Judges 20:2

_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._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

Verse Judges 20:2. _THE CHIEF OF ALL THE PEOPLE_] The _corners_ פנות pinnoth; for as the _corner-stones_ are the _strength_ of the walls, so are the _chiefs_ the strength of the people. Hence Christ is called the _chief corner-stone_. _IN THE ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD_] The Septuagint translate, _And all the tribes of Israel stood up before the face of the_ _Lord_, εν εκκλησιᾳ του λαου του Θεου, _in the Church of the people_ _of God_. Here was a _Church_, though there was no _priest_; for, as _Tertullian_ says, _Ubi tres, ecclesia est, licet laici_; "Wheresoever three are gathered together in the name of the Lord, there is a _Church_, although there be none but the _laity_....

THE CHIEF - literally, “the corner stones.” (Compare 1 Samuel 14:38.)...

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;...

AND THE CHIEF OF ALL THE PEOPLE,.... The princes of the tribes and heads of families, rulers of thousands, and hundreds, and fifties, and tens; or the "corners" c, who were like the corner stones in a building, which are not only the most valuable and ornamental, but the strength of the building, which cement it, and support it, and hold it together; though Abarbinel thinks this intends the division and separation of each tribe, which encamped in a separate corner and side by itself: but the former sense seems best, and the meaning is, that the principal men of them, EVEN OF ALL THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL; excepting the tribe of Benjamin: PRESENTED THEMSELVES IN THE ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD; now gathered together: which assembly consisted, besides the heads of them, of FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOTMEN THAT DREW SWORD; or were armed men; there were 600,000 or more in Israel able to bear ar...

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

GOD. Hebrew. _ha_. _'Elohim_. the [true] God. App-14. See note on Judges 18:31....

_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 tribes even of_is not in the Hebr.; read and all the tribes

_The War Against the Benjamites Judges 20:1-14_ 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. 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