A New Strategy

After two defeats in two days in their effort to punish the city of Gibeah for its sin, the soldiers of Israel approach God somewhat differently. They had sought His direction prior to the first engagement and had sat before Him in tears after their first defeat. Now, after a second setback, they seek Him with greater fervency, fasting all day, making burnt offerings and peace offerings, and asking God through the high priest Phinehas (Aaron’s grandson, a key indication that these events occur early in the era of the judges) whether they should continue the fight. Matthew Henry asserts that they have trusted too much in the rightness of their cause and the strength of their army, but by ordaining their defeats God has shaken their faith in both. Thus, they now come to Him “to make an atonement for sin and an acknowledgement of their dependence upon God,” Henry adds. “And when they were in this frame, and thus sought the Lord, then He not only ordered them to go up against the Benjamites the third time, but gave them a promise of victory.”

The author of Judges apparently gives us two accounts of the Israelites’ third assault on Gibeah, a general overview (vv. 29–36a) and a more detailed narrative (vv. 36b–48). To recount what exactly occurs, we must draw from both accounts. The Israelites abandon their reliance on numbers in favor of a strategy of deception—they “set men in ambush all around Gibeah.” Then they approach the city as if making another frontal assault. Having twice defeated their foes in such circumstances, the Benjamites are confident they can do so again, so they willingly come forth to do battle. When it seems that the Israelite forces are being driven back once again, their confidence soars all the more. But they do not realize that they are being drawn into a trap, for the Israelites have decided among themselves to “ ‘flee and draw them away from the city to the highways,’ ” that the city might be exposed to attack from those in ambush. This is a costly strategy—about 30 Israelite soldiers are struck down during the mock retreat—but it works. As the main body of the Israelites falls back, ten thousand men in ambush attack and engage in a fierce fight with those left to guard the city. Meanwhile, the Benjamites press their attack, for they “did not know that disaster was upon them.”