Hosea 10:9 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

O Israel, thou hast sinned— Even from the days of Gibeah, the sin of Israel flourisheth; from which if they had then abstained, they would not have provoked war in Gibeah, because of wicked men. Houbigant. The meaning, according to this translation, seems to be, that the Israelites, when they revenged the wickedness of Gibeah, would not have been twice overcome by the Benjamites, before they conquered, if they had not erected so many altars and statues. See Judges 19:22; Joshua 19:30 and Houbigant. God gave the Israelites success in that righteous war. It may, however, seem strange, that it should be said that the "war overtook them not," as if they had not suffered by it; when they were unsuccessful in the first two assaults, and were repulsed by the Benjaminites with a slaughter amounting, in the two days, to 40,000 men. Judges 20:21; Judges 20:25. But, besides that the confederated tribes were ultimately successful, this loss, in proportion to their whole embattled force, which consisted of 400,000 men (Hosea 10:2.), was nothing in comparison with that of the tribe of Benjamin, which was all but cut off. For of their force, which was 26,700, no more than 1600 survived the business of the third day, in which the town of Gibeah was taken and destroyed. And of this remnant all seem to have been cut off afterwards, except the 600 men that fortified themselves upon the rock Rimmon; so that of the whole tribe not one forty-fourth part was left.