Bible Strands
Judges 20:21
And the Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down 22,000 Israelites on the battlefield that day.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Benjamite warriors sortie from Gibeah to engage the Israelite army that has just taken battle positions at the city. The words — The Hebrew verb וַ/יַּשְׁחִ֨יתוּ (va/i.yash.Chi.tu) literally means "they destroyed" or "they cut down," emphasizing total annihilation rather than mere defeat. The thread — This massacre is echoed in Judges 20:25 when the Benjamites cut down another 18,000 Israelites, and later recalled in Hosea 10:9 as the historical turning point where "the battle in Gibeah overtook" Israel. Why it lands — The text records the precise death toll and location of a tactical victory, demanding the reader acknowledge the brutal escalation of tribal warfare before any theological reflection on its cause or consequence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.
Cross-references
- Judges 20:25 That same day the Benjamites came out against them from Gibeah and cut down another 18,000 Israelites, all of them armed with swords.
- Jeremiah 12:1 Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?
- Hosea 10:9 Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel, and there you have remained. Did not the battle in Gibeah overtake the sons of iniquity?
- Genesis 49:27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.”
- Deuteronomy 23:9 When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every wicked thing.
- 2 Chronicles 28:10 And now you intend to reduce to slavery the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem. But are you not also guilty before the LORD your God?
- Psalms 33:16 No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.
- Psalms 73:18 Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
- Psalms 77:19 Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.
- Ecclesiastes 9:1 So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.