They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men.
The Israelites did to the Benjamites as they had done to the Canaanites who were under the ban (Judges 20:48). This was excessively severe treatment contrary to God’s will (Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 19:18).