Judges 20:32-48

20:32 Then the Benjaminites said, “They are defeated just as before.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s retreat ¹  and lure them ²  away from the city into the main roads.” 20:33 ³  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. ⁴  But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was at their doorstep. ⁵  20:35 The Lord annihilated Benjamin before Israel; the Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites. ⁶  20:36 Then the Benjaminites saw they were defeated.

The Israelites retreated before ⁷  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 ⁸  to Gibeah. They ⁹  attacked ¹⁰  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 ¹¹  sent up a smoke signal from the city, 20:39 the Israelites counterattacked. ¹²  Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites; ¹³  they struck down ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵  20:41 When the Israelites turned around, the Benjaminites panicked ¹⁶  because they could see that disaster was on their doorstep. ¹⁷  20:42 They retreated before the Israelites, taking the road to the wilderness. But the battle overtook ¹⁸  them as men from the surrounding cities struck them down. ¹⁹  20:43 They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them from Nohah, ²⁰  and annihilated ²¹  them all the way to a spot east of Geba. ²²  20:44 Eighteen thousand Benjaminites, all of them capable warriors, fell dead. 20:45 The rest ²³  turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites ²⁴  caught ²⁵  five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels ²⁶  all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more. 20:46 That day twenty-five thousand ²⁷  sword-wielding Benjaminites fell in battle, all of them capable warriors. ²⁸  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 ²⁹  and put the sword to them. They wiped out the cities, ³⁰  the animals, and everything they could find. They set fire to every city in their path. ³¹ 

[20:32]  ¹ tn Or “run away.”

[20:32]  ² tn Heb “him” (collective singular).

[20:33]  ³ 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.

[20:34]  ⁴ tn Heb “heavy”; or “severe.”

[20:34]  ⁵ tn Heb “And they did not know that touching against them was disaster.”

[20:35]  ⁶ tn Heb “And the sons of Israel struck down in Benjamin that day 25,100 men, all of these wielding the sword.”

[20:36]  ⁷ tn Heb “gave place to.”

[20:37]  ⁸ tn Heb “hurried and put off [their hiding place].”

[20:37]  ⁹ tn Heb “the men hiding in ambush.”

[20:37]  ¹⁰ tn Or “deployed.” The verb normally means “to lead” or “to draw.”

[20:38]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the men hiding in ambush) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:39]  ¹² tn Heb “turned in the battle.”

[20:39]  ¹³ tn Heb “And Benjamin began to strike down wounded ones among the men of Israel.”

[20:39]  ¹⁴ tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[20:40]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Benjamin turned after him and, look, the whole city went up toward the sky.”

[20:41]  ¹⁶ tn Or “were terrified.”

[20:41]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “disaster touched against them.”

[20:42]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “clung to”; or “stuck close.”

[20:42]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and those from the cities were striking them down in their midst.”

[20:43]  ²⁰ tc The translation assumes the reading מִנּוֹחָה (minnokhah, “from Nohah”; cf. 1 Chr 8:2) rather than the MT’s מְנוּחָה (mÿnukhah, “resting place”).

[20:43]  ²¹ tn Heb “tread down, walk on.”

[20:43]  ²² 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.”

[20:45]  ²³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the rest [of the Benjaminites]) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:45]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:45]  ²⁵ 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.

[20:45]  ²⁶ tn Heb “stuck close after them.”

[20:46]  ²⁷ 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.

[20:46]  ²⁸ 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.

[20:48]  ²⁹ tn Heb “to the sons of Benjamin.”

[20:48]  ³⁰ 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).

[20:48]  ³¹ tn Heb “Also all the cities that were found they set on fire.”