31 And the sons of Benjamin come out to meet the people; they have been drawn away out of the city, and begin to smite 'some' of the people—wounded as time by time, in the highways (of which one is going up to Beth-El, and the other to Gibeah in the field), 'are' about thirty men of Israel.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Judges 20:31
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The tribe of Benjamin nearly extirpated.
The Israelites' abhorrence of the crime committed at Gibeah, and their resolution to punish the criminals, were right; but they formed their resolves with too much haste and self-confidence. The eternal ruin of souls will be worse, and more fearful, than these desolations of a tribe.