20:1Dan was the northernmost city in Israel, and Beersheba, the southernmost. The two were often mentioned together as a reference to the entire nation.
Life Application Study BibleJudgesChapter 20
Judges 20
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 392, 393, 394
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20Judges 20
Israel’s War with Benjamin
12 Thenall the Israelites were united as one man, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, including those from across the Jordan in the land of Gilead. The entire community assembled in the presence of the LORD at Mizpah. 2The leaders of all the people and all the tribes of Israel—400,000 warriors armed with swords—took their positions in the assembly of the people of God. 3(Word soon reached the land of Benjamin that the other tribes had gone up to Mizpah.) The Israelites then asked how this terrible crime had happened. 4The Levite, the husband of the woman who had been murdered, said, “My concubine and I came to spend the night in Gibeah, a town that belongs to the people of Benjamin. 5That night some of the leading citizens of Gibeah surrounded the house, planning to kill me, and they raped my concubine until she was dead. 6So I cut her body into twelve pieces and sent the pieces throughout the territory assigned to Israel, for these men have committed a terrible and shameful crime. 7Now then, all of you—the entire community of Israel— must decide here and now what should be done about this!” 8And all the people rose to their feet in unison and declared, “None of us will return home! No, not even one of us! 9Instead, this is what we will do to Gibeah; we will draw lots to decide who will attack it. 10One tenth of the men* from each tribe will be chosen to supply the warriors with food, and the rest of us will take revenge on Gibeah* of Benjamin for this shameful thing they have done in Israel.” 11So all the Israelites were completely united, and they gathered together to attack the town. 12The Israelites sent messengers to the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What a terrible thing has been done among you! 13Give up those evil men, those troublemakers from Gibeah, so we Can execute them and purge Israel of this evil.” But the people of Benjamin would not listen. “Instead, they came from their towns and gathered at Gibeah to fight the Israelites. 15In all, 26,000 of their warriors armed with swords arrived in Gibeah to join the 700 elite troops who lived there. 16Among Benjamin's elite troops, 700 were left-handed, and each of them could sling a rock and hit a target within a hairsbreadth without missing. 17Israel had 400,000 experienced soldiers armed with swords, not counting Benjamin’s warriors. 18Before the battle the Israelites went to Bethel and asked God, “Which tribe should go first to attack the people of Benjamin?” The LORD answered, “Judah is to go first.” 19So the Israelites left early the next morning and camped near Gibeah. 20Then they advanced toward Gibeah to attack the men of Benjamin. 21But Benjamin’s warriors, who were defending the town, came out and killed 22,000 Israelites on the battlefield that day. 2But the Israelites encouraged each other and took their positions again at the same place they had fought the previous day. 23For they had gone up to Bethel and wept in the presence of the LORD until evening. They had asked the LORD, “Should we fight against our relatives from Benjamin again?” And the LORD had said, “Go out and fight against them.” 24So the next day they went out again to fight against the men of Benjamin, 25but the men of Benjamin killed another 18,000 Israelites, ail of whom were experienced with the sword. 26Then all the Israelites went up to Bethel and wept in the presence of the LORD and fasted until evening. They also brought burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD. 27The Israelites went up seeking direction from the LORD. (In those days the Ark of the Covenant of God was in Bethel, 28and Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron was the priest.) The Israelites asked the LORD, “Should we fight against our relatives from Benjamin again, or should we stop?” The LORD said, “Go! Tomorrow I will hand them over to you.” 29So the Israelites set an ambush all around Gibeah. 30They went out on the third day and took their positions at the same place as before. 31}When the men of Benjamin came out to attack, they were drawn away from the town. And as they had done before, they began to kill the Israelites. About thirty Israelites died in the open fields and along the roads, one leading to Bethel and the other leading back to Gibeah. 32Then the warriors of Benjamin shouted, “We're defeating them as we did before!” But the Israelites had planned in advance to run away so that the men of Benjamin would chase them along the roads and be drawn away from the town. 33When the main group of Israelite warriors reached Baal-tamar, they turned and took up their positions. Meanwhile, the Israelites hiding in ambush to the west* of Gibeah jumped up to fight. 34There were 10,000 elite Israelite troops who advanced against Gibe- _ ah. The fighting was so heavy that Benjamin didn’t realize the impending disaster. 25So the — LORD helped Israel defeat Benjamin, and that day the Israelites killed 25,100 of Benjamin's warriors, all of whom were experienced swordsmen. 36Then the men of Benjamin saw that they were beaten. The Israelites had retreated from Benjamin's warriors in order to give those hiding in ambush more room to maneuver against Gibeah. 37Then those who were hiding rushed in from all sides and killed everyone in the town. 38They had arranged to send upa large cloud of smoke from the town as a signal. 3? When the Israelites saw the smoke, they turned and attacked Benjamin’s warriors. By that time Benjamin's warriors had killed about thirty Israelites, and they shouted, “We're defeating them as we did in the first battle!” 40But when the warriors of Benjamin looked behind them and saw the smoke rising into the sky from every part of the town, 4ithe men of Israel turned and attacked. At this point the men of Benjamin became terrified, because they realized disaster was close at hand. 4?So they turned around and fled before the Israelites toward the wilderness. But they couldn’t escape the battle, and the people who came out of the nearby towns were also killed.* 43The Israelites surrounded the men of Benjamin and chased them relentlessly, finally overtaking them east of Gibeah.* 44That day 18,000 of Benjamin's strongest warriors died in battle. 45The survivors fled into the wilderness toward the rock of Rimmon, but Israel killed 5,000 of them along the road. They continued the chase until they had killed another 2,000 near Gidom. 46So that day the tribe of Benjamin lost 25,000 strong warriors armed with swords, 47leaving only 600 men who escaped to the rock of Rimmon, where they lived for four months. 48And the Israelites returned and slaughtered every living thing in all the towns— the people, the livestock, and everything they found. They also burned down all the towns they came to.
Textual footnotes
- versions and Latin Vulgate; Hebrew reads hiding in the open space.
- 20:10a Hebrew 70 men from every hundred, 100 men from every thousand, and 1,000 men from every 10,000.
- 20:10b Hebrew Geba, in this case a variant spelling of Gibeah; also in 20:33, 20:33 As in Greek and Syriac
- 20:42 Or battle, for the people from the nearby towns also came out and killed them.
- 20:43 The meaning of the
Life Application Notes 6 notes
20:5In reporting the events in Gibeah, the man conveniently left out the fact that he had handed over his concubine to satisfy the mob’s demands. He wanted justice for the threats made against himself rather than placing any value on the life of the woman or holding himself partly responsibie for her death. How easy it is to give only partial facts or twist events to remove our own culpability when we are seeking to shift blame to someone else. This incident reveals the depths of perversion and violence that develop when a culture abandons God’s ways.
20:13Perhaps the leaders of the tribe of Benjamin had been given distorted facts about the serious crime in their territory, or perhaps they were too proud to admit that some of their people had stooped so low. In either case, they would not listen to the rest of Israel and hand over the accused criminals. They were more loyal to their own tribe than to God’s law. By covering for their kinsmen. the entire tribe of Benjamin sank to a level of immorality as low as that of the criminals. Through this act, we get a glimpse of how thoroughly the nation's moral fabric had unraveled. The time period of the judges ends in a bloody civil war that sets the stage for the spiritua! renewal to come under Samuel (see 1 Samuel).
20:27,28This is the only place in Judges where the Ark of the Covenant is mentioned. This probably indicates how seldom the people consulted God. Phinehas the high priest was also the high priest under Joshua (Joshua 22:13). The reference to Phinehas as high priest and the tocation of the Tabernacle in Bethel instead of Shiloh probably indicate that the events of this story occurred during the early years of the judges.
20:46-48The effects of the horrible rape and murder should never have been felt outside the community where the crime happened. The local people should have brought the criminals to justice and corrected the laxness that originally permitted the crime. Instead, first the town and then the entire tribe defended this wickedness, even going to war over it. To prevent unresolved problems from turning into major conflicts, firm action must be taken quickly, wisely, and forcefully before a situation gets out of hand.
20:48The tribe of Benjamin eventually recovered from this slaughter. Saul, Israel's first king, was from this tribe (1 Samuel 9:21). So were Queen Esther (Esther 2:5-7) and the apostle Paul (Romans 11:1). But the tribe was always known for being smaller than the rest (as in Psalm 68:27).