Judges 20:48
And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to. And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.
Judges 20:48 stands in the closing chapters of Judges, in the section of Judges 17-21 which records Israel's transgressions and backsliding and its disgraceful consequences and shows how low Israel had fallen. The events recorded there occurred in the early part of the history of the judges, during a fearfully checkered time before the call of Samuel the prophet. The immediate setting is the crime or outrage at Gibeah and the resulting conflict with Benjamin, in which Benjamin as a whole identified itself with the offenders. The verse belongs to the account of Israel's eventual victory over Benjamin after Israel had twice been repulsed.
The verse describes Israel's severe retaliation in turning back upon Benjamin to strike with the sword the men of every city along with the beasts and all that came to hand, and to set on fire all the cities encountered. The destruction left Benjamin the least tribe and nearly or almost extinct through near extermination. The chapter exposes clannish loyalty taking precedence over justice, and the resulting punishment does not excuse the sin. The record of Israel's backsliding is not a model for conduct and gives no license to sin, and those God used to deliver His people are not necessarily examples to follow.
Because Benjamin had been made so small, divine wisdom in choosing a king from Benjamin removed all grounds of jealousy among the other and larger tribes, making it a fittingly small tribe from which to choose Saul. The near extermination displays Benjamin's wolf-like ferocity, yet Benjamin was later greatly blessed when united with Judah. The reversal from twice being repulsed to finally prevailing shows that a cause may suffer defeat and apparent destruction before finally prevailing.