Mourning the Fate of Benjamin

Mourning the Fate of Benjamin
Through the extraordinary severity with which the tribes of Israel had carried on the war against Benjamin, this tribe had been reduced to 600 men, and brought very near to extermination. Such a conclusion to the bloody conflict went to the heart of the congregation. When forming the resolution to punish the unparalleled wickedness of the inhabitants of Gibeah with all the severity of the law, they had been urged on by nothing else than the sacred duty that was binding upon them to root out the evil from their midst; if only they would have acted with the same fierceness when God ordered them to kill all the inhabitants of the Promised Land. And although the war against the whole tribe of Benjamin was justified by the fact that they had taken the side of the culprits, and that the consolidated tribes had received the approval of the Lord; there is no doubt that in the execution of the war, feelings of personal revenge had replaced the righteous indignation that was present at the beginning, because of the defeat which they had twice sustained at the hands of the Benjaminites.