Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 20:15
And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
15. The figures in this account are inconsistent. The entire muster of Benjamites is reckoned here at 26,700; while Jdg 20:35 ; Jdg 20:47 give a total 25,700, and Jdg 20:44-47 a total 25,600. Some mss. of the LXX (cod. A, Luc. etc.), followed by Vulgate, read twenty and five thousand men here (see marg.); but this may be merely an attempt to harmonize with the numbers in Jdg 20:35 ; Jdg 20:47.
seven hundred chosen men ] Repeated in Jdg 20:16 and applied to the left-handed slingers. The words can hardly be original in both places, and the Versions agree in giving them only once. Probably they should be omitted here, and the verse ended with the inhabitants of Gibeah; the insertion of were numbered would be required when the following words were added.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Comparing the numbers here with those in Num. 1; 26, it is seen that in the case both of the Benjamites and the Israelites the numbers are diminished by about one-third, i. e., they appear as about two-thirds only of what they were at the last numbering in the plains of Moab. This diminution seems to indicate disturbed and harassing times. With this agrees the mention of the cities, as containing the whole Benjamite population. The inference is that the open country and unwalled villages were not safe, but that the Benjamites kept the Canaanites in subjection only by dwelling in fortified towns.
Jdg 20:16
See Jdg 3:15, and note. In the Septuagint and Vulgate the 700 chosen men of Gibeah are represented as the seven hundred left-handed slingers.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. Twenty and six thousand] Some copies of the Septuagint have twenty-three thousand, others twenty-five thousand. The Vulgate has this latter number; the Complutensian Polyglot and Josephus have the same.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Object. This agrees not with the following numbers; for all that were slain of Benjamin were 25,100 men, Jdg 20:35, and there were only 600 that survived, Jdg 20:47, which make only 25,700.
Answ. The other thousand men were either left in some of their cities, where they were slain, Jdg 20:48, or were cut off in the two first battles, wherein it is reasonable to think they had an unbloody victory; and as for these 25,100 men, they were all slain in that day, i.e. the day of the third battle, as is affirmed, Jdg 20:35.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities,…. All that they could muster up, and gather together out of their several cities, were no more man than
twenty and six thousand men that drew the sword able bodied men fit for war, and expert in it:
beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men young, stout, and strong, and in all but 26,700; and what are these to an army of 400,000 men, or however 360,000 that came up against Gibeah, while 40,000 were employed in getting provisions for them? Josephus g makes the number of the Benjaminites still less, no more than 25,600, led thereunto by an later account, that 25,000 Benjaminites were slain in the third and last battle, and only six hundred escaped to a rock for safety, not considering that 1000 men may well be supposed to be lost in the two first battles; for it would be strange indeed that they should lose none in two engagement with so large an army; the same error is committed in the Vulgate Latin version, which makes them no more than 25,000; with which agrees the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint version: though that, according to the Vatican exemplar, has but 23,000. The numbers in the Hebrew text are no doubt the right.
g Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Seven Hundred Left-handed Men Chosen Jdg. 20:15-16
15 And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
16 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.
8.
Did all the men of Benjamin go to battle? Jdg. 20:15
When the men of Israel were counted before they crossed Jordan into Canaan, there were 45,600 men twenty years of age and over in Benjamin. Earlier there were 35,400 men able to go to war (Numbers, chapter one). Since these men had been subject to attacks from the nations to the east, it is quite possible that their ranks were already reduced to near 27,000 by the time the civil war occurred. It would appear that nearly all their men of military age went out to fight this battle.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(15) Out of the cities.They could only live in cities, because the Jebusites still held Jerusalem, and the Canaanites around them were very incompletely subdued.
Twenty and six thousand.This seems to be the correct number, and is found in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. Josephus, however (Antt. v. 2, 10), has 25,000, as also has Codex A of theLXX., and Codex B has 23,000 (see Note on Jdg. 20:46). We see generally that the Benjamites, like the rest of the Israelites, in spite of their exceptional increase in the wilderness, had been now diminished by about a third since the last census (Num. 26:41). (See Note on Jdg. 20:2.)
Seven hundred chosen men.There seems to be some uncertainty or confusion in the text here. It is difficult to imagine that, as the text stands, the single city of Gibeah furnished to the Benjamites their one choice contingent of seven hundred slingers, and it would be a curious coincidence that the force of Gibeah and the slingers should each be exactly seven hundred.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. The inhabitants of Gibeah These are specially mentioned because they were specially interested in the war. For their sake it was carried on, and so they furnished seven hundred men.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ And the children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities, twenty six eleph men who drew sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.’
The children of Benjamin were numbered for battle and their numbers came to twenty six military units, compared with the four hundred military units of the tribal confederacy. They also had the men of Gibeah who would fight to the death for their city. There were seven hundred of them and they were ‘chosen men’, powerful fighters. But what were they against so many? (These numbers vary in the Septuagint and the versions between 23 and 25 military units, the latter being also cited by Josephus. But they are all fairly close).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 20:15. Which were numbered seven hundred chosen men It is said in the 46th verse, that there fell of the Benjamites on the third day twenty-five thousand. In the 47th verse, that there remained from the slaughter six hundred, which number makes twenty-five thousand six hundred men; there remained therefore four hundred to make up the twenty-six thousand, besides the Gibeathites: we may suppose these men to have perished in the two battles of the first and second day; for the sacred history does not relate how many fell in the victorious army. For the phrase, left-handed, see the note on chap. Jdg 3:15. The excellence of the Benjamites, noted in the next clause, has been remarkable in men of other countries, particularly in the men of the islands anciently called Baleares, where they were bred from children to hit a mark with a stone slung out of a sling, or else to lose their breakfast. See Strabo in Boch. Hieroz. pars 1: lib. 3 cap. 10 and Calmet on the place. This warlike disposition of the Benjamites was foretold, Gen 49:27. We should just observe, that the men of Israel, in the embassy they sent, and the whole method of their proceedings, acted agreeably to the law of nature and nations, while the Benjamites shewed themselves extremely depraved, and most deficient in justice. But for more on this subject, we refer to Grotius de Bell. et Pace, lib. 2: cap. 21 sect. 4.
REFLECTIONS.As wise men, who, not for revenge, but for the glory of God, desired the execution of the criminals; 1. They sent to their brethren of the tribe of Benjamin, to admonish them of the great wickedness that had been perpetrated among them, and to demand the delivery of the offenders, to put them to death. Note; (1.) We are bound to follow peace with all men, and must with reluctance have recourse to severer methods. (2.) If our traitor-sins are withheld, there can be no hopes of peace with God. (3.) It is cruelty to the community to spare those who, for atrocious crimes, are deserving of death.
2. The men of Benjamin reject their reasonable demand, thinking it beneath them to submit. They are, indeed, unequal in numbers, and more unequal in the badness of their cause; yet such confidence have they in the courage and dexterity of their slingers, that they dare meet their brethren in the field. Note; (1.) They who countenance others in their sins are justly reckoned alike criminal with them. (2.) Proud self-dependence is the ruin of the sinner’s soul. (3.) They who draw the sword in a bad cause, may expect to see it bathed in their own blood.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jdg 20:15 And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
Ver. 15. Twenty and six thousand men that drew sword. ] But were all shortly after devoured by the sword, the whole land becoming like a general slaughter house, or a place of infernal torture. Had they not been so numerous, they had not, likely, been so venturous. “The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee.” Oba 1:3
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
twenty: Jdg 20:25, Jdg 20:35, Jdg 20:46, Jdg 20:47, Num 26:41
Reciprocal: Jdg 8:10 – fell an hundred Jdg 20:22 – encouraged
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jdg 20:15. Twenty and six thousand men How does this agree with the following numbers; for all that were slain of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand and one hundred men, (Jdg 20:35,) and there were only six hundred that survived, (Jdg 20:47,) which make only twenty-five thousand and seven hundred? We answer, The other thousand men were either left in some of their cities, where they were slain, (Jdg 20:48,) or were cut off in the first two battles, wherein it is unreasonable to think they had an unbloody victory: and as for these twenty-five thousand and one hundred men, they were all slain in the third battle.