Judges 20:43

43 Thus they enclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them and trod them down with ease opposite Gibeah toward the sunrising.

Judges 20:43 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 20:43

Thus they enclosed the Benjaminites round about
Surrounded them on all sides, the army of Israel being posted in different places, and people coming out of all the cities to their assistance. Josephus ^F1 says, they were forced into, and cooped up, in a hollow place in a valley, so that they could not escape:

and chased them;
or "caused to pursue" ^F2; calling after them a pursuit, crying to one another as they went along, saying, pursue them, pursue them; so Jarchi and Kimchi; which cry, as it inspired the pursuers with zeal, so they pursued with terror:

and trod them down with ease;
they making no resistance, being quite dispirited; the Targrim is,

``from the house of their rest,''

where they took up their rest, and designed to rest that night, but could not, being so closely pursued, and diligently sought after. Some take "menuchah", rendered "ease", to be the name of a place, from or unto which they were pursued and trodden down, see ( 1 Chronicles 2:52 ) and so the Septuagint seems to take it for the name of a place, rendering it, "from Noua":

over against Gibeah, towards the sunrising;
that is, as Jarchi interprets it, to the east of Gibeah, there was this overthrow and slaughter made.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10.)
F2 (whpydrh) "persequi fecerunt eum", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius; "vel eos", Vatablus.

Judges 20:43 In-Context

41 And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed; for they saw that evil had come upon them.

42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them; and those who came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.

43 Thus they enclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them and trod them down with ease opposite Gibeah toward the sunrising.

44 And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men. All these were men of valor.

45 And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon; and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and pursued hard after them unto Gidom and slew two thousand men of them.