The destruction of Benjamin
20
📚Then all the children of Israel 📖 came out from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead. The congregation was gathered together to the LORD as one man in Mizpeh 📖. 2 📚And the leaders of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand foot soldiers who drew sword. 3 📚(Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpeh.) Then the children of Israel said, “Tell us. How did this wickedness happen?”4 📚And the Levite, the husband of the woman who had been killed, answered and said, “I came to Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. 5 📚And the men of Gibeah rose against me and at night surrounded the house where I was, intending to kill me. And they forced my concubine so that she died. 6 📚And I took my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout the whole country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed a lewd and disgraceful act in Israel. 7 📚Look, you are all children of Israel. Give here your advice and counsel”.
8 📚And all the people arose as one man, saying, “Not a one of us will go to his tent, nor will any of us return to his house. 9 📚But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will cast lots 📖 and go up against it, 10 and we will take ten men out of a hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to bring provisions for the people, so that when they arrive at Gibeah in Benjamin, they may deal with them in accordance with all the vileness 📖 that they have committed in Israel”. 11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, united as one man.
12 📚And the tribes of Israel sent men through the whole tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this wickedness that has been done among you? 13 📚Now therefore deliver to us the men, the wicked scoundrels who are in Gibeah, so that we can put them to death and put away evil 📖 from Israel”. But the children of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel, 14 📚but the children of Benjamin gathered together from the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
20:14 This was totally unreasonable. They mobilized to defend guilty men, violent sexual perverts and murderers who were worthy of death, simply because they were of the same tribe. This naturally resulted in a terrible disaster. Let us all understand that defending the guilty is sharing their guilt, and God will punish it. When evil people should be exposed and punished we must not cover up their evil deeds just because they are related to us. If we do, we cannot escape God’s judgment ourselves. See note on v 48.⚜
15 📚And at that time the children of Benjamin from the cities were counted, twenty-six thousand men who drew sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were counted as seven hundred choice men. 16 📚Among all this people seven hundred choice men were left-handed. Each one could sling stones 📖 at a hair and not miss.
17 📚And besides Benjamin, the men of Israel were counted, four hundred thousand men who drew sword. All these were warriors.
18 📚And the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God 📖 and asked counsel of God 📖 and said, “Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin?” And the LORD said, “Judah shall go up first”.
19 📚And the children of Israel got up in the morning and camped against Gibeah. 20 And the men of Israel went out to the battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah. 21 📚And the children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and that day destroyed twenty-two thousand men of the Israelites on the field. 22 📚And the people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves and again set their battle lines in the place where they put themselves in array the first day. 23 📚And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go up again to fight against the children of Benjamin my brother?” And the LORD said, “Go up against him”.
20:23 A different and humbler question than that of v 18. The Lord sent them, but it resulted in further great bloodshed and defeat (v 24). It seems that God was using the occasion to punish all Israel, or at least to teach them some severe lessons. This is not stated in this chapter, but there is enough reason in other parts of Judges to cause us to think so.⚜
24 And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. 25 📚And Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah the second day, and again destroyed eighteen thousand men of the children of Israel on the field. All these were swordsmen.
26 📚Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up and came to the house of God, and wept and sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings 📖 before the LORD.
20:26 They humbled themselves still further to seek the Lord and He heard them.⚜
27 📚And the children of Israel inquired of the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 28 📚and Phinehas 📖, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, “Shall I again go out to fight against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I stop?” And the LORD said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand 📖”.
29 📚And Israel set an ambush around Gibeah. 30 And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. 31 📚And the children of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city, and, as at other times, they began to strike down and kill some of the people, about thirty men of Israel, in the highways, one of which went up to the house of God and the other to Gibeah and in the field.
32 📚And the children of Benjamin said, “They are being struck down before us, just like at first”. But the children of Israel said, “Let us run away and draw them from the city into the highways”.
33 📚And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and put themselves in array at Baal-Tamar, and those of Israel waiting in ambush came out of their places, out of the meadows of Gibeah. 34 📚And ten thousand choice men from all Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce, but the Benjamites did not know that disaster was near them. 35 📚And the LORD struck down Benjamin before Israel; and that day the children of Israel destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of the Benjamites. All these were swordsmen.
20:35 Even with a numerical superiority of 15 to 1 (vs 15,17), it was the Lord who had to give them the victory. No doubt the Benjamites were fierce and skillful fighters, but it is probable also that they had less reluctance to kill their fellow Israelites than their fellow Israelites had to kill them. But at last almost the whole of the armed men of Benjamin were destroyed.⚜
36 📚So the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated; for the men of Israel gave ground to the Benjamites, because they trusted those who were waiting in the ambush they had placed near Gibeah, 37 📚and those who had been in ambush quickly rushed on Gibeah. And those who had been in ambush spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword. 38 📚Now the arranged sign between the men of Israel and those who had been in ambush, was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city. 39 📚And when the men of Israel drew back from the battle, Benjamin began to strike down and kill about thirty of the men of Israel, for they said, “No doubt they are being struck down before us, just as in the first battle”. 40 📚But when the cloud began to rise up from the city like a column of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them and saw the cloud from the city rising up to the sky. 41 📚And when the men of Israel turned back, the men of Benjamin were alarmed, for they saw that disaster had come upon them. 42 📚Therefore they turned their backs on the men of Israel toward the wilderness road. But the battle overtook them, and those who came out of the cities destroyed them between them. 43 📚In this way they surrounded the Benjamites and chased them and easily trampled them down opposite Gibeah toward the sunrise. 44 And eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell. All these were brave men. 45 📚And they turned and fled toward the wilderness toward the rock of Rimmon. And they picked off five thousand of them in the highways, and pursued the rest of them to Gidom and killed two thousand of them.
46 📚So that the total number of the Benjamites who fell that day was twenty-five thousand swordsmen. All these were brave men. 47 📚But six hundred men turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock Rimmon, and stayed at the rock Rimmon for four months. 48 📚And the men of Israel turned back on the children of Benjamin, and struck them down with the edge of the sword, both the men of every city and the cattle and all that was encountered. They also set on fire all the cities to which they came.
20:48 Because of the sin of a few vile men in Gibeah and the senseless defense of them by the Benjamites, more than 65,000 men lost their lives (vs 21,25,35), Gibeah and other cities were destroyed with their population of many thousands more (vs 37,48), and a whole tribe was almost obliterated (v 47; Jud 21:3). Is not the defense of wickedness a very costly matter? The reason it is so costly is this: those who defend wickedness share in the guilt of those they defend and will have God fighting against them.⚜