Judges 21 · a question people ask
"The LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel" (21:15). Why does the chapter put it that way, when the people are asking "why"?
The verse says, "The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel" (21:15) (tap breach). In chapter 20 the LORD answered, "Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand" (20:28), and the chapter says, "The LORD struck Benjamin before Israel" (20:35). Benjamin had refused to give up "the wicked fellows who are in Gibeah" (20:13). Yet the people asked the LORD, "why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?" (21:3), and the chapter records no answer. Both readings below agree that the LORD gave Benjamin into Israel's hand (20:28, 20:35). Christians read 21:15 in two main ways, and the two don't rule each other out.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The LORD's judgment on Benjamin
Those who hold this view take 21:15 as the book naming who made the breach, as chapter 20 did: "The LORD struck Benjamin before Israel" (20:35). The LORD had answered Israel three times before the battles (20:18, 20:23, 20:28), and Benjamin had refused to give up "the wicked fellows who are in Gibeah", so that Israel could "put them to death and put away evil from Israel" (20:13). On this reading the people grieve over a judgment the LORD himself brought.
Judges 21:15 · Judges 20:35 · Judges 20:18 · Judges 20:23 · Judges 20:28 · Judges 20:13
The LORD's hand, and Israel's own part
Those who hold this view agree the LORD struck Benjamin (20:35), and note what the text adds of Israel's own doing. After the battle the men of Israel struck "the entire city, the livestock, and all that they found" and "set all the cities which they found on fire" (20:48). Six hundred men had fled to the rock of Rimmon (20:47), and Israel's own oath kept wives from them (21:1, 21:7). They read the people's "why has this happened" (21:3) as asked while part of the answer lay in what Israel itself had done.
Judges 20:35 · Judges 20:47-48 · Judges 21:1 · Judges 21:7 · Judges 21:3
The verses
“The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.”
“Now therefore deliver up the men, the wicked fellows who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and put away evil from Israel.” But Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the children of Israel.”
“and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, “Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease?” The LORD said, “Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand.””
“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.”