שופטים, פרק כ׳, פסוק כ״ד

Following a devastating defeat on the first day of battle, the Israelites display remarkable resolve. They return to the frontlines to face the tribe of Benjamin for a second time [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Despite suffering heavy casualties, they do not retreat like a broken army. They maintain their trust in God and the Urim and Thummim, pushing forward not merely out of a desire for revenge, but out of deep faith [אברבנאל].

This situation naturally raises a difficult question: if their cause was just, why did the Israelites suffer such terrible losses during the first two days of fighting? The primary approach among commentators is that this defeat was a direct consequence of the sin of Micah's idol. The Israelites showed fierce zeal for human honor following the tragedy of the concubine at Gibeah, yet they completely ignored the public idolatry practiced by the tribe of Dan. Because they failed to protest for His honor, God punished them with the loss of tens of thousands of lives. However, in His mercy, He allowed them to fall at the hands of their fellow Israelites rather than foreign enemies.

Another perspective suggests that the Israelites sinned by taking the law into their own hands, arguing that the authority to judge the tribe of Benjamin belonged exclusively to Benjamin itself [רמב״ן, מובא באברבנאל]. This view, however, is rejected by the understanding that the collective tribes and the High Court have both the full authority and the absolute duty to root out evil from any individual tribe [אברבנאל].

Beyond these moral shortcomings, the initial failures also stemmed from the flawed way the Israelites approached God. Overly confident in their massive numerical advantage, they only asked God who should lead the attack, completely neglecting to ask whether they would actually succeed. Furthermore, their inquiry was not conducted in the proper place before the Ark of the Covenant, nor was it presented by the High Priest Phinehas son of Eleazar. Because of these improper procedures, the divine response they received was only partial; God instructed them to advance into battle, but He offered no promise of victory [אברבנאל].