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Ver. 16. Lefthanded; every one could sling stones, &c.] See Judges 3:15. David had an excellency in slinging: so had Domitian and Commodus the Emperors. The Indians are much commended for their faculty herein by Philostratus and Plutarch. The Boeotians and the Baleares in Spain were bred up to it of children, their mothers allowing them no more meat than they could hit with a sling stone. We have musketeers amongst us that are notable marksmen, as they call them.
Ver. 17. Four hundred thousand men.] Besides those that supplied the camp when they came out of Egypt, they were six hundred thousand: but then Benjamin also was reckoned with them: and there were not a few cut off in the late conquest of Canaan, &c.
Ver. 18. Which of us shall go up?] They asked not, Shall we go up? and shall we prosper? for of that they were over confident, because of the equity of their cause and their great strength. They slighted the Benjamites also for their paucity [few in numbers] and folly, as the Spaniards were wont to do the Portuguese for pocos y locos, that is, few and foolish. Hence they miscarried.
Ver. 19. And the men of Israel went out to battle.] They went forth as men do to a lottery, with their heads full of hopes, but they came back with their hearts full of blanks. The Lord had rejected their confidences; therefore they could not prosper in them. (Jeremiah 2:37)
Ver. 20. [See Trapp on “Jud 20:19”]
Ver. 21. And destroyed down to the ground…twenty and two thousand men.] They slew so many upon the turf, as we phrase it, and that with a great deal of eagerness and earnestness; such as Scanderbeg expressed when, in fighting against the Turks, the blood did oftentimes burst out of his lips. Turk. Hist., p. 287.
Ver. 22. Encouraged themselves.] Not in the Lord their God, as David in a distress did, (1 Samuel 30:6) but in the goodness of their cause, and in the multitude of their men. Thus also did the Tigurines in their fight against the Popish cantons, and were defeated and discomfited by them. In that fight fell that famous man of God, Huldericus Zuinglius. And Oecolampadius in an epistle to the divines of Ulm writeth thus thereupon, Non inter minima bona recenseri merentur humiliatio mentium nostrarum, et fiducia non in brachium carnis sed in Deum ipsum: quae duo electi inde discunt. Two good things we have learned by this late defeat: first to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God; and secondly, not to put confidence any more in the arm of flesh, but in God alone.
Ver. 23. Wept before the Lord until even.] Yet more for their losses than for their offences: at least, they were not yet so thoroughly humbled, their repentance was not so deep and downright, so soaking and souring with the greatness of godly sorrow, as was fitting. David’s heart was leavened. (Psalms 73:21) “Peter wept bitterly,” (Matthew 26:75) and that for sin as it is sin, offensivum Dei, et aversivum a Deo, an offence against God, and an aversion from God. Go up against him.] Thy brother though he be. They neither prayed for success, nor doth God promise them any; but answereth them according to the idols of their hearts, of which they had not yet repented. They had forgotten, belike, what Joshua had foretold them; (Joshua 24:19,20) -“Ye cannot serve the Lord,” i.e., unless ye will be thorough in his service, “for he is a holy God, he is a jealous God, he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye fosake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.”
Ver. 24. And the children of Israel came near.] But because vice came to correct sin, and there were yet many gross offenders in their army, therefore they could not proceed with any good success; as Joshua could not against Ai till Achan was cut off. Besides, God would have the Israelites to be yet by a second loss the more enraged against the Benjamites, for their greater punishment.
Ver. 25. Destroyed down to the ground…eighteen thousand men.] Here a Pompey would have denied a providence; Brutus would have cried out against virtue as a mere name; others against hard fortune, Ecquid hoc infortunii est? &c. “But God giveth his more grace; wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God Be afflicted,” or afflict yourselves with voluntary sorrows for your sins, “and mourn, and weep,” &c. (James 4:6,7,9,10) These did so the next time, and had the day. Wit is best when dear bought.
Ver. 26. And wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted, … and offered, &c.] This was a sorrow according to God—these were tears of a right nature. Lachrymas angustiae exprimit crux; lachrymas paenitentiae peccatum. This was the “fast that God had chosen”; for “he saw their works,” as once at Nineveh, “that they turned from their evil way.” (Jonah 3:10) Here was that best of sacririces, “a broken spirit,” (Psalms 51:17) and peace offerings, to testify their faith and assurance of victory.
Ver. 27. And the children of Israel inquired of the Lord.] Now they could find the way to do everything well, as having paid for their learning. Affliction exciteth devotion; but “ Rarae fumant felicibus arae. ”
Ver. 28. Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver them.] Now they have a promise, which before they had none. Josephus saith that when they inquired of God by Urim and Thummim, as here they did, the splendour and brightness of the high priest’s breastplate foreshowed victory. Certain it is that this promise did so. Antiq., lib. iii. cap. 3.
Ver. 29. And Israel set liers in wait.] See the like strategem used at Ai. (Joshua 8:4,5)
Ver. 30. And the children of Israel went up.] Though they had a promise, yet they neglected not to use the best means. God, they knew, was to be trusted, but not tempted; and this is the very difference between true faith and vain presumption.
Ver. 31. And they began to smite of the people.] This flushed the Benjamites, and made them cry Victoria; but the scene was soon altered. It is not good to triumph before the victory.
Ver. 32. They are smitten down before us.] This was their επινικιον, which they sang too soon; for their destruction was at next door by. But sorry man knoweth not his time. “As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.” (Ecclesiastes 9:12)
Ver. 33. Out of the meadows.] Or, Dens, as Pagnine and others render it.
Ver. 34. They knew not that evil, &c.] See Judges 20:31. As they say of the metal they make glass of, it is nearest melting when it shineth brightest, so are the wicked nearest destruction when at their greatest lustre.
Ver. 35. And the Lord smote Benjamin.] Not the Israelites by their stratagem, but the Lord smote them. Victory is his gift. “ Vincere quisquis aves hostilem exereitum, age, ante, Invictum vincas per tua vota Deum.”
Ver. 36. Because they trusted unto the liers in wait.] As the instruments; but they trusted in God as the chief agent.
Ver. 37. And the liers in wait hasted.] Here the business is more particularly related by the parts and circumstances, that God may be the more acknowledged, and people instructed that forbearance is no quittance. There will be a later reckoning with sinners, &c.
Ver. 38. Between the men of Israel.] That they should turn head, and renew the battle. “ Obruet hostiles ista ruina domos. ’’— Ovid. Fast.
Ver. 39. Benjamin began to smite.] See Judges 20:31.
Ver. 40. The flame of the city.] To be an example of that rule, that great sins bring great punishments from God, as Herodotus wisely observeth of the destruction of Troy by fire.
Ver. 41. Evll was come upon them.] Heb., Touched them; that they were lost.
Ver. 42. In flying from death, they fled to it. Una salus victis, &c.
Ver. 43. And chased them, and trode them.] These things are recorded, that people may see the woe of war, and take heed of sin, the cause of it.
Ver. 44. And there fell of Benjamin.] To wit, In the battle.
Ver. 45. Unto Gidom.] Or, Unto their occasion, destruction.
Ver. 46. Twenty and five thousand.] Besides a thousand slain in the two former battles; for war is utrinque triste, sad on both sides.
Ver. 47. Unto the rock Rimmon.] Wherein there was a sweet providence, that these might be as a seminary, for recruit of that tribe.
Ver. 48. And smote them with the edge.] If this were done out of the heat and fury of war only, and not by the command of God, they were to blame. That once flourishing commonwealth of the Lacedemonians was likewise utterly overturned at the battle of Leuctra, by reason of a rape there committed by two noble Spartans upon the two daughters of Scedasus, who complained thereof to the Ephori, but could get no remedy.