Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 20:15

"And the children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men." — Judges 20:15 (ASV)

Out of the cities. —They could only live in cities, because the Jebusites still held Jerusalem, and the Canaanites around them were very incompletely subdued.

Twenty-six thousand. —This seems to be the correct number and is found in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. Josephus, however (Antt. v. 2, § 10), has 25,000, as does Codex A of the LXX., and Codex B has 23,000 (see Note on Judges 20:46). We see generally that the Benjamites, like the rest of the Israelites, in spite of their exceptional increase in the wilderness, had now been diminished by about a third since the last census (Numbers 26:41). (See Note on Judges 20:2.)

Seven hundred chosen men. —There seems to be some uncertainty or confusion in the text here. It is difficult to imagine that, as the text stands, the single city of Gibeah furnished the Benjamites their one choice contingent of seven hundred slingers, and it would be a curious coincidence that the force of Gibeah and the slingers should each be exactly seven hundred.