Judges 20:29

29 Then the Israelites set up ambushes all around Gibeah.

Judges 20:29 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 20:29

And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah.
] For though they were assured of success and victory, yet they thought proper to make use of means: and though their numbers were very great, they had recourse to art and stratagem, and set an ambush in divers places, much in like manner as Israel did for the men of Ai; the two cases being pretty much similar; this ambush was set in the night, as Josephus says ^F19,

---

FOOTNOTES:

F19 Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2.) sect. 11.

Judges 20:29 In-Context

27 The Israelites asked the Lord a question. (In those days the Ark of the Agreement with God was there at Bethel.

28 A priest named Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, served before the Ark of the Agreement.) They asked, "Shall we go to fight our relatives, the Benjaminites, again, or shall we stop fighting?" The Lord answered, "Go, because tomorrow I will hand them over to you."

29 Then the Israelites set up ambushes all around Gibeah.

30 They went to fight against the Benjaminites at Gibeah on the third day, getting into position for battle as they had done before.

31 When the Benjaminites came out to fight them, the Israelites backed up and led the Benjaminites away from the city. The Benjaminites began to kill some of the Israelites as they had done before. About thirty Israelites were killed -- some in the fields and some on the roads leading to Bethel and to Gibeah.