And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

And there were found of Benjamin five and twenty thousand men that drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gabaa,

And the Benjaminites mustered out of their cities on that day twenty-six thousand men that drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gib'e-ah, who mustered seven hundred picked men.

And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

And the sons of Benjamin number themselves on that day; out of the cities are twenty and six thousand men drawing sword, apart from the inhabitants of Gibeah, who numbered themselves, seven hundred chosen men;

And the children of Benjamin who came that day from the towns were twenty-six thousand men armed with swords, in addition to the people of Gibeah, numbering seven hundred of the best fighting-men,

And there were found from Benjamin twenty-five thousand who drew the sword, aside from the inhabitants of Gibeah,

Comparing the numbers here with those in Numbers. 1; 26, it is seen that in the case both of the Benjamites and the Israelites the numbers are diminished by about one-third, i. e., they appear as about two-thirds only of what they were at the last numbering in the plains of Moab. This diminution seems to indicate disturbed and harassing times. With this agrees the mention of the cities, as containing the whole Benjamite population. The inference is that the open country and unwalled villages were not safe, but that the Benjamites kept the Canaanites in subjection only by dwelling in fortified towns.

Twenty and six thousand - Some copies of the Septuagint have twenty-three thousand, others twenty-five thousand. The Vulgate has this latter number; the Complutensian Polyglot and Josephus have the same.

And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities,.... All that they could muster up, and gather together out of their several cities, were no more man than
twenty and six thousand men that drew the sword able bodied men fit for war, and expert in it:
beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men young, stout, and strong, and in all but 26,700; and what are these to an army of 400,000 men, or however 360,000 that came up against Gibeah, while 40,000 were employed in getting provisions for them? Josephus (g) makes the number of the Benjaminites still less, no more than 25,600, led thereunto by an later account, that 25,000 Benjaminites were slain in the third and last battle, and only six hundred escaped to a rock for safety, not considering that 1000 men may well be supposed to be lost in the two first battles; for it would be strange indeed that they should lose none in two engagement with so large an army; the same error is committed in the Vulgate Latin version, which makes them no more than 25,000; with which agrees the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint version: though that, according to the Vatican exemplar, has but 23,000. The numbers in the Hebrew text are no doubt the right.
(g) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 10.

Were numbered - "How does this agree with the following numbers? For all that were slain of Benjamin were twenty - five thousand and one hundred men, Judges 20:35, and there were only six hundred that survived, Judges 20:47, which make only twenty - five thousand and seven hundred." The other thousand men were either left in some of their cities, where they were slain, Judges 20:48, or were cut off in the two first battles, wherein it is unreasonable to think they had an unbloody victory: and as for these twenty - five thousand and one hundred men, they were all slain in the third battle.