Judges 20:29

27 So the children of Israel inquired of the Lord (^athe ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

28 ^aand Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ^bstood before it in those days), saying, “Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease?” And the Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.”

29 Then Israel ^aset men in ambush all around Gibeah.

30 And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in battle array against Gibeah as at the other times.

31 So the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city. They began to strike down and kill some of the people, as at the other times, in the highways ^a(one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah) and in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

32 And the children of Benjamin said, “They are defeated before us, as at first.” But the children of Israel said, “Let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.”

33 So all the men of Israel rose from their place and put themselves in battle array at Baal Tamar. Then Israel’s men in ambush burst forth from their position in the plain of Geba.

34 And ten thousand select men from all Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce. ^aBut the Benjamites did not know that disaster was upon them.

35 The Lord¹ defeated Benjamin before Israel. And the children of Israel destroyed that day twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamites; all these drew the sword.

36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. ^aThe men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah.

37 ^aAnd the men in ambush quickly rushed upon Gibeah; the men in ambush spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword.

38 Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they would make a great cloud of ^asmoke rise up from the city,

Commentaries:

Matthew Henry

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Judges 20:1-48

The tribe of Benjamin nearly extirpated.

- The Israelites' abhorrence of the crime committed at Gibeah, and their resolution to punish the criminals, were right; but they formed their resolves with too much haste and self-confidence. The eternal ruin of souls will be worse, and more fearful, than these desolations of a tribe.

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