Judges 20:1-21 ▼

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.

14 The people of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

15 The people of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

16 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a hair and not miss.

17 The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war.

18 The children of Israel arose, and went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God; and they said, |Who shall go up for us first to battle against the people of Benjamin?| The LORD said, |Judah will go up first.|

19 The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and camped against Gibeah.

20 The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.

21 The people of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day twenty-two thousand men.