Synopsis of the Chapter
The eleven tribes, waging war against the Benjaminites to avenge their unspeakable lust, are cut down by them in the second assault; but in the third assault they finally cut them down to the point of annihilation, with only six hundred escaping by flight into the wilderness.
Verse 1: All Israel Gathered at Mizpah ¶
There were four cities in Judea called Mizpah, that is, watchtower, says Abulensis, who understands the Gileadite one here. Others better take the one that was on the border of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; for this was close to Gibeah, which they wished to punish, and equally near the city of Shiloh, where the tabernacle of the covenant with the ark was, which could be seen from Mizpah. For Mizpah was in a high place like a watchtower; hence they are said there to have been "gathered to the Lord," dwelling at a distance in the tabernacle above the ark. Add that in the whole synagogue gathered together for a pious cause, as was the case here, God was present and presided over it. Hence those coming to it were said to be "gathered to the Lord." For this reason also the Hebrews frequently held assemblies at Mizpah on other occasions, as is clear from 1 Samuel VII, 10; Jeremiah XL; 1 Maccabees III, 47, where the reason is also given when it says: "The place of prayer was in Mizpah formerly in Israel," as if to say: although the tabernacle with the ark was in Shiloh, yet in Mizpah there was a synagogue, or place of prayer, and therefore the Israelites gathered there as if to a synagogue or house of prayer. Hence the Rabbis trace the origin of synagogues to the famous and principal synagogue that was in Mizpah.
Verse 2: All the Leaders of the Peoples ¶
That is, all the peoples dwelling in their places, as if in corners. So today the Cantons, that is, Corners of the Swiss, are named. Or rather and better, all the corners, that is, all the chief men, prefects, and leaders of the peoples, all the princes of the tribes, says our Salazar on Proverbs chapter 1, verse 21, number 229. For these keep the people in unity and duty, just as corners bind and hold together the whole house. Hence "corner" is taken for "prince," as when Christ is said to have been "made the head of the corner," and to be "the cornerstone," that is, the pillar, foundation, and prince of the Church, Psalm CXVII, 22, and Matthew XXI, 42; and when Isaiah says chapter XIX, verse 13: "They have deceived Egypt, the corner (that is, the prince) of the peoples." And Zechariah, chapter X, verse 4: "From him the corner," that is, from Judah shall come forth a prince, namely Judas Maccabaeus. Similar are Zephaniah III, 6 and 1 Samuel XIV, 38.
Verse 12: They Sent Messengers to the Tribe of Benjamin — throughout all the cities and families of the Benjaminites.
Verse 15: Twenty-five Thousand of Benjamin ¶
The Hebrew and Chaldean have 26 thousand, with which Lyranus and Abulensis agree. But the Septuagint as well as the Roman Latin consistently read 25 thousand: and the number of the slain and survivors in verses 35 and 47 plainly agrees with this. Finally, the word chamisha, that is "five," could easily have been corrupted into veshisha, that is "and six."
Verse 16: Seven Hundred Very Brave Slingers ¶
This is a hyperbole, as if to say: they were most skilled with the sling, so that casting a stone with it, they would surely hit the target. So Lyranus, Abulensis, Cajetan. Such also were the inhabitants of the Balearic Islands, who were trained from their youth in slinging, to such a degree that boys could not eat breakfast unless they had first knocked down their breakfast placed at a distance with a sling, according to Strabo. Hear what Herodian writes about the Emperor Commodus: "He would pursue and attack deer and does, and other horned animals besides bulls, running alongside and chasing them, and striking them down with the surest blows before they could flee. Lions, however, and panthers, and other such very noble animals, he would stab from above with javelins as he ran in a circle, so that no one saw a second weapon, nor any wound but a fatal one. For as soon as the beast had been aroused, he would immediately wound it either in the forehead or in the heart, using no other aim, nor directing his weapon at any other part of the body, so that it was dispatched along with the wound itself." I have recounted more examples of such skilled archers in Lamentations III, verse 12.
Verse 18: Let Judah Be Your Leader — "Judah" that is, the tribe of Judah, and its prince.
Verse 23: Should We Continue against Our Brothers?
They call their enemies brethren, to show that although vice must be punished, nature must still be loved, says Lyranus. Hence hostis (enemy) was formerly hospes (guest); whence the Italian hoste.
Go Up and Join Battle
A wonderful ordering of God: for He commands the eleven tribes, once defeated by the Benjaminites to the loss of 22 thousand in verse 21, to attack them again, and to be again defeated to the loss of 18 thousand in verse 25, and yet they were waging a just and pious war.
Why this? The first reason was, to chastise their past sins, and specifically that they had permitted the idol of Micah; likewise the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth, chapters II and III. So the Hebrews, Lyranus, and Abulensis.
The second is hinted at in verse 22, namely that they trusted too much in their own strength and numbers: so that they might learn that victory belongs to God, and that He often gives it to the few and weaker against the many and powerful.
The third, so that He might purge the camps of the eleven tribes, in which many were sinful, from their dregs; and thus make them worthy to receive victory: and so that He might test and rouse their faith and obedience, which indeed was great here; for although defeated a second time, they nevertheless renewed the war at God's command a third time, and therefore emerged victorious. Hear St. Gregory, book XIV of the Morals, chapter XIII: "What does it mean that Israel is inflamed for the avenging of the crime, and yet is itself first struck down: unless that those through whom the faults of others are punished must first themselves be purged; so that they may now come purified to the act of vengeance, who hasten to correct the vices of others?" He confirms this with the example of the adulteress, to whose accusers Christ the Lord says: "Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone at her," John chapter VIII, 7, of whom St. Gregory says: "They were going to punish others' sins, and had left their own behind. They are therefore called back within to their conscience, so that they may first correct their own faults, and then reprove those of others."
Finally, so that He might show that He is the supreme Lord of death and life for all; and thus strike all with the sacred fear and reverence of Himself, as indeed happened. See Origen, homily 14 on Numbers; St. Augustine, book V of the City of God, chapters XXI and XXII; Salvian, book On Providence; St. Gregory, book XXI of the Morals, chapter III; St. Ephrem, volume I, sermon On Patience.
For similar reasons God permitted, in the war begun against the infidel Pharaoh, the most pious King Josiah of Judah to be killed; and Ladislaus king of the Hungarians to be killed by Amurath Emperor of the Turks in the disaster of Varna; and St. Louis king of France, wishing to recover the Holy Land, to be captured by the Sultan of Egypt, and in a second expedition to die of plague, so that He might sharpen his wonderful patience, and show it to the whole world, and soon crown it in heaven, which indeed I admire and venerate above all his other heroic virtues. So St. Bernard before St. Louis, by God's command, urged Christians to undertake the same expedition to the Holy Land, which nevertheless ended badly with the Christians slaughtered. Hence St. Bernard was called an impostor by many; but he defended himself, and showed by miracles that this had been God's will, as he himself, citing this double disaster of the Israelites, narrates in book II of the Consideration to Eugenius, at the beginning.
Verse 26: They Fasted until Evening ¶
From this passage and from 2 Kings chapters I and IX, it is clear that the Hebrews when fasting were accustomed to fast until evening. From this custom flowed the superstitious observance of the Saracens, Turks, and later Jews, who, when they fast, do not take food before they have caught sight of the star Venus, or Hesperus (for the Saracens worship this star), as St. Jerome reports of the Jews, in book II Against Jovinian, and Tertullian, in the book Against the Psychics, near the end. Concerning the Saracens the same is clear from chapter II of the Quran.
Christians also formerly fasted until the evening: hence in memory of this, vespers are still recited in the Lenten fast before the meal; as if the meal that follows were not so much a dinner as a supper.
Verse 37: The Ambush Attacked the City ¶
The order and sequence of the narrative is intricate here, but you may untangle and arrange it thus with Lyranus and Abulensis. The Israelites divided themselves into three divisions or parts, though unequal: one was the ambush party, which had been placed behind the city of Gibeah, so that when the Benjaminites went out to pursue the Israelites, they might enter the city itself and set it on fire. The second division was of ten thousand, which lured the Benjaminites out of the city, so that the first ambush division just mentioned might seize the city, and which led them by feigning flight to the third division, that is, the most numerous battle line of the whole remaining army stationed at the two roads, until the signal of the captured city should be given by the first division through smoke: which being done, they turned around, and all the divisions or battle lines attacked the Benjaminites, and killed 25 thousand of them, and in addition a hundred men.
Verse 48: From Men Even to Beasts ¶
From this it is clear that all children and women were killed, both in Gibeah and in all other cities and villages of Benjamin, and this is even clearer in the Hebrew. Therefore they made the tribe of Benjamin anathema, such as is prescribed to be done in the crime of public idolatry, Deuteronomy XIII, 15. And although the eleven tribes here exceeded the bounds and measure of that law and vengeance by killing innocent women and children, yet by divine providence this was permitted to punish the Sodomite and unbridled lust of the Gibeonites, and at the same time the bold and reckless rebellion of the one tribe of Benjamin against the other eleven.