Judges 20:46

46 On that day 25,000 men of Benjamin fell in battle. They had been carrying swords. All of them were brave fighters.

Judges 20:46 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 20:46

So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and
thousand men
It is before said 25,100 ( Judges 20:35 ) here the one hundred are omitted, and the round number of thousands given, which is no unusual way of speaking and writing; the whole army of Benjamin consisted of 26,700 of which 18,000 were slain in the field of battle, 5000 in the highways, and 2000 at Gidom, in all 25,000; and we may suppose one hundred as they were straggling in the road, or found in by places, or are not mentioned with either of the thousands for the sake of a round number, and six hundred fled to the rock Rimmon; as for the other 1000, it is highly probable, they fell in the two first battles, as Ben Gersom and Abarbinel rightly suppose; for it is not credible, that though they got such amazing victories, it was without the loss of men, and these are as few as well can be imagined. Jarchi thinks these thousand fled to the cities of Benjamin, and were slain when the Israelites entered them, as after related, ( Judges 20:48 ) which is much more probable than a tradition they have, that they went into the land of Romania, and dwelt there. Now all those that were slain were men

that drew the sword;
soldiers, not husbandmen, artificers but armed men:

all these were men of valour;
even those that fled, who chose rather to lose their lives than ask for quarter.

Judges 20:46 In-Context

44 So 18,000 men of Benjamin fell in battle. All of them were brave fighters.

45 Some men of Benjamin turned back. They ran toward the desert to the rock of Rimmon. As they did, the men of Israel struck down 5,000 of them along the roads. They kept chasing the men of Benjamin all the way to Gidom. Along the way they struck down 2,000 more.

46 On that day 25,000 men of Benjamin fell in battle. They had been carrying swords. All of them were brave fighters.

47 But 600 men turned back. They ran into the desert to the rock of Rimmon. They stayed there for four months.

48 The men of Israel went back to Benjamin. They killed the people in all of the towns with their swords. They even killed the animals. So they killed everything they found. They set on fire all of the towns they came to.