4: And the Levite (Heb. "the man, the Levite"), the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, “I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.
5: And the men (= masters or head-men) of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.
6: And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.
7: Behold, you all are all sons of Israel; give here your advice and counsel.”
8: And all the people arose as one man, saying, “We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house.
9: But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it;
10: And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.”
11: So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
C E 12-14. Negotiations. F 15,16. Army of Benjamites. F 17. Army of Israelites. E 18-46. Hostilities.
E e 12. Expostulation. f 13-. Requisition. f -13. Refusal. e 14. Preparation.
12: And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What wickedness is this that is done among you?
13: Now therefore deliver us the men, the sons of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel.”
But the sons of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:
14: But the sons of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the sons of Israel.”
15: And the sons of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
16: Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded (Heb. lame, or bound, in his right hand); every one could sling stones at a hair, and not miss.
17: And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
E G¹ 18-25. Unsuccessful. G² 26-46. Successful.
G¹ g i 18. Inquiry. k 19,20. Array. h 21. Slain of Israel (22,000). g k 22. Array. i 23. Inquiry. h 24,25. Slain of Israel (18,000).
18: And the sons of Israel arose, and went up to the house of Elohim, and asked counsel of Elohm, and said, “Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the sons of Benjamin?” And Yehovah said, “Judah shall go up first.”
19: And the sons of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
20: And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
21: And the sons of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.
22: And the People the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.
23: {And the sons of Israel went up and wept before the Lord (Yehovah) until evening (at Shiloh [18:31]), and asked counsel of the Lord (Yehovah) (by Phinehas, with Urim and Thummin. Cp. v.28, and see Ex.28:30. Num.26:55), saying, “Shall I go up again to battle against the sons of Benjamin my brother?” And the Lord (Yehovah) said, “Go up against him.”}
24: And the sons of Israel came near against the sons of Benjamin the second day.
25: And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the sons of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.
G² H¹ 26-28. Promise. H² 29-46. Fulfilment.
26: Then all the sons of Israel, and all the People, went up, and came to the house of Elohim (not to be rendered "Beth-el" as in Sept., Syr., for the house of God was in Shiloh [18:31], also the camp of Israel [21:12]), and wept, and sat there before Yehovah, and fasted that day until even, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord (Yehovah).
27: And the sons of Israel inquired of Yehovah, {for the ark of the covenant of God (Elohim) was there in those days,
28: And Phinehas (the grandson of Aaron, the contemporary of Jonathan the grandson of Moses [18:30]. This is the only mention of the high priest throughout the book), the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, stood before it in those days,} saying, “Shall I yet again go out to battle against the sons of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease?” And Yehovah said, “Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.”
H² J 29-33. Ambushcade. K 34-37. Defeat. J 38-41. Ambushcade. K 42-46. Defeat.
J l 29. Ambushcade. m 30. Array. n 31,32-. Slain of Israel (30). m -32,33-. Pretended fight. l -33. Ambushcade.
29: And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah.
30: And the sons of Israel went up against the sons of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.
31: And the children of Benjamin went out against the People, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the People, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Beth-el, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
32: And the sons of Benjamin said, “They are smitten down before us, as at the first.”
But the sos of Israel said, “Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.”
33: And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baal-tamar (= lord of the palm trees):
and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows (probably = forest) of Gibeah.
K o 34-. Attack by ambushade. p -34. Danger unknown. q 35. Slain of Benjamites (25,000). p 36. Danger known. o 37. Attack by ambushade.
34: And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore:
but they knew not that evil was near them.
35: And the Lord (Yehovah) smote Benjamin before Israel: and the sons of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.
36: So the sons of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted (confided or placed hope in) to the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.
37: And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait marched forward, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.
J r 38. Signal arranged. s 39. Slain of Isral. r 40. Signal given. s 41. Amazement of Benjamites.
38: Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city.
39: And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, “Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.”
40: But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city (= the whole city, or the holocaust of the city) ascended up to heaven.
41: And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them.
K t 42-. Flight. u -42-44. Slain of Benjamites. t 45-. Flight. u -45,46. Slain of Benjamites.
42: Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them;
and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.
43: Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.
44: And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour.
45: And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon:
and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them to Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.
46: So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valour.
D v 20:47. The 600 fugitives (Rimmon). w x 20:48. Destruction of others. y 21:1-12. First expedient. v 21:13-15. The 600 fugitives (Rimmon). w y 21:16-23-. Second expedient. x 21:-23,24. Reparation.
47: But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness to the rock Rimmon (= pomegranate), and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.
48: And the men of Israel turned again upon the sons of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well every one of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.
y z b 1. Oath. c 2-4. Sorrow. a 5. Absentees. Inquiry. z c 6. Sorrow. b 7. Oath. a 8-12. Absentees. Punishment.
2: And the people came to the house of God (Elohim) (probably Shiloh, cp. v.12 and 18:31), and abode there till even before hã-’Elohim (= the true God), and lifted up their voices, and wept sore (Fig. Polyptõton, "wept a great weaping". See Gen.26:28. Benjamin is indeed, now, "a son of sorrow" [Ben-oni, a son of sorrow, Gen.35:18]);
3: And said, “O Lord God (Yehovah Elohm) of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel?”
4: And it came to pass on the next day, that the People rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
5: And the sons of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the millitary assembly to the Lord (Yehovah)?” For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the Lord (Yehovah) to Mizpeh, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.”
6: And the sons of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, “There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.
7: How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by Yehovah that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?”
8: And they said, “What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the Lord (Yehovah)?” And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly.
9: For the People were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.
10: And the congregation sent to that place twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, “Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little children (cp. 13:5).
11: And this is the thing that you all shall do, You all shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that has lain by male.”
12: And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins (Heb. young women, virgins), that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh (see 18:31), which is in the land of Canaan.
13: And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the sons of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to proclaim peace to them.
14: And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
15: And the People repented them for Benjamin, because that the Lord (Yehovah) had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
y d¹ e 16,17. Deficiency. Inquiry. f 18. Prevention. e 19. Deficiency. Supply. d² g 20,21. Advice given. h 22. Conciliation. g 23-. Advice taken.
16: Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?”
17: And they said, “There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.
18: However we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, “Cursed be he that gives a wife to Benjamin.”
19: Then they said, “Behold, there is a feast to Yehovah in Shiloh yearly (the 3 feast had come down to 1. Apostacy was the cause of all their internal disorders) in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah” (Shiloh and the house of the Lord (Yehovah) were so neglected that these minute instructions were neccessary to enable an Israelite to fid it. We have the same difficulty today; and when we find it we too often find, not the sacrifice of praise an thanksgiving, but what answers to that which we find in v.21).
20: Therefore they commanded the sons of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
21: And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances (this is wat "religion" had come to in those days of apostacy, by which we must judge it), then come you all out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
22: And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come to us to complain, that we will say to them, ‘Be favourable to them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for you all did not give to them at this time (i.e. "at the time when you all would have incurred guilt by doing so), that you all should be guilty.”
23: And the sons of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught:
and they went and returned to their inheritance, and rebuilt the cities, and dwelt in them.
24: And the sons of Israel departed from that at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thatplace every man to his inheritance.
25: In those days there was no king in Israel (note the structural arrangement of the 4 occurances of this expression. See note on 18:1): every man did continually that which was right in his own eyes. (This is the Divine summing up of the whole book, by way of Epilogue. All the evil follows as a result of the dissobedience in 1:27-36)