Judges 20--Israel's War with the Tribe of Benjamin

Judges 20
English Standard Version

Israel's War with the Tribe of Benjamin
20 Then all the people of Israel came out, from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled as one man to the LORD at Mizpah. 2 And the chiefs of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 men on foot that drew the sword. 3 (Now the people of Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the people of Israel said, “Tell us, how did this evil happen?” 4 And the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, “I came to Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. 5 And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night. They meant to kill me, and they violated my concubine, and she is dead. 6 So I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed abomination and outrage in Israel. 7 Behold, you people of Israel, all of you, give your advice and counsel here.”

8 And all the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent, and none of us will return to his house. 9 But now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot, 10 and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand of ten thousand, to bring provisions for the people, that when they come they may repay Gibeah of Benjamin for all the outrage that they have committed in Israel.” 11 So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man.

12 And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What evil is this that has taken place among you? 13 Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. 14 Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the people of Israel. 15 And the people of Benjamin mustered out of their cities on that day 26,000 men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who mustered 700 chosen men. 16 Among all these were 700 chosen men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. 17 And the men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered 400,000 men who drew the sword; all these were men of war.

18 The people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, “Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?” And the LORD said, “Judah shall go up first.”

19 Then the people of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah. 20 And the men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin, and the men of Israel drew up the battle line against them at Gibeah. 21 The people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and destroyed on that day 22,000 men of the Israelites. 22 But the people, the men of Israel, took courage, and again formed the battle line in the same place where they had formed it on the first day. 23 And the people of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until the evening. And they inquired of the LORD, “Shall we again draw near to fight against our brothers, the people of Benjamin?” And the LORD said, “Go up against them.”

24 So the people of Israel came near against the people of Benjamin the second day. 25 And Benjamin went against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed 18,000 men of the people of Israel. All these were men who drew the sword. 26 Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to Bethel and wept. They sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. 27 And the people of Israel inquired of the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 28 and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days), saying, “Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease?” And the LORD said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.”

29 So Israel set men in ambush around Gibeah. 30 And the people of Israel went up against the people of Benjamin on the third day and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. 31 And the people of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city. And as at other times they began to strike and kill some of the people in the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, and in the open country, about thirty men of Israel. 32 And the people of Benjamin said, “They are routed before us, as at the first.” But the people of Israel said, “Let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.” 33 And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar, and the men of Israel who were in ambush rushed out of their place from Maareh-geba. 34 And there came against Gibeah 10,000 chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was hard, but the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was close upon them. 35 And the LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and the people of Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day. All these were men who drew the sword. 36 So the people of Benjamin saw that they were defeated.

​The men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin, because they trusted the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah. 37 Then the men in ambush hurried and rushed against Gibeah; the men in ambush moved out and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. 38 Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in the main ambush was that when they made a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city 39 the men of Israel should turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about thirty men of Israel. They said, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.” 40 But when the signal began to rise out of the city in a column of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to heaven. 41 Then the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was close upon them. 42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them. And those who came out of the cities were destroying them in their midst. 43 Surrounding the Benjaminites, they pursued them and trod them down from Nohah as far as opposite Gibeah on the east. 44 Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell, all of them men of valor. 45 And they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon. Five thousand men of them were cut down in the highways. And they were pursued hard to Gidom, and 2,000 men of them were struck down. 46 So all who fell that day of Benjamin were 25,000 men who drew the sword, all of them men of valor. 47 But 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon and remained at the rock of Rimmon four months. 48 And the men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, the city, men and beasts and all that they found. And all the towns that they found they set on fire.

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After holding council together and hearing the testimony of the Levite, the rest of Israel is so upset with what the people of Gibeah did to the concubine of the Levite that they all came out to demand that the tribe of Benjamin hand over the people of the town for trial (and execution).  Even the tribe of Dan joined in with the rest of Israel in the matter to condemn what the people of Gibeah had done, which is telling, since they themselves seem to have no moral compass at this point.

The tribe of Benjamin defends the people of Gibeah and so the other tribes declare war against the tribe of Benjamin.  They decided that they would only have 10% of the people of Israel fight in this war though as their goal was not to destroy the tribe of Benjamin, but to get them to repent and no longer condone such sin within their borders for this is like the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah that the LORD had judges with hellfire and brimstone and if Israel knowingly let this wickedness exist among them, they would all be held guilty under the Law.

As the forces were mustered, Benjamin called up all 26,000 of its fighting men including 700 men that were what we might call "special forces."  They are described here as being left-handed and experts with a sling so that they could sling a stone at a hair and not miss (a slingshot is a deadly ranged weapon in the right hands).  The rest of Israel mustered its forces and gathered 400,000 men of war (this is apparently 10% of their fighting force in Israel, so they must have had 4 million men able to fight at any time).  The odds are not in the favor of the tribe of Benjamin here as for every one of their soldiers there are more than 15 soldiers on the others side, so they either believed they were in the right and that God would supernaturally help them or they were extremely stubborn and were just digging their heels in even though they knew they were in the wrong and were play a huge game of "chicken" hoping that the rest of the Israelites would flinch and back down (they did not).

Before they went to war though, the Israelites sought direction from the LORD and the LORD commanded the tribe of Judah to lead the people into battle.  They marched towards Gibeah and drew up the battle lines and in the first day of battle, the Israelites lost 22,000 men (remember that it is not typical for them to lose any men if the LORD is with them in battle), so they weep bitterly and again seek counsel from the LORD if they should go up in battle again on the second day, and the LORD directs them to once again form the battle lines and fight against the tribe of Benjamin. and another 18,000 of the army of Israel were destroyed.

The army of Israel was devastated by this so they all returned to Bethel where the Ark of the Covenant was located at that time, and they fasted, prayed and offered sacrifices to the LORD and once again had Phineas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron inquire if they should once again go up against their brothers from the tribe of Benjamin, and the LORD told them to once more go up against them and this day He would give Benjamin into their hands.  This civil war had been costly for the Israelites and would have been easy for them to say that it had not been worth it and to turn a blind eye to this wickedness or for them to call up the entire army of Israel as reinforcements and try to completely destroy the tribe of Benjamin, but both of these things seemed far from their minds.  They were willing to pay a heavy price so that their brothers who were in sin would repent and be restored.  Even so, that repentance would not come without consequences. Which will lead us into our next and final chapter of the book of Judges (for these chapters potentially give us some information about King Saul from the tribe of Benjamin who will be the main actor in 1 Samuel).

On the third day, they set an ambush and made it appear as if they were making the battle lines just as they had done before, but they intentionally retreated away from the city to draw the tribe of Benjamin away.  Benjamin gave chase and killed 30 of the men of Israel thinking they had routed them as before.  The men who were waiting in ambush then rushed against the undefended city and attacked it and they came at Benjamin from both sides so that 25,100 of their 26,000 men were killed that day (they lost more than 96% of their army in a single day).  It is only at this point that they realized they were defeated and that they surrendered.

These are the same tactics that Joshua used when he set the ambush against the city of Ai in the book of Joshua.  the second battle of Ai, he put men in ambush who went in and destroyed the city and burned it with fire so that when the main fighting force saw the column of smoke, they knew to stop retreating and to turn back and fight because the ambush party was coming in from behind and they would have the enemy surrounded.  Only 600 of the men of Benjamin ran into the wilderness and survived that day and 25, 400 of them were lost in battle.

How then should the rest of Israel treat this tribe?  Should they let them die off now that nearly all of their mature men are dead or have fled and there is now no one to marry and of their women and have any children?  That will be the question that Israel faces next time, though they take a vow now that none of them will ever give their daughters to any man of the tribe of Benjamin since Benjamin had gone to war against all of them over the sin of people of Gibeah and had let such evil exist among them and was unwilling to seek justice for the Levite who was sojourning among them.  This is why I said it would give some context as to where King Saul would come from (for he was of the tribe of Benjamin) and it seems it would be quickly forgotten by the people not only that Judah was the one given the scepter to lead the people in the blessings of the tribes by Israel, but that Benjamin had just led the nation into civil war by defending an abomination akin to that of Sodom and Gomorrah that was so wicked that all of the other tribes said they wanted to make sure that none of their daughters married into that family--for they might also be caught up in whatever curse the LORD might bring down upon the tribe of Benjamin.  (Interesting that Israel seemed to turn a blind eye to the idolatry and apostacy of the tribe of Dan though).

So we have the backdrop being set for the next historical narrative that will be given to us (probably also written by Samuel) which will tell of the story of Ruth the Moabite who is the great-grandmother of the one that the LORD would choose to be king of all of Israel.  Benjamin will be the first of the twelve tribes to join up with David and recognize him as their king and not just the king of Judah, but that he would be king over all of Israel (even the tribe of Dan).  We have one more chapter in the book of Judges to get through though as Israel realizes it is not God's plan for them to destroy one of the tribes that He gave an equal share of the inheritance to and that the eternal covenant belongs to them too, so they decided to make a way for the tribe of Benjamin to survive (though I find it to be somewhat convoluted).  We'll look at that passage next time.