Judges 20

¹ So all the sons of Israel came out, and the whole community, from Dan to Beersheba and the land of Gilead, gathered together as one man in the presence of Yahweh at Mizpah.

² The leaders of all the people and all the tribes of Israel were present at this assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand foot soldiers who could handle the sword.

³ The Benjaminites heard that the sons of Israel had gone up to Mizpah…Then the sons of Israel said, ‘Tell us how this crime was committed’.

⁴ The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, spoke in reply and said, ‘I had come with my concubine to Gibeah in Benjamin, to spend the night there.

⁵ The men of Gibeah rose against me and in the night surrounded the house where I was lodging; as for me, they wanted to kill me, and as for my concubine, they raped her to death.

⁶ Then I took my concubine, cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the territory that Israel inherited because these men have committed an infamy in Israel.

⁷ You have all met together here, men of Israel. Discuss the matter and make your decision here and now.’

⁸ AlI the people stood up as one man and said, ‘Not one of us will return to his tent, not one of us will go back to his house.

⁹ Now, this is what we shall do to Gibeah. We will cast lots,

¹⁰ and select ten men from every hundred from each of the tribes of Israel, and a hundred from every thousand, and a thousand from every ten thousand; they will collect food for the army, for those who will go and punish Gibeah in Benjamin for the infamy they have committed in Israel.’

¹¹ So all the men of Israel mustered against that town, united as one man.

¹² The tribes of Israel sent messengers out through the whole tribe of Benjamin, saying, ‘What is this crime that has been committed among you?

¹³ Come now, give up these men, these scoundrels from Gibeah, so that we may put them to death and banish wickedness from the midst of Israel.’ But the Benjaminites would not listen to their brother Israelites.

¹⁴ The Benjaminites left their towns and mustered at Gibeah to fight the Israelites.

¹⁵ The Benjaminites from these various towns had counted their numbers that day, and in all there were twenty-five thousand men who could handle the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah.

¹⁶ In this great army were seven hundred picked men who could fight with both hands; every one of these could sling a stone at a hair and not miss it.

¹⁷ The men of Israel also took a count. Without Benjamin, there were four hundred thousand of them who could handle the sword; all experienced fighters.

¹⁸ They set off and went up to Bethel to consult God. The Israelites put the question, ‘Which of us should go out first to attack the Benjaminites?’ And Yahweh answered, ‘Judah shall go first’.

¹⁹ In the morning the Israelites marched out and pitched their camp facing Gibeah.

²⁰ Then advancing to engage Benjamin they drew up their line in front of the town.

²¹ But the Benjaminites sallied out from Gileeah and that day killed twenty-two thousand Israelites, who were left on the field.

²³ The Israelites went and wept before Yahweh until evening; then they consulted Yahweh; they asked, ‘Shall we join battle again with the sons of our brother Benjamin?’ Yahweh answered, ‘March against him’.

²² Then the army of the people of Israel took heart afresh; and again they drew up their line for battle in the same place as the day before.

²⁴ This second day the Israelites advanced on the Benjaminites;

²⁵ but again this second day Benjamin sallied out from Gibeah against them and killed eighteen thousand Israelites, who were left on the field; they were all experienced fighters who could handle the sword.

²⁶ Then all the Israelites and the whole people went up to Bethel; they wept and sat in Yahweh’s presence; they fasted all day till the evening and offered holocausts and communion sacrifices before Yahweh;

²⁷ then the Israelites consulted Yahweh. The ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

²⁸ and Phinehas son of Eleazer son of Aaron was the priest who ministered at it at that time. They said, ‘Ought we to go again and fight the sons of our brother Benjamin, or should we stop?’ Yahweh answered, ‘March; for tomorrow I shall deliver him into your power.’

²⁹ Then Israel stationed men in ambush round Gibeah.

³⁰ On the third day the Israelites marched against the Benjaminites and, just as before, they drew up their line in front of the town.

³¹ The Benjaminites made a sally against them and let themselves be drawn away from the town. As before, they began by killing those of the people who were on the road that runs up to Bethel and on the road that runs up to Gibeon; and there in the open country they killed about thirty men of Israel.

³² The Benjaminites thought, ‘They have had to fall back in front of us as before’; but the Israelites decided, ‘Let us take to flight and draw them away from the town along the highroads.

³³ Then the main body of the army of Israel, leaving its position, will form up for battle at Baal-tamar, but meanwhile the Israelites in ambush will rush forward from their position west of Geba.’

³⁴ Then ten thousand picked men, chosen from the whole of Israel, appeared before Gibeah. The battle was fierce. The Benjaminites did not suspect the disaster hanging over them.

³⁵ Yahweh defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites killed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin, all men who could handle the sword.

³⁶ The Benjaminites, seeing themselves defeated… [*a] The men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin because they relied on the ambush they had set against Gibeah.

³⁷ The men in ambush quickly poured out and reached Gibeah and put the whole town to the sword.

³⁸ For it had been agreed between the Israelite army and the troops in ambush that these should raise a smoke signal from the town,

³⁹ whereupon the Israelites in the thick of the battle would turn about. Now Benjamin had begun by killing men of the Israelite army, about thirty of them; so they were thinking, ‘Plainly we have routed them now as we did before’.

⁴⁰ But the signal, a column of smoke, began to rise from the town, and the Benjaminites looking back saw the whole town going up in flames to the sky.

⁴¹ Then the Israelites turned about, and the Benjaminites were seized with terror, for they saw that disaster was imminent.

⁴² They retreated before Israel, making for the wilderness, but the main body of Israel pressed them hard, while the others coming out of the town surprised and slaughtered them from the rear.

⁴³ They hemmed the Benjaminites in, pursued them relentlessly and crushed them opposite Geba on the east

⁴⁴ Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell, all of them brave men.

⁴⁵ The survivors turned and ran, and fled into the wilderness and towards the Rock of Rimmon. On the highroads the Israelites caught five thousand men. Then they pursued the Benjaminites to Geba and killed two thousand of them.

⁴⁶ The total number of Benjaminites who fell that day was twenty-five thousand men who could handle the sword, all of them brave men.

⁴⁷ Six hundred men had escaped into the wilderness, to the Rock of Rimmon, and there they stayed for four months.

⁴⁸ The men of Israel went back to the Benjaminites, and put all the males in the towns to the sword, the cattle too, and all that came their way. And they set on fire all the towns that they came to in Benjamin.