But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven.

JUDGES 20:40KJV
Know the Bible

Judges 20:40 (KJV)

What does Judges 20:40 mean?

Judges 20:40 marks the moment when the Benjamite fighters realize that the city behind them has been attacked. The rising smoke reveals that the battle is not going as they thought: while they have been fighting outside the city, their enemies have reached it.

The account pictures a column rising high enough to be seen from the battlefield. After the Benjamites’ apparent success in verse 39, their backward glance exposes the danger behind them.

The Hebrew behind Judges 20:40

  • “flame” — כָּלִיל (kalil): This word can refer to something that is whole or completely consumed. Here the KJV renders it “flame,” giving a picture of the city’s destruction by fire.

Why Judges 20:40 matters

  • The smoke is part of a planned signal, not merely an accidental sight. In verse 38, the Israelite fighters had arranged for the men hidden near the city to send up a great cloud of smoke.

  • The Benjamites’ position has changed sharply. Verse 39 describes them striking down Israelite fighters, but verse 41 says that, after seeing the smoke, they are terrified as the other fighters turn back against them.

  • “Ascended up to heaven” describes how high the smoke and fire appeared to rise. The phrase gives the scene a sense of scale from the Benjamites’ viewpoint.

Where else these words appear

“flame” Hebrew H4864 · used in 14 verses

  • Genesis 43:34 And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.
  • 2 Chronicles 24:9 And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the LORD the collection that Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness.
  • Jeremiah 40:5 Now while he was not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people: or go wheresoever it seemeth convenient unto thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward, and let him go.

“flame” Hebrew H3632 · used in 15 verses

  • Exodus 28:31 And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue.
  • Numbers 4:6 And shall put thereon the covering of badgers' skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof.
  • Isaiah 2:18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish.

“Benjamites” Hebrew H1145 · used in 18 verses

  • Judges 3:15 But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
  • 1 Samuel 9:1 Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.
  • 2 Samuel 19:17 And there were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went over Jordan before the king.

“smoke” Hebrew H6227 · used in 24 verses

  • Genesis 15:17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
  • Psalms 18:8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
  • Isaiah 9:18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.