What Does Judges 20:23 Mean?
And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin, my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
(And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.)THE KEY
The command to go up does not dissolve the words “my brother”: the conflict remains within kinship.
THE MEANING
Grief and direction occupy the same moment: the people weep before the LORD, ask whether to face Benjamin again, and hear, “Go up.” Benjamin (בִּנְיָמִין, Binyāmîn, “son of the right hand”) is still called “my brother” as the order comes, keeping kinship visible inside the conflict.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that an answer from God must remove the conflict: the reply here is still, “Go up.”
THE ROOT
עֲלוּ
ʿalû
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
Go up, ascend.
The command uses the ascent verb עלה (ʿ-l-h, “go up”), whose wider word family includes עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, “ascending offering”). That shared root gives “go up” an image of ascent, while the sentence keeps the order concrete: against him.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōlāh: A burnt offering, literally an ascending offering.
עֹלָה
It shares the ascent root and makes the upward movement audible in the command to go up.
maʿălāh: A step, stair, or ascent.
מַעֲלָה
It shows the same root naming an upward rise, adding a spatial sense to the repeated command.
וַיִּשְׁאֲלוּ
vayyishʾalû
GROWS FROM
שאל
š-ʾ-l
Ask, request, inquire.
The wording rendered “asked counsel” centers on the verb שאל (š-ʾ-l, “ask, inquire”): the people put a question about what comes next. The same root appears in שָׁאוּל (šāʾûl, “Saul; asked for”), joining the act of asking to what is asked for.
ALSO GROWS
sheʾēlāh: A question or request.
שְׁאֵלָה
It names the kind of spoken inquiry the people bring before the LORD.
šāʾûl: Saul; asked for.
שָׁאוּל
This name comes from the same ask/request root, linking inquiry with what is requested.
THE PATTERN
Seeking God’s direction can yield a concrete next step while the situation that prompted the question remains in view.
And David asked of the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them, and without fail snatch back all.You will not need to fight in this war. Take your stand, and see the deliverance of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear, nor be shattered. Tomorrow, go out against them, for the LORD will be with you.Stand up therefore, and go down, and go with them without being divided, for I have sent them.THE THREAD
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 let go of the battle? And the LORD said, Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.The answer repeats עֲלוּ (ʿalû, “go up”), the same ascent verb used here. In this verse the command is brief; when the root returns after another question, the answer adds a promise of deliverance.
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