The elders ask rather than propose a solution to invite collective wisdom and shared responsibility for a crisis they themselves created through their hasty oath at Mizpah. The interrogative form acknowledges their dilemma while opening space for communal problem-solving in a situation where they had sworn not to give their daughters to Benjamin.

The elders answered their own question by devising a plan: they would attack Jabesh-gilead, whose citizens had not joined the assembly, kill everyone except virgin women, and give these women to the Benjamites as wives (Judges 21:8-12).

The elders’ question exposes the tragic irony of their situation: they are asking how to provide wives for men whose women they themselves destroyed. The Hebrew construction uses mah-na’aseh, meaning what shall we do or how shall we make, emphasizing their active search for a solution to a self-inflicted crisis. They ask rather than declare because they recognize the moral and legal bind created by their oath at Mizpah not to give their daughters to Benjamin. The question form reveals their recognition that conventional solutions are blocked by their own vow. This moment captures the book of Judges’ central tragedy: everyone doing what is right in their own eyes leads to cycles of violence where even attempts at restoration require further bloodshed. The elders’ concern for Benjamin’s survival is genuine, yet their methods reveal hearts still unredeemed by God’s wisdom.