CHAPTER 20

¹And all the Israelites went out, and the community assembled as one man from Dan to Beersheba in the land of Gilead before the LORD at Mizpah. ²And all the leaders of the people, all the tribes of Israel in the assembly of God’s people, took their stance, four hundred thousand sword-wielding foot soldiers. ³And the Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. And the Israelites said, “Speak! How did this evil come about?” ⁴And the Levite man, husband of the murdered woman, answered and said, “I came with my concubine to Gibeah to spend the night. ⁵And the notables of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house upon me at night. Me they thought to kill, and my concubine they raped, and she died. ⁶And I seized my concubine and cut her up and sent her through all the lands of Israel’s estate, for they did a foul and scurrilous thing in Israel. ⁷Look, you are all Israelites. Offer a word of counsel here.” ⁸And the whole people rose as one man, saying, “We will not go each to his tent and we will not turn aside each to his home! ⁹And now, this is the thing we shall do to Gibeah: we shall go up against it by lot. ¹⁰And we shall take ten men out of a hundred from all the tribes of Israel and a hundred out of a thousand and a thousand out of ten thousand to take provisions for the troops, to do for those coming to Benjamin’s Gibeah, according to all the scurrilous thing they did in Israel.” ¹¹And all the men of Israel gathered at the town, joined as one man. ¹²And the tribes of Israel sent throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this evil that has come about among you? ¹³And now, give over the worthless men who are in Gibeah that we may put them to death and root out the evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites did not want to heed the voice of their Israelite brothers. ¹⁴And the Benjaminites gathered from the towns at Gibeah to go out to battle with the Israelites. ¹⁵And the Benjaminites from the towns mustered on that day twenty-six thousand sword-wielding men, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah who mustered seven hundred picked men. ¹⁶From all these troops there were seven hundred picked men, left-handers; every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. ¹⁷And the men of Israel, except for Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand sword-wielding men, every one of them a man of war. ¹⁸And they arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, and the Israelites said, “Who shall go up first for us in battle with the Benjaminites?” and the LORD said, “Judah first.” ¹⁹And the Israelites arose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah. ²⁰And the men of Israel went out to battle with Benjamin, and the men of Israel were arrayed for battle with them at Gibeah. ²¹And the Benjaminites sallied forth from Gibeah, and they laid waste among Israel on that day twenty-two thousand men. ²²And the troops of the men of Israel summoned their strength and once again were arrayed for battle in the place where they had been arrayed on the first day. ²³And the Israelites went up and wept before the LORD till evening, and they inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I once again join battle with my Benjaminite brother?” And the LORD said, “Go up against him.” ²⁴And the Israelites drew near to the Benjaminites on the second day. ²⁵And Benjamin sallied forth to meet them from Gibeah on the second day, and they laid waste among the Israelites another eighteen thousand men, all of them sword-wielding. ²⁶And the Israelites and all the troops went up and came to Bethel and wept, and they sat there before the LORD and fasted on that day till evening, and they offered up burnt offerings and well-being sacrifices before the LORD. ²⁷And the Israelites inquired of the LORD—and in those days the Ark of God’s Covenant was there, ²⁸and Phineas son of Eleazar son of Aaron was in attendance before Him in those days—saying, “Shall I once again sally forth in battle with my Benjaminite brother or shall I leave off?” And the LORD said, “Go up, for tomorrow I shall give him into your hand.” ²⁹And Israel placed ambushers round about Gibeah. ³⁰And the Israelites went up against the Benjaminites on the third day and were arrayed against Gibeah as on the times before. ³¹And the Benjaminites sallied forth to meet the troops, they were drawn away from the town, and they began to strike down from the troops, as on the times before, on the highways, one going up to Bethel and one to Gibeah, about thirty men of Israel. ³²And the Benjaminites thought, “They are routed before us as before.” But the Israelites had said, “Let us flee and draw them away from the town to the highways.” ³³And all the men of Israel had arisen from their place and were arrayed in Baal-Tamar, and the Israelite ambush was emerging from its place west of Gibeah. ³⁴And ten thousand picked men from all Israel came opposite Gibeah, and the battle was fierce, but the Benjaminites did not know that harm was about to touch them. ³⁵And the LORD routed Benjamin before Israel, and the Israelites laid waste among Benjamin on that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men, all of them sword-wielding. ³⁶And the Benjaminites saw that they were routed. And the men of Israel gave ground before Benjamin, for they trusted the ambush that they had set for Gibeah. ³⁷And the ambushers rushed out and assaulted Gibeah, and the ambushers drew together and struck the whole town with the edge of the sword. ³⁸And the time that had been set for the men of Israel with the ambushers was when they sent up a column of smoke from the town, ³⁹the men of Israel were to turn round in the battle. And Benjamin had begun to strike down among the men of Israel about thirty men, for they thought, “Why, he is surely routed before us as in the first battle.” ⁴⁰And the column began to go up from the town, a pillar of smoke, and Benjamin turned around to its rear and, look, the entire town had gone up in smoke to the heavens. ⁴¹And the men of Israel turned round, and the men of Benjamin panicked, for they saw that harm had touched them. ⁴²And they turned from before the men of Israel to the wilderness road, but the battle overtook both them and the ones from the town. They were laying waste to them within it. ⁴³They had encircled Benjamin, pursued him to Menuhah, led him to a point over against Gibeah from the east. ⁴⁴And eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell, all of them valiant men. ⁴⁵And they turned and fled to the wilderness to the Rock of Rimmon, but they picked off five thousand men of them on the highways, and they overtook them at Gidom and struck down two thousand men of them. ⁴⁶And all those who fell of Benjamin on that day came to twenty-five thousand sword-wielding men, all of them valiant men. ⁴⁷And six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness to the Rock of Rimmon and stayed at the Rock of Rimmon four months. ⁴⁸And the men of Israel had turned back against the Benjaminites, and they struck them by the edge of the sword from the town, from man to beast, whatever was there. All the towns, too, that were there they set on fire.