Judges 20:30

And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The stratagem described is exactly that by which Joshua took Ai (marginal reference).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Jud 20:29-48. They Destroy All the Benjamites, Except Six Hundred.

29-48. And Israel set liers-in-wait round about Gibeah—A plan was formed of taking that city by stratagem, similar to that employed in the capture of Ai [Jos 8:9].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The children of Israel, i.e. a considerable part of them, who were ordered to give the first onset, and then to counterfeit flight, to draw the Benjamites forth of their strong hold. See Judges 20:32.

On the third day, to wit, after the second battle; for the first day after it they spent in perplexing thoughts, and going up to the house of the Lord; the second, in fasting and prayer there; and this third, in the fight. Or this is so called with respect unto the two several foregoing days of battle, and so this was the third day of battle.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day,.... Not the day following the second battle, since it would take more time to go to Shiloh, and fast and offer sacrifices there, but on the third day from the second battle:

and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times; as they had done on the first and second days of battle.

Geneva Study Bible

And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. on the third day] The account of the battle becomes exceedingly confused. It seems to be rounded off at Jdg 20:35 in the usual way, with a statement of the result and numbers slain; but in Jdg 20:36 ff. we find the battle still in progress, and we go through the various incidents again. This repetition is due partly to the combination of the narratives A and B, and partly, it would seem, to the insertion of editorial expansions or glosses. In the main Jdg 20:30-36 a come from the later source B; and in the main 36b–47 may be assigned to the earlier source A. Details which appear to lie outside these two versions, or merely repeat phrases from them, may be regarded, provisionally, as later additions; see on Jdg 20:31; Jdg 20:37 b, Jdg 20:43, Jdg 20:44 b – Jdg 20:46.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - As at other times, or, this time as the other times (see the same phrase, ver. 31, Judges 16:20; Numbers 24:20). Judges 20:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

They then advanced as on the former occasions.