Judges 20:23

23 so nevertheless that they went up before to the house (of God), and they wept before the Lord unto [the] night, and they counselled with him, and said, Shall I go forth more to fight against the sons of Benjamin, my brethren, either nay? To whom he answered, Ascend ye to them, and begin ye the battle. (for they had gone up the evening before to the House of God, and they had wept before the Lord into the night, and had counselled with him, and had said, Should we go forth again to fight against our kinsmen, the Benjaminites, or not? To whom he answered, Go ye up to them, and make ye the battle.)

Judges 20:23 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 20:23

And the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord
until even
The evening of the day in which the battle was fought; not that the whole army went up to Shiloh to the house of God there, but a deputation of them, who lamented their defeat, and the loss of so many lives, but not their sins and transgressions, and particularly the idolatry they had been guilty of:

and asked counsel of the Lord, saying, shall we go up again to battle
against the children of Benjamin my brother?
they seemed to have some doubt, by the loss they sustained, whether they were right in going to war with Benjamin, especially as he was their brother; and therefore the question now is, not who should go up first, which was already determined, but whether they should go at all; and still they do not ask any help of God in battle, nor success, but were depending on their numbers, and the justness of their cause, and therefore neither is promised to them, only they have an answer to their question:

and the Lord said, go up against him;
for Benjamin was certainly in the wrong, and therefore the Israelites are directed to go against him, and they also were not sufficiently chastised, nor thoroughly humbled.

Judges 20:23 In-Context

21 And the sons of Benjamin went out of Gibeah, and killed of the sons of Israel in that day two and twenty thousand men.

22 And again (the next day,) the sons of Israel trusted in their own strength, and in (the) number of (their) people, and they dressed [the] battle array, in the same place in which they (had) fought before;

23 so nevertheless that they went up before to the house (of God), and they wept before the Lord unto [the] night, and they counselled with him, and said, Shall I go forth more to fight against the sons of Benjamin, my brethren, either nay? To whom he answered, Ascend ye to them, and begin ye the battle. (for they had gone up the evening before to the House of God, and they had wept before the Lord into the night, and had counselled with him, and had said, Should we go forth again to fight against our kinsmen, the Benjaminites, or not? To whom he answered, Go ye up to them, and make ye the battle.)

24 And (so) when the sons of Israel had gone forth to battle in the tother day against Benjamin,

25 the sons of Benjamin brake out from the gates of Gibeah, and came to (the sons of) Israel; and the sons of Benjamin were wild against Israel by so fierce slaying (and the Benjaminites were so wild against the Israelites with such fierce slaughter), that they threw down eighteen thousand men of Israel drawing out (the) sword.