Judges 20-21
12/09/2025
Well, once I read chapter 20 this morning, I asked Grok about the significance of the meeting at Mizpah. Grok gave a detailed and in-depth response as expected, but I found a couple contradictions in what he told me. When I asked about them, he responded that I was right on both counts and he went on to explain what he should have said and how he should have said it, and it was satisfactory.
I asked a couple more questions and Grok seemed to respond well, as he typically does. Then, I ran out of access time. If you are not paying for Grok, you are limited to how much interaction you can have during a particular time frame. I am not sure if I was cut off for the rest of the day, or just a few hours.
Regardless, I began thinking about how I was using Grok to facilitate my bible study, and came to the conclusion that, although I had learned a lot this way, it was time for me to learn how to study for myself. I found I had been basically giving Grok ideas I had, and let him fill in all the blanks for me. I believe I need to learn to dig in for myself and try to fill in my own blanks.
With that in mind, I went ahead and read chapter 21 as well, to wrap up Judges. Then, after I got home, I found a John MacArthur Study Guide covering Joshua, Judges and Ruth, and ordered it. It should be here tomorrow and I will try to use that as I read through Ruth and see how that goes. Future papers here will probably not include Grok anymore, but rather be me writing something about what I read, what I learned and any questions I have that I haven't had answered yet.
I must keep in mind that this writing is NOT my attempt to teach anyone anything. Rather, it is intended to be me documenting what I have learned, found cool or wonder about each chapter I read. I am hoping that one day in the future as I read thru the bible again, I can return to these papers and see where I was and if I have grown since the original writing… and maybe then I can answer some of the questions I didn’t know before.
Anyway, a quick overview of these 2 chapters.
Chapter 20: Once the people of Israel received the priest’s concubine parts, they were all united and up in arms to go set right what had been done. They met at Mizpah and learned from the priest what had happened and who was responsible. The contacted the tribe of Benjamin let them know their intentions: quick in and out. Kill everyone involved in Gibeah and be done with it.
Benjamin decided to side with Gibeah and fight against all of Israel in this. Judah was selected to lead the charge, but 2 different times Benjamin beat them. Each time, Israel became more humble and penitent, finally crying out, fasting and sacrificing to the Lord. Now that their hearts were right, the Lord told them to go up against them one more time and He would deliver them into Israel’s hand.
This time, Israel whipped them up and down the highway, killing all their fighting men except for 600 who escaped.
Chapter 21: Israel felt bad for Benjamin because they were so defeated, they were in danger of going extinct. All their women had been kill along with most all the men. Israel devised a plan. There was one group who did not go up to war with Israel, Jabesh Gilead. Because of this, Israel went and utterly destroyed Jabesh Gilead, killing ever man and every non-virgin woman. After the battle, they took the 400 virgins and gave them to Benjamin for wives. Then, they told children of Benjamin to come steal their daughters from feast at Shiloh. You see, Israel had sworn not to give any of their daughters to Benjamin as wives. In fact, they cursed anyone who did. This arrangement at Shiloh kind of bypassed that oath, since they weren’t technically giving the women. And nowhere does it say that God was ok with this arrangement, or even consulted.
The book ends with the phrase that kept popping up throughout this book: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”