The people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day.
The reference to the Israelites weeping (Judges 20:23) is significant. This book opened with a reference to the people weeping because of their unfaithfulness to the covenant, manifested in idolatry (Judges 2:4-5). In the middle chapter of the book there is another reference to weeping by Jephthah’s daughter and her friends as a result of Jephthah’s foolish vow (Judges 11:37-38). So weeping frames the book and lies at its heart showing the unhappy outcome of idolatry and self-assertiveness. [Note: McCann, p. 118.] One writer referred to Judges as "a book of weeping." [Note: Tate, p. 34.] 