Why did the Israelites lose the battles to the Benjamites after receiving the green light from God?

Question

In Judges 20:18,23. The men of Israel enquired and sought counsel from the Lord to fight with the Benjamites because of their wickedness towards the concubine of the Levite(Judges 19:25-26,20:4). The Lord told them to go, yet they were destroyed twice; first time, the Benjamite destroyed 22,000 men(Judges 20:21), and second times, 18,000 men were destroyed (Judges 20:25). Even the 3rd times after enquiring from the Lord with fasting and offerings! Yet up to 30 men were destroyed, before the Lord intervened and gave them victory. Now,why did the Lord asked them to go and yet,they were smitten? And what does this story teach us?

Answer 1

After reading commentaries for Judges 20:21, most notably Benson's commentary, I came to this theory:

The children of Israel assumed that God wanted them to go up and fight against their brothers the Benjamites by asking "Which of us shall go up first to the battle ...". God then told them to "go up". He did not tell them that He would deliver them into their hands but only to go up. (Judges 20:18) The children of Israel go on to lose the first battle.

Without proper respect and adoration for the full council of God, especially on such a weighty matter as warring against their own brethren, the children of Israel inquire again, this time asking if they should go up, the Lord tells them again "go up". Again they assume something of God without getting his full council on the matter. God says go up but nothing about delivering the Benjamites in their hands. They lose this battle as well.

Recall when David asked of the Lord in 2 Samuel 5:19. "And David enquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the Lord said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand."

David had respect unto God and did not assume anything. He not only asked if he should go up, but also if God would deliver them into his hands.

After losing the second battle, the children of Israel finally pay proper respect unto God with fastings, prayers and sacrifices. (Judges 20:26) They again inquire of God and this time, after giving proper respect unto God, God tells them to not only "go up" but that He will deliver the Benjamites into their hands. Which he did.

Was God teaching the children of Israel they should depend wholly on His council for such great matters, not assuming or rushing into things? And that God deserves adoration, glory and respect when He is approached and inquired of?

Answer 2

This story starts back in chapter 17 with Micah. I am not going to dissect this very large portion of passages but I’ll try to draw on some key points linked to the passage in question, namely the battles, especially the failures to succeed in battle when the Word of the Lord was consulted and instructions were followed.

I appreciate the user gffg mentioning the Council of the Lord because that is paramount to understanding what happened in the heavenly council that led to the events unfolding on earth as they did. I would link to one of my responses for information on my take of what happens in the council of the Lord and why.What does "fear of the Lord" in 2 Chronicles 14:13-15 mean?

Compare these two men

“Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.” ‭‭Judges‬ ‭17:7-8‬ ‭

It would help to see the geography of the tribes

Now let’s compare the man in chapter 20

“In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.” ‭‭Judges‬ ‭19:1‬

I’m not saying it’s the same Levite, I’ll point out these two Levites committed or perpetuated as leaders in Israel two sins against the Lord.

The two sins

In the first instance the first Levite caused a whole tribe to live in idolatry and by endorsing it, he was essentially giving a mark of approval from God because the Levites bore the name of God, they represented the Law to the rest of the nation.

“And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up Micah's carved image that he made, as long as the house of God was at Shiloh.” ‭‭Judges‬ ‭18:30-31‬ ‭

The second instance the Levite has a concubine who apparently was actually a prostitute and instead of dealing righteously and purging the land the Levite attempted to lure her back under his roof

“And his concubine was unfaithful (ותזנה or she fornicated) to him, and she went away from him to her father's house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there some four months.” ‭‭Judges‬ ‭19:2‬ ‭

Why did God send Judah first, alone and allow their defeat?

This concubine was back in her father’s house in Judah for four months fornicating or prostituting herself. Judah’s men one or more were complicit in this fornication. And yet they did not observe the law that says

“"Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity.” ‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭19:29‬

On the one hand all those gathered understood that evil had to be purged out of Israel for what the Benjamites has done, but they were with their own guilt, judging the straw when they had a log in their own eye. They had a whole tribe worshiping an idol and Judah was perpetuating prostitution.

“Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel." But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel.” ‭‭Judges‬ ‭20:13‬

And God says Judah should go first because they were complicit in the young concubine’s death. It was God who specifically instructs Judah to go alone but instead of checking themselves they fell under judgment. Either you judge yourself or you get judged.

“The people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, "Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?" And the Lord said, "Judah shall go up first."” ‭‭Judges‬ ‭20:18‬ ‭

And next all of Israel is instructed to battle but they too are guilty for allowing their brother Dan to practice idolatry

“"Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction.” ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭22:20‬ ‭

The additional 30 men that died on the third day I’m not going to go into details about not about the Benjamites for their practice of sodomy that led to the death of the female prostitution.

I hope this answers some of your many question you had on this passage.

Answer 3

The account of Achan in Joshua chapter 7 is a good parallel account here. Verse 11 and 12 says

"Israel has sinned. They have violated my covenant that I commanded them to keep. They took some of what was devoted to destruction, stealing it and secretly putting it among their own possessions. 12 Therefore, the Israelites will not be able to stand against their enemies. They will turn their backs and flee from their enemies, because they have become something devoted to destruction. I will not be with you again unless you annihilate from your midst what was devoted to destruction."

Similarly, Deuteronomy 7 says

"25 You should burn the graven images of their gods in the fire. Do not desire the silver and the gold on them or take it for yourself, so that you are not ensnared by it, for it is something detestable to Jehovah your God. 26 You must not bring a detestable thing into your house and thereby become something devoted to destruction like it. You should utterly loathe it and absolutely detest it, because it is something devoted to destruction."

Someone before said that the concubine wife of the second Levite in Judges 19 was a prostitute, however, it should be noted that this specific detail is absent from both Josephus version of events and from the LXX manuscripts of the account and was likely added in later I suspect to lower our value of her life (i.e "she deserved the horrific thing that happened to her anyway because she was a prostitute so she should have been dead by the law") however this addition to the text does nothing but muddy the waters of the account.

Judges 17 and 18 prelude the crime at Gibeah

It is good to remember that these accounts do not exist within a vacuum, but sit within a larger context. We live in a cause and effect universe, so often times one event in history or an individuals life will feed into the next one. Reading around this larger context usually sheds light on the issues at play. Just before the events at Gibeah, are the events involving the 600 men from the tribe of Dan taking the carved image of Micah along with them to Laish in order to worship it (Judges 18:16,17,30,31). In line with the above cited verse in Deuteronomy 7, by bringing this graven image into their house, Israel would become something devoted to destruction just like it.

Now, back to Achan, with this in mind, If one man's actions regarding a thing devoted to destruction at Jericho resulted in Israel's defeat at Ai, how much more so would 600 fighting men from a whole tribes direct and total disregard for the command at Deuteronomy 7 (during Judges 17 & 18) regarding things devoted to destruction also result in Israel's defeat at Gibeah? You would expect the defeat to be more so, even proportional, and it was.

If one man sinning= 36 deaths, in Joshua 7, then 600 x 36= 21,600 deaths to be expected in Judges 20. How many deaths do we find on that first day in Israel? 22,000 (Judges 20:21). Which is 21,600 rounded up to the nearest thousand.

However, rather than asking "why has this happened? what have we done wrong that we need to remove from our midst", they took up courage and tried again. 18,000 more died. Finally they fasted and offered some burnt offerings and communion offerings which resulted in success.

It should be noted, that of the verses later added to the book of Joshua, some of which are repeated in Judges chapter 1, (Joshua 13:13, 15:14-19, 63, 16:10, 17:11-13) most of the tribes are mentioned as making a covenant with the people of the land, of which they were explicitly told not to do, (Judges 2:2). By its being recorded in the scriptures just after Joshua's death, these acts are essentially being owned up to by the respective tribes at that time. They know what they did, and they were called out on it. The two and a half tribes are called out in Joshua 13:13, Judah were not able to drive men again out of Jerusalem in Joshua 15:63, because Benjamin made a covenant with them in Judges 1:21, Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites in Joshua 16:10, Zebulun, Asher and Naphtali also do not drive out their Canaanites in Judges 1:30-33. Simeon was assisting Judah and so was doing a little better than the other tribes. Issachar has no mention, which only leaves the Tribe of Dan.

Interestingly, the version of Judges 17-18 recorded in Joshua 19:47 is very different from that of Judges 17-18 (recorded some 300 years later), which simply says:

"But the territory of Dan was too cramped for them. So they went up and fought against Leʹshem and captured it and struck it with the sword. Then they took possession of it and settled in it, and they changed the name of Leʹshem to Dan, after the name of Dan their forefather."

This actually represents the version of events that the tribe of Dan told to the nation of Israel at the time that the book of Joshua was completed, which paints themselves in a pretty good light compared to the other tribes. However the complete version of events shows the opposite; while they didn't make a covenant with Canaan, they engaged in something far worse: false worship. So during Judges 20, a time when all Israel were together again, the chiefs very well could have asked what went on with the other tribes in the time since they were last assembled in full (at Joshua's death) to ascertain whether there was any guilt, however the covenants issue had already been mostly dealt with (Judges 2:5). This event with the Danites, Laish and Micah's carved image definitely occurred chronologically before Judges 20, because Judges 20:1 says

"Consequently, all the Israelites came out from Dan down to Beʹer-sheʹba"

Meaning from the Dan's pocket of land in the North to Beersheba in the South. So if the Danites weren't wholly truthful with the Israelites about the events that transpired at Laish, then the other 10 tribes would not know about the carved images so as to remove them. The extra 30 that fell on the third attempt to defeat Benjamin could have been to signal that there was still something bad in Israel that had not been dealt with. However, the elders at this time were "doing what was right in their own eyes" and were a part of the gradual changing of the guard from elders that knew what they were doing to "another generation [that] arose after them that did not know Jehovah or what he had done for Israel." (Judges 2:10, Numbers 34:16-29)

Had Israel known about the carved image in the northern portion of Dan, they probably would have removed it. Instead, the thing remained stood there for another 300 years until the ark of the covenant was captured by the Philistines (compare Judges 18:30,31 and 1 Samuel 4:22). What happened then to cause it to be removed? The truth likely came to light. After the Ark of the Covenant was gone, those Levites may have seen an opportunity to become priests to a whole nation instead of a tribe (Judges 18:19), wanting to replace the ark of the covenant with their own carved image. This is merely a speculation though, it could have been simply a Danite making a suggestion in the aftermath. Aphek and Ebenezer where the battle with the Philistines occurred, is on the North Western side of Ephraim, not too far away from the main tribal area of Dan. But whatever the actual details of the story, on the day that Israel went into exile, this carved image in Dan was removed and the story finally came to light. There is absolutely no way that it would have stood for 300 years and not have been removed by one of the twelve Judges of Israel during that time if Israel at large was aware of its existence.

So in short Why did the Israelites lose the battles to the Benjamites after receiving the green light from God?

Because just like at Joshua chapter 7, some of the Israelites (The Danites) had brought a detestable thing devoted to destruction (The Carved Graven Image of Micah) into their home, and therefore Israel had become something devoted to Destruction just like it. In Joshua chapter 7 the consequences were down to the actions of one man, however in Judges 17-21, the consequences were down to the actions of 600 men, so the consequences were 600 times worse.

36 x 600=21,600, which rounded up to the nearest thousand, is the death toll of the first battle.

The Danites however were able to keep this action a secret for the next 300(ish) years. Perhaps had the Israelites simply asked "What have we done wrong" or shown the same care for Jehovah's reputation that Joshua had at Ai, the issue might have been revealed and then settled 300 years sooner and they could have saved themselves more heartache in that second and third battle.

In those days there was no king in Israel. As for everybody, what was right in his own eyes he was accustomed to do. Judges 17:6

Answer 4

I’d like to present a simple answer here. When we read John 9, we see that when Jesus healed a blind man, he was asked a question. “[paraphrase] Rabbi, whose fault is it that he is blind? Is it his fault? His parents fault?” And Jesus told them, “Neither!” And explained to them that this man was blind all these years, just waiting for that very moment when God would display his glory by healing the man’s blindness.

I think many of us spend too much effort trying to “pin down” God’s patterns and intentions, when his mind is too vast for us. Then we argue with each other from the standpoint of our human understanding, and God is on an entirely different level. As a matter of fact, the only way we CAN know his intent is if he reveals it. Scripture indicates this. My answer to this question is “Lord, your name be praised; you give, you take away, who can fathom your ways? You are Holy.” I hope this helps someone.