50 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when the men of Israel retired in the battle,.... Which is before expressed by their fleeing, and giving place to the Benjaminites, and was only an artifice of theirs, to draw them off from the city: Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; which was done in the highways leading to Shiloh and Gibeah in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke,.... Fire being set to it by the liers in wait, who had entered it, and who made a large fire, which caused a vast pillar of flame and smoke to arise, which might be seen a great way off: the Benjamites looked behind them; perhaps at hearing the blowing of the trumpet, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when the men of Israel turned again,.... Turned their faces to the Benjaminites, on whom they had turned their backs; and which they did on hearing the sound of the trumpet, or seeing the flame of the city, or both, and that in order to fight the Benjaminites, and smite them, as now was their opportunity: the men of Benjamin were amazed; at...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel,.... And fled from them: unto the way of the wilderness; what wilderness is not certain, perhaps the wilderness of Judah; they did not turn directly back towards Gibeah, perceiving that was taken, and in the hands of a body of men that would meet them, and therefore they turned on one side...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus they enclosed the Benjaminites round about,.... Surrounded them on all sides, the army of Israel being posted in different places, and people coming out of all the cities to their assistance. Josephus (a) says, they were forced into, and cooped up, in a hollow place in a valley, so that they could not escape: and chased them; or "caused to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men,.... Just the number they had slain of Israel in the second battle. This is the number of them that were slain when Israel turned upon them, and by that time they got to the east of Gibeah; afterwards 5000 more were slain on the highways, and 2000 near Gidom, as after related: all these were men of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they turned and fled toward the wilderness, unto the rock of Rimmon,.... Which signifies pomegranate; perhaps it was in the form of one, and may be the same as in 1 Samuel 14:2 where Saul is said to be under a pomegranate tree, or under Rimmon, the rock Rimmon, for that is said to be near Gibeah, as this was. There was a village in the times...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and thousand men,.... It is before said 25,100 Judges 20:35 here the one hundred are omitted, and the round number of thousands given, which is no unusual way of speaking and writing; the whole army of Benjamin consisted of 26,700 of which 18,000 were slain in the field of battle, 5000 in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But six hundred men,.... Who were all that were left of 26,700 turned and fled to the wilderness; turned out of the highway or common road, and being swift of foot, got to a wilderness; what wilderness is not certain: unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months; very probably in a cave of that rock, which might be large enough...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin,.... After they had destroyed their army, the city of Gibeah, and the inhabitants of it: not content with this, in their wrath and fury, turned and went, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city; even men, women, and children, in every city of...