Judges 20:15

15 On that day there were 26,000 men from Binyamin armed with swords, besides the inhabitants of Giv'ah, who numbered 700 specially chosen men.

Judges 20:15 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 20:15

And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of
the cities
All that they could muster up, and gather together out of their several cities, were no more man than

twenty and six thousand men that drew the sword
able bodied men fit for war, and expert in it:

beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred
chosen men
young, stout, and strong, and in all but 26,700; and what are these to an army of 400,000 men, or however 360,000 that came up against Gibeah, while 40,000 were employed in getting provisions for them? Josephus ^F7 makes the number of the Benjaminites still less, no more than 25,600, led thereunto by an later account, that 25,000 Benjaminites were slain in the third and last battle, and only six hundred escaped to a rock for safety, not considering that 1000 men may well be supposed to be lost in the two first battles; for it would be strange indeed that they should lose none in two engagement with so large an army; the same error is committed in the Vulgate Latin version, which makes them no more than 25,000; with which agrees the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint version: though that, according to the Vatican exemplar, has but 23,000. The numbers in the Hebrew text are no doubt the right.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10.

Judges 20:15 In-Context

13 Turn over these good-for-nothings who are in Giv'ah at once, so that we can execute them and rid Isra'el of such evil." But the people of Binyamin refused to obey the order of their kinsmen the people of Isra'el.

14 Instead the people of Binyamin gathered themselves together from their cities and went to Giv'ah to fight the people of Isra'el.

15 On that day there were 26,000 men from Binyamin armed with swords, besides the inhabitants of Giv'ah, who numbered 700 specially chosen men.

16 All of these 700 specially picked men were left-handed, and every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

17 The army of Isra'el, apart from Binyamin, numbered 400,000 men with swords; they were all experienced soldiers.