Judges 20
1 Then all the Israelites came out, and the community gathered as one man, from Dan to Beersheba and the land of Gilead, before the LORD at Mizpah.
2 The leaders of all the people, from all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the assembly of the people of God: four hundred thousand men on foot, armed with swords.
3 The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. The Israelites said, “Tell us how this evil deed happened.”
4 The Levite, husband of the murdered woman, answered, “I came to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, with my concubine to spend the night.
5 The citizens of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house at night because of me. They intended to kill me, and they raped my concubine, and she died.
6 So I took my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel’s inheritance, because they committed a vile and disgraceful act in Israel.
7 You are all Israelites; give your word and counsel here.”
8 All the people rose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent or return to his house.
9 Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot.
10 We will take ten men from every hundred, a hundred from every thousand, and a thousand from every ten thousand, from all the tribes of Israel, to gather provisions for the people. When they come to Geba of Benjamin, the people will deal with it according to all the disgraceful acts it committed in Israel.”
11 So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man.
12 The tribes of Israel sent men throughout all the tribes of Benjamin, saying, “What is this evil deed that has happened among you?
13 Now hand over the wicked men in Gibeah so we may put them to death and remove this evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites would not listen to their fellow Israelites.
14 The Benjaminites gathered from their cities at Gibeah to go out and fight against the Israelites.
15 On that day the Benjaminites from the cities were counted: twenty-six thousand men armed with swords, not counting the inhabitants of Gibeah, of whom seven hundred chosen men were counted.
16 Among all these men were seven hundred chosen left-handed men. Each could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
17 The men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, were counted: four hundred thousand men armed with swords, all of them trained for war.
18 They rose, went up to Bethel, and inquired of God. The Israelites asked, “Who among us should go up first to fight against the Benjaminites?” The LORD answered, “Judah first.”
19 The Israelites rose in the morning and camped against Gibeah.
20 The men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin and drew up in battle formation against them near Gibeah.
21 The Benjaminites came out from Gibeah and struck down twenty-two thousand Israelite men that day.
22 But the people, the men of Israel, took courage and again drew up in battle formation in the place where they had taken their positions on the first day.
23 The Israelites went up and wept before the LORD until evening. They inquired of the LORD, “Should I again go out to fight against the Benjaminites, my brother?” The LORD answered, “Go up against them.”
24 On the second day, the Israelites drew near to the Benjaminites.
25 Benjamin came out from Gibeah to meet them on the second day and struck down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all armed with swords.
26 Then all the Israelites, the whole people, went up to Bethel. They wept and sat there before the LORD, fasted that day until evening, and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD.
27 The Israelites inquired of the LORD; in those days the ark of God’s covenant was there.
28 Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days. They asked, “Should I go out again to fight against the Benjaminites, my brother, or should I stop?” The LORD answered, “Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hands.”
29 Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah.
30 On the third day, the Israelites went up against the Benjaminites and drew up in battle formation against Gibeah as before.
31 The Benjaminites came out to meet the people and were drawn away from the city. They began striking down some of the people as before, along the roads—one going up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah through the open country—about thirty Israelite men.
32 The Benjaminites said, “They are being defeated before us, as at first.” But the Israelites had said, “Let us flee and draw them away from the city onto the roads.”
33 Then all the men of Israel rose from their positions and drew up in battle formation at Baal-tamar, while Israel’s ambush emerged from its position west of Gibeah.
34 Ten thousand chosen men from all Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle grew fierce. But the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was about to overtake them.
35 The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and that day the Israelites killed twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjaminites, all armed with swords.
36 The Benjaminites saw that they were defeated. The men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah.
37 The ambush hurried forward and rushed against Gibeah. It spread out and struck down the whole city with the sword.
38 The men of Israel had agreed on a signal with the ambush: they would raise a great cloud of smoke from the city.
39 When the men of Israel turned in the battle, Benjamin had begun striking down some of the Israelites, about thirty men, for they said, “Surely they are being defeated before us, as in the first battle.”
40 But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, Benjamin looked back, and there was the whole city going up in smoke toward the sky.
41 Then the men of Israel turned around, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, because they saw that disaster had overtaken them.
42 They fled from the men of Israel toward the wilderness, but the battle caught up with them, and those coming from the cities cut them down among them.
43 They surrounded Benjamin, pursued them relentlessly, and trampled them down as far as the front of Gibeah, toward the east.
44 Eighteen thousand Benjaminites fell, all of them valiant men.
45 The rest turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon. The Israelites struck down five thousand of them along the roads, pursued them closely as far as Gidom, and killed another two thousand.
46 So the total of those who fell from Benjamin that day was twenty-five thousand men armed with swords, all of them valiant men.
47 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon, and stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months.
48 The men of Israel turned back against the Benjaminites and struck them down with the sword, from the whole city to the livestock and everything they found. They also set fire to every city they came across.
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