The elders hasten to add, in effect, Don’t worry about the girls’ fathers. We have that covered, after you return to your own tribal territory. When their fathers or brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, Grant them graciously to us, because we did not take for each man of them his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else you would not be guilty.
The logic here is that the elders will use the Mizpah oath against the girls' fathers. Help us help the Benjamites, because we did not get wives for them during the war, and you are innocent, you did not break the oath, because you did not give your daughters in marriage to them. The Benjamites seized them from you.
That is the logic in the elders’ plan. Isn’t that big of them? We all keep our oaths, and Benjamin can now thrive once again as a tribe.
But this is part of their perversity that kickstarted this whole solution. If the girls’ fathers and brothers come to complain, they will be asked to simply accept the abduction. This is a solution that is right in the eyes of the elders. It’s their own version of morality. They have solved their problem, but in such a way as to overturn all measure of truth and morality. They have created a world in which right is wrong and wrong is right, and brought the nation to moral bankruptcy.
22 And when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Grant them graciously to us, because we did not take for each man of them his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty.’”