What does the Lord answer when Israel asks whether to fight Benjamin again or cease?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

After the second defeat, their weeping, fast and offerings, the Lord tells them to go up because he will deliver Benjamin into their hands tomorrow. They then set ambushes around Gabaa and draw up their army for the third battle.

Chapter breakdown

All the children of Israel gather as one man from Dan to Bersabee, with the land of Galaad, to the Lord at Maspha. The chiefs and all tribes meet in the assembly of God’s people with four hundred thousand footmen fit for war. Benjamin knows of their arrival. Asked how the wickedness happened, the Levite, husband of the killed woman, says he lodged with his wife at Gabaa of Benjamin. He reports that the city’s men surrounded the house at night intending to kill him and abused his wife with such fury of lust that she died. He says he cut her into pieces and sent them through the borders of their possession because no such heinous crime and abomination had occurred in Israel. He calls on all those present to determine what they should do.

Standing, the people answer as one voice that none will return to a tent or house. They resolve to act together against Gabaa, taking ten men out of a hundred, a hundred out of a thousand and a thousand out of ten thousand from all Israel’s tribes to bring food for the army, so they may fight Gabaa of Benjamin and repay its wickedness as deserved. All gather against the city with one mind and counsel. They send messengers throughout Benjamin asking why such an abomination is found there and demanding the offending men of Gabaa for death and removal of evil from Israel. Benjamin refuses its brethren’s proposal. Men gather from all its allotted cities into Gabaa to help and fight all Israel. Benjamin has twenty-five thousand sword-bearing men besides Gabaa’s seven hundred very valiant men, who fight with the left hand as well as the right and sling stones so accurately they can hit a hair without missing to either side. Israel apart from Benjamin has four hundred thousand sword-bearing men ready for battle.

Israel goes to the house of God, Silo, and asks who should first lead the army against Benjamin. The Lord answers that Juda should lead. Rising the next morning, they camp by Gabaa and assault the city. Benjamin comes out and kills twenty-two thousand Israelites that day. Israel again trusts its strength and number and draws up its army in the same place. Challoner separately explains that the Lord allowed their defeat and many deaths though their cause was just, partly to punish idolatry they practiced or tolerated in Dan and elsewhere and partly because they trusted their own strength. Though he told them to fight, he would withhold victory until they were thoroughly humbled and learned to trust him alone. Before fighting again they go up and weep before the Lord until night, asking whether to continue against their brethren Benjamin. He tells them to go up and join battle. Next day Benjamin comes out through Gabaa’s gates and kills eighteen thousand sword-bearing men of Israel.

All Israel comes to the house of God, sits and weeps before the Lord, fasts until evening and offers holocausts and victims of peace offerings. They inquire about their state. The Lord’s covenant ark is there at that time, and Phinees, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, is over the house. They ask whether to fight their brethren Benjamin again or cease. The Lord tells them to go up because tomorrow he will deliver them into their hands.

Israel sets ambushes around Gabaa and draws up its army against Benjamin for the third time, as in the first two battles. Benjamin boldly comes out and pursues the fleeing enemy a long way, wounding and killing as before along two highways, one toward Bethel and one toward Gabaa, killing about thirty men. Benjamin expects to cut them off as before, but Israel feigns flight to draw them away from the city to those highways. The Israelites rise from their positions and form for battle at Baalthamar. The ambushes around the city gradually come out and march from its west side. Another ten thousand chosen Israelites attack the city’s inhabitants. Battle grows hot, and Benjamin does not know death threatens on every side. The Lord defeats Benjamin before Israel, who kill twenty-five thousand one hundred sword-bearing fighting men that day.

Seeing they are too weak, the Benjamites flee. Israel gives them room so they may come to the ambushes prepared near the city. Those hidden rise suddenly, enter the city while Benjamin has turned its back to the slayers and strike with the sword. Israel had told the ambush force to light a fire after taking the city so rising smoke would signal its capture. In the battle, Benjamin still thinks Israel is fleeing and pursues vigorously, killing thirty of its army. Israel sees the smoke like a pillar; Benjamin looks back and sees the captured city and rising flames. Those who had feigned flight turn and stand bravely against Benjamin. Benjamin turns toward the desert, pursued there also, while those who burned the city come to meet them. Slain from both sides without rest, they fall on the east side of Gabaa.

Eighteen thousand very valiant soldiers are killed in that place. The remaining Benjamites flee into the wilderness toward the rock Remmon. As they scatter by different routes, five thousand more are killed in flight and another two thousand in continued pursuit. The account gives twenty-five thousand valiant fighting men killed in different places. Only six hundred men of Benjamin escape into the wilderness; they stay at the rock Remmon four months. Israel returns and puts the city’s remains, both men and beasts, to the sword, and all Benjamin’s cities and villages are consumed by flames.

The story inside

The Levite’s report at the united assembly leads to a resolve against Gabaa and a demand for its offenders. Benjamin refuses and gathers to fight. The first consultation names Juda as leader; the next two battles cost Israel twenty-two thousand and eighteen thousand men. Between them the people weep and ask again, and Challoner separately explains the defeats. After the second, all Israel fasts, offers sacrifices and asks whether to continue or cease, receiving a promise for tomorrow. The third attack uses feigned flight and ambushes. Smoke from the captured city signals the turn in battle, and Benjamin is pursued toward the desert and Remmon. Separate casualty statements remain as given. Six hundred survive four months at the rock, while Israel burns the cities and villages.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The consultations ask different questions and receive different answers. First they ask who should lead and hear Juda; before the second battle they ask whether to fight again and are told to join battle. Only after the later fast and offerings does the reply expressly promise deliverance tomorrow.
2
Challoner’s explanation is attributed in full. He names idolatry practiced or tolerated in Dan and elsewhere and reliance on their strength, despite a just cause. The account’s recorded weeping, fasting and offerings are retained without turning the note into a new report of inner states.
3
The ambush and smoke explain the battle’s change. Israel feigns flight to draw Benjamin away; the captured city’s fire signals the turn. The account gives twenty-five thousand one hundred earlier and twenty-five thousand later, plus the separate eighteen-, five- and two-thousand losses; retaining them avoids silently forcing one total.

Test your recall

What answers precede the three battles, how does the smoke signal change the fighting, and who escapes to Remmon for how long?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 27437–27467
Judges Chapter 20 The Israelites warring against Benjamin are twice defeated; but in the third battle the Benjamites are all slain, saving six hundred men. 20:1. Then all the children of Israel went out, and gathered together as one man, from Dan to Bersabee, with the land of Galaad, to the Lord in Maspha: 20:2. And all the chiefs of the people, and all the tribes of Israel, met together in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen fit for war. 20:3. (Nor were the children of Benjamin ignorant that the children of Israel were come up to Maspha.) And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was killed being asked, how so great a wickedness had been committed, 20:4. Answered: I came into Gabaa, of Benjamin, with my wife, and there I lodged: 20:5. And behold the men of that city, in the night beset the house wherein I was, intending to kill me, and abused my wife with an incredible fury of lust, so that at last she died. 20:6. And I took her and cut her in pieces, and sent the parts into all the borders of your possession: because there never was so heinous a crime, and so great an abomination committed in Israel. 20:7. You are all here, O children of Israel, determine what you ought to do.
Lines 27469–27506
20:8. And all the people standing, answered as by the voice of one man: We will not return to our tents, neither shall any one of us go into his own house: 20:9. But this we will do in common against Gabaa: 20:10. We will take ten men of a hundred out of all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to bring victuals for the army, that we may fight against Gabaa of Benjamin, and render to it for its wickedness, what it deserveth. 20:11. And all Israel were gathered together against the city, as one man, with one mind, and one counsel: 20:12. And they sent messengers to all the tribe of Benjamin, to say to them: Why hath so great an abomination been found among you? 20:13. Deliver up the men of Gabaa, that have committed this heinous crime, that they may die, and the evil may be taken away out of Israel. But they would not hearken to the proposition of their brethren the children of Israel: 20:14. But out of all the cities which were of their lot, they gathered themselves together into Gabaa, to aid them, and to fight against the whole people of Israel. 20:15. And there were found of Benjamin five and twenty thousand men that drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gabaa, 20:16. Who were seven hundred most valiant men, fighting with the left hand as well as with the right: and slinging stones so sure that they could hit even a hair, and not miss by the stone’s going on either side. 20:17. Of the men of Israel also, beside the children of Benjamin, were found four hundred thousand that drew swords and were prepared to fight.
Lines 27508–27543
20:18. And they arose and came to the house of God, that is, to Silo: and they consulted God, and said: Who shall be in our army the first to go to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord answered them: Let Juda be your leader. 20:19. And forthwith the children of Israel rising in the morning, camped by Gabaa: 20:20. And going out from thence to fight against Benjamin, began to assault the city. 20:21. And the children of Benjamin coming out of Gabaa slew of the children of Israel that day two and twenty thousand men. 20:22. Again Israel, trusting in their strength and their number, set their army in array in the same place, where they had fought before: Trusting in their strength.... The Lord suffered them to be overthrown and many of them to be slain, though their cause was just; partly in punishment of the idolatry which they exercised or tolerated in the tribe of Dan, and elsewhere; and partly because they trusted in their own strength; and therefore, though he bid them fight, he would not give them the victory, till they were thoroughly humbled and had learned to trust in him alone. 20:23. Yet so that they first went up and wept before the Lord until night: and consulted him and said: Shall I go out any more to fight against the children of Benjamin my brethren or not? And he answered them: Go up against them, and join battle. 20:24. And when the children of Israel went out the next day to fight against the children of Benjamin, 20:25. The children of Benjamin sallied forth out of the gates of Gabaa: and meeting them, made so great a slaughter of them, as to kill eighteen thousand men that drew the sword.
Lines 27545–27556
20:26. Wherefore all the children of Israel came to the house of God, and sat and wept before the Lord: and they fasted that day till the evening, and offered to him holocausts, and victims of peace offerings, 20:27. And inquired of him concerning their state. At that time the ark of the covenant of the Lord was there, 20:28. And Phinees, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was over the house. So they consulted the Lord, and said: Shall we go out any more to fight against the children of Benjamin, our brethren, or shall we cease? And the Lord said to them: Go up, for to morrow I will deliver them into your hands.
Lines 27558–27586
20:29. And the children of Israel set ambushes round about the city of Gabaa: 20:30. And they drew up their army against Benjamin the third time, as they had done the first and second. 20:31. And the children of Benjamin boldly issued out of the city, and seeing their enemies flee, pursued them a long way, so as to wound and kill some of them, as they had done the first and second day, whilst they fled by two highways, whereof one goeth up to Bethel and the other to Gabaa, and they slew about thirty men: 20:32. For they thought to cut them off as they did before. But they artfully feigning a flight, designed to draw them away from the city, and by their seeming to flee, to bring them to the highways aforesaid. 20:33. Then all the children of Israel rising up out of the places where they were, set their army in battle array, in the place which is called Baalthamar. The ambushes also, which were about the city, began by little and little to come forth, 20:34. And to march from the west side of the city. And other ten thousand men chosen out of all Israel, attacked the inhabitants of the city. And the battle grew hot against the children of Benjamin: and they understood not that present death threatened them on every side. 20:35. And the Lord defeated them before the children of Israel, and they slew of them in that day five and twenty thousand, and one hundred, all fighting men, and that drew the sword.
Lines 27588–27620
20:36. But the children of Benjamin, when they saw themselves to be too weak, began to flee. Which the children of Israel seeing, gave them place to flee, that they might come to the ambushes that were prepared, which they had set near the city. 20:37. And they that were in ambush arose on a sudden out of their coverts, and whilst Benjamin turned their backs to the slayers, went into the city, and smote it with the edge of the sword. 20:38. Now the children of Israel had given a sign to them, whom they had laid in ambushes, that after they had taken the city, they should make a fire: that by the smoke rising on high, they might shew that the city was taken. 20:39. And when the children of Israel saw this in the battle, (for the children of Benjamin thought they fled, and pursued them vigorously, killing thirty men of their army) 20:40. And perceived, as it were, a pillar of smoke rise up from the city; and Benjamin looking back, saw that the city was taken, and that the flames ascended on high: 20:41. They that before had made as if they fled, turning their faces, stood bravely against them. Which the children of Benjamin seeing, turned their backs, 20:42. And began to go towards the way of the desert, the enemy pursuing them thither also. And they that fired the city came also out to meet them. 20:43. And so it was, that they were slain on both sides by the enemies, and there was no rest of their men dying. They fell and were beaten down on the east side of the city of Gabaa.
Lines 27622–27643
20:44. And they that were slain in the same place, were eighteen thousand men, all most valiant soldiers. 20:45. And when they that remained of Benjamin saw this, they fled into the wilderness, and made towards the rock that is called Remmon. In that flight also, as they were straggling, and going different ways; they slew of them five thousand men. And as they went farther, they still pursued them, and slew also other two thousand. 20:46. And so it came to pass, that all that were slain of Benjamin, in divers places, were five and twenty thousand fighting men, most valiant for war. 20:47. And there remained of all the number of Benjamin only six hundred men that were able to escape, and flee to the wilderness: and they abode in the rock Remmon four months. 20:48. But the children of Israel returning, put all the remains of the city to the sword, both men and beasts, and all the cities and villages of Benjamin were consumed with devouring flames.