Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 20-21.

As I read this passage I see that the tribe of Benjamin knew that the rest of Israel was gathering at Mizpah to decide what to do about the events which occurred a Gibeah.  One way of reading this passage says that the tribe of Benjamin was summoned to this meeting along with everyone else and chose not to go.  Another way of reading it would interpret it that the tribe of Benjamin was not summoned, but knew that this meeting was happening, and why.  Either way, the tribe of Benjamin was in the wrong for not sending a delegation.  If the second scenario was true, then the other tribes were equally guilty for not inviting the tribe of Benjamin to the gathering to discuss the crime committed in Gibeah.  The tribe of Benjamin compounded their sin of not joining the rest of Israel to discuss dealing with the crime of Gibeah by defending the men of Gibeah rather than bringing them to justice.  Nevertheless, the rest of Israel was not justified in taking their war against Gibeah to the rest of Benjamin.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 20-21.

First, I want to comment on the fact that the passage tells us that the Israelites “assembled before the Lord in Mizpah.”  In fact, on multiple occasions throughout the book of Judges it says that the Israelites assembled at, or in, Mizpah.  For example, in Judges 10, in the account of Jephthah, it describes them as doing so.  However, on that occasion, Mizpah was clearly in the area east of the Jordan River (in fact, at one point later in the story of Jephthah it refers to Mizpah of Gilead).  While it is possible that the Mizpah referred to here was the same Mizpah, it seems more likely the Israelites assembled in the Mizpah which was in the territory of Bethlehem.  Considering that the Hebrew word transliterated as “mizpah” means “watchtower”, or “outlook”, I wonder if any of these were proper noun place names when the Israelites first gathered there.

So, the Israelites gathered, but the Benjamites did not join them, although the passage makes clear that the Benjamites were aware of the assembly.  Further, when the rest of Israel asked the Benjamites to bring these men to justice, the Benjamites rejected their request and mustered to defend the city of Gibeah.  We see here, and in the account of Jephthah which I mentioned earlier, that the tribes of Israel had been losing their unity.  So, while this event was devastating for the tribe of Benjamin, it did lead to the Israelites seeing themselves as one people once again.  At the end of the war, the Israelites realized that they had over reacted in the heat of battle and had almost wiped out the tribe of Benjamin.  They acted to preserve Benjamin.  Before this year, I never connected this account with the fact that Israel’s first king, King Saul, was a Benjamite, and from the very town which precipitated this war.  It is likely that the memory of this event, passed down through the generations, which caused King Saul, after the victory which established his authority, to refuse to kill those Israelites who had rejected him as king before that.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 20-21.

So, the account of the Levite, his concubine, and war of Israel against Benjamin is the last account in the Book of Judges.  It immediately follows the account of Micah, his idol, and the Danites.  Both of these accounts contain some variation on the phrase, “In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as they saw fit.”  This clearly suggests that they were included where they were as justification for Israel selecting a king.  If you do not read the passage carefully, the placing of the account of the Israel-Benjamin war at the end of the Book of Judges might lead you to conclude that it happened after the other accounts in the book.  However, we are told in the account that it took place while Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, was ministering before the ark of the covenant.  Along with that I want to mention that the story of Micah and his idol occurred before the Danites conquered their own territory.  Which leads me to conclude that that story also occurred early in the Israelite occupation of Canaan.  Yet both stories are presented as arguments for Israel to crown a king.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 20-21.

It is not clear to me from the passage if the tribe of Benjamin was invited to to conclave intended to address what had happened at Gibeah, and chose not to attend.  Or, if they had not been invited and only heard about the army of the rest of Israel gathering because of this incident.  My inclination is that it was the former, but that part of their decision to not attend was fear that they would be attacked by the rest while unable to defend themselves.  In any case, the tribe of Benjamin took the stance that the rest of Israel had no right to enforce their laws on the people of Gibeah, and were willing to fight to enforce this.  Once again I find myself getting lost in the weeds.

The important thing is that rather than recognizing that what happened at Gibeah was merely the logical conclusion of the idolatry going on in much of the rest of Israel and repenting of their sins, the Israelites merely chose to address this incident where people had gone too far.  I am not saying that the attack on Gibeah should not have happened.  What I am saying is that the people of Israel should have first confessed their own sins and sought out God’s will for how they could make their own sins right.  Then, once they had addressed their own sins, they could have brought retribution on Gibeah for its sins.  Or, perhaps, God would have shown them another, better, way to bring the men of Gibeah to justice.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 20-21.

After the incident with the Levite and his concubine recounted in yesterday’s passage the people of Israel, except for those of the tribe of Benjamin, gathered in anger.  Yesterday’s passage implies that the tribe of Benjamin received the same summons as the other tribes.  Today’s passage suggests that they did not realize the other tribes were gathering until they received word of the gathering.  In either case, rather than acting to bring the guilty men of Gibeah to justice, the tribe of Benjamin chose to defend them.  Reading the account today about the forces of Benjamin I realized why the men of Gibeah felt empowered to act as they did (and why they were allowed to get away with it for so long).  The account tells us that 700 of Benjamin’s elite warriors lived in Gibeah.  So, at least some of the troublemakers in Gibeah were probably drawn from among those 700 elite warriors.  There were probably enough elite warriors among the troublemakers that any one or two of the other elite warriors who attempted to hold them to account would have been overwhelmed.  There was no established government with the ability to organize enough of the rest of the elite warriors to hold these troublemakers to account until they went so far that the rest of the people of the nation rose up to put a stop to it.  In such a situation, every person does what seems right in their own eyes…and what seems right is what is in their own interest.