Bible Strands
Judges 20:45
Then the Benjamites turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and Israel cut down 5,000 men on the roads. And they overtook them at Gidom and struck down 2,000 more.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Israelite forces pursue the surviving Benjamite warriors immediately after a battle that has already killed 18,000 of them.
The words — סֶ֣לַע (Se.la') = rock and הָֽ/רִמּ֔וֹן (ha./ri.Mon) = Rimmon appear together to name the geographic refuge the fleeing tribe seeks.
The thread — Rimmon functions as a known territorial marker in Joshua 15:32, becomes the temporary sanctuary for the remnant in Judges 21:13, and later appears as a Levite allotment in 1 Chronicles 6:77.
Why it lands — The text records the precise numbers of casualties and the specific route of retreat, establishing that the military campaign followed a calculated progression rather than a spontaneous rout.
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 they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.
Cross-references
- Joshua 15:32 Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain, and Rimmon—twenty-nine cities in all, along with their villages.
- Judges 21:13 Then the whole congregation sent a message of peace to the Benjamites who were at the rock of Rimmon.
- 1 Chronicles 6:77 The Merarites (the rest of the Levites) received the following: From the tribe of Zebulun they were given Rimmono and Tabor, together with their pasturelands.
- Zechariah 14:10 All the land from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem will be turned into a plain, but Jerusalem will be raised up and will remain in her place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.