Judges 21:10

And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Twelve thousand men.—The Vulgate has 10,000, but it is doubtless meant to imply that each tribe sent a thousand “valiant men” (Genesis 47:6, &c.), as in the war against the Midianites, in which Balaam was slain and at which Phinehas had been present (Numbers 31:6).

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

And the congregation sent 12,000 men - A thousand from each tribe; they followed the precedent of Numbers 31:4.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly—This city lay within the territory of eastern Manasseh, about fifteen miles east of the Jordan, and was, according to Josephus, the capital of Gilead. The ban which the assembled tribes had pronounced at Mizpeh seemed to impose on them the necessity of punishing its inhabitants for not joining the crusade against Benjamin; and thus, with a view of repairing the consequences of one rash proceeding, they hurriedly rushed to the perpetration of another, though a smaller tragedy. But it appears (Jud 21:11) that, besides acting in fulfilment of their oath, the Israelites had the additional object by this raid of supplying wives to the Benjamite remnant. This shows the intemperate fury of the Israelites in the indiscriminate slaughter of the women and children.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Who in such public and scandalous crimes were, for the greater terror of such transgressors, and prevention of the like sins, oft involved in the same punishment with the men, as Deu 13:15 Joshua 7:24, &c.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest,.... That were in their army; in the Vulgate Latin version it is only 10,000; but the Targum, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and Josephus (c), agree with the Hebrew text. This place, according to Bunting, to which this army was sent, was fifty two miles from Shiloh (d):

and commanded them, saying; these were the orders they gave them, when they marched out:

go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children; which it seems was according to the oath they had made, Judges 21:5.

(c) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10.) (d) Travels, &c. p. 121.

Geneva Study Bible

And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. twelve thousand men] No doubt reckoning 1000 men from each tribe, cf. Numbers 31:4 f.; the writer forgot that Benjamin could not be counted.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 10, 11. - Ye shall utterly destroy, etc. Devote to destruction, as a 'herem, an accursed thing. They followed in the severity of the punishment the precedent of the destruction of the Midianites (see Numbers 31:17), and even in the numbers sent to destroy them - a thousand from every tribe (Numbers 31:5). Revolting to our feelings as such wholesale massacres are, including women and children, it must be remembered in mitigation that the 'hereto was the solemn devotion of a thing or person to destruction under the sanction of an oath. Of the valiantest. The sons of valour simply means valiant men (2 Samuel 13:28; 2 Samuel 17:10). Judges 21:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

To punish this unlawful conduct, the congregation sent 12,000 brave fighting men against Jabesh, with orders to smite the inhabitants of the town with the edge of the sword, together with their wives, and children, but also with the more precise instructions (Judges 21:11), "to ban all the men, and women who had known the lying with man" (i.e., to slay them as exposed to death, which implied, on the other hand, that virgins who had not lain with any man should be spared). The fighting men found 400 such virgins in Jabesh, and brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan. אותם (Judges 21:12) refers to the virgins, the masculine being used as the more common genus in the place of the feminine. Shiloh, with the additional clause "in the land of Canaan," which was occasioned by the antithesis Jabesh in Gilead, as in Joshua 21:2; Joshua 22:9, was the usual meeting-place of the congregation, on account of its being the seat of the tabernacle. The representatives of the congregation had moved thither, after the deliberations concerning Jabesh, which were still connected with the war against Benjamin, were concluded.