שופטים, פרק כ׳, פסוק ט״ו

As the shadow of civil war looms, the tribe of Benjamin mobilizes its entire military strength. Forced to commit every available fighter to the impending conflict, the tribe gathers its men from their various cities to be counted and organized for battle [ביאור שטיינזלץ, מצודת ציון]. During this census, the warriors from the city of Gibeah are tallied as a distinct unit, entirely separate from the rest of the tribal forces [מצודת דוד].

The gathering yields twenty-six thousand men from the surrounding cities, alongside seven hundred fighters specifically from Gibeah, bringing the tribal army to twenty-six thousand seven hundred men. However, this initial tally presents a striking numerical discrepancy when compared to the aftermath of the war. At the time of Benjamin's ultimate defeat, records show twenty-five thousand one hundred casualties and six hundred survivors who fled to the rock of Rimmon. Combined, these figures only account for twenty-five thousand seven hundred men, leaving exactly one thousand fighters missing from the original count.

To resolve the mystery of the missing thousand, two distinct explanations are offered [רד״ק]. The most logical conclusion is that these men perished during the first two military engagements. Although the tribe of Benjamin was victorious in those early clashes against the rest of the Israelites, it is virtually impossible that they emerged without any casualties. Therefore, the final death toll only reflects the men who fell during the tribe's complete and final defeat, while the missing thousand died earlier in the war. Alternatively, an ancient tradition suggests a completely different fate, proposing that these one thousand fighters were not killed in battle at all. Instead, they abandoned the conflict, migrating away from the region to eventually settle in the land of Romania.