Judges 20:9

_BUT NOW THIS SHALL BE THE THING WHICH WE WILL DO TO GIBEAH; WE WILL GO UP BY LOT AGAINST IT;_ No JFB commentary on this verse....

BY LOT - To determine who should go up first Judges 20:18. The shape of the ground probably made it impossible for the whole force to operate at once; and the question of spoil would have something to do with the arrangement. (Compare 1 Samuel 30:22.)...

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;...

BUT NOW THIS SHALL BE THE THING WHICH WE WILL DO TO GIBEAH,.... Where the fact was done; what follows was proposed by some, and unanimously agreed to by all: WE WILL GO UP BY LOT AGAINST IT; cast lots who shall go up to it and demand satisfaction for the offence committed; and if denied, to act in an hostile manner against it....

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

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....

TO GIBEAH; WE WILL GO UP BY LOT AGAINST IT— Houbigant renders this more properly, _we will draw lots against Gibea._ REFLECTIONS.—Fired with holy zeal against such a crying enormity, the whole congregation assembles in Mizpeh, near Shiloh; that they may not only deliberate, but consult God's mind and will in the matter. Four hundred thousand men, under their captains of hundreds and thousands, furnished with weapons of war, are ready to put in force the sentence which shall be resolved upon. The children of Benjamin alone, though acquainted with the assembling of Israel, and the cause of it, refuse to come up, and determine to protect the delinquents, becoming thereby parties in the crime, _ex post facto,_ by their vindication of it. 1. A solemn examination and deposition is taken from the Levite, and probably the old man and his servant, who were present, Judges 20:3

_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....