Judges 20:39

the men of Israel would turn in the battle. When the Benjamites had begun to strike them down, killing about thirty men of Israel, they said, “They are defeated before us as in the first battle.”

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The Israelite commanders execute a coordinated retreat during a battle against the tribe of Benjamin. As the Benjamites pursue and kill roughly thirty Israelites, they declare to one another that their opponents are fleeing just as they did in the initial engagement.

The words — The Hebrew verb וַיַּהֲפֹךְ (va.yahafoch) literally means "and he/they turned," describing the tactical reversal of the Israelite army. The phrase בַּמִּלְחָמָה (ba.milchamah) specifies this maneuver occurs "in the battle."

The thread — This tactical reversal directly continues the deception sequence initiated in Judges 20:32, where the Benjamites boast of a prior victory and the Israelites plan to draw them out. The same psychological trap is deployed again, now culminating in the smoke signal described in Judges 20:38 and 20:40.

Why it lands — The text records a military maneuver that exploits enemy overconfidence to achieve a decisive outcome. It asks the reader to observe how human strategy and divine judgment operate in tandem without endorsing the deception as a moral model.

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 when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.

Cross-references

Judges 20:32 “We are defeating them as before,” said the Benjamites. But the Israelites said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city onto the roads.”