Judges 20:8

_AND ALL THE PEOPLE AROSE AS ONE MAN, SAYING, WE WILL NOT ANY OF US GO TO HIS TENT, NEITHER WILL WE ANY OF US TURN INTO HIS HOUSE._ All the people arose as one man. The extraordinary unanimity that prevailed shows that, notwithstanding great disorders had broken out in many parts, the people were sound at the core; and remembering their national covenant with God, now felt the necessity of wiping out so foul a stain on their character as a people. It was resolved that the inhabitants of Gibeah should be subjected to condign punishment. But the resolutions were conditional; because as the common law of nature and nations requires that an inquiry should be made, and satisfaction demanded, before committing an act of hostility or vengeance, messengers were despatched through the whole territory of Benjamin, demanding the immediate surrender or execution of the delinquents. The request was...

Verse Judges 20:8. _WE WILL NOT ANY_ OF US _GO TO HIS TENT_] We will have satisfaction for this wickedness before we return home....

They bound themselves not to break up and disperse until they had punished the wickedness of Gibeah....

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 ALL THE PEOPLE AROSE AS ONE MAN,.... Either the heads of the people assembled in council, all agreed unanimously in one vote or resolution, or all the 400,000 men were of the same mind, when the case was reported to them: SAYING, WE WILL NOT ANY OF US GO TO HIS TENT, NEITHER WILL WE ANY OF US TURN INTO HIS HOUSE; that is, they would not return home, to take one nights rest in their houses, or attend to the business of their callings or to any affair of life, however urgent, till satisfaction was made for the evil committed....

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

_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 thought -until the crime be avenged." The same resolution, differently expressed, follows in Judges 20:9 ff....

_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

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....