And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
At that time, the tribe of Benjamin counted 26,000 sword-carrying warriors from their cities, plus 700 specially chosen fighting men from the town of Gibeah.
This verse is counting the total number of Benjamin's warriors (26,700 men) who were preparing for battle against the other tribes of Israel.
📚 Historical Context
In the book of Judges, during a time when Israel was a loose confederation of tribes without a central king, internal conflicts often arose due to moral failures and tribal loyalties. The specific event in this verse occurs during the Benjamite War, where the other tribes of Israel demanded justice for a horrific crime involving rape and murder in the city of Gibeah, leading to Benjamin mobilizing its forces. This counting of warriors reflects the preparation for a civil war that highlighted the consequences of unaddressed sin within the nation.
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