Israel’s war with the tribe of Benjamin

The events of the previous chapter carry over into the last two chapters of the book of Judges, this one and the final one. The overall content of this chapter is about the division between Israel and the tribe of Benjamin (where the town of Gibeah was situated) and the eventual long war in which thousands on both sides died.

All Israel gathered together at Mizpah, four hundred thousand foot soldiers with swords, from every tribe, except the tribe of Benjamin who heard about the gathering. The reason for coming together, prompted by the dismembered parts of the concubine, was to decide what to do. The Levite told the story of the events. The men of Israel heard and decided that they would all immediately go up against the tribe of Benjamin, for them to hand over the perverted men of Gibeah for justice to be done and for Israel to be redeemed. They agreed to take one man out of every ten to go and, if necessary, to fight.

The spiritual meaning in this opening and gathering of Israel at Mizpah is mostly about its incompleteness. The tribe of Benjamin was not present even though Mizpah was in Benjamin’s territory. Spiritual incompleteness in us is to leave something out of our love and faithfulness to the Lord which makes each one of us a whole being. The twelve tribes of Israel stand for all the qualities which come together to form our spiritual life and purpose. (True Christian Religion 38)

The men of Israel go up and ask the Lord who should go to fight first. The reply is that Judah go first. The men of Benjamin refuse to hand the men of Gibeah over and they form an army to fight Israel. In the fighting, the men of Benjamin cut down twenty-two thousand men of Israel. Israel goes and weeps to the Lord and asks if they should go up again against their brother Benjamin. The Lord says they are to go up again.

The spiritual meaning of the tribe of Benjamin is that it stands for the ‘medium’ or the vital connection between what is internal or celestial and what is external or natural. If this connection is absent there is no passage or mutual link between these two and they are separated. This removes the completeness of our spiritual life as a whole. (See Arcana Caelestia 5822.)

Israel goes up against Benjamin on the second day and eighteen thousand men of Israel are cut down by the army of Benjamin. Israel goes to the house of the Lord and weeps, and asks if they should yet go out to fight their brother Benjamin. The Lord says that they are to fight a third time, and the He will deliver them into their hand.

Israel weeps. Weeping or crying stands for mourning the loss of something which is no longer present. In a good sense ‘weeping’ can be for the sense of loss of what is loved and what is part of us, here represented by ‘to battle the children of my brother Benjamin’.

The Lord wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44). (Arcana Caelestia 4293.3)

Israel fights on three consecutive day, and on the third day they defeat the tribe of Benjamin. ‘On the third day’ (see verse 30) stands for the need for conflict and personal states in our spiritual temptations and battles to be worked through until they are brought to an end and we can be brought out of temptation, into a new state. (Arcana Caelestia 5159)

The men of Israel laid an ambush and then went as before to fight the men of Benjamin. They moved away from them and Benjamin followed them and killed some men of Israel. The men in ambush arose and went to Gibeah and by arrangement made a great column of smoke after killing the men of the city. (Arcana Caelestia 9144) The men of Benjamin saw this and panicked, and twenty three thousand of them were slain. Six hundred men escaped and hid, and Israel went all around and destroyed men of Benjamin wherever they were found.

The spiritual meaning of this final battle is in the extent of the numbers killed and the aftermath of the victory with further killing. To ‘kill’ (or destroy) when it is used in the Word is to work completely towards the full expulsion of states, thoughts and intentions in us which are in opposition to the way of the Word and its wholeness and healing. (Arcana Caelestia 9320) This is the meaning of the term ‘vastation’ in which things which are opposed to the Lord need to be worked through and brought to an end so that a new state can come.

4868. 'And said, Allow me now to come [in] to you' means a lustful desire to be connected with it. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming (or going in) to someone' as being joined to, dealt with in 4820. The meaning here - a lustful desire like that involved in connection with a prostitute, by whom falsity is meant in the internal sense - is self-evident. For the Jewish nation, meant here by 'Judah', 4815, 4842, 4864, looked on the internal truth of the representative Church, and still looks on it at the present day, as nothing else than falsity, see above in 4865. Dealt with here is the fact that it nevertheless linked itself to that truth, not however as a wife but as a prostitute; that is, it did not link itself to it as truth but as falsity. The expression 'a lustful desire' is used to describe a link with falsity that is like a connection with a prostitute.

[2] All who believe solely the external sense of the Word, that is, its literal sense, and completely cast aside the whole internal - that is, spiritual - sense link themselves to internal truth as to a prostitute. This is above all the case among those who employ the external or literal sense of the Word to lend support to the desires that belong to their self-love and love of the world, that is, the desires for rule and gain. Those who behave like this cannot do other than look on internal truth in that kind of way; and if they attach themselves to it they do so with a lustful desire, like that for connection with a prostitute. Members of the Jewish nation in particular do this, and so also do those meant in the Word by Babel. But those people are different who do, it is true, have a simple belief in the literal sense of the Word, yet lead lives in keeping with what is contained in the internal sense. That is to say, they are people with whom love and charity exist, and also faith derived from these (for these three are the subject in the internal sense of the Word); also they are people who base their teachings on these. For the internal sense and the external sense come together in the two commandments, to love the Lord above all things and one's neighbour as oneself.

[3] Let some examples show that the Jewish nation regards internal truth as a prostitute, and that if it associates itself with that truth it does so from a lustful desire akin to that for a connection with that kind of woman. If, for example, they are told that the Word is holy, indeed most holy, and also that every part of a letter there is holy, they acknowledge and associate themselves with what is said; yet they do so from that kind of lustful desire. For they believe that holiness lies within the actual letter of the Word and not that holiness is something which enters by means of the Word when people with an affection for what is good and true read it.

[4] If they are told that many of those mentioned in the Word are to be revered as holy ones - such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, or David - they acknowledge and associate themselves with this. But they do so from a like lustful desire, for they believe that these historical figures were chosen in preference to others and are on that account holy ones, who ought therefore to be worshipped as gods. Any holiness attached to these figures however is due solely to the fact that they represented the Lord. No one by being a holy representative undergoes a change of personality; indeed one can go further and say that without exception everyone's life after death is the same as before it.

[5] If they are told that the ark among them, the temple, the altar of burnt offering, the altar of incense, the bread on the table, the lampstand with its lamps, the continual fire, the sacrifices, the incense, the oil, and also Aaron's vestments, especially the breastplate with the urim and thummim on it, were holy, they acknowledge this and associate themselves with it, but from the same kind of lustful desire. For they believe that all these objects were inherently holy, thus that wood, stone, gold, silver, bread, and fire were so; they believe that they had holiness in them because Jehovah was within them. That is to say, they believe that the holiness of Jehovah which was attached to these objects resided in actual fact within them. This is their internal truth, which however is falsity when compared with genuine truth; for holiness exists solely within good and truth which, being from the Lord, reside within love to Him and love towards the neighbour, and from these within faith. It accordingly exists only within the living, that is, within those who accept these gifts from the Lord.

[6] If they are told that the Christian Church is one with the Church that was established among them but that the Christian was internal whereas theirs was external, so that when the external features of the Church established among them are peeled away and it is laid bare, the Christian Church is seen, they do not acknowledge this truth as anything else than a harlot, that is, as something false. Nevertheless many of them who are converted from Judaism to Christianity associate themselves with this truth; but they do so from a lustful desire. Many times in the Word these kinds of things are called acts of whoredom. As regards those however who are meant in the Word by 'Babylon', they likewise look in a similar way on the internal truths of the Church; yet because they have a knowledge of internal things, and in addition acknowledge these during childhood but in adult life refuse to do so, they are described in the Word by means of foul acts of adultery and unmentionable sexual unions; for they are forms of profanation.