JUDGES CHAPTER 20 The Israelites assemble at Mizpeh: the Levite declares his wrong, JUDGES 20:1. Their decree, JUDGES 20:8, They require the delinquents of the Benjamites to do justice on them; they are denied, JUDGES 20:12. Whereupon, having consulted God, they march to fight against them; are twic... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHIEF, Heb. _the corners_, i.e. the nobles and rulers, which are oft so called, because, like corner-stones, they both unite, and support, and adorn the whole building. FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND, or, and _four hundred thousand_. It is an ellipsis of the particle _and,_ of which examples have been gi... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILDREN OF BENJAMIN HEARD; like persons unconcerned and resolved, they neither went nor sent thither; partly, from their own pride, and stubbornness, and self-confidence; partly, because as they were loth to give up any of their brethren to justice, so they presumed the other tribes would never... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LEVITE; to whose relation the other two gave them consent.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGHT TO HAVE SLAIN ME; except I would either submit to their unnatural lust, which I was resolved to withstand even unto death; or deliver up my concubine to them, which I was forced to do.... [ Continue Reading ]
i.e. A lewd folly; most ignominious and impudent wickedness.... [ Continue Reading ]
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; the sons of that holy man, who for one filthy action left all eternal brand upon one of his own sons; a people in covenant with the holy God, whose honour you are obliged to vindicate, and who hath expressly commanded you to punish all such notorious enormities.... [ Continue Reading ]
WE WILL NOT ANY OF US GO TO HIS TENT, i.e. his habitation, to wit, until we have revenged this injury.... [ Continue Reading ]
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THAT THEY MAY DO ACCORDING TO ALL THE FOLLY THAT THEY HAVE WROUGHT; that we may punish them as such a wickedness deserves. IN ISRAEL: this is added as an aggravation, that they should do that in Israel, or among God's peculiar people, which was esteemed abominable even among the heathen.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TRIBE, Heb. _tribes_; either the plural number for the singular; or rather _tribe_ is put for _family_, as was noted before, as _families_ are elsewhere put for _tribes_. They take a wise and a just course, in sending to all the parts and families of the tribe, to separate the innocent from the... [ Continue Reading ]
PUT AWAY EVIL; both the guilt and the punishment, wherein all Israel will be involved, if they do not punish it. THE CHILDREN OF BENJAMIN WOULD NOT HEARKEN; partly, from the pride of their hearts, which made them scorn to submit it, their brethren, or to suffer them to meddle in their territory; par... [ Continue Reading ]
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OBJECT. This agrees not with the following numbers; for all that were slain of Benjamin were 25,100 men, JUDGES 20:35, and there were only 600 that survived, JUDGES 20:47, which make only 25,700. ANSW. The other thousand men were either left in some of their cities, where they were slain, JUDGES 20:... [ Continue Reading ]
LEFT-HANDED, Heb. _shut up on their right hand_, i.e. using their left hand instead of their right. EVERY ONE COULD SLING STONES AT AN HAIR BREADTH, AND NOT MISS; an hyperbolical expression, signifying that they could do this with great exactness. There are many parallel instances in historians of p... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MEN OF ISRAEL, to wit, such as were here present, JUDGES 20:2, for otherwise it is most probable they had a far greater number of men, being 600,000 before their entrance into Canaan, NUMBERS 1:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, i.e. some sent in the name of all. TO THE HOUSE OF GOD, to wit, to Shiloh, which was not far from Mizpeh, where they were. WHICH OF US SHALL GO UP FIRST TO THE BATTLE? this they ask to prevent emulations and contentions; but they do not ask whether they should go against them... [ Continue Reading ]
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No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
QUEST. Why would God suffer them to have so great a loss in so good a cause? ANSW. Because they had many and great sins reigning amongst themselves, and they should not have come to so great a work of God as this with polluted hands, but should have pulled the beam out of their own eye, before they... [ Continue Reading ]
ENCOURAGED THEMSELVES, Heb. _strengthened themselves_; partly by supporting themselves with the conscience of the justice of their cause, and the hopes of success; and partly by putting themselves in better order for defending themselves, and annoying their enemies. IN THE PLACE WHERE THEY PUT THEMS... [ Continue Reading ]
WENT UP AND WEPT; not so much for their sins as for their defeat and loss, as appears by the sequel. AGAINST THE CHILDREN OF BENJAMIN MY BROTHER; they impute their ill success not to their own sins, as they had great reason to do, but to their taking up arms against their brethren, the lawfulness wh... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
SAT THERE BEFORE THE LORD, and fasted; being now sensible of their former slightness, and now being truly humbled for their sins, which now they discover to be the true cause of their ill success. OFFERED BURNT-OFFERINGS, to make atonement to God for their own sins. PEACE-OFFERINGS; partly to bless... [ Continue Reading ]
INQUIRED OF THE LORD, to wit, by Urim and Thummim, NUMBERS 27:21. WAS THERE in Shiloh, where they were now assembled.... [ Continue Reading ]
PHINEHAS THE SON OF ELEAZAR: this is added to give us some light about the time of this history, and to show it was not done in the order in which it is here placed, after Samson's death, but long before. STOOD, i.e. ministered, as the word _stand_ oft signifies, as DEUTERONOMY 10:8, DEUTERONOMY 18:... [ Continue Reading ]
Though they were assured of the success by a particular and absolute promise, yet they do not neglect the use of means; as well knowing that the certainty of God's purposes or promises doth not excuse, but rather require man's diligent use of all fit means for the accomplishment of them. ROUND ABOUT... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, i.e. a considerable part of them, who were ordered to give the first onset, and then to counterfeit flight, to draw the Benjamites forth of their strong hold. See JUDGES 20:32. ON THE THIRD DAY, to wit, after the second battle; for the first day after it they spent in perplex... [ Continue Reading ]
DRAWN AWAY FROM THE CITY, by the dissembled flight of the Israelites. AS AT OTHER TIMES; with the same kind, though not with the same degree of success. GIBEAH IN THE FIELD; so called, to difference it from this Gibeah, which was upon a hill; wherefore they are constantly said to ascend or go up aga... [ Continue Reading ]
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OUT OF THEIR PLACE; where they had disposed themselves, that they might fall upon the Benjamites, when they were drawn forth to a sufficient distance from their city, and when they were pursuing that party, mentioned JUDGES 20:30. CAME FORTH OUT OF THEIR PLACES, to execute what was agreed upon, even... [ Continue Reading ]
CHOSEN MEN OUT OF ALL ISRAEL; selected out of the main body, which was at Baal-tamar; and these were to march directly to Gibeah on the one side, whilst the liers in wait stormed it on the other side, and whilst the great body of the army laboured to intercept these Benjamites, who, having pursued t... [ Continue Reading ]
This is the total sum, whereof the particulars are related JUDGES 20:11,45; and for the odd hundred not there mentioned, they were killed in other places not there expressed.... [ Continue Reading ]
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DREW THEMSELVES ALONG, or, _extended themselves_, i.e. whereas before they lay close and contracted into a narrow compass, now they spread themselves, and marched in rank and file, as armies do. Or, _marched_ or _went_, Heb. _drew their feet_. So this verb is oft, used, as GENESIS 37:28 EXODUS 12:21... [ Continue Reading ]
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No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MEN OF BENJAMIN WERE AMAZED, because of their great disappointment, and the present danger wherewith they were surrounded on every side.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BATTLE, i.e. the men of battle or war; the abstract for the concrete, as _poverty_, 2 KINGS 24:14, _pride_, PSALMS 36:11, _deceit_, PROVERBS 12:5, _dreams_, JEREMIAH 27:9, _election_, ROMANS 11:7, are put for persons that are _poor_, _proud, deceitful, dreamers, elect. Them which came out of the... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH EASE; without great difficulty. Now that God gave them his presence and assistance, they easily did that which before they found too hard for them. Or, unto Menuchah; or, as far as Menuchah; a place so called. See 1 CHRONICLES 2:52 JEREMIAH 51:59.... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE FELL, to wit, in the field, or battle.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY GLEANED, i.e. they cut off the remainders in the pursuit, and spared none; a metaphor from those who gather grapes or corn so clearly and fitly, that they leave no relics for those who come after them.... [ Continue Reading ]
TWENTY AND FIVE THOUSAND, besides the odd hundred expressed JUDGES 20:35; but here only the great number is expressed, the less being omitted, as inconsiderable; which way of numbering is frequent in Scripture, as JUDGES 11:26 2 SAMUEL 5:5, and in other authors, and in vulgar use; as when they are c... [ Continue Reading ]
In a cave within that rock, where they fortified themselves and fetched in provision as they had opportunity; which they could easily do, when the heat of the battle was over, and the Israelites were not solicitous to pursue them farther.... [ Continue Reading ]
Having destroyed those that came to Gibeah, and into the field, now they follow them home to their several habitations. THE MEN OF EVERY CITY; comprehensively taken, so as to include women and children. If this seem harsh and bloody, either it may be ascribed to military fury; or rather, it may be j... [ Continue Reading ]