Judges 20:1

_THEN ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WENT OUT, AND THE CONGREGATION WAS GATHERED TOGETHER AS ONE MAN, FROM DAN_ _ THEN ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WENT OUT, AND THE CONGREGATION WAS GATHERED TOGETHER AS ONE MAN, FROM DAN EVEN TO BEERSHEBA, WITH THE LAND OF GILEAD, UNTO THE LORD IN MIZPEH._ All ... the congregation was gathered ... as one man. In consequence of the immense sensation the horrid tragedy of Gibeah had produced, a national assembly was convened, at which 'the chief х_ PINOWT_ (H6438), grainers] (cf. 1 Samuel 14:38, where the term is used for a leader in a military sense) of all the people' from all parts of the land, including the Eastern tribes, appeared as delegates. MIZPEH - the place of convention (for there were other Mizpehs) was in a town situated on the confines of Judah and Benjamin ...

CHAPTER XX _The heads of the eleven tribes come before the Lord in Mizpeh,_ _and examine the Levite relative to the murder of his wife, who_ _gives a simple narrative of the whole affair_, 1-7. _They unanimously resolve to avenge the wrong, and make provision_ _for a campaign against the Benjamites_, 8-11. _They desire the Benjamites to deliver up the murderers; they_ _refuse, and prepare for battle, having assembled an army of_ _twenty-six thousand seven hundred men_, 12-16. _The rest of the Israelites amount to four hundred thousand, who,_...

The “congregation” is the technical term for the whole community of the Israelite people. Its occurrence here is an indication of the early date of these transactions. FROM DAN TO BEER-SHEBA - We cannot safely infer from this expression that the settlement of Dan, recorded in Judges 18 had taken place at this time. It only proves that in the writer’s time, from Dan to Beer-sheba was a proverbial expression for all Israel (compare the marginal reference). WITH THE LAND OF GILEAD - Meaning all the trans-Jordanic tribes; mentioned particularly, both to show that the whole congregation of the children of Israel, in its widest meaning, took part in the council, and also because of Jabesh-Gilead Judges 21:8,...

EXPOSITION JUDGES 20:1 WENT OUT, _i.e._ from their several homes to the place of meeting. THE CONGREGATION. The technical term (not, however, found in Samuel and Kings, except in 1 Kings 12:20) for the whole Israelitish people (Exodus 12:3; Exodus 16:1, Exodus 16:2, Exodus 16:9; Le Exodus 4:15;...

THEN ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WENT OUT,.... Of their tribes, cities, habitations, not every individual of them, but some of the chief of them, with a select company with them: AND THE CONGREGATION WAS GATHERED TOGETHER AS ONE MAN; with as much unanimity and ease met together in one place, at the same time, as if only one man had been pitched upon and deputed for that purpose: FROM DAN EVEN TO BEERSHEBA, from the city Dan, lately built, which was in the most northern parts of the land of Canaan, to Beersheba, a city in the most southern part, which included all the tribes in the land of Canaan, who all, excepting Benjamin, assembled: WITH THE LAND OF GILEAD; which lay on the other side Jordan, inhabited by the two tribes of Reuben and Dan, and the half tribe of Manasseh, who also came on this occasion: UNTO THE LORD IN MIZPEH; a city which lay upon the borders of Judah and Benjamin,...

CHAPTER 20 THE HORRIBLE WAR _ 1. The Levite's story (Judges 20:1)_ 2. The uprising (Judges 20:8) 3. The slaying of the Israelites (Judges 20:12) 4. Benjamin exterminated except six hundred men (Judges 20:26) This and the concluding chapter bring before us the awful harvest of what had been sown. “For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). They had sown the wind and now reaped the whirlwind. Violence and lawlessness result in the slaying of 40,000 Israelites and 23,000 of the tribe of Benj

JUDGES 20. THE OUTRAGE AVENGED.The congregation (LXX Synagô gç) is a post-exilic term. The words as one man suggest a unity of action such as was not secured till long after the time of the Judges. The assembly of the people of God was a phrase often heard in the second Temple, but not in the days of the Judges. Judges 20:2. Contrast the army mustered against Sisera, 40,000 men strong (Judges 5:8). Judges 20:10. Each of the three clauses means precisely the same thing. Judges 20:15. The figures are in some confusion, the size of the Benjamite force being indicated three times, and each time differently (15, 35, 4

THEN. These Chapter s (20, 21), hy Figure of speech _Hysterologia_, describe events which took place soon after Joshua's death. See notes on Judges 18:1 with Judges 19:1. CHILDREN. sons. AS ONE MAN. All this excitement, unanimity, and bloodshed about an injury done to. woman; no sense of the evil of idolatry and sin against God, recorded in Judges 19....

_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,

_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...