1Then all the people of Israel went out. The whole community came together as one man, from Dan to Beersheba, and from the land of Gilead too. They gathered to the LORD at Mizpeh.
2The leaders of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the assembly of the people of God. There were four hundred thousand foot soldiers armed with swords.
3(Now the people of Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mizpeh.) Then the people of Israel said, "Tell us, how did this wicked thing happen?"
4The Levite, the husband of the woman who was killed, answered, "I came to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, with my concubine, to stay the night."
5The men of Gibeah rose up against me. They surrounded the house in the night to get me, and they meant to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died.
6So I took my concubine and cut her in pieces, and I sent her through all the land that Israel has for its inheritance. For they have done a shameful and disgusting thing in Israel.
7"Look, you are all Israelites. Give your advice and your decision here and now."
8All the people rose up as one man and said, "Not one of us will go to his tent. Not one of us will turn back to his house."
10"We will take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to fetch food for the army. Then, when they come to Gibeah in Benjamin, they can deal with them for all the disgusting thing they have done in Israel."
11So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, joined together as one man.
12The tribes of Israel sent men through the whole tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What is this wicked thing that has been done among you?"
13"So now hand over the men, those worthless men who are in Gibeah, so that we may put them to death and clear away evil from Israel." But the people of Benjamin would not listen to their brothers, the people of Israel.
14Instead the people of Benjamin gathered out of their cities to Gibeah, to go out and fight against the people of Israel.
15That day the people of Benjamin were counted: twenty-six thousand men from the cities, armed with swords, besides the people living in Gibeah, who were counted as seven hundred chosen men.
16Among all these people there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
17The men of Israel, not counting Benjamin, were counted as four hundred thousand men armed with swords. All of them were fighting men.
18The people of Israel set out and went up to the house of God, and asked God for guidance. They said, "Which of us shall go up first to fight against the people of Benjamin?" The LORD said, "Judah shall go up first."
19The people of Israel got up in the morning and camped against Gibeah.
20The men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin. They drew up their battle lines against them at Gibeah.
21The people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and that day they cut down to the ground twenty-two thousand Israelites.
22But the people, the men of Israel, took courage. They drew up their battle lines again in the same place where they had lined up on the first day.
23(The people of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until evening. They asked the LORD for guidance and said, "Shall I go up again to fight against the people of Benjamin my brother?" And the LORD said, "Go up against him.")
24So the people of Israel came near to the people of Benjamin on the second day.
25On that second day Benjamin came out of Gibeah against them, and cut down to the ground eighteen thousand more of the people of Israel. All of these were armed with swords.
26Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to the house of God. They wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until evening. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
27The people of Israel asked the LORD. (For the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
28and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days.) They said, "Shall I go out to fight again against the people of Benjamin my brother, or shall I stop?" The LORD said, "Go up. Tomorrow I will give them into your hand."
29So Israel set men in hiding all around Gibeah.
30The people of Israel went up against the people of Benjamin on the third day, and drew up their lines against Gibeah as they had done before.
31The people of Benjamin went out against the army and were drawn away from the city. They began to strike down and kill some of the people as they had done before. On the roads, one of which goes up to the house of God and the other to Gibeah, in the open country, they killed about thirty men of Israel.
32The people of Benjamin said, "They are being beaten before us, as at the first." But the people of Israel said, "Let us run away, and draw them from the city to the roads."
33So all the men of Israel rose up from their place and drew up their lines at Baaltamar. And the men of Israel who were hiding rushed out of their places, out of the meadows of Gibeah.
34Ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel came against Gibeah, and the fighting was hard. But the men of Benjamin did not know that disaster was close to them.
35The LORD struck down Benjamin before Israel. That day the people of Israel destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin. All of these were armed with swords.
36So the people of Benjamin saw that they were beaten. The men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites, because they were trusting in the men they had set in hiding beside Gibeah.
37The men in hiding hurried and rushed at Gibeah. They spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword.
38Now the men of Israel and the men in hiding had agreed on a sign: they were to make a great cloud of smoke and flame rise up out of the city.
39When the men of Israel pulled back in the battle, Benjamin began to strike down and kill about thirty of the men of Israel. For they said, "Surely they are being beaten before us, as in the first battle."
40But when the flame began to rise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them. Look, the whole city was going up in flames to the sky.
41When the men of Israel turned back, the men of Benjamin were horrified, for they saw that disaster had come upon them.
42So they turned their backs before the men of Israel and fled toward the wilderness. But the battle caught up with them, and those who came out of the cities cut them down where they were.
43So they surrounded the Benjamites, and chased them, and trampled them down without trouble, opposite Gibeah, toward the sunrise.
44Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell. All of these were brave men.
45The rest turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon. The Israelites picked off five thousand men of them on the roads, and chased hard after them as far as Gidom, and killed two thousand more of them.
46So all who fell of Benjamin that day were twenty-five thousand men armed with swords. All of these were brave men.
47But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon, and they stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months.
48The men of Israel turned back on the people of Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword. They killed the men of every city, and the animals, and everything they found. They also set fire to every city they came to.