JUDGES - Christian Identity Forum

The Destruction of Benjamin 309
Benjamin had started out with 26,000 men, plus 700 from
Gibeah. On the third day, 25,100 men fell. After the battle was
over, 600 were left (v. 47). This leaves 1000 unaccounted for. We
may assume that they died in the first two battles.
It is not clear whether any Israelites died in this third battle.
Benjamin began to smite about 30 men. It is unclear from the
Hebrew whether Benjamin was beginning “to smite and
wound: or beginning “to smite the wounded.” It may be that
Israel lost no men in the battle. The number 30 maybe significant,
since we are told that it was “about 30” rather than the exact
figure, as pointing again to the third day. These 30 men
offered themselves as sacrifices to enable the rest of the army to
lie in wait. This might be intended by the writer to connect with
the sacrifices offered on the third day, which enabled Israel to be
restored and to win the war.
A full brigade of 10,000 men of Israel took possession of
Gibeah once the Benjamite army had been lured off. At this
point, the story breaks off and we are simply given a theological
summary of the battle: The Lord was the one Who defeated
Benjamin, with the result that 25,100 Benjamites died that day.
This paragraph gives the theological perspective. It was on
the third day, after the substitutionary sacrifice, that the Lord
defeated Benjamin. This is the essence of the victory. Now, however,
the narrator tells the story of the battle a second time, in
more detail, showing how Israel did the Lord’s work. In the second
telling of the story, it will be made clear precisely how the
Lord struck Benjamin.
The Battle in Detail
36b. When the men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin
because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set
against Gibeah,
37. The men in ambush hurried and rushed against Gibeah;
the men in ambush also deployed and struck all the city with the
edge of the sword.
38. Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and
the men in ambush was that they should make a great cloud of
smoke rise from the city.
39. Then the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin
began to strike and kill about 30 men of Israel, for they