Judges 20:13-18
Judges 20:13
Now
therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that
we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of
Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of
Israel:
The
army had come to the heads of these families and brought them a proper proposal.
They wanted them to hand over the men who did the murder because they
were to be sentenced to death for this crime.
This way they would put away evil from Israel and keep it pure to the
best of their ability. However when
the Benjamites heard this demand, they rejected it and would not hand over the
men who committed the crime.
Judges 20:14
But
the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto
Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
Then
the children of Benjamin had decided to go to war against their own brethren of
Israel and came together outside of the city of Gibeah.
They knew those men were guilty and they never denied the fact of that
murder but they had become so reprobate that they decided to protect those
guilty men rather than having them face justice for their crimes.
It is just like today in many countries that if you speak against the
sodomites and their degenerate lifestyle, you are the one who is guilty and they
are the protected group.
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.
Benjamin was very foolish since they could only muster 26,000 men versus the
army of 400,000 facing them. That
is approximately 15 men of Israel to 1 man of Benjamin.
Gibeah had only mustered 700 chosen men but these men had a special
fighting talent as seen in the next verse.
Judges 20:16
Among
all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could
sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.
The
name “Benjamin” means “son of the right hand.”
Here we have 700 men who were left handed.
In Judges 3, Ehud was a descendant of Benjamin and was left-handed.
But when the children of Israel
cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera,
a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present
unto Eglon the king of Moab.
(Judges 3:15, KJV) Ehud was the
second Judge of Israel. The 700 men
had the talent of being able to sling a stone and hit the target they were
aiming at. These men were very
accurate with the sling. David killed
Goliath with a stone from a sling. The
Benjamites were counting on these 700 men to repel the attack by the other
tribes of Israel.
Judges 20:17
And
the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that
drew sword: all these were men of war.
The
chances that only 700 men could kill an entire army of 400,000 was slim to none
even with the 26,000 swordsmen helping them. They may be able to repel an
initial attack but if the army comes in waves or even from all four quadrants,
they will be overrun very quickly and killed themselves.
They were not rookies but they were all seasoned veterans of other wars
with the surrounding nations so Benjamin was really facing a formidable foe.
Judges 20:18
And
the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel
of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the
children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.