Judges 20:19

THE FIRST BATTLE (Judges 20:19-23)

"And the children of Israel rose up in the morning; and encamped against Gibeah. And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah. And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day twenty and two thousand men. And the people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day. And the children of Israel went up and wept before Jehovah until even; and they asked of Jehovah, saying; Shall I again draw nigh to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And Jehovah said, Go up against him."

"They wept before Jehovah until even" (Judges 20:23). It is a mistake to envision these two battles as being fought on successive days. This mention of the Israelites weeping before Jehovah until evening probably refers to an entire day, during which they again consulted Jehovah through the High Priest Phinehas at Bethel, continuing their mourning until evening.

Their unexpected and disastrous defeat at the hands of the Benjamites was beginning to have its desired effect. "There was a humbling of themselves before God, a brokenness of spirit, and a softening of their feelings toward their `brother' Benjamin."[17] The early 20th century critics lambasted this chapter as, "Neither history, nor legend but the ideal (imagination) of a scribe who had never handled a more dangerous weapon than an imaginative pen."[18] Of course, such bold and atheistic attacks against the Bible are no longer popular among modern writers. Boling, in the Anchor Bible, for example, stated that, "This account of two initial setbacks and the final victory make excellent sense in their sequence with Judges 19."[19] And, as regards the shouts of "exaggeration" regarding the heavy casualties of this war, the same writer declared that, "The figures here are entirely plausible."[20]