Judges 20:38-48

20:38 The Israelites and the men hiding in ambush had arranged a signal. When the men hiding in ambush ¹  sent up a smoke signal from the city, 20:39 the Israelites counterattacked. ²  Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites; ³  they struck down ⁴  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. ⁵  20:41 When the Israelites turned around, the Benjaminites panicked ⁶  because they could see that disaster was on their doorstep. ⁷  20:42 They retreated before the Israelites, taking the road to the wilderness. But the battle overtook ⁸  them as men from the surrounding cities struck them down. ⁹  20:43 They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them from Nohah, ¹⁰  and annihilated ¹¹  them all the way to a spot east of Geba. ¹²  20:44 Eighteen thousand Benjaminites, all of them capable warriors, fell dead. 20:45 The rest ¹³  turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites ¹⁴  caught ¹⁵  five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels ¹⁶  all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more. 20:46 That day twenty-five thousand ¹⁷  sword-wielding Benjaminites fell in battle, all of them capable warriors. ¹⁸  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 ¹⁹  and put the sword to them. They wiped out the cities, ²⁰  the animals, and everything they could find. They set fire to every city in their path. ²¹ 

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

² tn Heb “turned in the battle.”

³ tn Heb “And Benjamin began to strike down wounded ones among the men of Israel.”

⁴ tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁵ tn Heb “Benjamin turned after him and, look, the whole city went up toward the sky.”

⁶ tn Or “were terrified.”

⁷ tn Heb “disaster touched against them.”

⁸ tn Heb “clung to”; or “stuck close.”

⁹ tn Heb “and those from the cities were striking them down in their midst.”

¹⁰ tc The translation assumes the reading מִנּוֹחָה (minnokhah, “from Nohah”; cf. 1 Chr 8:2) rather than the MT’s מְנוּחָה (mÿnukhah, “resting place”).

¹¹ tn Heb “tread down, walk on.”

¹² 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.”

¹³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the rest [of the Benjaminites]) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn Heb “and they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ 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.

¹⁶ tn Heb “stuck close after them.”

¹⁷ 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.

¹⁸ 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.

¹⁹ tn Heb “to the sons of Benjamin.”

²⁰ 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).

²¹ tn Heb “Also all the cities that were found they set on fire.”