Judges 20:1-13 ▼

1 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to the LORD at Mizpah.

2 The leaders of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword.

3 (Now the people of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, |Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?|

4 The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, |I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my secondary wife, to spend the night.

5 And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house at night. They intended to kill me, and they raped my secondary wife, and she is dead.

6 I took my secondary wife, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed wickedness and disgrace in Israel.

7 Look, you children of Israel, all of you, give your advice and counsel here.|

8 All the people arose as one man, saying, |None of us will go to his tent, neither will any of us return to his house.

9 But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot;

10 and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to get food for the people, those setting forth, that when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin they may repay all the disgrace that they have 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 through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, |What wickedness is this that has happened among you?

13 Now therefore deliver up the men, the wicked men who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel.| But the sons of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the children of Israel.