Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 21:22

"And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come to complain unto us, that we will say unto them, Grant them graciously unto us, because we took not for each man [of them] his wife in battle, neither did ye give them unto them, else would ye now be guilty." — Judges 21:22 (ASV)

Be favorable to them for our sakes. —Rather, Present them (otham, masculine, as in Judges 21:12) to us; or (as in the margin), Gratify us in them.

The verse is somewhat obscure, but its general meaning is a promise to pacify the parents of the young women, by showing them that in this way they did not violate the cherem, and that the cause was urgent.

Perhaps they would be more readily consoled because the land of these six hundred Benjamites must now have been far more than was necessary for their needs. They had become possessors of the portion of the whole tribe.

Perhaps the reading should be, Gratify us regarding these young women, for they (the Benjamites) have not each received his wife through the war.

At this time. —Rather, perhaps, in that case (that is, “if you had given them your daughters in marriage, you would be guilty”). We are left to assume that the appeal of the elders to the parents whose two hundred daughters were seized in this way was sufficient to pacify them.