Text -- Judges 20:16-48 (NET)

20:16 Among this army were seven hundred specially-trained left-handed soldiers. Each one could sling a stone and hit even the smallest target. 20:17 The men of Israel (not counting Benjamin) had mustered four hundred thousand sword-wielding soldiers, every one an experienced warrior. 20:18 The Israelites went up to Bethel and asked God, “Who should lead the charge against the Benjaminites?” The Lord said, “Judah should lead.” 20:19 The Israelites got up the next morning and moved against Gibeah. 20:20 The men of Israel marched out to fight Benjamin; they arranged their battle lines against Gibeah. 20:21 The Benjaminites attacked from Gibeah and struck down twenty-two thousand Israelites that day. 20:22 The Israelite army took heart and once more arranged their battle lines, in the same place where they had taken their positions the day before. 20:23 The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They asked the Lord, “Should we again march out to fight the Benjaminites, our brothers?” The Lord said, “Attack them!” 20:24 So the Israelites marched toward the Benjaminites the next day. 20:25 The Benjaminites again attacked them from Gibeah and struck down eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelite soldiers. 20:26 So all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel. They wept and sat there before the Lord; they did not eat anything that day until evening. They offered up burnt sacrifices and tokens of peace to the Lord. 20:27 The Israelites asked the Lord (for the ark of God’s covenant was there in those days; 20:28 Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was serving the Lord in those days), “Should we once more march out to fight the Benjaminites our brothers, or should we quit?” The Lord said, “Attack, for tomorrow I will hand them over to you.” 20:29 So Israel hid men in ambush outside Gibeah. 20:30 The Israelites attacked the Benjaminites the next day; they took their positions against Gibeah just as they had done before. 20:31 The Benjaminites attacked the army, leaving the city unguarded. They began to strike down their enemy just as they had done before. On the main roads (one leads to Bethel, the other to Gibeah) and in the field, they struck down about thirty Israelites. 20:32 Then the Benjaminites said, “They are defeated just as before.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s retreat and lure them away from the city into the main roads.” 20:33 All the men of Israel got up from their places and took their positions at Baal Tamar, while the Israelites hiding in ambush jumped out of their places west of Gibeah. 20:34 Ten thousand men, well-trained soldiers from all Israel, then made a frontal assault against Gibeah– the battle was fierce. But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was at their doorstep. 20:35 The Lord annihilated Benjamin before Israel; the Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites. 20:36 Then the Benjaminites saw they were defeated. The Israelites retreated before Benjamin, because they had confidence in the men they had hid in ambush outside Gibeah. 20:37 The men hiding in ambush made a mad dash to Gibeah. They attacked and put the sword to the entire city. 20:38 The Israelites and the men hiding in ambush had arranged a signal. When the men hiding in ambush sent up a smoke signal from the city, 20:39 the Israelites counterattacked. Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites; they struck down about thirty men. They said, “There’s no doubt about it! They are totally defeated as in the earlier battle.” 20:40 But when the signal, a pillar of smoke, began to rise up from the city, the Benjaminites turned around and saw the whole city going up in a cloud of smoke that rose high into the sky. 20:41 When the Israelites turned around, the Benjaminites panicked because they could see that disaster was on their doorstep. 20:42 They retreated before the Israelites, taking the road to the wilderness. But the battle overtook them as men from the surrounding cities struck them down. 20:43 They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them from Nohah, and annihilated them all the way to a spot east of Geba. 20:44 Eighteen thousand Benjaminites, all of them capable warriors, fell dead. 20:45 The rest turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites caught five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more. 20:46 That day twenty-five thousand sword-wielding Benjaminites fell in battle, all of them capable warriors. 20:47 Six hundred survivors turned and ran away to the wilderness, to the cliff of Rimmon. They stayed there four months. 20:48 The Israelites returned to the Benjaminite towns and put the sword to them. They wiped out the cities, the animals, and everything they could find. They set fire to every city in their path.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jdg 20:16

¹ tn Heb “And from all this people.”

² tn Heb “seven hundred choice men, bound/restricted in the right hand.” On the significance of the idiom, “bound/restricted in the right hand,” see the translator’s note on 3:15.

³ tn “at a single hair and not miss.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:17

¹ tn Heb “a man of war.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:18

¹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

² tn Heb “They arose and went up to Bethel and asked God, and the Israelites said.”

³ tn Heb “Who should go up for us first for battle against the sons of Benjamin?”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:19

¹ tn Heb “encamped.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:20

¹ tn Heb “the men of Israel.” The noun phrase has been replaced by the pronoun (“they”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

NET Notes: Jdg 20:21

¹ tn Heb “The sons of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and they struck down in Israel that day twenty-two thousand men to the ground.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:22

¹ tn Heb “The people, the men of Israel.”

² tn Or “encouraged one another.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:23

¹ tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

² tn Heb “approach for battle.”

³ tn Heb “my brother” (collective singular).

⁴ tn Heb “Go up against him” (collective singular).

NET Notes: Jdg 20:24

¹ tn Heb “drew near to.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:25

¹ tn Heb “And Benjamin went out to meet them from Gibeah the second day, and they struck down among the sons of Israel eighteen thousand men to the ground, all of these were wielding the sword.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:26

¹ tn Heb “and all the people.”

² tn Heb “went up and came [to].”

³ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

⁴ tn Traditionally, “fasted.”

⁵ tn Or “peace offerings.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:28

¹ tn Heb “standing before him.”

² tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

³ tn Heb “my brother” (collective singular).

⁴ tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

⁵ tn Heb “him” (collective singular).

NET Notes: Jdg 20:30

¹ tn Heb “the third day.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:31

¹ tn Heb “went out to meet.”

² tn Heb “and they were drawn away from the city.”

³ tn Heb “from the army wounded ones.”

⁴ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

⁵ tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

NET Notes: Jdg 20:32

¹ tn Or “run away.”

² tn Heb “him” (collective singular).

NET Notes: Jdg 20:33

¹ sn Verses 33-36a give a condensed account of the battle from this point on, while vv. 36b-48 offer a more detailed version of how the ambush contributed to Gibeah’s defeat.

NET Notes: Jdg 20:34

¹ tn Heb “heavy”; or “severe.”

² tn Heb “And they did not know that touching against them was disaster.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:35

¹ tn Heb “And the sons of Israel struck down in Benjamin that day 25,100 men, all of these wielding the sword.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:36

¹ tn Heb “gave place to.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:37

¹ tn Heb “hurried and put off [their hiding place].”

² tn Heb “the men hiding in ambush.”

³ tn Or “deployed.” The verb normally means “to lead” or “to draw.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:38

¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the men hiding in ambush) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Jdg 20:39

¹ tn Heb “turned in the battle.”

² tn Heb “And Benjamin began to strike down wounded ones among the men of Israel.”

³ tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

NET Notes: Jdg 20:40

¹ tn Heb “Benjamin turned after him and, look, the whole city went up toward the sky.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:41

¹ tn Or “were terrified.”

² tn Heb “disaster touched against them.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:42

¹ tn Heb “clung to”; or “stuck close.”

² tn Heb “and those from the cities were striking them down in their midst.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:43

¹ tc The translation assumes the reading מִנּוֹחָה (minnokhah, “from Nohah”; cf. 1 Chr 8:2) rather than the MT’s מְנוּחָה (mÿnukhah, “resting place”).

² tn Heb “tread down, walk on.”

³ tn Heb “unto the opposite of Gibeah toward the east.” Gibeah cannot be correct here, since the Benjaminites retreated from there toward the desert and Rimmon (see v. 45). A slight emendation yields the reading “Geba.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:45

¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the rest [of the Benjaminites]) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “and they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “gleaned.” The word is an agricultural term which pictures Israelites picking off the Benjaminites as easily as one picks grapes from the vine.

⁴ tn Heb “stuck close after them.”

NET Notes: Jdg 20:46

¹ sn The number given here (twenty-five thousand sword-wielding Benjaminites) is an approximate figure; v. 35 gives the more exact number (25,100). According to v. 15, the Benjaminite army numbered 26,700 (26,000 + 700). The figures in vv. 35 (rounded in vv. 44-46) and 47 add up to 25,700. What happened to the other 1,000 men? The most reasonable explanation is that they were killed during the first two days of fighting. G. F. Moore (Judges [ICC], 429) and C. F. Burney (Judges, 475) reject this proposal, arguing that the narrator is too precise and concerned about details to omit such a fact. However, the account of the first two days’ fighting emphasizes Israel’s humiliating defeat. To speak of Benjaminite casualties would diminish the literary effect. In vv. 35, 44-47 the narrator’s emphasis is the devastating defeat that Benjamin experienced on this final day of battle. To mention the earlier days’ casualties at this point is irrelevant to his literary purpose. He allows readers who happen to be concerned with such details to draw conclusions for themselves.

² tn Heb “So all the ones who fell from Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men, wielding the sword, in that day, all of these men of strength.

NET Notes: Jdg 20:48

¹ tn Heb “to the sons of Benjamin.”

² tc The translation is based on the reading מֵעִיר מְתִים (me’ir mÿtim, “from a city of men,” i.e., “an inhabited city”), rather than the reading מֵעִיר מְתֹם (me’ir mÿtom, “from a city of soundness”) found in the Leningrad Codex (L).

³ tn Heb “Also all the cities that were found they set on fire.”