20:29 So Israel hid men in ambush outside Gibeah.
The Israelites retreated before 11 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 12 to Gibeah. They 13 attacked 14 and put the sword to the entire city.
1 tn Heb “encamped.”
1 tn Heb “and they passed by and went.”
2 tn Heb “which belongs to Benjamin.”
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.”
1 tn Heb “arose against me and surrounded against me the house at night.”
1 tn Heb “the men of Israel.” The noun phrase has been replaced by the pronoun (“they”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
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.”
1 tn Heb “the third day.”
1 tn Heb “gave place to.”
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.”
1 tn Heb “besides from the ones living in Gibeah they mustered seven hundred choice men.”
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.”