Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports on the second day of battle, immediately after the Israelite forces advance against the Benjamite position at Gibeah.
The words — בַּ/יּ֣וֹם (ba/i.Yom) = on the day [3117] and וַ/יַּשְׁחִיתוּ (va/i.yash.chi.Tu) = and they destroyed [H7843].
The thread — This event directly follows the first-day engagement where Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down 22,000 Israelites (Judges 20:21), and precedes the national mourning and sacrificial response at Bethel (Judges 20:26). The pattern of repeated military reversal points to the unsearchable nature of divine judgment (Romans 11:33) and the tension between human warfare and the preservation of the righteous (Genesis 18:25).
Why it lands — The text records a precise tactical outcome before any theological explanation is offered, forcing the reader to confront the raw reality of cyclical violence and the necessity of seeking divine direction before further action.
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 Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.
Cross-references
- Judges 20:21 And the Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down 22,000 Israelites on the battlefield that day.
- Romans 11:33 O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
- Genesis 18:25 Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”
- Job 9:12 If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’
- Psalms 97:2 Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation.
- Romans 2:5 But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
- Romans 3:5 But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms.