Judges 20:22
And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day. And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.
The verse belongs to the account of the crime at Gibeah and the conflict in which the tribe of Benjamin became involved, the war of Israel against Benjamin. It belongs to the account of the outrage against the Levite's concubine and the ensuing conflict, which nearly resulted in the extermination of the tribe of Benjamin. It falls within a record of Israel's backsliding and the disgrace and punishment that followed. It stands in the last chapters of Judges, which belong to the fearfully checkered time in the history of Israel and show the low state into which Israel had fallen before the call of Samuel the prophet. It belongs to Israel's troubled time when the people came to Bethel to inquire of the Lord, and it is evidence that the ark of the covenant was there.
After a humiliating defeat in battle, the men of Israel encouraged themselves and set their battle in array again in the same place where they had arrayed themselves the first day. The Israelites were twice defeated by the Benjaminites, yet God sent them to fight a third time. They were ultimately victorious despite being twice repulsed. Benjamin was the least and nearly extinct tribe in Israel because the conflict nearly resulted in its extermination, and God chose Israel's king from that tribe in order to remove all grounds of jealousy among the other tribes. The final victory after defeat shows that a cause may be oppressed for a time before it triumphs.