Judges 21:2

And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) To the house of God.—Rather, to Bethel, as in Judges 20:18; Judges 20:27.

Wept sore.—As after their defeat (Judges 20:26); but this time they were remorseful for the fate of those whom they were then pledged to destroy.

Benson Commentary

Jdg 21:2. And lift up their voices and wept sore — Some days after their fury was over, and they coolly considered what they had done in the heat of war, their joy and triumph for their victory were turned into mourning and lamentation, for the loss of so many of their brethren.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

To the house of God - It should be, "to Bethel." See Judges 20:18.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2-5. the people came to the house of God, … and lifted up their voices, and wept sore—The characteristic fickleness of the Israelites was not long in being displayed; for scarcely had they cooled from the fierceness of their sanguinary vengeance, than they began to relent and rushed to the opposite extreme of self-accusation and grief at the desolation which their impetuous zeal had produced. Their victory saddened and humbled them. Their feelings on the occasion were expressed by a public and solemn service of expiation at the house of God. And yet this extraordinary observance, though it enabled them to find vent for their painful emotions, did not afford them full relief, for they were fettered by the obligation of a religious vow, heightened by the addition of a solemn anathema on every violator of the oath. There is no previous record of this oath; but the purport of it was, that they would treat the perpetrators of this Gibeah atrocity in the same way as the Canaanites, who were doomed to destruction; and the entering into this solemn league was of a piece with the rest of their inconsiderate conduct in this whole affair.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The people came to the house of God; partly to mourn for the common loss, and partly to ask counsel from God about the repairing of it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the people came to the house of God,.... Not to the city Bethel, as the Targum, Septuagint, and other versions, but to Shiloh, where were the tabernacle and ark; and this is to be understood of the army after they had utterly destroyed the Benjaminites: hence we read of the camp in Shiloh, Judges 21:12, here they came not so much to rejoice, and be glad, and to return thanks for the victory they had at last obtained, as to lament the unhappy case of the tribe of Benjamin, and to have counsel and advice, and consider of ways and means to repair their loss:

and abode there till even before God; fasting and praying, instead of feasting and rejoicing:

and lifted up their voices, and wept sore; not so much, or at least not only for the 40,000 Israelites that were slain, but for the tribe of Benjamin, in danger of being lost, as follows.

Geneva Study Bible

And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. came to Beth-el] The characteristics of the B narrative reappear in this chapter: the resort to Beth-el till even cf. Jdg 20:18; Jdg 20:26; the weeping, intensified each time, cf. Jdg 20:23; Jdg 20:26; the offering of sacrifices Jdg 21:4 cf. Jdg 20:26; the post-exilic congregation (Jdg 21:10; Jdg 21:13; Jdg 21:16), and the assembly (Jdg 21:5; Jdg 21:8) cf. Jdg 20:1 n.; the artificial numbers Jdg 21:10.

The Vulgate renders ‘Veneruntque omnes ad domum Dei, in Silo,’ following the theory noticed in Jdg 20:18 n.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - And the people, etc. The narrative now proceeds. After the people, i.e. the Israelite army, so described Judges 20:3, 8, 22, etc., had finished the work of destruction in the cities of Benjamin, they returned to Bethel (the house of God, A.V., here and in Judges 20:18, 26, 31, where see notes), and, their rage having now subsided, gave way to violent grief on account of the destruction of Benjamin their brother. With passionate Oriental feelings they passed the whole day weeping, and probably fasting (see ch. 20:26), before the tabernacle. Wept sore. Hebrew, wept a great weeping. The expression lifted up their voices shows that it was a loud wailing and lamentation, Judges 21:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

After the termination of the war, the people, i.e., the people who had assembled together for the war (see Judges 21:9), went again to Bethel (see at Judges 20:18, Judges 20:26), to weep there for a day before God at the serious loss which the war had brought upon the congregation. Then they uttered this lamentation: "Why, O Lord God of Israel, is this come to pass in Israel, that a tribe is missing to-day from Israel?" This lamentation involved the wish that God might show them the way to avert the threatened destruction of the missing tribe, and build up the six hundred who remained. To give a practical expression to this wish, they built an altar the next morning, and offered burnt-offerings and supplicatory offerings upon it (see at Judges 20:26), knowing as they did that their proposal would not succeed without reconciliation to the Lord, and a return to the fellowship of His grace. There is something apparently strange in the erection of an altar at Bethel, since sacrifices had already been offered there during the war itself (Judges 20:26), and this could not have taken place without an altar. Why it was erected again, or another one built, is a question which cannot be answered with any certainty. It is possible, however, that the first was not large enough for the number of sacrifices that had to be offered now.