Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 20:20
And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
20 . From B; repeating the substance of Jdg 20:19 (from A). The words went out set the battle in array against them occur in Gen 14:8, a document probably not earlier than the exile.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin,…. From the place where they were encamped:
and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah; not only against the inhabitants of Gibeah, but the children of Benjamin, that came to the defence of them; they formed, themselves in a line of battle, and prepared for an action.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As soon as the Israelites had posted themselves at Gibeah in battle array ( , to put in a row, or arrange the war or conflict, i.e., to put themselves in battle array, 1Sa 4:2; 1Sa 17:2, etc.), the Benjaminites came out and destroyed 22,000 men of Israel upon that day. , to destroy to the earth, i.e., to lay dead upon the ground.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
‘ And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.’
Then at the appropriate time they left their camp and set themselves in battle array ready for action, forty units against twenty six units.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 20:20 And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
Ver. 20. See Trapp on “ Jdg 20:19 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Israelites’ initial defeats 20:20-28
The Lord granted the Benjamites success to discipline the other Israelites for their independence, not because He approved of the Benjamites’ actions. The Benjamites became God’s temporary instrument to discipline the other tribes, as God also used Israel’s foreign foes (the Canaanites, Midianites, Philistines, et al., and later the Assyrians and Babylonians).
"The congregation now discovered, from this repeated defeat, that the Lord had withdrawn His grace, and was punishing them. Their sin, however, did not consist in the fact that they had begun the war itself-for the law in Deut. xxii 22, to which they themselves had referred in Jdg 20:13, really required this,-but rather in the state of mind with which they had entered upon the war, their strong self-consciousness, and great confidence in their own might and power. They had indeed inquired of God (Elohim) who should open the conflict; but they had neglected to humble themselves before Jehovah the covenant God, in the consciousness not only of their own weakness and sinfulness, but also of grief at the moral corruption of their brother tribe." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 452.]
The reference to the Israelites weeping (Jdg 20:23) is significant. This book opened with a reference to the people weeping because of their unfaithfulness to the covenant, manifested in idolatry (Jdg 2:4-5). In the middle chapter of the book there is another reference to weeping by Jephthah’s daughter and her friends as a result of Jephthah’s foolish vow (Jdg 11:37-38). So weeping frames the book and lies at its heart showing the unhappy outcome of idolatry and self-assertiveness. [Note: McCann, p. 118.] One writer referred to Judges as "a book of weeping." [Note: Tate, p. 34.]
With each successive defeat the Israelites became more concerned about getting God’s guidance. They had previously just asked Him to bless their plans with success.
". . . by reducing the size of the army, God was showing them that numbers alone did not guarantee victory. They needed to trust God to accomplish the impossible, as he did for Gideon’s three hundred (cf. Jdg 7:7)." [Note: Wolf, p. 498.]
"Just as the worship of Baal had brought about a near catastrophe in the plains of Moab (Num 25:1-9), so the Baal cult was probably responsible for subverting the Benjamites. This must have been comparatively soon after the earlier incident, for the same priest Phinehas intervened on both occasions (Num 25:7-8; Jdg 20:28)." [Note: Ibid., p. 493.]
Block claimed that the name Phinehas is Egyptian in origin and derives from a word meaning "the dark-skinned, the Negro." [Note: Block, Judges . . ., p. 561.]