Judges 20–21

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, because they were confident in the ambush they had set against Gibeah. ³⁷The men in ambush had rushed quickly against Gibeah; they advanced and put the whole city to the sword. ^s38The men of Israel had a prearranged signal with the men in ambush: when they sent up a great cloud of smoke from the city, ³⁹the men of Israel would return to the battle. When Benjamin had begun to strike them down, killing about 30 men of Israel, they said, “They’re defeated before us, just as they were in the first battle.” ^t40But when the column of smoke began to go up from the city, Benjamin looked behind them, and the whole city was going up in smoke. ^u41Then the men of Israel returned, and the men of Benjamin were terrified when they realized that disaster had struck them. ⁴²They retreated before the men of Israel toward the wilderness, ^vbut the battle overtook them, and those who came out of the cities ^wslaughtered those between them. ⁴³They surrounded the Benjaminites, pursued them, and easily overtook them near Gibeah toward the east. ⁴⁴There were 18,000 men who died from Benjamin; all were warriors. ⁴⁵Then Benjamin turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, ^xand Israel killed 5,000 men on the highways. They overtook them at Gidom and struck 2,000 more dead.

⁴⁶All the Benjaminites who died that day were 25,000 armed men; all were warriors. ⁴⁷But 600 men escaped into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon and stayed there four months. ⁴⁸The men of Israel turned back against the other Benjaminites and killed them with their swords—the entire city, the animals, and everything that remained. They also burned down all the cities that remained.

Brides for Benjamin

21The men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah: “None of us will give his daughter to a Benjaminite in marriage.” ^y2So the people went to Bethel and sat there before God ^zuntil evening. They wept loudly and bitterly, ³and cried out, “Why, Lord God of Israel, has it occurred ^athat one tribe is missing in Israel today?” ⁴The next day the people got up early, built an altar there, ^band offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. ⁵The Israelites asked, “Who of all the tribes of Israel didn’t come to the Lord with the assembly?” For a great oath had been taken that anyone who had not come to the Lord at Mizpah would certainly be put to death.

⁶But the Israelites had compassion on their brothers, the Benjaminites, and said, “Today a tribe has been cut off from Israel. ⁷What should we do about wives for the survivors? We’ve sworn to the Lord not to give them any of our daughters as wives.” ⁸They asked, “Which city among the tribes of Israel didn’t come to the Lord at Mizpah?” It turned out that no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the camp and the assembly. ⁹For when the people were counted, no one was there from the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead.

¹⁰The congregation sent 12,000 brave warriors ^cthere and commanded them: “Go and kill the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the sword, ^dincluding women and children. ¹¹This is what you should do: Completely destroy every male, as well as every female who has slept with a man.” ¹²They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young women, who had not had sexual relations with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹³The whole congregation sent a message of peace ^eto the Benjaminites who were at the rock of Rimmon. ¹⁴Benjamin returned at that time, and Israel gave them the women they had kept alive from Jabesh-gilead. But there were not enough for them.

¹⁵The people had compassion on Benjamin, because the Lord had made this gap in the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶The elders of the congregation said, “What should we do about wives for those who are left, since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?” ¹⁷They said, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out. ¹⁸But we can’t give them our daughters as wives.” For the Israelites had sworn, “Anyone who gives a wife to a Benjaminite is cursed.” ¹⁹They also said, “Look, there’s an annual festival to the Lord in Shiloh, ^fwhich is north of Bethel, east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

²⁰Then they commanded the Benjaminites: “Go and hide in the vineyards. ²¹Watch, and when you see the young women of Shiloh come out to perform the dances, ^geach of you leave the vineyards and catch a wife for yourself from the young women of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. ²²When their fathers or brothers come to us and protest, we will tell them, ‘Show favor to them, since we did not get enough wives for each of them in the battle. You didn’t actually give the women to them, so ^hyou are not guilty of breaking your oath.’ ”

²³The Benjaminites did this and took the number of women they needed from the dancers they caught. They went back to their own inheritance, rebuilt their cities, ⁱand lived in them. ²⁴At that time, each of the Israelites returned from there to his own tribe and…