Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin as wife.
The tribe of Benjamin had been almost exterminated, only 600 escapees to the rock of Rimmon remaining.  There was the further fact of those two stupid and ridiculous oaths which they had sworn at Mizpah  (Judges 20).  In the details added here concerning that original meeting, there is another example of the Biblical method.  There is another instance of the same thing in the `recapitulation'  Judges 20:37-48, in which added details of the battle are supplied.