וַיֹּֽאמְר֨וּ זִקְנֵ֣י הָעֵדָ֔ה מַה־נַּעֲשֶׂ֥ה לַנּוֹתָרִ֖ים לְנָשִׁ֑ים כִּֽי־נִשְׁמְדָ֥ה מִבִּנְיָמִ֖ן אִשָּֽׁה׃
At sinabi ng mga matatanda ng kapulungan: “Ano ang gagawin natin para sa mga natira upang magkaroon sila ng mga asawa, gayong nalipol na ang mga babae ng Benjamin?”
Rabbeinu Bahya
The words להעלות נר, are sort of a headline. The word נר means “lamps” (pl.) just as when Yaakov told Esau that he had acquired שור וחמור (Genesis 32,6) he did not mean that he had acquired only one of each, but that he had made acquisitions of these respective species of domestic animals. We find a similar use of the “singular” אשה, in Judges 21,16, where the words כי נשמדה מבנימין אשה do not mean that “a woman of the tribe of Benjamin had been killed,” but that ”all the women of Benjamin had been destroyed.”