So the congregation sent 12,000 of their most valiant men and commanded them: “Go and put to the sword those living in Jabesh-gilead, including women and children.
We may observe in these verses, I. The ardent zeal which the Israelites had expressed against the wickedness of the men of Gibeah, as it was countenanced by the tribe of Benjamin. Occasion is here given to mention two instances of their zeal on this occasion, which we did not meet with before: - 1.
Commenting on Judges 21:1-15
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.
Jdg 21:10-12 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 (Jdg 21:11), “to ban all the men, and women who had known the lying with man” (i.e., to slay them as...
Commenting on Judges 21:10-12