Judges 20

I knew the events of the last chapter would not lead to anything good. The Israelites are rightly appalled at the behavior of those in the town of Gibeah, but their Benjamite brothers protect them rather than handing them over to be punished. Because of that, the whole country goes to war - and tens of thousands of soldiers are killed on both sides. Moreover, not only is Gibeah destroyed (a measure I can understand) but the whole Benjamite tribe is wiped out almost to a man. Even the women and children are erased, with only 600 men who escape the battles surviving. I'm pretty sure descendants of Benjamin still live today, though, so there should be some sort of resolution to this in the next and final chapter of Judges.

What surprises me here is the level of total warfare that is waged over this. In modern times we would call destruction of this degree 'genocide', and it was done by the Israelites against their own people. Why did all of them deserve to die? I understand killing the men responsible, and even the measure of destroying their city - and since the Benjamites sent soldiers to aid that city I understand defeating them too. However, it seems a bit much to go to the effort of them wiping out all the cities, towns, people and animals in that land; after all, what threat were they? Perhaps we should look back and shake our heads, or perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here about how war must sometimes be conducted. I just wish I knew which it was...