Judges 20

20 ¹ Then all the Israelites came out, and the assembly gathered as one, from Dan to Beersheba, along with the land of Gilead, before our Father at Mizpah. ² The leaders of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, took their stand in the assembly of the people of our Father — four hundred thousand foot soldiers armed with swords. ³ Now the Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. And the Israelites said, "Tell us, how did this evil thing happen?"

⁴ So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, replied, "I came to Gibeah in Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. ⁵ The men of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house by night, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died. ⁶ Then I took my concubine, cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel's inheritance, because they committed a vile outrage in Israel. ⁷ Look, all of you Israelites — give your decision and counsel here and now."

⁸ Then all the people rose as one, saying, "None of us will go to his tent; none of us will return to his house. ⁹ But now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot. ¹⁰ We will take ten men out of every hundred throughout the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to gather provisions for the army, so that when they reach Gibeah of Benjamin they may repay it for all the outrage it committed in Israel." ¹¹ So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one. ¹² And the tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, asking, "What is this evil that has happened among you? ¹³ Now hand over the men, those worthless fellows in Gibeah, so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel." But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the Israelites.

¹⁴ Instead, the Benjaminites came together from their towns to Gibeah, to go out and fight against the Israelites. ¹⁵ On that day the Benjaminites mustered from their towns twenty-six thousand swordsmen, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who mustered seven hundred chosen men. ¹⁶ Among all these troops were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed, each able to sling a stone at a hair and not miss. ¹⁷ The men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, every one a warrior.

The Tribes Go to War with Benjamin

¹⁸ The Israelites set out and went up to Bethel and inquired of our Father, "Who of us shall go up first to fight against the Benjaminites?" And our Father said, "Judah shall go up first."

¹⁹ So the Israelites rose in the morning and camped near Gibeah. ²⁰ The men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah. ²¹ The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand Israelites on the field that day. ²² But the army of the men of Israel took courage and again formed their battle line in the place where they had stationed themselves the first day. ²³ The Israelites went up and wept before our Father until evening, and they inquired of him, "Shall we again draw near to battle against our brothers the Benjaminites?" And our Father said, "Go up against them."

²⁴ So the Israelites advanced against the Benjaminites on the second day. ²⁵ And Benjamin came out against them from Gibeah the second day and cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords.

²⁶ Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before our Father. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings before him. ²⁷ And the Israelites inquired of our Father. (In those days the ark of the covenant of our Father was there, ²⁸ and Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was ministering before it.) They asked, "Shall we go out yet again to battle against our brothers the Benjaminites, or shall we stop?" Our Father replied, "Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand."

²⁹ Then Israel set men in ambush all around Gibeah. ³⁰ On the third day the Israelites went up against the Benjaminites and took up positions against Gibeah as before. ³¹ The Benjaminites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to strike down the people as before, killing about thirty men of Israel in the open country and on the roads, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.

³² The Benjaminites said, "They are being routed before us as at first." But the Israelites had said, "Let us flee and draw them away from the city onto the roads."

³³ So all the men of Israel rose from their positions and formed their line at Baal-tamar, while the Israelites lying in ambush rushed out from their position west of Geba. ³⁴ Ten thousand of Israel's finest men advanced against Gibeah, and the fighting was fierce; but the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was closing in on them. ³⁵ Our Father defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin, all of them armed with swords. ³⁶ Then the Benjaminites saw that they were beaten. The men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah. ³⁷ The men in ambush rushed suddenly against Gibeah; they spread out and put the whole city to the sword. ³⁸ Now the men of Israel had arranged with the men in ambush a signal: when they sent up a great cloud of smoke from the city, ³⁹ the men of Israel would turn about in the battle. Benjamin had begun to strike down the men of Israel, killing about thirty of them, and they thought, "Surely they are defeated before us as in the first battle." ⁴⁰ But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjaminites looked behind them — and there was the whole city going up in smoke toward the sky. ⁴¹ Then the men of Israel turned on them, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, for they saw that disaster had overtaken them. ⁴² So they fled before the men of Israel toward the wilderness, but the battle overtook them, and those coming out of the towns cut them down in the middle of it. ⁴³ They surrounded the Benjaminites, pursued them, and overtook them at their resting place, all the way to the east side of Gibeah. ⁴⁴ Eighteen thousand Benjaminites fell, all of them valiant men. ⁴⁵ The rest turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, but the Israelites cut down five thousand of them on the roads and kept pursuing them as far as Gidom, striking down two thousand more. ⁴⁶ So all the Benjaminites who fell that day were twenty-five thousand swordsmen, all of them valiant men. ⁴⁷ But six hundred men turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months. ⁴⁸ And the men of Israel turned back against the Benjaminites and struck them down with the sword — the whole town, the people, and the animals, everything they found. They also set fire to all the towns in their path.