Judges 20:18
Ver. 18. And the children of Israel arose,.... From Mizpeh, where they were assembled, having heard that the Benjaminites were gathered together to defend the men of Gibeah:
and went up to the house of God; to the tabernacle which was in Shiloh, Jud 18:31, see Jos 18:1 though the Targum takes Bethel for the name of a place so called; and so do Ben Gersom and Josephus {p}, which was near Shiloh, for Shiloh is said to be on the north side of Bethel, Jud 21:19 but as there is no reason to believe the tabernacle was now removed from Shiloh thither, so it is not likely they would go to any other place but where the tabernacle ark, and high priest were:and asked counsel of God; before Phinehas the high priest, according to the judgment of Urim and Thummim, Jud 20:28and said which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? there being no supreme magistrate, judge, or general, to lead them; they did not ask whether they should go to war or no with their brethren; they made no doubt of that, taking it for granted they had sufficient reason for so doing, and that it was according to the will of God; nor did they inquire whether they should be victorious or not, they made no doubt of being victorious, both from their superior numbers, and the justness of their cause; they only inquire who should lead them on, having no general; and this they might do, to prevent any contentions among them about being precedence:and the Lord said, Judah shall go up first: which tribe pitched their standard first about the tabernacle, and marched first in their journeys in the wilderness, and was ordered to go up first and fight the Canaanites, being a powerful and warlike tribe.{p} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10.) Judges 20:19Ver. 19. And the children of Israel rose up in the morning,.... After they had had counsel at Shiloh, and which perhaps was by a deputation sent thither:and encamped against Gibeah: formed a camp near Gibeah of 360,000 men, enough to have stormed and taken that city at once, one would think. Judges 20:20Ver. 20. And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin,.... From the place where they were encamped:and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah; not only against the inhabitants of Gibeah, but the children of Benjamin, that came to the defence of them; they formed, themselves in a line of battle, and prepared for an action. Judges 20:21Ver. 21. And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah,.... Which was their place of rendezvous, and which they came to defend; and in and about which they had stationed their whole army of 26,000 men:and destroyed down to the ground: killed dead upon the spot:of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men; wanting but 4000 of their whole number, excepting the men of Gibeah, which was such a rebuff the Israelites did not expect, being engaged in so just a cause, and having such a numerous army. Several Jewish, writers {q} think this was on account of their idolatry, that though they were very zealous to revenge corporeal adultery in the case of the Levite's concubine, and to remove such iniquity from Israel; yet were not zealous to revenge and put away spiritual adultery or idolatry in the case of the Danites, who had set up the image of Micah, and so had spread idolatry not only in their own tribe, but throughout Israel; and therefore God took this opportunity to avenge his own quarrel, and rebuke them for their sin; and now did Benjamin raven as a wolf, according to Jacob's prophecy, Ge 49:27.{q} T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 103. 2. Pirke Eliezer, c. 28. Jarchi & Kimchi in loc. Judges 20:22Ver. 22. And the people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves,.... That though they had lost a great number of men, yet still their forces were large and greatly superior to those of Benjamin, and above all their cause was good:and set their battle again in array formed a line of battle again facing their enemy, inviting to another battle, and bidding defiance:and in the place where they put themselves in array the first day; by which it seems they kept the field of battle; though they lost so many men, they did not flee before the children of Benjamin, but stood their ground; nor were they so superstitious as to fancy the place unlucky; nor was it a bad situation they were in, to which their want of success was owing, for then they would have changed it. Judges 20:23Ver. 23. And the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until even,.... The evening of the day in which the battle was fought; not that the whole army went up to Shiloh to the house of God there, but a deputation of them, who lamented their defeat, and the loss of so many lives, but not their sins and transgressions, and particularly the idolatry they had been guilty of:and asked counsel of the Lord, saying, shall we go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? they seemed to have some doubt, by the loss they sustained, whether they were right in going to war with Benjamin, especially as he was their brother; and therefore the question now is, not who should go up first, which was already determined, but whether they should go at all; and still they do not ask any help of God in battle, nor success, but were depending on their numbers, and the justness of their cause, and therefore neither is promised to them, only they have an answer to their question:and the Lord said, go up against him; for Benjamin was certainly in the wrong, and therefore the Israelites are directed to go against him, and they also were not sufficiently chastised, nor thoroughly humbled. Judges 20:24Ver. 24. And the children of Israel came near,.... To the city of Gibeah, drew nigh to battle:against the children of Benjamin the second day; for the two battles were fought two days successively. Judges 20:25Ver. 25. And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day,.... Flushed with the victory they had obtained the day before:and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men, all these drew the sword, were armed men; this, with the 22,000 slain the day preceding, made 40,000; the same number singled out from among them by lot to provide food for them, and is thought by some to be the case Deborah refers to, Jud 5:8 and is what is certainly intended in Ho 10:9. Judges 20:26Ver. 26. Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up, and came unto the house of God,.... This looks as if the whole body of the army, with other people from parts adjacent, went up to the tabernacle of God in Shiloh:and wept and sat there before the Lord; not only wept, but continued weeping, and that not merely for their defeat, but for their sins, since it follows:and fasted that day until even; afflicted their bodies with fasting, which was a token of the humiliation of their souls for their sins:and offered burnt offering's and peace offerings before the Lord, to make atonement for their sins, and to implore success on their arms. Judges 20:27Ver. 27. And the children of Israel inquired of the Lord,.... By the Word of the Lord, as the Targum, and which has the same expression in Jud 20:18 for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days; in Shiloh, where the tabernacle was. Judges 20:28Ver. 28. And Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,.... Before the ark, ministering before the Lord, which shows that this affair was long before the times of Samson, though placed after them; or otherwise Phinehas must have been more than three hundred years of age, which is not probable {r}. Phinehas's standing before the ark was the posture of the priest when he inquired of the Lord for any by Urim and Thummim; the person that inquired stood before him that was inquired of, as Kimchi observes, and he that was inquired of stood before the Shechinah, or the presence of the divine Majesty, of which the ark was a symbol:saying, shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? in which the question is put in somewhat different manner than before, not only desiring to know whether it was the will of God they should renew the battle or not, since Benjamin was their brother, but whether they should have success or not; intimating, that if the Lord would bless and help them, they were willing to go up, but if not they chose to desist; for they were fully convinced now they were wrong in depending on their numbers, or the justness of their cause; whereas success depended wholly on the will and pleasure of God, to which they desired to submit:and the Lord said, go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into thine hand; now they are not only directed to go up to the battle, but are promised victory.{r} Vid. Rainold. de lib. Apocryph. Praelect. 149, 150. p. 345, 353, 354. Judges 20:29Ver. 29. And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah. For though they were assured of success and victory, yet they thought proper to make use of means: and though their numbers were very great, they had recourse to art and stratagem, and set an ambush in divers places, much in like manner as Israel did for the men of Ai; the two cases being pretty much similar; this ambush was set in the night, as Josephus says {s},{s} Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2.) sect. 11. Judges 20:30Ver. 30. And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day,.... Not the day following the second battle, since it would take more time to go to Shiloh, and fast and offer sacrifices there, but on the third day from the second battle:and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times; as they had done on the first and second days of battle. Judges 20:31Ver. 31. And the children of Benjamin went out against the people,.... Sallied out of Gibeah upon them, where they had put themselves in array against them:and were drawn away from the city; the Israelites retreating, and dissembling a flight, which drew the Benjaminites to pursue after them, by which means they were drawn off to a greater distance from the city of Gibeah:and they began to smite the people, and kill as at other times; at the other two battles;in the highways; where it seems two ways met:of which one goeth up to the house of God; to Bethel, as the Targum {t}; or rather to Shiloh, where the house or tabernacle of God was, and was two miles from Gibeah, as Bunting {u} says:and the other to Gibeah in the field; so called, to distinguish it from the other Gibeah situated on an hill:about thirty men of Israel; which were killed in this running fight; and it seems as if one part of the army of Israel took one road, and the other the other road, and so divided the army of the Benjaminites that pursued after them.{t} So the Septuagint, and Noldius, p. 69. No. 345. {u} Travels, &c. p. 121. Judges 20:32Ver. 32. And the children of Benjamin said, they are smitten down before us, as at first,.... At the first battle, which gave them great spirit, and they concluded they should have victory, as before:but the children of Israel said, let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways; pretending to be afraid of them, and not able to face them, and therefore made as if they fled through fear and cowardice, which inspired the Benjaminites with fresh ardour to pursue them closely, and so were drawn from the city to the highways, as expressed in the preceding verse. Judges 20:33Ver. 33. And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place,.... The main body of the army, which fled before Benjamin, when they were come to a proper place, stopped, and rose up out of it, and stood in their own defence:and put themselves in array at Baaltamar; drew up in a line of battle at that place, facing their enemies, in order to engage with them: this place the Targum calls the plains of Jericho, that being the city of palm trees, which Tamar signifies; and so Jarchi interprets it; but these are too far off; it must be some place near Gibeah. Jerom {w} speaks of a little village in his time in those parts, called Bethamari, and may be thought to be this same place; perhaps in the times of the old Canaanites here was a grove of palm trees, in which Baal was worshipped, from whence it had its name:and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah; or plain of Gibeah, as the Targum; for as the city was built on a hill, at the bottom of it were a plain and fine meadows of grass, and here an ambush was placed at some little distance from the city; and when the army of the Benjaminites were drawn off from it, in pursuit of Israel, these came forth and placed themselves between them and the city.{w} De loc. Heb. fol. 89. I. Judges 20:34Ver. 34. And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel,.... Which, according to Ben Gersom, were the liers in wait; and came from the south, as the Targum says:and the battle was sore; not between those liers in wait, and the Benjaminites, but between those at Baaltamar, and them who set themselves in battle array against them, and they fought stoutly on both sides:but they knew not that evil was near them; that there was an ambush laid, by which they were in great danger; they knew nothing of the 10,000 men that were now come out against Gibeah, and were between them and that. Judges 20:35Ver. 35. And the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel,.... Gave Israel the victory over them at Baaltamar; for notwithstanding all the art and stratagem they used, their numbers and their valour, victory was of the Lord, and to him it is ascribed; for until now Benjamin, though fewer in number, had been always victorious; and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjaminites that day 25,100; which is the total sum of all that were slain of them that day, the particulars of which are afterwards given:all these drew the sword; were armed men. Judges 20:36Ver. 36. So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten,.... Their forces broken and worsted, many being killed:for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjaminites; at first, and made as if they were afraid of them, and so fled before them, which was only to decoy them to a greater distance from the city Gibeah:because they trusted unto the liers in wait, which they had set beside Gibeah; that these would not only enter the city, and burn it, but meet the Benjaminites fleeing back to it, when they should turn upon them and smite them, and so cut off all that remained of them. Judges 20:37Ver. 37. And the liers in wait hasted,.... When the time was come agreed upon for them to rise out of their ambush:and rushed upon Gibeah; at unawares, with great force and violence entered the city, and took possession of it; or "extended" {x}, or spread themselves unto it; before they lay close in a narrow compass, but now they put themselves in a regular order, and marched rank and file, and reached from the meadows in which they were, Jud 20:33, to the city:and the liers in wait drew themselves along; along the city, in every part of it, spread themselves all over it, and made themselves masters of every corner of it; or "made a long sound" {y} with a trumpet, protracted that to a great length, which was done to terrify the inhabitants, or to let the Israelites know they were possessed of the city:and smote all the city with the edge of the sword; old men, women, and children, who were not able to bear arms.{x} wjvpy "extenderunt se", Tigurine version. {y} Kvmy "pertraxerunt buccinae sonitum", Paguninus; so Jarchi and Limchi. Judges 20:38Ver. 38. Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait,.... Or an appointed time {z} as the Targum; so Kimchi and Abarbinel. There was a time fixed, at which the men of Israel proposed to be at Baaltamar, exactly when the Benjaminites would be drawn at a proper distance from the city, and then the liers in wait were to break forth, and rush upon it, and enter it:and that they should make a great flame with smoke to rise up out of the city; set it on fire, and cause the fire to burn fiercely, that there might be a large ascent of flame and smoke to be seen afar off; which, when the men of Israel saw, they would know the city was taken.{z} dewmh "tempus constitutum", Panginus, Montanus, Junius et Tremellius, Piscator. Judges 20:39Ver. 39. And when the men of Israel retired in the battle,.... Which is before expressed by their fleeing, and giving place to the Benjaminites, and was only an artifice of theirs, to draw them off from the city:Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; which was done in the highways leading to Shiloh and Gibeah in the field, Jud 20:31for they said, surely they are smitten down before us as in the first battle; when the greater number of the Israelites were slain by them. Judges 20:40Ver. 40. But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke,.... Fire being set to it by the liers in wait, who had entered it, and who made a large fire, which caused a vast pillar of flame and smoke to arise, which might be seen a great way off:the Benjamites looked behind them; perhaps at hearing the blowing of the trumpet, and the long sound of that:and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven; went upwards, and reached to a great height. Judges 20:41Ver. 41. And when the men of Israel turned again,.... Turned their faces to the Benjaminites, on whom they had turned their backs; and which they did on hearing the sound of the trumpet, or seeing the flame of the city, or both, and that in order to fight the Benjaminites, and smite them, as now was their opportunity:the men of Benjamin were amazed; at this strange and sudden change of things, at the sight of the flame of their city behind them, and at the Israelites turning back to fight them, when they thought themselves sure of victory, as at other times:for they saw that evil was come upon them; that they were in the utmost danger, between two fires, as we usually say, liers in wait behind them, which had seized their city and burnt it, and the army of Israel turning upon them with great spirit and resolution. Judges 20:42Ver. 42. Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel,.... And fled from them:unto the way of the wilderness; what wilderness is not certain, perhaps the wilderness of Judah; they did not turn directly back towards Gibeah, perceiving that was taken, and in the hands of a body of men that would meet them, and therefore they turned on one side towards the wilderness, if happily they could make their escape thither, and shelter themselves:but the battle overtook them; that is, they that made war, as the Targum, the Israelites that were engaged in battle with them pursued them, and overtook them:and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them; either the Israelites that came out of their cities to assist their brethren destroyed the Benjaminites as they fled, or the Benjaminites who came out of other cities to Gibeah, these were destroyed in the midst of it with the inhabitants, by the liers in wait, when they entered it. Judges 20:43Ver. 43. Thus they enclosed the Benjaminites round about,.... Surrounded them on all sides, the army of Israel being posted in different places, and people coming out of all the cities to their assistance. Josephus {a} says, they were forced into, and cooped up, in a hollow place in a valley, so that they could not escape:and chased them; or "caused to pursue" {b}; calling after them a pursuit, crying to one another as they went along, saying, pursue them, pursue them; so Jarchi and Kimchi; which cry, as it inspired the pursuers with zeal, so they pursued with terror:and trod them down with ease; they making no resistance, being quite dispirited; the Targrim is,"from the house of their rest,''where they took up their rest, and designed to rest that night, but could not, being so closely pursued, and diligently sought after. Some take "menuchah", rendered "ease", to be the name of a place, from or unto which they were pursued and trodden down, see 1Ch 2:52 and so the Septuagint seems to take it for the name of a place, rendering it, "from Noua":over against Gibeah, towards the sunrising; that is, as Jarchi interprets it, to the east of Gibeah, there was this overthrow and slaughter made.{a} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10.) {b} whpydrh "persequi fecerunt eum", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius; "vel eos", Vatablus. Judges 20:44Ver. 44. And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men,.... Just the number they had slain of Israel in the second battle. This is the number of them that were slain when Israel turned upon them, and by that time they got to the east of Gibeah; afterwards 5000 more were slain on the highways, and 2000 near Gidom, as after related:all these were men of valour; as appears by three times facing and engaging with the army of Israel, so vastly superior to them, and twice beating them. Judges 20:45Ver. 45. And they turned and fled toward the wilderness, unto the rock of Rimmon,.... Which signifies pomegranate; perhaps it was in the form of one, and may be the same as in 1Sa 14:2 where Saul is said to be under a pomegranate tree, or under Rimmon, the rock Rimmon, for that is said to be near Gibeah, as this was. There was a village in the times of Jerom called Remmon, fifteen miles from Jerusalem to the north {c}, but could not be near this rock to have its name from thence; hither the rest of the army fled for shelter:and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; who were scattered one from another, and as they were found in the highways, and picked up, they were slain one after another, just as ears of corn are gleaned one by one, after the harvest is got in, or as grapes in single berries, after the vintage is over:and pursued hard after them unto Gidom; which perhaps had its name from the cutting off of the Benjaminites there:and slew two thousand men of them; that is, 2000 more besides the 5000 before mentioned.{c} De loc. Heb. fol. 94. B. Judges 20:46Ver. 46. So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and thousand men,.... It is before said 25,100 Jud 20:35 here the one hundred are omitted, and the round number of thousands given, which is no unusual way of speaking and writing; the whole army of Benjamin consisted of 26,700 of which 18,000 were slain in the field of battle, 5000 in the highways, and 2000 at Gidom, in all 25,000; and we may suppose one hundred as they were straggling in the road, or found in by places, or are not mentioned with either of the thousands for the sake of a round number, and six hundred fled to the rock Rimmon; as for the other 1000, it is highly probable, they fell in the two first battles, as Ben Gersom and Abarbinel rightly suppose; for it is not credible, that though they got such amazing victories, it was without the loss of men, and these are as few as well can be imagined. Jarchi thinks these thousand fled to the cities of Benjamin, and were slain when the Israelites entered them, as after related, Jud 20:48 which is much more probable than a tradition they have, that they went into the land of Romania, and dwelt there. Now all those that were slain were menthat drew the sword; soldiers, not husbandmen, artificers, &c. but armed men:all these were men of valour; even those that fled, who chose rather to lose their lives than ask for quarter. Judges 20:47Ver. 47. But six hundred men,.... Who were all that were left of 26,700turned and fled to the wilderness; turned out of the highway or common road, and being swift of foot, got to a wilderness; what wilderness is not certain:unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months; very probably in a cave of that rock, which might be large enough to hold such a number; Saul is said to have just the same number under it, and David had also a like number in a cave at Engedi, 1Sa 14:2, and from hence these men might send out of their number to fetch in provision for them from parts adjacent, after the heat of the action was over, and the rage and fury of the Israelites subsided. Judges 20:48Ver. 48. And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin,.... After they had destroyed their army, the city of Gibeah, and the inhabitants of it: not content with this, in their wrath and fury, turned and went,and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city; even men, women, and children, in every city of Benjamin, at least all that lay in their way; and which they might do to be avenged on them, for sending out their militia against them, which had made such a slaughter among them to the loss of 40,000 men, or to fulfil their oath, that such who came not to Mizpeh should be put to death; for which reason also the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead, as well as of the cities of Benjamin, were put to death, men, women, and children, dealing in the same severity with them as with the Canaanitish nations, or as with a city given to idolatry:as the beast, and all that came to hand; spared no living creature, herds and flocks:also they set on fire all the cities that they came unto; which belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, so exceedingly wroth were they with them, for protecting such that had been the authors of such abominable wickedness, and for the loss of the lives of so many valuable men.
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