Judges 20:25

they seemed to have some doubt, by the loss they sustained, whether they were right in going to war with Benjamin, especially as he was their brother; and therefore the question now is, not who should go up first, which was already determined, but whether they should go at all; and still they do not ask any help of God in battle, nor success, but were depending on their numbers, and the justness of their cause, and therefore neither is promised to them, only they have an answer to their question: and the Lord said, go up against him; for Benjamin was certainly in the wrong, and therefore the Israelites are directed to go against him, and they also were not sufficiently chastised, nor thoroughly humbled. Judges 20:24 Ver. 24. And the children of Israel came near,.... To the city of Gibeah, drew nigh to battle: against the children of Benjamin the second day; for the two battles were fought two days successively. Judges 20:25 Ver. 25. And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day,.... Flushed with the victory they had obtained the day before: and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men, all these drew the sword, were armed men; this, with the 22,000 slain the day preceding, made 40,000; the same number singled out from among them by lot to provide food for them, and is thought by some to be the case Deborah refers to, Jude 5:8 and is what is certainly intended in Hosea 10:9. Judges 20:26 Ver. 26.

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.

And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day,.... Flushed with the victory they had obtained the day before: and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men, all these drew the sword, were armed men; this, with the 22,000 slain the day preceding, made 40,000; the same number singled out from among them by lot to provide food for them, and is thought by some to be the case Deborah refers to, Judges 5:8 and is what is certainly intended in Hosea 10:9.

Jud 20:18-28. The Israelites Lose Forty Thousand. 18-28. the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God—This consultation at Shiloh was right. But they ought to have done it at the commencement of their proceedings. Instead of this, all their plans were formed, and never doubting, it would seem, that the war was just and inevitable, the only subject of their inquiry related to the precedency of the tribes—a point which it is likely was discussed in the assembly. Had they asked counsel of God sooner, their expedition would have been conducted on a different principle—most probably by reducing the number of fighting men, as in the case of Gideon's army. As it was, the vast number of volunteers formed an excessive and unwieldy force, unfit for strenuous and united action against a small, compact, and well-directed army. A panic ensued, and the confederate tribes, in two successive engagements, sustained great losses. These repeated disasters (notwithstanding their attack on Benjamin had been divinely authorized) overwhelmed them with shame and sorrow. Led to reflection, they became sensible of their guilt in not repressing their national idolatries, as well as in too proudly relying on their superior numbers and the precipitate rashness of this expedition. Having humbled themselves by prayer and fasting, as well as observed the appointed method of expiating their sins, they were assured of acceptance as well as of victory.

(25) Destroyed . . . eighteen thousand men. —This second defeat seems to have been due, like the first, to overweening confidence and carelessness. Thus in two battles the eleven tribes lost 40,000 men— i.e., 13,300 more than the entire Benjamite army, which was only 26,700. Such a hideous massacre can only be accounted for by the supposition that the Benjamite slings did deadly execution from some vantage-ground. Similarly at Crecy “ 1,200 knights and 30,000 footmen—a number equal to the whole English force—lay dead upon the ground” (Green, 1:419).

But on the second day also the Benjaminites brought 18,000 of them to the ground. "The second day" is not the day following the first engagement, as if the battles had been fought upon two successive days, but the second day of actual fighting, which took place some days after the first, for the inquiry was made at Bethel as to the will of God between the two engagements.

[Reformed Biblical] r; they impute their ill success not to their own sins, as they had great reason to do, but to their taking up arms against their brethren, the lawfulness whereof they now begin to doubt of. But still they persist in their former neglect of seeking God’s assistance in the way which he had appointed, as they themselves acknowledge presently, by doing those very things which now they sinfully neglected, Jud_20:26, and therefore are again justly punished. ## Go up against him: God answers to their question; but as they did not desire his assistance and success, so he doth not promise it. Judges 20:24 No text from Poole on this verse. Judges 20:25 No text from Poole on this verse. ## Judges 20:26 Sat there before the Lord, and fasted; being now sensible of their former slightness, and now being truly humbled for their sins, which now they discover to be the true cause of their ill success. ## Offered burnt-offerings, to make atonement to God for their own sins. ## Peace-offerings; partly to bless God for sparing so many of them, whereas he might justly have cu