Judges 20:34

34 And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they knew not that evil was near 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 And the children of Benjamin said, "They are smitten down before us, as at the first." But the children of Israel said, "Let us flee and draw them from the city unto the highways."

33 And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baaltamar; and the liersinwait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.

34 And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they knew not that evil was near them.

35 And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and a hundred men; all these drew the sword.

36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten; for the men of Israel gave way to the Benjamites, because they trusted in the liersinwait whom they had set against Gibeah.