Judges 20:32
And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways. And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.
The verse belongs to the account of the crime at Gibeah, the murder of the Levite's concubine, and the resulting conflict in which the whole tribe of Benjamin sided with the men of Gibeah and was nearly exterminated. The events of the chapter occurred early in the period of the judges. Placed among the closing chapters, the verse is part of the record of Israel's fearful backsliding into a low condition before the call of Samuel, bringing disgrace and punishment yet also revealing great mercy and goodness. The account shows tribal loyalty and customary hospitality wrongly prized above justice and moral duty, and teaches that such loyalties never excuse sin.
The verse comes after two defeats of Israel by Benjamin; the Lord sent Israel against them a third time, so final victory followed two humiliating defeats. It records Israel's deliberate feigned retreat to draw Benjamin's forces away from the city toward the highways, which Benjamin mistook for being smitten down as at the first.
The chapter shows Benjamin as the smallest tribe, nearly extinct, from which God deliberately chose Israel's king to remove any ground of jealousy among the other tribes. The sequence teaches that temporary failure and apparent destruction can precede success when God's people turn to him.