50 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel rose up in the morning,.... After they had had counsel at Shiloh, and which perhaps was by a deputation sent thither: and encamped against Gibeah: formed a camp near Gibeah of 360,000 men, enough to have stormed and taken that city at once, one would think.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah,.... Which was their place of rendezvous, and which they came to defend; and in and about which they had stationed their whole army of 26,000 men: and destroyed down to the ground: killed dead upon the spot: of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men; wanting but 4000 of their whole...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves,.... That though they had lost a great number of men, yet still their forces were large and greatly superior to those of Benjamin, and above all their cause was good: and set their battle again in array formed a line of battle again facing their enemy, inviting to another battle, and bidding...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until even,.... The evening of the day in which the battle was fought; not that the whole army went up to Shiloh to the house of God there, but a deputation of them, who lamented their defeat, and the loss of so many lives, but not their sins and transgressions, and particularly the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel came near,.... To the city of Gibeah, drew nigh to battle: against the children of Benjamin the second day; for the two battles were fought two days successively.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day,.... Flushed with the victory they had obtained the day before: and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men, all these drew the sword, were armed men; this, with the 22,000 slain the day preceding, made 40,000; the same number singled out...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up, and came unto the house of God,.... This looks as if the whole body of the army, with other people from parts adjacent, went up to the tabernacle of God in Shiloh: and wept and sat there before the Lord; not only wept, but continued weeping, and that not merely for their defeat, but for...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel inquired of the Lord,.... By the Word of the Lord, as the Targum, and which has the same expression in Judges 20:18 for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days; in Shiloh, where the tabernacle was.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,.... Before the ark, ministering before the Lord, which shows that this affair was long before the times of Samson, though placed after them; or otherwise Phinehas must have been more than three hundred years of age, which is not probable (r). Phinehas's standing...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah. For though they were assured of success and victory, yet they thought proper to make use of means: and though their numbers were very great, they had recourse to art and stratagem, and set an ambush in divers places, much in like manner as Israel did for the men of Ai; the two cases being pretty...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day,.... Not the day following the second battle, since it would take more time to go to Shiloh, and fast and offer sacrifices there, but on the third day from the second battle: and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times; as they had done on the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Benjamin went out against the people,.... Sallied out of Gibeah upon them, where they had put themselves in array against them: and were drawn away from the city; the Israelites retreating, and dissembling a flight, which drew the Benjaminites to pursue after them, by which means they were drawn off to a greater distance from...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Benjamin said, they are smitten down before us, as at first,.... At the first battle, which gave them great spirit, and they concluded they should have victory, as before: but the children of Israel said, let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways; pretending to be afraid of them, and not able to face them, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place,.... The main body of the army, which fled before Benjamin, when they were come to a proper place, stopped, and rose up out of it, and stood in their own defence: and put themselves in array at Baaltamar; drew up in a line of battle at that place, facing their enemies, in order to engage with...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel,.... Which, according to Ben Gersom, were the liers in wait; and came from the south, as the Targum says: and the battle was sore; not between those liers in wait, and the Benjaminites, but between those at Baaltamar, and them who set themselves in battle array against them,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten,.... Their forces broken and worsted, many being killed: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjaminites; at first, and made as if they were afraid of them, and so fled before them, which was only to decoy them to a greater distance from the city Gibeah: because they trusted unto the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the liers in wait hasted,.... When the time was come agreed upon for them to rise out of their ambush: and rushed upon Gibeah; at unawares, with great force and violence entered the city, and took possession of it; or "extended" (x), or spread themselves unto it; before they lay close in a narrow compass, but now they put themselves in a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait,.... Or an appointed time (z) as the Targum; so Kimchi and Abarbinel. There was a time fixed, at which the men of Israel proposed to be at Baaltamar, exactly when the Benjaminites would be drawn at a proper distance from the city, and then the liers in wait were to...