related in the five last chapters of this book were done between the death of Joshua and the time of the judges: every man did that which was right in his own eyes; there being none to restrain him from it, or punish him for it; and this accounts for the many evil things related, as the idolatry of Micah and the Danites, the base usage of the Levite's concubine, the extreme rigour and severity with which the Israelites treated their brethren the Benjaminites, the slaughter of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead, and the rape of the daughters of Shiloh.
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).
Context: Judges 21:22–25 (WEB)
22It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, ‘Grant them graciously to us, because we didn’t take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them; otherwise you would now be guilty.’” 23The children of Benjamin did so, and took wives for themselves according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them. 24The children of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they each went out from there to his own inheritance. 25In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.
Cross references
- Deuteronomy 12:8
You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes;
- Judges 17:6
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.
- Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.
- Ecclesiastes 11:9
Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
- Proverbs 14:12
There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
- Judges 19:1
In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took for himself a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.
- Judges 18:1
In those days there was no king in Israel. In those days the tribe of the Danites sought an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day, their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.
- Micah 2:1–2
Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.