Judges 20:37

37 And the ambush came quickly and advanced against Gibeah, and it {put the whole city to the sword}.

Judges 20:37 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 20:37

And the liers in wait hasted
When the time was come agreed upon for them to rise out of their ambush:

and rushed upon Gibeah;
at unawares, with great force and violence entered the city, and took possession of it; or "extended" F24, or spread themselves unto it; before they lay close in a narrow compass, but now they put themselves in a regular order, and marched rank and file, and reached from the meadows in which they were, ( Judges 20:33 ) , to the city:

and the liers in wait drew themselves along;
along the city, in every part of it, spread themselves all over it, and made themselves masters of every corner of it; or "made a long sound" F25 with a trumpet, protracted that to a great length, which was done to terrify the inhabitants, or to let the Israelites know they were possessed of the city:

and smote all the city with the edge of the sword;
old men, women, and children, who were not able to bear arms.


FOOTNOTES:

F24 (wjvpy) "extenderunt se", Tigurine version.
F25 (Kvmy) "pertraxerunt buccinae sonitum", Paguninus; so Jarchi and Limchi.

Judges 20:37 In-Context

35 And Yahweh defeated Benjamin in the presence of Israel, and the {Israelites} destroyed on that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin, all of them {sword-wielding}.
36 The descendants of Benjamin saw that they were defeated, and the men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin because they trusted the ambush that they had set against Gibeah.
37 And the ambush came quickly and advanced against Gibeah, and it {put the whole city to the sword}.
38 Now the appointed time for the men of Israel with the ambush was that they sent up for them a great amount of smoke from the city.
39 And the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to inflict casualties on about thirty men of Israel because they thought, "They will be completely defeated before us as in the first battle."

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Literally "struck the whole city with [the] mouth of [the] sword"
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