They said, There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel.
Judges 21:20-22 record the Israelites’ command to the assailants (cf. Judges 21:10-11). The fathers and brothers of the women would complain because of the treatment these women would receive and because these men would not receive dowries from their sons-in-law as was customary. The Israelites also expected these fathers and brothers to find some consolation in the fact that they had not technically broken the "wife oath."