Judges 20 explained: Israel Goes to War with Benjamin

Israel gathers at Mizpah (vv. 1-3)

Fighting men from every region, from Dan in the far north to Beersheba in the far south and Gilead east of the Jordan, meet at Mizpah as a sacred assembly to deal with the crime told in chapter 19. Benjamin, the tribe where it happened, hears of the meeting but is not part of it.

The husband's account (vv. 4-7)

The husband, a Levite (from the tribe set apart for religious service), says the men of Gibeah meant to kill him and raped his concubine, a wife of lower status, until she died, so he cut up her body and sent it to the tribes. His version leaves out that he himself sent her out to the mob (19:25), which many readers see as the story quietly exposing him.

A resolution and a refusal (vv. 8-17)

The tribes resolve not to go home until Gibeah is punished and ask Benjamin to hand over the guilty men for execution, but Benjamin refuses and gathers about 26,000 soldiers, including 700 left-handed slingers who never missed. Some scholars think Israel's figure of 400,000 is rounded or inflated, or that the word for 'thousand' sometimes meant a smaller army unit.

Two crushing defeats (vv. 18-25)

First Israel asks the LORD only which tribe should lead, is told Judah, and loses 22,000 men; then they weep, ask whether to fight their own kin again, are told to go, and lose 18,000 more. The text never says why, and ideas such as overconfidence in numbers, or that the first question should have been whether to fight at all, are interpreters' guesses.

Weeping and sacrifice (vv. 26-28)

The whole army fasts, weeps and offers sacrifices at Bethel, some burned whole and some shared as a meal, and this time the LORD promises victory. The mention of the ark (the sacred chest holding the covenant tablets) and of Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, as priest suggests these events happened early in the time of the judges, even though the book tells them near its end.

Ambush and near wipeout (vv. 29-48)

Israel fakes a retreat to pull Benjamin's army out while a hidden force takes Gibeah, kills its people and sets it on fire, the same tactic used at Ai in Joshua 8, and about 25,000 Benjamite soldiers die. Only 600 escape to the rock of Rimmon and hide there four months, while Israel's army goes through Benjamin's towns killing people and animals and burning everything, leaving the tribe nearly destroyed.

Key verse: Judges 20:13

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the chapter mainly shows God-backed justice that Israel then carried too far, as many older readers held, or mainly shows a nation coming apart, where even the answer to a terrible crime becomes the slaughter of its own people, as many modern readers see it.

Something to think about

When a group sets out to answer a real wrong, how could anyone tell the moment justice starts turning into something else?