Judges 20, A Tribe Destroyed

Wicked men of Benjamin gang-rape and abuse the concubine of a man.  She eventually dies. The man seeks justice and vengeance. He cuts up the body of the woman and send twelve pieces to twelve tribes, demanding justice.

Judges 20: 1-3, Israelites gather

Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as one man and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah. The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand soldiers armed with swords. (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said, "Tell us how this awful thing happened."

The people of Israel respond to the call for revenge of this gruesome rape and murder.  They meet at a town in Benjamin called Mizpah and everyone, including the Benjamites, hear of this meeting. (There are several places named Mizpah in the Old Testament, as the word is Hebrew for "watch-tower." This Mizpah in Benjamin, a place for all the Israelites to gather, will also be the place where Saul is anointed king in I Samuel 10.)

The size of the army, 400,000 soldiers, if translated correctly, makes this army larger than many modern armies.  It is likely that this army involves 400 military units, still a large force.

Judges 20: 4-11, Rape and murder retold

So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said, "I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night. During the night the men of Gibeah came after me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died. I took my concubine, cut her into pieces and sent one piece to each region of Israel's inheritance, because they committed this lewd and disgraceful act in Israel.

The Levite, "master" of the dead concubine, tells his story.  Barry Webb, in his commentary, points out that the man's story does not quite agree with the story given us by the narrator in the previous chapter. In the previous chapter we are led to see this Levite as, at best calloused, and possibly quite cruel. Here the people of Israel are told only his side; no mention is made of his surrender of the woman to the rapists and his disregard for her after that.

Judges 20: 7-11, "What they deserve"

Now, all you Israelites, speak up and give your verdict." 

All the people rose as one man, saying, "None of us will go home. No, not one of us will return to his house. But now this is what we'll do to Gibeah: We'll go up against it as the lot directs. We'll take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred from a thousand, and a thousand from ten thousand, to get provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for all this vileness done in Israel." So all the men of Israel got together and united as one man against the city.

The community of Israel, upon hearing the horrible account, unite against the city. They set aside ten percent of their troops to focus on provisions so that there can be a significant longterm attack against Gibeah.  (Apparently this ten percent is determined by lots but there is no mention of YHWH here.)

The decadence occurring at Gibeah will be long remembered by Israel.  The prophet Hosea, many centuries later, will accuse Israel of acting "like Gibeah" (in Hosea 9: 9 and Hosea 10: 9.)

Judges 20: 12-16, "Surrender the men of Gibeah!"

The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What about this awful crime that was committed among you? Now surrender those wicked men of Gibeah so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel." 

But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. From their towns they came together at Gibeah to fight against the Israelites. At once the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand swordsmen from their towns, in addition to seven hundred chosen men from those living in Gibeah.  Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

The men of Benjamin refuse the demands of the rest of Israel.  The account claims 26,000 swordsmen for small Benjamin. Among the 26,000 are 700 lefthanded fighters and 700 fighters from Gibeah. 

In Judges 12, civil war broke out against the tribe of Ephraim.  Another civil war is about to begin, this time against the tribe of Benjamin.

Judges 20: 17-21, First battle

Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them fighting men.  The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, "Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?" 

The LORD replied, "Judah shall go first."

The next morning the Israelites got up and pitched camp near Gibeah. The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjamites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah. The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield that day. 

For the first time we hear of the Israelites consulting YHWH. The reported response is cryptic: send Judah. But the first battle leads to devastation for Judah.

Judges 20: 22-25, First battle

But the men of Israel encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day.

The Israelites went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and they inquired of the LORD. They said, "Shall we go up again to battle against the Benjamites, our brothers?" 

The LORD answered, "Go up against them."

Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day. This time, when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them, they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords.

On the second day, after consulting YHWH again, the Israelites are again defeated. (This time the Israelites seem to identify the Benjamites as "brothers". It is possible that the Israelites are having some doubts about their actions.)

Judges 20: 26-28, Inquiry of YHWH

Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD. And the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, "Shall we go up again to battle with Benjamin our brother, or not?" 

The LORD responded, "Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands."

After the second defeat, the Israelites again ask YHWH for guidance.  This time they are described as fasting and offering sacrifices to YHWH at the ark of the covenant, before the high priest. This time, after weeping and fasting, they are told that they will now be victorious. 

Judges 20: 29-32, Third day

Then Israel set an ambush around Gibeah. They went up against the Benjamites on the third day and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before. The Benjamites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before, so that about thirty men fell in the open field and on the roads--the one leading to Bethel and the other to Gibeah. While the Benjamites were saying, "We are defeating them as before," the Israelites were saying, "Let's retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads."

The Israelites plan an ambush. Previously casualties are (translated as) 22,000 and 18,000. Here we are given a more reasonable number of casualties: thirty. As the fight wages, the Israelites appear to retreat.

Judges 20: 33-35, Ambush

All the men of Israel moved from their places and took up positions at Baal Tamar, and the Israelite ambush charged out of its place on the west of Gibeah. Then ten thousand of Israel's finest men made a frontal attack on Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realize how near disaster was. The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords.

This time the Israelites succeed in the frontal attack on Gibeah.

Judges 20: 36-39, Into Gibeah

Then the Benjamites saw that they were beaten. Now the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, because they relied on the ambush they had set near Gibeah. The men who had been in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibeah, spread out and put the whole city to the sword. The men of Israel had arranged with the ambush that they should send up a great cloud of smoke from the city, and then the men of Israel would turn in the battle. The Benjamites had begun to inflict casualties on the men of Israel (about thirty), and they said, "We are defeating them as in the first battle."

The Israelites enter the city of Gibeah, behind the Benjamite soldiers, and burn it.  The Benjamites are unaware of the rout behind them. 

This battle is similar to that at Ai in Judges 8, involving an ambush, a sack of the city, and burning it behind the enemy soldiers.

Judges 20: 40-44, Into the desert

But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamites turned and saw the smoke of the whole city going up into the sky. Then the men of Israel turned on them, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, because they realized that disaster had come upon them. So they fled before the Israelites in the direction of the desert, but they could not escape the battle. And the men of Israel who came out of the towns cut them down there. They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them and easily overran them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east. Eighteen thousand Benjamites fell, all of them valiant fighters.

The Benjamites flee into the desert where they are cut down.

Judges 20: 45-48, Genocide

As they turned and fled toward the desert to the rock of Rimmon, the Israelites cut down five thousand men along the roads. They kept pressing after the Benjamites as far as Gidom and struck down two thousand more. On that day twenty-five thousand Benjamite swordsmen fell, all of them valiant fighters.

But six hundred men turned and fled into the desert to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months. 

The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire.

The Israelites press the fight, slaughtering Benjamites until 600 hide at a rock of Rimmon. After that, the Israelites return to the towns of Benjamin and destroy them.