What Does Judges 20:25 Mean?
And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah on the second day, and brought down to the ground among the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these grasped the sword.
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 Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.THE KEY
“Again” makes the sword’s ruin a cycle: the counted dead are themselves described as sword-bearers.
THE MEANING
Benjamin advances on the second day, and eighteen thousand Israelites die by the sword; the verse names them as sword-bearers. “Again” makes this slaughter a repeated event within the same conflict, a ruin counted in human beings.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that drawing a sword puts only an opponent at risk breaks here: the men killed are themselves described as sword-bearers.
THE ROOT
וַיַּשְׁחִיתוּ
wayyašḥîtû
GROWS FROM
שׁחת
š-ḥ-t
To ruin, destroy, or corrupt.
“brought down” in this verse is wayyašḥîtû. The verb rendered “destroyed” comes from שחת (šāḥat), a root used for ruin and corruption as well as destruction. Paired with “again,” it makes the second day another return of ruin within the same conflict.
ALSO GROWS
became corrupt: Became ruined or corrupt.
וַתִּשָּׁחֵת
Genesis 6:11 uses this form for the earth becoming corrupt, showing that the root names a state of ruin as well as an act of destruction.
ləšaḥēt: To ruin or destroy.
לְשַׁחֵת
Genesis 6:17 uses this form in the warning to destroy all flesh; the same root spans this battle’s slaughter and destruction on a wider scale.
THE PATTERN
The sword’s use in conflict makes its cost recur among the people who wield it.
Then Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for the ages? Do you not perceive that it will be bitter at its hind end? How long shall it be then before you bid the people turn back from following their brothers?Then Jesus said to him, Turn your sword back to its place, for all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.THE THREAD
And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and brought down to the ground among Israel that day twenty-two thousand men.Both verses use the Hebrew root שחת (šāḥat), meaning to ruin or destroy, in the phrase translated “destroyed down to the ground.” The first day’s twenty-two thousand and this day’s eighteen thousand make “again” a recurrence in the Hebrew as well as in the English.
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