Jdg 20:42-43
The Benjaminites “now turned (flying) before the Israelites to the way of the desert,” i.e., no doubt the desert which rises from Jericho to the mountains of Bethel (Jos 16:1). They fled therefore towards the north-east; but the battle had overtaken (reached or seized) them, and those out of the towns (had perished). The difficult expression מהערים ואשׁר, of which very different, and for the most part arbitrary, explanations have been given, can only be in apposition to the suffix attached to the verb: “Benjamin, and in fact those who had come to the help of Gibeah out of the towns of Benjamin” (see Jdg 20:14, Jdg 20:15), i.e., all the Benjaminites. The following words, וגו משׁחיתים, are a circumstantial clause explanatory of the previous clause, הדב המּלחמה: “since they (the men of Israel) destroyed him (Benjamin) in the midst of it.” The singular suffix בּתוכו does not refer to Benjamin, as this would yield no sense at all, but to the preceding words, “the way of the desert” (see Jdg 20:45). - In Jdg 20:43 the account is continued by three perfects attached to one another without a copula: “they enclosed (hedged round) Benjamin, pursued him; at the place of rest they trod him down to before Gibeah eastwards.” מנוּחה is not used adverbially in the sense of “quietly,” which would not give any fitting meaning, but is an accus. loci, and signifies place of rest, as in Num 10:33. The notice “to before Gibeah” refers to all three verbs.