Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 20:13

"Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, that are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel." — Judges 20:13 (ASV)

The children of Benjamin would not listen. —They were driven by the same misguided spirit of solidarity that has often made Highland clans defend a member of their group who has committed a grave outrage. The fact that they preferred a destructive civil war to surrendering their criminals illustrates the particularly fierce character of the tribe (Genesis 49:27). Their determination to resist united Israel is comparable to the courage in a bad cause of the Phocians in the sacred wars of Greece (Grote, iv. 85).