שופטים, פרק כ׳, פסוק מ״ח

Following the crushing defeat of the Benjaminite fighting force, the Israelites turn their fierce anger toward the remaining civilian population and infrastructure. The campaign of revenge expands far beyond the battlefield, reaching into all the cities of the tribe in a deliberate attempt to wipe out the remnant of Benjamin. The Israelite warriors return to these cities specifically to strike down the non-combatants, targeting women and children [רש"י, ביאור שטיינזלץ, אברבנאל]. The primary approach among commentators is that the destruction was aimed at humanity itself; the attackers struck every city populated by humans, sparing no man, woman, or child [רד"ק, מצודת ציון, מנחת שי, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. A different perspective suggests that the language used here does not merely refer to the people, but rather expresses the concept of absolute annihilation and total extermination of the inhabitants [רש"י].

This devastation does not stop with human life, as the slaughter extends to every living creature in the territory. While the people are killed inside the cities and the domestic animals are slaughtered in the fields, the Israelites also strike down any other creature they encounter along the way, including wild animals and birds [רד"ק, מצודת דוד]. Once every living thing is wiped out, the Israelites turn their attention to the physical structures. They deliberately go back to the settlements that survived the initial combat and set them entirely on fire [רד"ק, מצודת דוד]. The act of setting these fires is described as sending a flame, reflecting the very nature of fire acting as a messenger that spreads rapidly, consuming absolutely everything in its path [מצודת ציון].

Amidst this total destruction, a numerical gap emerges regarding the Benjaminite casualties. The initial census counted twenty-six thousand warriors from Benjamin. However, the final tally of the fallen lists twenty-five thousand one hundred men, plus another six hundred who escaped to the Rock of Rimmon, leaving exactly one thousand men unaccounted for. Some explain that these missing thousand fighters fled back into the cities and were killed the very next day when the Israelites returned to destroy the civilian settlements [רש"י]. Others suggest that these thousand men actually died during the first two days of the war, reasoning that despite Benjamin's early victories, it is impossible that they suffered zero casualties. A final view, rooted in early traditions, proposes that these thousand men fled far away and eventually settled in the land of Romania [אברבנאל].