Judges 20:43
Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising. Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.
The events of chapters 17 to 21, to which this verse belongs, occurred early in the history of the judges, although they are recorded after the story that ends with chapter 16. They stand in the closing chapters of Judges, which record Israel's backsliding and the low state into which the nation had fallen before the call of Samuel the prophet, and the disgrace and punishment that followed. The verse belongs to the account of the crime at Gibeah, the murder of the Levite's concubine, with which the whole tribe of Benjamin identified itself. The surrounding account condemns putting tribal loyalty above justice and treating customary hospitality as more important than a woman's virtue, for sin has no excuse.
It describes the decisive defeat of the Benjamites near Gibeah eastward, when Israel enclosed them round about, chased them, and trod them down with ease, meeting little resistance. This was Israel's final victory over Benjamin after Israel had twice been defeated, and the earlier reverses show that God may allow His people to suffer defeat and apparent destruction for a time to humble their self-confidence and lead them to rely on Him, so that their distress can then be turned to joy and success.
The battle nearly brought about the extinction of Benjamin and left the tribe small. Choosing Saul as king from this small tribe of Benjamin helped prevent jealousy among the other tribes.