Judges 20:31

_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._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

TO THE HOUSE OF GOD - “To Bethel,” as in the margin. On “Gibeah in the field,” see Joshua 18:24 note....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 20:18 THE HOUSE OF GOD. In this rendering the A.V. follows the Vulgate, which has _in domum Dei, hoc est, in Silo. _But the Septuagint has Βαιθὴλ, and all the ancient authorities, as well as modern commentators, generally agree in rendering it _Bethel. _The reason, which seems a conclusive one, for so doing is that the Hebrew בית אל invariably means Bethel, and that _the house of God _is always expressed in Hebrew by בית האלהים (_beth-ha-elohim_)_. _The conclusion is that at this time the ark of God, with the tabernacle, was at Bethel, which was only seven or eight miles from Shiloh. Bethel would be eight or ten miles from Gibeah, _i.e._ about half way between Shiloh and Gibeah. ASKED COUNSEL. The same phrase as...

AND THE CHILDREN OF BENJAMIN WENT OUT AGAINST THE PEOPLE,.... Sallied out of Gibeah upon them, where they had put themselves in array against them: AND WERE DRAWN AWAY FROM THE CITY; the Israelites retreating, and dissembling a flight, which drew the Benjaminites to pursue after them, by which means they were drawn off to a greater distance from the city of Gibeah: AND THEY BEGAN TO SMITE THE PEOPLE, AND KILL AS AT OTHER TIMES; at the other two battles; IN THE HIGHWAYS; where it seems two ways met: OF WHICH ONE GOETH UP TO THE HOUSE OF GOD; to Bethel, as the Targum t; or rather to Shiloh, where the house or tabernacle of God was, and was two miles from Gibeah, as Bunting u says: AND THE OTHER TO GIBEAH IN THE FIELD; so called, to distinguish it from the other Gibeah situated on an hill: ABOUT THIRTY MEN OF ISRAEL; which were killed in this running fight; and

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

THE HOUSE OF GOD. Beth-el Here it denotes Beth-el. One of the three cities mentioned....

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 city_(there is no _and_in the Hebr.), and the topographical note _in the high ways, of which … to Gibeah_, leaving the statement that the Benjamites began to smite and kill in the open country as on the former occasions (so Moore): or we may retain the words just quoted, and slightly rearrange them on the model of...

_The Defeat of the Benjamites Judges 20:24-48_ 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,

THE SLAUGHTER OF THE BENJAMITES The Levite recounts his wrongs to a full assemblage of the tribes, who decree punishment upon Benjamin. Their first two attacks are unsuccessful, but the third results in the almost total extermination of the Benjamites. 1-11. The Israelites assemble at Gibeah....