Judges 20:34

34 There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they didn't know that evil was close on them.

Judges 20:34 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 20:34

And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of
all Israel
Which, according to Ben Gersom, were the liers in wait; and came from the south, as the Targum says:

and the battle was sore;
not between those liers in wait, and the Benjaminites, but between those at Baaltamar, and them who set themselves in battle array against them, and they fought stoutly on both sides:

but they knew not that evil was near them;
that there was an ambush laid, by which they were in great danger; they knew nothing of the 10,000 men that were now come out against Gibeah, and were between them and that.

Judges 20:34 In-Context

32 The children of Benjamin said, They are struck down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.

33 All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers-in-wait of Israel broke forth out of their place, even out of Maareh-geba.

34 There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they didn't know that evil was close on them.

35 Yahweh struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword.

36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted to the liers-in-wait whom they had set against Gibeah.