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.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
children	בְנֵ֨י ve.Nei	H1121	a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Benjamin	בִנְיָמִ֜ן vin.ya.Min	H1144	Binjamin · proper noun, a man's name
numbered	וַיִּתְפָּֽקְדוּ֩ vai.yit.pa.ke.Du	H6485	to visit (with friendly or hostile intent) · conjunction + verb, hithpael sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
time	בַּיּ֤וֹם bai.Yom	H3117	a day (as the warm hours) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
cities	מֵהֶ֣עָרִ֔ים me.He.'a.Rim	H5892	a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · preposition + definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
twenty	עֶשְׂרִ֨ים 'es.Rim	H6242	twenty · noun, common masculine plural absolute
six	וְשִׁשָּׁ֥ה ve.shi.Shah	H8337	six (as an overplus beyond five or the fingers of the h… · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular absolute
thousand	אֶ֛לֶף 'E.lef	H505	hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · noun, common both genders singular absolute
men	אִ֖ישׁ 'ish	H376	a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
drew	שֹׁ֣לֵֽף Sho.lef	H8025	to pull out · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
sword	חָ֑רֶב Cha.rev	H2719	drought · noun, common feminine singular absolute
inhabitants	מִיֹּשְׁבֵ֤י mi.yo.she.Vei	H3427	properly · preposition + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
Gibeah	הַגִּבְעָה֙ ha.giv.'Ah	H1390	Gibah · definite article + proper noun, a place name
numbered	הִתְפָּ֣קְד֔וּ hit.Pa.ke.Du	H6485	to visit (with friendly or hostile intent) · verb, hithpael perfect, 3rd person common plural
seven	שְׁבַ֥ע she.Va'	H7651	seven (as the sacred full one) · noun, common both genders singular construct
hundred	מֵא֖וֹת me.'ot	H3967	a hundred · noun, common feminine plural absolute
chosen	בָּחֽוּר ba.Chur	H977	properly · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
men	אִ֥ישׁ 'ish	H376	a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Numbers 26:41 These are the sons of Benjamin after their families: and they that were numbered of them were forty and five thousand and six hundred.
Numbers 1:37 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty and five thousand and four hundred.
Judges 20:25 And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen…
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 an h…
Judges 20:46-47 So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valour.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 20:12-17

Here is, I. The fair and just demand which the tribes of Israel, now encamped, sent to the tribe of Benjamin, to deliver up the malefactors of Gibeah to justice, Jdg 20:12, Jdg 20:13. If the tribe of Benjamin had come up, as they ought to have done, to the assembly, and agreed with them in their resolution, there would have been none to deal with but the men of Gibeah only, but they, by their absence, taking part with the criminals, application must be made to them all. The Israelites were zealous against the wickedness that was committed, yet they were discreet in their zeal, and did not think it would justify them in falling upon the whole tribe of Benjamin unless they, by refusing to give…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 20:14

the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah--Allowing their valor to be ever so great, nothing but blind passion and unbending obstinacy could have impelled them to take the field against their brethren with such a disparity of numbers.

John Gill on Judges 20:15

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 Benjaminite…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 20:14-16

Both sides now made their preparations. The Benjaminites assembled together at Gibeah out of their different towns, and "were mustered 26,000 men drawing the sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah they were mustered, 700 picked men" (הגפּקדוּ, with the reduplication dropped, like the Hothpael in Num 1:47). "Out of all this people there were 700 picked men, lamed in the right hand, all these (were) slinging with a stone (hitting) at a hair's breadth without fail." These statement are not quite clear. Since, according to the distinct words of Jdg 20:16, the 700 slingers with their left hands were "out of the whole people," i.e., out of the whole number of fighting men mentioned in Jdg 20:16,…

The Church Fathers

And when at first the people of Israel were defeated, yet unmoved by fear at the reverses of the war, they disregarded the sorrow the avenging of chastity cost them. They rushed into the battle ready to wash out with their own blood the stains of the crime that had been committed.
— Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 3.19.115-16

In the first and second encounters, when many were harmed by a few, the Israelites considered yielding, since the battles were so unfavorable. There were four hundred thousand men warring against twenty-five thousand of the tribe of Benjamin, and they strove with seven hundred Gabanites [Gibeonites] experienced in war. When two battles were unfavorable, Israel with eager spirit did not lose hope of victory nor of vengeance for the hope they had fostered. Superior in cause and number they yet fell back defeated in the battle's outcome, and, feeling that God was offended, they tried with fasting and much weeping to gain a reconciliation of heaven's favor.
— Ambrose of Milan, LETTER 33

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Congregation — (Heb. kahal), the Hebrew people collectively as a holy community (Num. 15:15). Every circumcised Hebrew from twenty years old and upward was a member of the congregation. Strangers resident in the…
Gibeah — A hill or hill-town, “of Benjamin” (1 Sam. 13:15), better known as “Gibeah of Saul” (11:4; Isa. 10:29). It was here that the terrible outrage was committed on the Levite’s concubine which led to the…
Arms, Military · Offensive: Sword — Offensive: Sword
Benjamin, Tribe Of · Almost annihilated for protecting the men of Gibeah — Almost annihilated for protecting the men of Gibeah
Jews, The · Obliged to unite against enemies — Obliged to unite against enemies

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 20:12-17

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 20:14

John Gill on Judges 20:15

Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 20:14-16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 20:12-17

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 20:14

John Gill on Judges 20:15

Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 20:14-16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Rashi on Judges 20:12