Judges 19–21

Outrage in Benjamin

19In those days, when there was no king in Israel, ^ba Levite living in a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim acquired a woman from Bethlehem in Judah as his concubine. ²But she was unfaithful to ^chim and left him for her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. She was there for a period of four months. ³Then her husband got up and went after her to speak kindly to her ^deand bring her back. He had his servant with him and a pair of donkeys. So she brought him to her father’s house, and when the girl’s father saw him, he gladly welcomed him. ⁴His father-in-law, the girl’s father, detained him, and he stayed with him for three days. They ate, drank, and spent the nights there.

⁵On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning and prepared to go, but the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Have something to eat to keep up your strength ^fand then you can go.” ⁶So they sat down and the two of them ate and drank together. Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Please agree to stay overnight and enjoy yourself.” ^g7The man got up to go, but his father-in-law persuaded him, so he stayed and spent the night there again. ⁸He got up early in the morning of the fifth day to leave, but the girl’s father said to him, “Please keep up your strength.” So they waited until late afternoon and the two of them ate. ⁹The man got up to go with his concubine and his servant, when his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look, night is coming. Please spend the night. See, the day is almost over. Spend the night here, enjoy yourself, then you can get up early tomorrow for your journey and go home.”

¹⁰But the man was unwilling to spend the night. He got up, departed, and arrived opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem ^h). The man had his two saddled donkeys and his concubine with him. ¹¹When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant ⁱsaid to his master, “Please, why not ^jlet us stop at this Jebusite city and spend the night here?”

¹²But his master replied to him, “We will not stop at a foreign city where there are no Israelites. Let’s move on to Gibeah.” ^k13“Come on,” he said, ^l“let’s try to reach one of these places and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.” ¹⁴So they continued on their journey, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin. ¹⁵They stopped ^mto go in and spend the night in Gibeah. The Levite went in and sat down in the city square, but no one took them into their home to spend the night.

¹⁶In the evening, an old man came in from his work in the field. He was from the hill country of Ephraim ⁿbut was residing in Gibeah, and the men of that place were Benjaminites. ¹⁷When he looked up and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, “Where are you going, and where do you come from?”

¹⁸He answered him, “We’re traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote hill country of Ephraim, where I am from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and now I’m going to the house of the Lord. ^oNo one has taken me into his home, ¹⁹although we have both straw and feed for our donkeys, and bread and wine for me, your female servant, and the young man with your servant. ^pThere is nothing we lack.”

²⁰“Peace to you,” said the old man. “I’ll take care of everything you need. Only don’t spend the night in the square.” ²¹So he brought him to his house and fed the donkeys. Then they washed their feet and ate and drank. ^q22While they were enjoying themselves, all of a sudden, perverted men of the city ^rsurrounded the house and beat on the door. They said to the old man who was the owner of the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him!”

²³The owner of the house went out and said to them, “No, don’t do this evil, my brothers. After all, this man has come into my house. Don’t do this horrible thing. ^s24Here, let me bring out my virgin daughter ^tand the man’s concubine now. Use them ^uand do whatever you want ^vto them. But don’t do this horrible thing to this man.”

²⁵But the men would not listen to him, so the man seized his concubine and took her outside to them. They raped ^wher and abused her all night until morning. At daybreak they let her go. ²⁶Early that morning, the woman made her way back, and as it was getting light, she collapsed at the doorway of the man’s house where her master was.

²⁷When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went out to leave on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, collapsed near the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸“Get up,” he told her. “Let’s go.” But there was no response. ^xSo the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.

²⁹When he entered his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her into 12 pieces, limb by limb, and then sent her throughout the territory of Israel. ³⁰Everyone who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever happened or has been seen since the day the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt to this day. ^yThink it over, discuss it, and speak up!”

War against Benjamin

20All the Israelites from Dan to Beer-sheba ^zand from the land of Gilead came out, and the community assembled as one body before the Lord at Mizpah. ^a2The leaders ^bof all the people and of all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of God’s people: 400,000 armed foot soldiers. ³The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.

The Israelites asked, “Tell us, how did this outrage occur?”

⁴The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered: “I went to Gibeah in Benjamin with my concubine to spend the night. ⁵Citizens of Gibeah ganged up on me and surrounded the house at night. They intended to kill me, but they raped my concubine, and she died. ⁶Then I took my concubine and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout Israel’s territory, because they committed a horrible shame ^cin Israel. ⁷Look, all of you are Israelites. Give your judgment and verdict here and now.”

⁸Then all the people stood united and said, “None of us will go to his tent or return to his house. ⁹Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go against it by lot. ¹⁰We will take 10 men out of every 100 from all the tribes of Israel, and 100 out of every 1,000, and 1,000 out of every 10,000 to get provisions for the people when they go to Gibeah in Benjamin to punish them for all the horror they did in Israel.”

¹¹So all the men of Israel ^dgathered united against the city. ¹²Then the tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this outrage that has occurred among you? ¹³Hand over the perverted men ^ein Gibeah so we can put them to death and eradicate ^fevil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites would not obey their fellow Israelites. ¹⁴Instead, the Benjaminites gathered together from their cities to Gibeah to go out and fight against the Israelites. ¹⁵On that day the Benjaminites rallied 26,000 armed men ^gfrom their cities, besides 700 choice men rallied by the inhabitants of Gibeah. ¹⁶There were 700 choice men who were left-handed among all these people; all could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

¹⁷The Israelites, apart from Benjamin, rallied 400,000 armed men, every one an experienced warrior. ¹⁸They set out, went to Bethel, and inquired of God. ^hThe Israelites asked, “Who is to go first to fight for us against the Benjaminites?”

And the Lord answered, “Judah will be first.”

¹⁹In the morning, the Israelites set out and camped near Gibeah. ²⁰The men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin and took their battle positions against Gibeah. ²¹The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and slaughtered 22,000 men of Israel on the field that day. ²²But the Israelite army rallied and again took their battle positions in the same place where they positioned themselves on the first day. ²³They went up, wept ⁱbefore the Lord until evening, ^jand inquired of Him: “Should we again fight against our brothers the Benjaminites?”

And the Lord answered: “Fight against them.”

²⁴On the second day the Israelites advanced against the Benjaminites. ²⁵That same day the Benjaminites came out from Gibeah to meet them and slaughtered an additional 18,000 Israelites on the field; all were armed men.

²⁶The whole Israelite army went to Bethel where they wept and sat before the Lord. ^kThey fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. ²⁷Then the Israelites inquired of the Lord. In those days, the ark of the covenant ^lof God was there, ²⁸and Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ^mwas serving before it. The Israelites asked: “Should we again fight against our brothers the Benjaminites or should we stop?”

The Lord answered: “Fight, because I will hand them over to you tomorrow.” ⁿ²⁹So Israel set up an ambush ^oaround Gibeah. ³⁰On the third day the Israelites fought against the Benjaminites and took their battle positions against Gibeah as before. ³¹Then the Benjaminites came out against the people and were drawn away from the city. ^pThey began to attack the people as before, killing about 30 men of Israel on the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah through the open country. ³²The Benjaminites said, “We are defeating them as before.”

But the Israelites said, “Let’s flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.” ³³So all the men of Israel got up from their places and took their battle positions at Baal-tamar, while the Israelites in ambush charged out of their places west of ^qGeba. ^r34Then 10,000 choice men from all Israel made a frontal assault against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce, but the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was about to strike them. ³⁵The Lord defeated Benjamin in the presence of Israel, and on that day the Israelites slaughtered 25,100 men of Benjamin; all were armed men. ³⁶Then the Benjaminites realized they had been defeated.

The men of Israel had retreated before Benjamin,…