1.
Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh.
CHAP. XX.
The eleven tribes demand from the Benjamites, that the authors of the cruelty against the Levite's concubine be delivered up: they are conquered in two battles, but in a third overcome the Benjamites, of whom five and twenty thousand fall that day: six hundred of them fly to the rock Rimmon, and abide there four months.
Before Christ 1426.
Judges 20:1. In Mizpeh— Mizpeh was very conveniently situated for a meeting of all the people, as it stood on the confines of Judah and Benjamin, and was very near to Shiloh; so that they could easily consult the Divine Oracle on any occasion. Hence Josephus tells us, that this congregation met at Shiloh. The phrase, unto the Lord, does not imply that the ark was there, God being present in an especial manner where all his people assembled. See 2 Samuel 5:3. The word rendered chief in the next verse, signifies corners, alluding to the corner-stone, which is the strength and support of a building. Hence Christ is called in Scripture the chief corner-stone. See Lowman on Civ. Gov. of the Hebrews, chap. 9: Judges 10:14 :
2.
And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.
3.
(Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?
4.
And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.
5.
And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.
6.
And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.
7.
Behold, ye are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel.
8.
And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house.
9.
But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it;
Judges 20:9. To Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it— Houbigant renders this more properly, we will draw lots against Gibea.
REFLECTIONS.—Fired with holy zeal against such a crying enormity, the whole congregation assembles in Mizpeh, near Shiloh; that they may not only deliberate, but consult God's mind and will in the matter. Four hundred thousand men, under their captains of hundreds and thousands, furnished with weapons of war, are ready to put in force the sentence which shall be resolved upon. The children of Benjamin alone, though acquainted with the assembling of Israel, and the cause of it, refuse to come up, and determine to protect the delinquents, becoming thereby parties in the crime, ex post facto, by their vindication of it.
1. A solemn examination and deposition is taken from the Levite, and probably the old man and his servant, who were present, Judges 20:3. The circumstances of the story are related and confirmed. Such lewdness and cruelty, especially in Israel, deserved, no doubt, a most severe scourge: he refers himself for this to their wise and vigorous resolutions; as children of Israel, who would wipe off such a defiling stain from among them. Note; (1.) Lewdness in Israel is doubly criminal. (2.) Before we proceed to judgment, the evidence should be clear and distinct. (3.) They who are God's people will at least, by their conduct, testify their abhorrence of the iniquity which may be found among them, and cut off from their communion the wicked person.
2. The fact being indubitable, their resolution is unanimous. They swear never to separate till they have obtained satisfaction; and in order that the army may be supplied in their encampment before Gibeah, forty thousand men are deputed to provide forage and provisions. Note; It is good to be zealously affected in the cause of God, and without delay carry our purposes into action.
10.
And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.
11.
So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
12.
And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?
13.
Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:
14.
But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
15.
And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
Judges 20:15. Which were numbered seven hundred chosen men— It is said in the 46th verse, that there fell of the Benjamites on the third day twenty-five thousand. In the 47th verse, that there remained from the slaughter six hundred, which number makes twenty-five thousand six hundred men; there remained therefore four hundred to make up the twenty-six thousand, besides the Gibeathites: we may suppose these men to have perished in the two battles of the first and second day; for the sacred history does not relate how many fell in the victorious army. For the phrase, left-handed, see the note on chap. Judges 3:15. The excellence of the Benjamites, noted in the next clause, has been remarkable in men of other countries, particularly in the men of the islands anciently called Baleares, where they were bred from children to hit a mark with a stone slung out of a sling, or else to lose their breakfast. See Strabo in Boch. Hieroz. pars 1: lib. 3 cap. 10 and Calmet on the place. This warlike disposition of the Benjamites was foretold, Genesis 49:27. We should just observe, that the men of Israel, in the embassy they sent, and the whole method of their proceedings, acted agreeably to the law of nature and nations, while the Benjamites shewed themselves extremely depraved, and most deficient in justice. But for more on this subject, we refer to Grotius de Bell. et Pace, lib. 2: cap. 21 sect. 4.
REFLECTIONS.—As wise men, who, not for revenge, but for the glory of God, desired the execution of the criminals; 1. They sent to their brethren of the tribe of Benjamin, to admonish them of the great wickedness that had been perpetrated among them, and to demand the delivery of the offenders, to put them to death. Note; (1.) We are bound to follow peace with all men, and must with reluctance have recourse to severer methods. (2.) If our traitor-sins are withheld, there can be no hopes of peace with God. (3.) It is cruelty to the community to spare those who, for atrocious crimes, are deserving of death.
2. The men of Benjamin reject their reasonable demand, thinking it beneath them to submit. They are, indeed, unequal in numbers, and more unequal in the badness of their cause; yet such confidence have they in the courage and dexterity of their slingers, that they dare meet their brethren in the field. Note; (1.) They who countenance others in their sins are justly reckoned alike criminal with them. (2.) Proud self-dependence is the ruin of the sinner's soul. (3.) They who draw the sword in a bad cause, may expect to see it bathed in their own blood.
16.
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.
17.
And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
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 rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
20.
And the men of Israel went out to 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 forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.
22.
And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array 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 battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.)
24.
And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.
25.
And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.
26.
Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
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 yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.
Judges 20:28. And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, &c.— This was that Phinehas who had signalized his zeal for the glory of God on a former occasion. See Numbers 25. Had this war been posterior to the death of Samson, Phinehas must have been above three hundred years old; but, as we have before remarked, its epocha was between the death of Joshua and the appointment of the first judge. The Alexandrian Chronicle assigns only twenty-five years to the priesthood of Phinehas, and mentions three other priests between him and Eli. See Selden de Success. in Pontif. lib. 1: cap. 2. It has appeared surprising to many, that the Israelites should have been defeated in this manner by the Benjamites, when they seem not only to have had justice, but the approbation of God on their side. Now, besides the general answer given from the secret purposes and wisdom of God, who might intend to humble them, and shew them their absolute dependence upon him, it has been observed, that they took this warlike step, not by his appointment, but wholly of themselves, without consulting the Divine oracle; which, as God was the king of their nation, was a kind of high treason against him: nor does it by any means appear, whether they were actuated by a zeal for his glory, or by private pique and prejudice only; since the rest of their conduct implies no such zeal, as the state of things among them, particularly their allowance of Micah and his idols, shews. In the 18th verse, it is true, they ask counsel of God; but not whether they should go to war with Benjamin or not; they only ask, who of them shall go up first against Benjamin; a proper answer to which question is given, but no success promised. Convinced, no doubt, of the impropriety of their conduct by their ill success, and having duly humbled themselves before the Lord, they now, by Phinehas, applying properly, are answered, and succeed accordingly, They who would see this matter more fully defended may consult Leland on the Div. Auth. of the Old and New Testament, vol. 1: cap. 8 and Psalmanazar's 4th Essay.
29.
And Israel set liers in wait round about 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 they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
32.
And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.
33.
And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.
34.
And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them.
35.
And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.
36.
So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.
37.
And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.
38.
Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city.
39.
And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.
40.
But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven.
41.
And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them.
42.
Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.
43.
Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.
44.
And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour.
45.
And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.
46.
So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valour.
47.
But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.
48.
And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.