Judges — Chapter 20

Israel consults God at Shiloh: \"Who shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin?\" The Lord answers: \"Judah shall go up first.\" Lapide: God directs the order of battle; even just wars must be prosecuted in submission to divine guidance. The defeat of Israel in the first two engagements (vv. 21, 25) is permitted by God to purify them through fasting and prayer before granting victory on the third day.

Before the third battle, all Israel fasted, wept, and offered holocausts. Then God promises victory. Lapide: the pattern of the spiritual life — God grants his greatest graces not at the first petition but after purification through repeated humiliation, fasting, and persevering prayer. The three-battle structure is a figure of the three days of Christ in the tomb before the Resurrection.