The Decrees of the Assembly

¹ Then all the Israelites went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, before the Lord at Mizpah. ² The leaders of all the people, all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of the Lord, 400,000 footmen who drew the sword. ³ Now the Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. The Israelites said, “Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?”

⁴ The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, “I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. ⁵ The men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house by night. They intended to kill me and they raped my concubine, and she is dead. ⁶ I took my concubine and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed lewdness and disgrace in Israel. ⁷ You Israelites, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.”

⁸ All the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent, nor will any of us return to his house. ⁹ But now this is what we will do to Gibeah: We will go up against it by lot, ¹⁰ and we will take ten men out of every 100 throughout all the tribes of Israel, and 100 out of 1,000, and 1,000 out of 10,000 to get food for the people, so that when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, they may repay them according to all the disgrace that the men of Gibeah have done in Israel.” ¹¹ So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together 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 Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the Israelites. ¹⁴ The Benjaminites gathered together from the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the Israelites.

¹⁵ The Benjaminites were counted on that day from the cities, 26,000 men who drew the sword, in addition to the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were counted, 700 chosen men. ¹⁶ Among all these soldiers there were 700 chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

¹⁷ The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were counted 400,000 men who drew sword. All these were men of war.

Civil War against Benjamin

¹⁸ The Israelites arose, went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of the Lord. They asked, “Who shall go up for us first to battle against the Benjaminites?”

The Lord said, “Judah first.”

¹⁹ The Israelites rose up in the morning and encamped 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 Benjaminites came out of Gibeah, and on that day destroyed 22,000 of the Israelite men down to the ground. ²² The people, the men of Israel, took courage and set themselves in battle formation again in in the place where they had arrayed themselves the first day. ²³ The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening, and they asked of the Lord, saying, “Shall I again draw near to battle against the descendants of Benjamin my brother?”

The Lord said, “Go up against him.”

Defeat of the Benjamites

²⁴ The Israelites came near against the Benjaminites the second day. ²⁵ Benjamin went out against them out of Gibeah the second day and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites again 18,000 men. All these drew the sword.

²⁶ Then all the Israelites and all the people went up and came to Bethel and wept and sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening. Then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. ²⁷ The Israelites asked the Lord (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, ²⁸ and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, “Shall I yet again go out to battle against the descendants of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease?”

The Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand.”

²⁹ Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah. ³⁰ The Israelites went up against the Benjaminites on the third day and set themselves in battle formation against Gibeah, as at other times. ³¹ The Benjaminites went out against the people and were drawn away from the city, and they began to strike and kill some of the people as at other times, in the highways, one of which one goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about 30 men of Israel.

³² The Benjaminites said, “They are struck down before us, like the first time.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.”

³³ All the men of Israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar. Then the Israelites in ambush broke out of their place, from Maareh Geba. ³⁴ Ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel came over against Gibeah, and the battle was severe, but they did not know that disaster was close to them. ³⁵ The Lord struck Benjamin before Israel, and the Israelites destroyed of 25,100 Benjaminite swordsmen that day.

³⁶ So the Benjaminites saw that they were struck, for the men of Israel yielded to Benjamin because they trusted the Israelites in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah.

³⁷ The Israelites in ambush hurried and rushed on Gibeah, then the Israelites in ambush spread out and struck the entire city with the edge of the sword. ³⁸ Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the Israelites in ambush was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city. ³⁹ The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel–about 30 people. For they said, “Surely they are struck down before us, like the first battle.”

⁴⁰ But when the cloud began to rise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and the whole city went up in smoke to the sky. ⁴¹ The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed, for they saw that disaster had come on them. ⁴² Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness, but the battle followed hard after them, and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst of it. ⁴³ They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them, and trod them down at their resting place, as far as near Gibeah toward the sunrise. ⁴⁴ Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell. All them were warriors. ⁴⁵ They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon. They killed 5,000 of them in the highways and followed hard after them to Gidom and struck down 2,000 more of them.

⁴⁶ So all who fell that day of Benjamin were 25,000 men who drew the sword. All these were warriors. ⁴⁷ But 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon and stayed in the rock of Rimmon for four months. ⁴⁸ The men of Israel turned again on the Benjaminites and struck them with the edge of the sword—including the entire city, the livestock, and all that they found. Moreover they set all the cities which they found on fire.

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