No King in Israel (49)

In a recent post I noted similarities in the Lord’s reaction to Israel’s prayers prior to going into battle against Benjamin and his response to Joshua’s prayer after Achan’s sin led to Israel’s defeat at the first battle of Ai. In Judges 20, it’s quite possible the leaders of Israel’s army lifted the ambush strategy they employed to defeat Benjamin from Joshua’s strategy at the second battle at Ai not many decades prior. That strategy did not originate with Joshua. It came from the Lord. On top of that, the account in Joshua shows the former city of Ai was not far from Bethel, where Israel gathered to pray earlier in this chapter.

Like the sins of Sodom and Gibeah, the two battle accounts in Joshua 8 and Judges 20 have several features in common.

III. Two Historical Vignettes from the Period (continued)

b. Benjamin becomes Sodom (continued)

Judges 20:29-36 — Day Three Summary

“So Israel set men in ambush around Gibeah. And the people of Israel went up against the people of Benjamin on the third day and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. And the people of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city. And as at other times they began to strike and kill some of the people in the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, and in the open country, about thirty men of Israel. And the people of Benjamin said, ‘They are routed before us, as at the first.’ But the people of Israel said, ‘Let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.’ And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar, and the men of Israel who were in ambush rushed out of their place from Maareh-geba. And there came against Gibeah 10,000 chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was hard, but the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was close upon them. And the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and the people of Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day. All these were men who drew the sword. So the people of Benjamin saw that they were defeated.”

The Storytelling Method

The narrative first summarizes the battle and outcome in eight verses before going on to give further details. This method is typical of the Hebrew historians in scripture from Genesis on. They often start with a summary and conclusion, then back up to explain exactly how these events took place. Unfortunately, the storytelling technique sometimes confuses readers unfamiliar with it: inattentive critics will speculate that different writers have grafted together two different accounts of the same events.

The “summary / explanation” technique is apparent when we analyze the repeated numbers. The thirty men of Israel who die in the summary portion (v31) are the same thirty mentioned in the “play-by-play” portion (v39). The 25,000 dead Benjamites mentioned in the play-by-play portion (v45) are the rounded total of 18,000 (v44) caught in Israel’s ambush near Gibeah, 5,000 who died on the highways retreating and 2,000 killed at Gidom (v45). They correspond to the more precise total of 25,100 in the summary (v35). Benjamin’s overconfidence is also noted in both sections (vv32 and 39), as is the tribe’s dawning realization that they were done for (vv36 and 41).

The Use of Superlatives

The writer has employed a number of superlatives in his description of both sides throughout the chapter: “chosen men” (3x), “men who drew the sword” (5x) and “men of valor” (2x). This is typical language for Bible historians. The first phrase designates the elite from each army: the 700 Benjamites with slings who were exceptionally accurate, and the 10,000 Israelites who were finally effective in destroying Benjamin. The latter two phrases are simply euphemisms for “soldiers”, distinguishing men who took up arms in combat from those too old, young or infirm to do so. The Hebrew word translated “of valor” is not a commendation for exceptional character or a synonym for nobility. It simply means they were fighting men. The Hebrew ḥayil is more often simply translated “army”, “host” or “force”.

A Change in Strategy

Days One and Two were blunt force attempts to take Gibeah. On Day Three Israel took the aforementioned strategic approach. The objective was to lure Benjamin away from Gibeah so the renegade tribe would have no opportunity to retreat. There was a cost to this, in that thirty Israelites died in the process, but it was a necessary price to pay in order to make Benjamin overconfident and draw its soldiers away from the safety of the city.

Something significant changed between Day Two and Day Three. Prior to this point Benjamin had been incredibly successful. Now, the same skill and ferocity failed to win the day. Sometimes the Lord’s hand is obvious. Other times his role is more discreet. Here, there seems to be no miraculous aspect to the victory. Nevertheless, the writer attributes Israel’s victory to the Lord.

Judges 20:36-48 — The Play-by-Play

“The men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin, because they trusted the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah. Then the men in ambush hurried and rushed against Gibeah; the men in ambush moved out and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in the main ambush was that when they made a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city the men of Israel should turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about thirty men of Israel. They said, ‘Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.’ But when the signal began to rise out of the city in a column of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to heaven. Then the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was close upon them. Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them. And those who came out of the cities were destroying them in their midst. Surrounding the Benjaminites, they pursued them and trod them down from Nohah as far as opposite Gibeah on the east. Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell, all of them men of valor. And they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon. Five thousand men of them were cut down in the highways. And they were pursued hard to Gidom, and 2,000 men of them were struck down. So all who fell that day of Benjamin were 25,000 men who drew the sword, all of them men of valor. But 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon and remained at the rock of Rimmon four months. And the men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, the city, men and beasts and all that they found. And all the towns that they found they set on fire.”

The Element of Trust

The writer notes the element of trust between the various groups of soldiers on Israel’s side. Given the tribal rivalries that come up repeatedly in the historical accounts, it’s interesting that after seeking the Lord’s will and offering sacrifices to atone for sin and praise the Lord, the Israelite side was able to work together more effectively on Day Three and achieve a successful outcome. There’s probably something in that we can take away and use.

The victory was total, the tribe of Benjamin almost annihilated. The 600 who escaped to Rimmon were Benjamin’s sole survivors. The word translated “men” in v48 of my ESV is simply a generic term that means “everybody”, the entire city in each case: men, women, children and the aged. All were struck down and incinerated as comprehensively as Joshua and Israel destroyed Canaanite cities a few years earlier. Live like a Canaanite, die like a Canaanite.

In Summary

In an act of unreasoning tribalism, Benjamin had unwisely protected the gang rapists and murderers of Gibeah from the justice they deserved. There was a huge cost to that choice. The leaders of Benjamin paid the price, but we cannot fail to note that their families and the families of all Benjamites (who may or may not have agreed with their choices) also lost their lives. We are reminded that our sins frequently have unforeseen outcomes for others. Sometimes those people are innocent. Those of us with leadership responsibilities are wise to keep that principle in mind. The Lord rarely preserves us from the earthly consequences of our own bad decisions.

Benjamin became like the Sodomites the Lord destroyed in Genesis, and their tribe met a similar fate. In the destruction of Sodom, only Lot and his family escaped. In the destruction of Benjamin, the Lord graciously left a few survivors. Remarkably, out of the ashes of this crushed tribe would come Israel’s first king.