“Instead the people of Binyamin gathered themselves together from their cities and went to Giv‘ah to fight the people of Israel.”-Judges 20:14
So 26,000 eligible soldiers have gathered to fight against Benjamin.
When I say “eligible”, I’m referring to men anywhere between the ages of 20 and 50.
Anybody under 20 or over 50 was NOT included in this 26,000.
Now let’s take a good look at verse 14 where it says the “people of Benjamin” gathered and went to Gibeah to fight.
That’s not a bad translation per se but there’s a nuanced point being communicated here we shouldn’t overlook.
In the original Hebrew it says the BEN or “sons” of Benjamin gathered together to fight.
And a couple of verses earlier we encounter a similar phrase that says the BEN or “sons” of Israel.
Here’s the thing.
This was a strong statement of pride and endearment.
The way it reads now, it just sounds your usual ho hum reference to all the people of Israel.
But this phrase was NOT talking about all the people of Israel.
Nor was it referring to only “sons” or those who had not reached adulthood.
The idea being communicated here is that these were special representatives of the tribe of Benjamin (or special representatives of Israel in the earlier verses) who were sacrificing themselves on behalf of their tribe (or nation).
What I find funny about all of this is nothing they were doing was righteous.
They should have turned in the rapists in their territory instead of trying to protect them.
Onward.
Finally, in addition to the 26,000 soldiers of Benjamin, we’re told “700 specially chosen men” from Gibeah were also added to the bunch.
These 700 men deserve special mention because they were stone slingers who could sling large stones weighing up to a pound with deadly accuracy and at speeds reaching up to 90 miles per hour.
To close, what I find appalling is that out of those 700 men from Gibeah, a good portion of them would have been the criminals who raped the concubine to death.
We can see here they had no remorse..
And that with some ridiculous sense of righteous indignation, they were going to war against their Hebrew brethren to defend their own crime when what they should have done was turn themselves in.
Such was the degree to which their consciences had been seared.
Their minds had been blinded and they no longer knew right from wrong.
Both the rapists and the regular citizens of Benjamin who thought it best to protect them had decided to side with the evil one.
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