⚔️ Key Summary of Judges 20–21: ๐ “There Was No King in Israel” → They Had Forgotten the LORD and No Longer Remembered Him
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In chapter 19, we saw the tragedy involving a certain Levite. Within that story, however, we also saw his unjustifiable actions and the unimaginable way he chose to deal with the problem.
⚔️ Key Summary of Judges 20
✔️ I will summarize chapter 20 according to the order in which the events are recorded.
๐ Judges 20:1 begins this way
“Then all the people of Israel came out, from Dan to Beersheba, and from the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.”
๐ “From Dan to Beersheba” → an expression referring to the Promised Land of Canaan, where the Israelites lived.
๐ “The land of Gilead” → the territory east of the Jordan River, where Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh lived.
๐ Judges 20:2
The text says:
“The chiefs of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 men on foot who drew the sword.”
๐จ It appears that they gathered fully prepared for war over the incident involving one individual, before even hearing the entire account of what had happened.
๐ Judges 20:3–10
After the Levite explains what happened, Israel decides to punish the wickedness committed.
They decide to cast lots and attack Gibeah.
✔️ But before making this decision, where is the record of asking God what they should do? ❌
๐ Judges 20:11–17
“So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man.” (v. 11)
Israel sends men to Benjamin and asks, “What is this evil that has taken place among you?” (v. 12)
But Benjamin refuses to listen to their fellow Israelites. Instead, they gather to fight against Israel. (vv. 13–14)
Military strength:
Israel → 400,000 men
Benjamin → 26,000 men + 700 chosen men from Gibeah, left-handed men who could sling a stone with extraordinary accuracy.
✔️ Israel first decides to fight and only afterward asks about the details of what happened. ❌
✔️ Benjamin, instead of recognizing the seriousness of the crime committed in Gibeah, simply gathers to fight against their fellow Israelites.
Their behavior looks much like that of the wicked men of Gibeah.
๐ Interestingly, the 700 chosen men from Gibeah are described as exceptionally skilled warriors.
Perhaps they were the equivalent of the “leaders” or “chiefs” among those wicked men?
๐ Israel asks who should fight first
๐ They are about to fight their own brothers, a war that should not have been approached in this way.
They did not first ask God whether they should fight.
After deciding to fight on their own, they asked only:
“Who shall go up first to fight against the sons of Benjamin?” ❌
๐ God responds only to what Israel asks
๐ “Who shall go up first?”
→ “Judah shall go up first.” (v. 18)
As a result, 22,000 Israelites fall.
๐ Then they ask:
“Shall I again go to battle against the sons of Benjamin, my brother?”
→ The LORD answers:
“Go up against him.” (v. 23)
Again, 18,000 Israelites fall.
๐ After 40,000 men die in two battles, Israel finally seeks God
All the people of Israel go up to Bethel.
They sit before the LORD, weep, and fast until evening.
They offer burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. (v. 26) ⭕
The ark of the covenant of God is there.
Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, ministers before it.
Then Israel asks:
“Shall we again go out to battle against the sons of Benjamin our brother, or shall we cease?”
The LORD answers:
“Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.”
✔️ What Israel should have done first when dealing with the Levite's incident was exactly what they finally did in verse 26! ⭕
The LORD defeats Benjamin, and 25,100 Benjamites are killed that day. (v. 35)
Only 600 men escape into the wilderness, where they remain for four months. (v. 47)
๐ Israel goes too far
The final verse records:
“And the men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, the city, men and beasts and all that they found. And all the towns that they found they set on fire.” (v. 48)
๐ They carried out against their own brothers the same kind of total destruction that had been carried out against the seven nations of Canaan. ❌
⚔️ Key Summary of Judges 21
๐ The first meaningless oath and an Israel that could no longer discern right from wrong
First oath:
“None of us shall give his daughter in marriage to Benjamin.” (v. 1) ❌
Then they ask:
“O LORD, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel?” (v. 3) ❌
Yet they themselves had made the decisions and oath that contributed to this situation.
๐ Through a second oath, Israel destroys yet another group of brothers
Second oath:
They ask:
“Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that did not come up to the LORD in the assembly?”
For they had made a solemn oath:
“Whoever does not come up to the LORD to Mizpah shall surely be put to death.”
They discover that no one from Jabesh-gilead had participated in the assembly.
→ So they attack the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead.
They are commanded to kill the inhabitants, including the women and children, sparing only the young unmarried women. ❌
400 young women from Jabesh-gilead survive.
๐ Thus, after nearly destroying one tribe, Israel proceeds to destroy another group of their own brothers in an attempt to solve a problem they themselves had created. ❌
๐ As the final verse records, Israel brings everything to an end “according to their own judgment”
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
✔️ They nearly destroyed Benjamin. ❌
✔️ Because of another rash oath, they destroyed their brothers in Jabesh-gilead. ❌
✔️ Because they had sworn not to give their own daughters to the Benjamites, they decided to give the young women of Jabesh-gilead to them. ❌
✔️ And when there were still not enough women, they told the Benjamites to go to Shiloh during the feast of the LORD and seize the young women who came out to dance. ❌
๐ Conclusion — 1
Just as in chapter 20, chapter 21 also shows that almost everything was done according to the Israelites' own judgment.
A people who had forgotten God's commands.
A people who had put God in the background.
A people who, after victory, did whatever they wanted — even destroying their own brothers.
Because of their own oath, they created a problem: there were not enough women for the surviving Benjamites.
So they came up with a solution.
But the place they chose for this solution was Shiloh, where the presence of the LORD was!
And they chose the feast of the LORD, a time intended for worship, joy, and holiness before God, as the occasion to carry out their own plan.
๐ This shows just how completely the LORD had been pushed aside.
๐ Conclusion — 2
Chapters 20–21 contain many astonishing scenes.
Perhaps the most absurd of all are the oaths made by the Israelites themselves.
Because of the oath they had made, they said:
“We can no longer give our daughters to the Benjamites.”
Then they immediately began looking for a way around the problem.
→ But they overlooked something much more important...
๐ The oath they had made before God was itself not being kept! ๐
They were supposed to:
obey God's commands;
serve the LORD alone;
not follow the gods of the other nations.
Yet:
they married people from other nations and served their foreign gods;
they made idols;
a Levite of God became a false priest;
and another Levite who appears at the end of Judges, through actions incompatible with holiness, ended up causing conflict between Israelite brothers.
Brothers killed brothers.
65,000 men fell.
And on top of all this, because of their meaningless oaths, even the feast dedicated to the LORD was treated according to their own convenience.
In the end, everything was done according to what seemed right in their own eyes.
๐ Conclusion — 3
๐ The phrase repeated several times:
“In those days there was no king in Israel...”
What is this phrase really showing us?
→ The people of Israel had forgotten God.
And more than that:
→ It appears that they no longer even remembered who their true King was.
✔️ If they had known who their King was, they would have remembered God's commands and the covenant they had made with Him.
✔️ What we see repeatedly throughout Judges is a people who forget, forget again, and continue forgetting the King of Israel.
✔️ Until we reach the point where the statement:
“There was no king in Israel”
seems to indirectly testify to an even deeper reality:
๐ For them, their true King — the LORD God — was no longer present in their memory!
Israel had a King.
But they had forgotten who their King was.
๐ “There was no king in Israel” → they had forgotten the LORD and no longer remembered Him.
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