Judges 20:44

And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Jdg 20:44-45. There fell eighteen thousand — Namely, in the field of battle. They gleaned of them five thousand — A metaphor from those who gather grapes or corn so cleanly and fully that they leave no relics for those who come after them. The Benjamites could not flee in a body, but scattered up and down the highways, where the Israelites picked up five thousand more and slew them.

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 language and construction of this verse is poetical; it seems to be an extract from a song, and to describe, in the language of poetry, the same event which the preceding verse described in that of prose.

With ease - Or "rest" Numbers 10:33; Psalm 95:11. The expression is very obscure. The margin takes it as the name of a place.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

34. there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men—This was a third division, different both from the ambuscade and the army, who were fighting at Baal-tamar. The general account stated in Jud 20:35 is followed by a detailed narrative of the battle, which is continued to the end of the chapter.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

There fell, to wit, in the field, or battle.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men,.... Just the number they had slain of Israel in the second battle. This is the number of them that were slain when Israel turned upon them, and by that time they got to the east of Gibeah; afterwards 5000 more were slain on the highways, and 2000 near Gidom, as after related:

all these were men of valour; as appears by three times facing and engaging with the army of Israel, so vastly superior to them, and twice beating them.

Geneva Study Bible

And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

44. eighteen thousand men] Contrast the number in Jdg 20:35 from B. The first half of the v. may be assigned to A, and connects with Jdg 20:47; the second half has found its way here from Jdg 20:46, probably by a copyist’s error.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 44-46. - And there fell, etc. The account in ver. 35, anticipating the details of the battle, had already given the gross number of casualties in the Benjamite army on this disastrous day as 25,100. We now have the items of the account, viz., 18,000 in the pursuit, in the open plain; 5000 in the highways, i.e. either the highways mentioned in ver. 31, or, as the expression gleaning rather intimates, the highways by which straggling bodies tried to reach any neighbouring cities after the great slaughter had taken place; and 2000 more who were making from Gidom; in all 25,000, which is only 100 men short of the reckoning in ver. 35. The rock of Rimmon. See ver. 47, note. Gidom. Not elsewhere mentioned, nor identified with any modern name. Judges 20:44

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In this battle there fell of Benjamin 18,000 men, all brave men. The את before כּל־אלּה is not a preposition, "with" (as the lxx, Cod. Al., and Bertheau render it), but a sign of the accusative. It serves to show that the thought which follows is governed by the principal clause, "so far as all these were concerned, they were brave men."