The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
Their unexpected and disastrous defeat at the hands of the Benjamites was beginning to have its desired effect.  "There was a humbling of themselves before God, a brokenness of spirit, and a softening of their feelings toward their `brother' Benjamin."[17]  The early 20th century critics lambasted this chapter as, "Neither history, nor legend but the ideal (imagination) of a scribe who had never handled a more dangerous weapon than an imaginative pen."[18]  Of course, such bold and atheistic attacks against the Bible are no longer popular among modern writers. Boling, in the Anchor Bible, for example, stated that, "This account of two initial setbacks and the final victory make excellent sense in their sequence with  Judges 19."[19]  And, as regards the shouts of "exaggeration" regarding the heavy casualties of this war, the same writer declared that, "The figures here are entirely plausible."[20]