Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 20:35

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.

35. As elsewhere the account of the battle is brought to an end with a summing up of the numbers slain, Jdg 20:21 ; Jdg 20:25 ; Jdg 20:46, Jdg 3:29, Jos 8:25. For the numbers see on Jdg 20:15. This later source B, it is to be noted, ascribes the victory to the direct interference of Jehovah; cf. 2Ch 13:15; 2Ch 14:12, where the same verb smote occurs.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 35. Twenty and five thousand and a hundred] As the Benjamites consisted only of twenty-six thousand and seven hundred slingers; or, as the Vulgate, Septuagint, and others read, twenty-five thousand, which is most probably the true reading; then the whole of the Benjamites were cut to pieces, except six hundred men, who we are informed fled to the rock Rimmon, where they fortified themselves.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

This is the total sum, whereof the particulars are related Jdg 20:11,45; and for the odd hundred not there mentioned, they were killed in other places not there expressed.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

29-48. And Israel set liers-in-waitround about GibeahA plan was formed of taking that city bystratagem, similar to that employed in the capture of Ai [Jos8:9].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel,…. Gave Israel the victory over them at Baaltamar; for notwithstanding all the art and stratagem they used, their numbers and their valour, victory was of the Lord, and to him it is ascribed; for until now Benjamin, though fewer in number, had been always victorious; and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjaminites that day 25,100; which is the total sum of all that were slain of them that day, the particulars of which are afterwards given:

all these drew the sword; were armed men.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(35) Destroyed of the Benjamites . . .Here again we have a summary of the final result, followed by details, in a manner which proves either that the narrative was compiled from various sources (one of which seems to have been a poem), or that it was penned before the periodic style of history (lexis katestrammene) had been invented. If written consecutively, and not compiled, the writer must have been one whose method bore the same resemblance to that of later writers, as the style of Hellanicus did to that of Herodotus and Thucydides. It is the style to which Roman writers would have applied the epithet inconditusthe style of the oldest annals. Jdg. 20:36-46 are not, as has been conjectured by some writers, necessarily a different account of the battle, but contain a loose assemblage of details, which has been added to explain the general result.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

35. Twenty and five thousand and a hundred The historian here gives the result of the battle, and then proceeds, in Jdg 20:36-46, to give more of the details. It appears that eighteen thousand fell in battle, (Jdg 20:44,) five thousand were gleaned along the highways, (Jdg 20:45,) and that two thousand more were killed as they fled to Gidom. This makes exactly twenty-five thousand; but no account is given in this latter part of the other one hundred. So also no account at all is given of the number of Benjamites who fell in the previous battles. According to Jdg 20:47 only six hundred men of Benjamin escaped; but before the first battle they numbered twenty-six thousand seven hundred. Jdg 20:15. Consequently twenty-six thousand one hundred were killed and missing in the war. The historian records twenty-five thousand one hundred killed on this last day of battle; the other one thousand, not accounted for, probably fell in the battles of the previous days, for it is not supposable that the Benjamites killed twenty-two thousand on one day (Jdg 20:21) and eighteen thousand on another without any loss to themselves.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘ And Yahweh smote Benjamin before Israel, and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty five eleph and one hundred men. All these drew the sword.’

Twenty five out of twenty six Benjaminite units were destroyed. One unit had probably remained to protect Gibeah. The ‘hundred’ men were probably specifically a unit of the men of Gibeah (see Jdg 20:15).

The mention of the one hundred confirms that we must look at the numbers carefully. It would hardly be true that they were able to count all the dead or that they should come to such an odd number if they did, a round number and yet not a round number (compare the ‘fifty eleph and seventy’, a similar odd round number, slain at Bethshemesh for looking into the Ark. The size of Bethshemesh forbids taking eleph as a thousand, as does the odd round number. It probably meant there fifty captains (or family heads) and seventy other men).

But the destruction of twenty five units was easily assessable and the number of men from Gibeah was counted to ensure that they had all been dealt with (a hundred having been sent, the remainder being in the unit left to defend Gibeah).

“All these drew the sword”, that is, were fighting men.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jdg 20:35 And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.

Ver. 35. And the Lord smote Benjamin. ] Not the Israelites by their stratagem, but the Lord smote them. Victory is his gift.

“ Vincere quisquis aves hostilem exereitum, age, ante,

Invictum vincas per tua vota Deum. ”

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)