Judges 20 · a question people ask
The LORD told Israel to go up, and twice they were defeated. Why?
Each time Israel asked, the LORD answered. The first time he named who should go first: "Judah first" (20:18), and Benjamin "destroyed twenty-two thousand of the Israelite men down to the ground" (20:21). The second time he said, "Go up against him" (20:23), and Benjamin destroyed "eighteen thousand men" (20:25). Only the third time, after weeping, fasting and offerings (20:26), did he say, "Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand" (20:28). The chapter doesn't say why the first two battles were lost. Christians read it in two main ways. Both agree the LORD answered each time Israel asked, and that the victory came when "The LORD struck Benjamin before Israel" (20:35).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The defeats humbled Israel too
Those who hold this view note how the asking changed. The first question asked only who should go first (20:18), not whether to go. The last came with weeping, fasting, burnt offerings and peace offerings (20:26), and asked, "or shall I cease?" (20:28), and only then came the promise. They set it beside Moses' words that the LORD led Israel "that he might humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart" (Deuteronomy 8:2).
Judges 20:18 · Judges 20:26-28 · Deuteronomy 8:2
The reason belongs to the LORD
Those who hold this view note that the LORD's first two answers named who should go and told them to go up (20:18, 20:23), and neither promised victory. They read the losses on both sides as part of a judgment the chapter tells without explaining, and note that afterward the people grieved "because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel" (21:15). Where the text is silent they hold to Moses' words, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever" (Deuteronomy 29:29).
Judges 20:18 · Judges 20:23 · Judges 21:15 · Deuteronomy 29:29
The verses
“The LORD struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men. All these drew the sword.”