Judges 20:12 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The tribes of Israel sent men, &c. Before they marched forward they sent an embassy to the Benjamites, to complain of the wickedness that had been committed, and the injury that had been done by some of their tribe, and to demand that the offenders might be delivered up to justice. This was a wise and just course, that the innocent might be separated from the guilty, and a fair opportunity given them of preventing their own ruin by doing what their duty, honour, and interest laid them under an indispensable obligation to do; by delivering up those vile malefactors, whom they could not keep without bringing the curse of God upon themselves. But why did not these tribes of Israel show equal zeal against the conduct of the idolatrous Danites, which, as the last-mentioned author observes, “though less destructive to the peace of society, more immediately struck at the honour of God and the interests of religion?” Could this be owing to any thing else than the very low state of religion among them, and their indifference and unconcern about the honour of God? And yet idolatry was the only crime on account of which they were commanded to levy war against their brethren.