_The vengeance of Israel_ The older narrative (A) seems to be contained in Judges 20:1 a (… _went out_), d (_unto the Lord_…), Judges 20:3-8; Judges 20:14; Judges 20:19; Judges 20:29; Judges 20:36 b, Judges 20:37 a, Judges 20:38-41;... [ Continue Reading ]
_the congregation was assembled_ The two words at once stamp the character of source B; cf. in the Priestly Code Leviticus 8:4; Numbers 16:42; Numbers 20:2; Joshua 18:1; Joshua 22:12. The _congregation_Judges 21:10; Judges 21:13; Judges 21:16 (Hebr. _-çdhah_, LXX _synagôgç_) is regularly used by P, [ Continue Reading ]
_chiefs_ Lit. the word = _corner_, of a house Job 1:19, or of a city Nehemiah 3:24; Nehemiah 3:31 f.; also a _corner-stone_Isaiah 28:16, cf. Jeremiah 51:26. As suggestive of support or prominence, the _corner_could be used in a metaphorical sense; cf. 1 Samuel 14:38; Isaiah 19:13. _even of all the t... [ Continue Reading ]
The first half of the verse interrupts the connexion with Judges 20:1 d; it would be in place before Judges 20:14. The displacement was no doubt caused by the insertion of Judges 20:2_; Judges 20:9_into the older narrative. _And the children of Israel_etc.] Here follows A's report of what happened... [ Continue Reading ]
_men of Gibeah_ CITIZENS of G.; cf. Judges 9:2 _n._ me they thought to have slain See on Judges 19:22. Their design on the young woman would naturally involve getting rid of her husband (cf. Genesis 12:12).... [ Continue Reading ]
_all the country of the inheritance of Israel_ We hardly expect _inheritance_in plain prose; contrast Judges 19:29. The word may be a later insertion. _they have committed lewdness_ Similarly Hosea 6:9; Ezekiel 16:43; Ezekiel 22:9; lit. _evil purpose_, i.e. unchastity; in this sense the word is fre... [ Continue Reading ]
_give … your … counsel_ The same words in 2 Samuel 16:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
_tent_ As the parallelism shews, equivalent to house, cf. Judges 19:9 mg., 1 Kings 8:66; Psalms 132:3 _tent of my house_; a survival from the time when the Israelites actually lived in tents. The resolution is expressed in poetical parallelism, cf. 1 Kings 12:16; 2 Samuel 20:1; we are to supply in t... [ Continue Reading ]
we will go up _against it by lot_ An accidental omission from the text makes it necessary to supply a verb; the LXX reads _we will go up_. Judging from Judges 20:18 and Judges 1:1, the object of casting lots was to find out which tribe should go up first to the attack.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ten men … ten thousand_) All this merely amounts to -one man in ten"; 40,000 are to forage for the 360,000. We are reminded of the circumstantial diffuseness of P, e.g. Numbers 1:2; Numbers 1:20; Numbers 1:22 etc.; see Driver, _Introd_, p. 130. The style of the verse is remarkably poor; e.g. the si... [ Continue Reading ]
_the city_ must be Gibeah. _knit together_ lit. _united, associated_, emphasizing the common action. The word is used in Ezekiel 37:16; Ezekiel 37:19 for the association of the tribes, and another form of it on Maccabaean coins to denote (prob.) _the community_of the Jews; _NSI_., p. 354.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the tribe of Benjamin_ So the Versions, reading the singular. The plural (see marg.) is probably due to a mistaken repetition of the plur. form of the word in the preceding sentence.... [ Continue Reading ]
_deliver up the men … that we may put them to death_ Similarly 1 Samuel 11:12. _the sons of Belial_ See on Judges 19:22. _put away evil_ Read the _evil_, lit. _burn up, consume the evil_; a frequent expression in Deut., e.g. Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 17:7; Deuteronomy 17:12; Deuteronomy 22:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
The figures in this account are inconsistent. The entire muster of Benjamites is reckoned here at 26,700; while Judges 20:35_; Judges 20:47_give a total 25,700, and Judges 20:44 a total 25,600. Some mss. of the LXX (cod. A, Luc. etc.), followed by Vulgate, read _twenty and five thousand men_here (se... [ Continue Reading ]
Then, keeping the text of this _v._as it stands, we are told that the Benjamite host included a company of 700 left-handed and exceptionally skilful warriors, just as David's army was strengthened by a similar band, 1 Chronicles 12:2. Josephus understood the narrative in this way, _Ant._Judges 20:2;... [ Continue Reading ]
The Israelite host is mustered (Judges 20:17), and all is ready for an advance against Gibeah (Judges 20:19 f.), when the entire army marches off to Beth-el, 10 m. distance from Mizpah (if = Nebî Samwîl), to consult the divine oracle. Such a change of position at such a moment is almost incredible,... [ Continue Reading ]
From B; repeating the substance of Judges 20:19 (from A). The words _went out … set the battle in array against them_occur in Genesis 14:8, a document probably not earlier than the exile.... [ Continue Reading ]
The numbers here and in Judges 20:25 are again prodigious: the Benjamites, without losing a man themselves (as is implied in Judges 20:35_; Judges 20:44_), kill 40,000 Israelites in the two battles. Why this loss on the Israelite side? Probably the narrator considered that even the champions of the... [ Continue Reading ]
To make sense this and Judges 20:23 should change places. After _the men of Israel_the Vulgate adds _trusting to their prowess and numbers_, i.e. it was the presumption of the Israelites which caused their defeat.... [ Continue Reading ]
_wept before the Lord_ Cf. Judges 20:26; Judges 2:4; Judges 21:2. After _went up_we should supply _to Beth-el_, as in Judges 20:26.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and all the people_ Either transl. EVEN _all the people_, or omit as a doublet of _all the children of Israel_. Cf. Judges 20:22. _offered burnt offerings and peace offerings_ Similarly under circumstances of distress Jdg 21:4, 1 Samuel 7:9; 1 Samuel 13:9. The significance of the _burnt offering_l... [ Continue Reading ]
From the narrative A, which describes, not the two battles and Jehovah's direct interference (Judges 20:23_; Judges 20:28; Judges 20:35_), but the stratagem by which the Israelites captured the city; cf. Joshua 8:4-8 JE. This _v._continues Judges 20:19. _liers in wait_ Plural, while Judges 20:33_; J... [ Continue Reading ]
_on the third day_ The account of the battle becomes exceedingly confused. It seems to be rounded off at Judges 20:35 in the usual way, with a statement of the result and numbers slain; but in Judges 20:36 ff. we find the battle still in progress, and we go through the various incidents again. This... [ Continue Reading ]
The opening sentence follows the pattern of Judges 20:21_; Judges 20:25_. The remainder of the _v._raises difficulties; it is partly repeated in Judges 20:39; the pretence of flight does not come properly till Judges 20:32. Either we may regard as additional glosses _they were drawn away from the ci... [ Continue Reading ]
_rose up … set themselves in array_ The Israelites had taken up their position opposite Gibeah and then retired northwards (Judges 20:30); now, apparently, after the feigned retreat they take up a second position at a further distance from Gibeah. But this is hardly the natural meaning of the words;... [ Continue Reading ]
_ten thousand chosen men_ Apparently the men who had formed the ambush: they now moved from their place of concealment, and posted themselves between the city and the Benjamites, who were chasing the men of Israel, so as to cut off the possibility of retreat. _evil was close upon them_ lit. _was abo... [ Continue Reading ]
As elsewhere the account of the battle is brought to an end with a summing up of the numbers slain, Judges 20:21_; Judges 20:25; Judges 20:46_, Judges 3:29; Joshua 8:25. For the numbers see on Judges 20:15. This later source B, it is to be noted, ascribes the victory to the direct interference of Je... [ Continue Reading ]
_the children of Benjamin_ must refer to the 600 survivors. This half verse introduces the account of the flight, which is continued by Judges 20:42. Clause b may be regarded as a continuation of Judges 20:29 in the narrative of A; the description of the feint is parallel to that in Judges 20:32 b.... [ Continue Reading ]
_hasted and rushed_ as did the ambush at Ai, Joshua 8:19; but the words are different. See Judges 9:33 _n._ drew themselves along Cf. Judges 4:6. But the massacre of the inhabitants anticipates the signal; the destruction of the city does not begin till the smoke is seen to rise. This half of the v... [ Continue Reading ]
_a great cloud of smoke_ Omit _great_(_hereb_, an ungrammatical form) with LXX. cod. A and mss., Syr., Vulgate, as an incorrect repetition of the preceding word (_"ôrçb_).... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the men of Israel turned_ The turn, however, does not come properly till Judges 20:41. Read with a slight change _and that the men of I. should turn_, as part of the appointed sign; Judges 20:38 will then end with _in the battle_. The marg. may thus be disregarded. _and Benjamin_etc.] A parall... [ Continue Reading ]
_looked behind them_ Cf. Joshua 8:20. It almost seems as if the account of the capture of Ai by a similar stratagem had influenced the present narrative. _the whole of the city_ Cf. Deuteronomy 13:16 -and thou shalt burn the city with fire as a _whole offering_unto Jehovah thy God"; but perhaps the... [ Continue Reading ]
_amazed_ An archaism in English, for _bewildered_; cf. St Mark 10:32; 1 Peter 3:6 (AV., contrast RV.).... [ Continue Reading ]
_unto the way of the wilderness_ IN THE DIRECTION OF the barren hilly region, E. of Gibeah, which descends from the Central Highlands to the Jordan valley. _out of the cities_ i.e. the Benjamite cities on the line of the flight. But all the male Benjamites had been out with the army, and most of th... [ Continue Reading ]
The unidiomatic style (_and … and_are not in the original), together with the obscurity of the sense, prove that the text is corrupt. Of the various attempts to emend it, the following is as plausible as any: taking the two Hebr. words for _the Benjamites … chased them_as a doublet of the next two _... [ Continue Reading ]
_eighteen thousand men_ Contrast the number in Judges 20:35 from B. The first half of the _v._may be assigned to A, and connects with Judges 20:47; the second half has found its way here from Judges 20:46, probably by a copyist's error.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the rock of Rimmon_ now Rammôn, rises from the plateau due E. of Beth-el, visible from all sides; it lies rather more than 8 m. N.E. of Tell el-Fûl. _gleaned of them_ For the figure cf. Judges 8:2. _unto Gidom_ Site unknown; the Versions therefore guess, LXX. cod. A _Gilead_, Syr _Gibeon_. With t... [ Continue Reading ]
For the total here cf. on Judges 20:35. This and the preceding verse appear to be, not fragments from the B narrative, but editorial additions: the first part of Judges 20:45 is borrowed from Judges 20:47, the figures in Judges 20:46 are obtained by adding up those in Judges 20:44 (from A) and 45; c... [ Continue Reading ]
A's version of the final flight. The 600 survivors have a part to play in the sequel.... [ Continue Reading ]
This _v._(from B) records the destruction of the Benjamites who had not taken part in the conflict. _the entire city_ The marg. is to be preferred, lit. _the city of men_, a phrase only found again in Deuteronomy 2:34; Deuteronomy 3:6, and there, as here, in connexion with devoting a city or people... [ Continue Reading ]