Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary: Judges
Ver. 23. And join battle. This is an explanation of Hebrew, "against him." (Haydock) --- The Israelites still neglected to sue for the divine protection, trusting in their numbers. God sends them again to battle, and suffers them to be routed. Did he deceive them? By no means. He wished them to learn the important lesson of self-diffidence, and he had not promised them the victory. (Haydock) --- But after they had humbled themselves, He acts like a master. I will deliver, &c., ver. 28. (Calmet)
Ver. 25. Sword. In each battle the Benjamites kill almost as many as their whole army, in all 40,000 Israelites, without losing a man, ver. 15. (Haydock)
Ver. 26. Evening. Till then the Jews never eat on fasting days. The Turks still do the like: but they only change day into night, as they sleep till sunset, and then begin to feast and to make merry. (Calmet)
Ver. 28. Was over. Hebrew, "stood before it at that time," (Haydock) in the camp, (Calmet) or perhaps at Silo, which was not so remote; but some, if not the whole army, might go thither to weep, and to consult the Lord. Phinees had formerly displayed his zeal against the impiety of Beelphegor, Numbers xxv. 7. He was contemporary with Jonathan, the priest of Michas. (Kennicott) --- Hence it appears that this took place not long after the death of Eleazar, Josue xxiv. (Worthington)
Ver. 31. To Gabaa, from some other city. (Haydock) --- This body of men consisted of 10,000, who were designed to draw off the Benjamites from the city into the midst of the forces of Israel, at Baalthamar; while another division, in ambush, on the west of Gabaa, had to enter the city, and having set it on fire, were to prevent the inhabitants from re-entering. (Calmet) --- They use a similar stratagem to that which Josue (Josue viii.) had employed against Hai. (Salien)
Ver. 33. Baalthamar, the plain of Jericho; (Chaldean) or rather a village in the vicinity of Gabaa, which Eusebius calls Besthamar.
Ver. 34. West side. Hebrew máre, "a cavern," (Calmet) "a plain," (Chaldean) "the thickets." (Vat.[Vatable?] &c.) But the Septuagint have read márbe, "the west," with the Vulgate. (Calmet) --- The Vatican copy leaves Maraagabe. (Menochius) --- Gabaa was situated on a hill, and the ambuscade might be concealed in a cavern, some of which in Palestine are very spacious. (Calmet)
Ver. 35. The sword. It seems the slingers also used the sword, ver. 16.
Ver. 36. Flee; some towards the city, others to the wilderness, and to Remmon, ver. 45. (Haydock) --- That. Hebrew, "because they confided in those whom they had placed in ambush, near Gabaa." Hence they were not so eager to prevent their flight, by surrounding them.
Ver. 37. Arose. Hebrew, "drew along (advanced or sounded the trumpet a long time,") perhaps for a signal, (Calmet) though the firing of the city seems to have been designed for this purpose, ver. 40. (Haydock)
Ver. 39. Saw. Hebrew, "retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and to kill....about thirty men; for they said, surely they are destroyed before us, (or flee) as in the first battle." It is wonderful that they should thus so easily fall into the very snare laid formerly for the men of Hai, Josue viii. 5.
Ver. 42. Them. Hebrew, "and those who came out of the cities, (of Benjamin) they (destroyed, (Haydock) or the other Israelites) destroyed them who fled in the midst of them."
Ver. 43. Rest. Hebrew, "with ease, or at leisure they crushed them," &c. Others translate, (Calmet) Monvée, from Nucha, Noua, (Septuagint Roman; Haydock) Menucha," &c. We read of a place in the tribe of Juda, called Menuchta, 1 Paralipomenon ii. 52. (Calmet) --- The same word may be taken as a proper name, or may signify rest. (Menochius)
Ver. 45. In that. Hebrew, "and they gleaned of them in the highways 5000 men, and pursued them close to Giddom," of which the Vulgate takes no notice. The Roman Septuagint reads "Gedan;" the rest have "Galaad."
Ver. 46. War. The Scripture, and other authors of the greatest exactitude, sometimes use round numbers. (Calmet) --- An odd hundred (ver. 35, and 15.; Haydock) is here neglected. (Calmet)
Ver. 47. Escape. Mercy was shewn to these, as the tribe had been already treated with sufficient severity. St. Jerome says, they were "reserved for the sake of the apostle Paul," (epit. Paul. M.[Menochius?]) who was descended from some of them. (Haydock) --- Remmon, near Gabaa, Zacharias xiv. 10. Eusebius places it fourteen miles north of Jerusalem. (Calmet)
Ver. 48. And villages, is not expressed in Hebrew, &c. But as both cities, and all the inhabitants were destroyed, the villages would share the same fate, (Haydock) as being under a curse. The Israelites concluded, from the exemplary vengeance which had been taken of Sodom and Gomorra, that they were authorized to treat their brethren in guilt with the utmost severity. (Calmet)
Bible Text & Cross-references:
The Israelites warring against Benjamin are twice defeated; but in the third battle the Benjaminites are all slain, saving six hundred men.
1 Then all the children of Israel went out, and gathered together as one man, *from Dan to Bersabee, with the land of Galaad, to the Lord in Maspha:
2 And all the chiefs of the people, and all the tribes of Israel, met together in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand foot-men fit for war.
3 (Nor were the children of Benjamin ignorant that the children of Israel were come up to Maspha). And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was killed, being asked, how so great a wickedness had been committed,
4 Answered: I came into Gabaa, of Benjamin, with my wife, and there I lodged:
5 And behold the men of that city, in the night beset the house wherein I was, intending to kill me, and abused my wife with an incredible fury of lust, so that at last she died.
6 And I took her and cut her in pieces, and sent the parts into all the borders of your possession: because there never was so heinous a crime, and so great an abomination committed in Israel.
7 You are all here, O children of Israel, determine what you ought to do.
8 And all the people standing, answered as by the voice of one man: We will not return to our tents, neither shall any one of us go into his own house:
9 But this we will do in common against Gabaa:
10 We will take ten men of a hundred out of all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to bring victuals for the army, that we might fight against Gabaa of Benjamin, and render to it for its wickedness, what it deserveth.
11 And all Israel were gathered together against the city, as one man, with one mind, and one counsel: