Judges 20:33-43

33 All the Israelites moved from their places and got into battle positions at a place named Baal Tamar. Then the Israelites ran out from their hiding places west of Gibeah.

34 Ten thousand of the best trained soldiers from all of Israel attacked Gibeah. The battle was very hard. The Benjaminites did not know disaster was about to come to them.

35 The Lord used the Israelites to defeat the Benjaminites. On that day the Israelites killed 25,100 Benjaminites, all armed with swords.

36 Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated. The Israelites had moved back because they were depending on the surprise attack they had set up near Gibeah.

37 The men in hiding rushed into Gibeah, spread out, and killed everyone in the city with their swords.

38 Now the Israelites had set up a signal with the men in hiding. The men in the surprise attack were to send up a cloud of smoke from the city.

39 Then the army of Israel turned around in the battle. The Benjaminites had killed about thirty Israelites. They were saying, "We are winning, as in the first battle!"

40 But then a cloud of smoke began to rise from the city. The Benjaminites turned around and saw that the whole city was going up in smoke.

41 Then the Israelites turned and began to fight. The Benjaminites were terrified because they knew that disaster was coming to them.

42 So the Benjaminites ran away from the Israelites toward the desert, but they could not escape the battle. And the Israelites who came out of the cities killed them.

43 They surrounded the Benjaminites and chased them and caught them in the area east of Gibeah.

Judges 20:33-43 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 20

This chapter relates, how that there was an assembly of the children of Israel at Mizpeh, upon what had happened to the concubine of the Levite, where he appeared and related the whole affair to them, Jud 20:1-7 upon which they unanimously agreed to chastise the inhabitants of Gibeah for what they had done, Jud 20:8-11, and in order to do that sent to the tribe of Benjamin to deliver the guilty, but instead of that they took to their arms, and prepared for battle in defence of them, Jud 20:12-17 and two battles ensued on this, in which the Israelites, who were on the right side of the question, were worsted, Jud 20:18-25 but upon their seeking the Lord again, and their humiliation before him, they engaged a third time in battle, and got an entire victory over the Benjaminites, and destroyed them all excepting six hundred men, Jud 20:26-48.