Judges 20:44

20:44 Eighteen thousand Benjaminites, all of them capable warriors, fell dead.

Judges 3:29

3:29 That day they killed about ten thousand Moabites ¹  – all strong, capable warriors; not one escaped.

Judges 11:1

11:1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a brave warrior. His mother was a prostitute, but Gilead was his father. ² 

Judges 20:46

20:46 That day twenty-five thousand ³  sword-wielding Benjaminites fell in battle, all of them capable warriors. ⁴ 

Judges 18:2

18:2 The Danites sent out from their whole tribe five representatives, ⁵  capable men ⁶  from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land.” They came to the Ephraimite hill country and spent the night at Micah’s house. ⁷ 

[3:29]  ¹ tn Heb “They struck Moab that day – about ten thousand men.”

[11:1]  ¹ tn Heb “Now he was the son of a woman, a prostitute, and Gilead fathered Jephthah.”

[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.

[20:46]  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.

[18:2]  ¹ tn Heb “The Danites sent from their tribe five men, from their borders.”

[18:2]  ² tn Heb “men, sons of strength.”

[18:2]  ³ tn Heb “They came to the Ephraimite hill country, to Micah’s house, and spent the night there.”