Matthew Poole and continuators on Judges 20:42

42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel, unto the way of the wilderness, but the battel overtook them: and them which came out of the cities, they destroyed in the midst of them .

i. e. The Men of Battel or War. The abstract for the concrete, as Poverty, 2 King. 24. 14. Pride, Psal. 36. 11. Deceit, Prov. 12. 25. Dreams, Ier. 25. 9. Election, Rom. 11. 7. are put for Persons that are Poor, Proud, Deceitful, Dreamers, Elect.

So the sence may seem to be this, That the Israelites did not only kill the Inhabitants of Gibeah, and all the Benjamites that came into the Field against them, 600 excepted; but in the midst of them, or together with them, they killed also the rest of the Benjamites, who, when they saw their Army was wholly Destroyed, made haste to flee out of their several Cities or Towns, that so they might escape the Sword, which was coming towards them. But the words may be rendred thus: And them who were of the other cities, to wit, of Benjamin, i. e. who abode in their own Cities, and did not go up to Gibeah, they Destroyed in the midst of them, i. e. in their several Cities, or, in the midst of it, i. e. of every City: for so it is said v. 48. where it is said, That they smote the men of every City. But this I submit to the Learned.