Judges 20
1 All the Israelis, from Dan [city in the north] to Beersheba [city in the south], and even from [the] Gilead [region on the east side of the Jordan River, heard what had happened. So they] they gathered together at Mizpah, [at the place where they worshiped] Yahweh.
All the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, went and gathered at Mizpah before the Lord. The assembly was united in purpose.
2 The leaders of [eleven of] the tribes of Israel stood in front of the people who gathered there. There were 400,000 men with swords who were there.
The leaders of all the people of every Israelite tribe took their assigned positions in the assembled army of God's people, four hundred thousand soldiers armed with swords.
3 The people of the tribe of Benjamin heard that the other Israelis had gone up to Mizpah, [but none of the men from their tribe went to the meeting there]. The Israelis who had come to Mizpah asked about the evil thing that had happened.
The tribe of Benjamin found out that the Israelites had assembled at Mizpah. The Israelites asked, “Tell us, how could such an evil act have happened?”
4 So the husband of the woman who had been killed replied, “My slave wife and I came to Gibeah [city], wanting to stay there that night.
The Levite, the husband of the woman who had been murdered, explained, “I and my concubine came to spend the night at the town of Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin.
5 That evening, the men of Gibeah came to attack me. They surrounded the house [where I was staying] and wanted to [have sex with me and then] kill me. They [raped and] abused my slave wife [all night], and she died.
The leaders of Gibeah came to attack me at night. They surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine and she died.
6 I took her body home and cut it into pieces. Then I sent one piece to each area of Israel, [because I wanted you all to know about] this wicked and disgraceful/shameful thing [that] has been done here in Israel.
I took my concubine and cut her into pieces, and I sent these pieces of her to every part of the country that had been given to Israel, because those men had done something shameful and disgusting in Israel.
7 So now, all you Israeli people, speak, and tell me what you think should be done!”
So all of you Israelites have to decide here and now what you're going to do about it!”
8 All the people stood up, and in unison said, “None of us will go home! Not one of us will return to his house!
Everyone stood up and unitedly declared, “None of us are going home to our tents! None of us are going home to our houses!
9 This is what we must do to [the people of] Gibeah. First, we will (cast lots/throw marked stones) [to determine which group should attack them].
This is what we're going to do to Gilboah: we will attack it with our forces chosen by lot.
10 We will choose (one tenth/one from every ten) of the men from all the Israeli tribes. Those men will go and find food for the men who will go to attack the people of Gibeah. Then the other men will go to Gibeah to (pay the people back/punish them) for this terrible thing that they have done [here] in Israel.”
We'll take ten men from a hundred from all the Israelite tribes, then a hundred from a thousand, then a thousand from ten thousand, to arrange food for the army, so when the troops reach Gibeah in Benjamin, they can pay them back for all these disgusting things they've done in Israel.”
11 And all the Israeli people agreed [that the people of Gibeah should be punished].
All the men of Israel were in agreement and gathered to attack the town.
12 Then the Israeli men sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin. They demanded, “Do you realize that some of your men have done a very evil thing?
The Israelite tribes also sent men throughout the territory of Benjamin, asking the people, “What are you doing about this terrible evil that has taken place among you?
13 Bring those wicked men to us, in order that we can execute them. [By doing that], we will be doing what should be done because of this evil thing that has happened in Israel.” But the [people of the] tribe of Benjamin did not pay attention to their fellow Israelis.
Hand over these wicked men so we can execute them and get rid of this evil from Israel!” But the Benjamites refused to listen to what their fellow Israelites had to say.
14 The men of the tribe of Benjamin left their cities and gathered at Gibeah to fight the [other] Israelis.
They left their towns and assembled at Gibeah to go and fight the other Israelites.
15 In that one day the men of the tribe of Benjamin recruited 26,000 soldiers who knew how to fight using swords. They also chose/recruited 700 men from Gibeah.
That day a total of twenty-six thousand men armed with swords were called up from the towns of Benjamin, in addition to the seven hundred seasoned warriors from Gibeah.
16 From all those soldiers there were 700 men who were left-handed, and each of them could sling a stone at [a target that was very small and as narrow as] a hair, and the stone always hit the target!
Making up part of this army were seven hundred experienced soldiers who used their left hands. All of them could fire a slingshot and not miss by even a hair's breadth.
17 There were 400,000 men from the other Israeli tribes who had swords.
The Israelite army (excluding Benjamin) numbered four hundred thousand seasoned warriors, all armed with swords.
18 Those other Israelis went up to Bethel and asked God, “Which tribe should be the first to attack the men from the tribe of Benjamin?” Yahweh answered, “[The men from the tribe of] Judah should go first.”
The Israelites went to Bethel and asked God, “Which ones of us should be the first to go and fight the Benjamites?” “Judah is to go first,” the Lord replied.
19 The next morning, the Israeli men went and set up their tents near Gibeah.
The next morning the Israelites left and set up their camp near Gibeah.
20 Then they went to fight against [the men from the tribe of] Benjamin, and stood in their positions for fighting a battle, [facing Gibeah].
Then they marched out for battle with the army of Benjamin, taking up their positions to attack Gibeah.
21 The men of the tribe of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and fought against them, and they killed 22,000 Israeli men on that day.
But the Benjamites came out of Gibeah and slaughtered twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield that day.
22 [Late that afternoon], the [remaining] Israeli men went to the place of worship and cried until the sun set. Then they asked Yahweh, “Should we attack the men of the tribe of Benjamin again, even though they are our fellow Israelis?” Yahweh replied, “Yes, attack them again.” So the Israeli men encouraged each other.
But the Israelites encouraged one other to be confident, and they took up the same positions they had on the first day.
The Israelites went and cried before the Lord until the evening and asked, “Should we go and attack the Benjamites again, our relatives?” “Go and attack them,” the Lord replied.
24 The next day they again stood in their positions for fighting, just like they had done on the previous day.
So the second day they advanced to attack the army of Benjamin.
25 The men of the tribe of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and attacked the Israelis, and killed 18,000 more of their men.
However, Benjamites came out of Gibeah once more and slaughtered eighteen thousand Israelites, all armed with swords.
26 [In the afternoon], all the people of Israel [who had not been killed] again went to Bethel. There they sat down and cried to Yahweh, and they (fasted/abstained from eating food) until it was evening. They brought some offerings which they burned completely [on the altar], and they also brought some offerings to maintain fellowship with Yahweh.
Then all the Israelites and all their army went to Bethel, and sat crying there before the Lord. That day they fasted until evening and gave burnt offerings and friendship offerings to the Lord.
27 At that time, the Sacred Chest that contained the stone tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments was there at Bethel. A priest named Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, often stood in front of that chest [and talked with Yahweh]. While he stood there on that day, he asked Yahweh, “Shall we go again to fight against our fellow Israelis from the tribe of Benjamin, or shall we stop fighting against them?” Yahweh answered, “Go again tomorrow, because tomorrow I will enable you to defeat them.”
The Israelites asked the Lord what to do. At that time the Ark of God's Agreement was kept there.
Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, was the priest. The Israelites asked the Lord, “Should go and we fight again against our relatives from Benjamin, or not?” “Yes, go! Tomorrow I will hand them over to you,” the Lord replied.
29 So [the next day, 10,000 of] the Israeli men (set up ambushes/went to hide) [in the fields] around Gibeah.
Then the Israelites set up an ambush around Gibeah.
30 The [other] Israeli men went and stood in their positions for fighting a battle just like they had done on the previous days.
On the third day they took up the same positions they had as before.
31 When the men of the tribe of Benjamin came out of the city to fight against them, the Israeli men retreated away from the city, and the men of the tribe of Benjamin pursued them. The men of the tribe of Benjamin killed many Israelis, like they had done before. They killed about 30 Israelis. They killed some in the fields, and they killed some on the road that went to Bethel and on the road that went to Gibeah.
The Benjamites came out to attack them and were lured away from the town as they began to kill Israelites as they had before. Some thirty Israelites died on the battlefield and along the roads, the one that goes towards Bethel and the other that goes back towards Gibeah.
32 The men of the tribe of Benjamin said, “We are defeating them like we did before!” But then Israeli men did what they had planned. The main group of Israeli men retreated a short distance from the city, to [trick] the men of Gibeah and cause them to pursue the Israeli men along the roads outside the city.
“We're defeating them, just like before,” the Benjamites shouted. But the Israelites said, “Let's run away from them and lure them away from the town towards the roads.”
33 The main group of Israeli men left their positions and retreated, and then they stood in their battle positions again at a place named Baal-Tamar.
The main army of Israelites left where they were and took up positions at Baal-tamar, while those in the ambush west of Gibeah charged out to attack from where they had been hiding.
34 Then [while the men of Gibeah were running out of the city toward them], the other 10,000 Israelis came out from the places where they had been hiding, west of Gibeah. They were men who had come from all parts of Israel. There was a very big battle. But the men of the tribe of Benjamin did not know that they were about to suffer a disastrous defeat.
Ten thousand seasoned Israelite warriors attacked Gibeah, and the fighting was so intense the Benjamites didn't realize they were on the brink of disaster.
35 Yahweh enabled the Israeli men to defeat the men of the tribe of Benjamin. They killed 25,000 of them, even though they all were using swords. [This is what happened]:
So the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel. That day the Israelites killed twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamites, all armed with swords.
36 The main group of Israeli men arranged with the men who would be hiding that they should send up a smoke signal to enable the main group of soldiers to know when they should attack. Then the main group of Israeli men retreated for a short distance, because they knew that the other Israeli men who had been hiding on the other side of Gibeah would attack the people of the tribe of Benjamin by surprise. So [after the main group of Israeli men retreated a little distance], the men who had been hiding rushed out and ran into Gibeah and used their swords to kill everyone in the city. [Then they started to burn the buildings].
The Benjamites saw that they were defeated. The Israelites had fallen back before the Benjamites because they were confident the ambush they had put in place near Gibeah would be successful.
The men from the ambush raced to attack the town, and they killed everyone in it.
The agreement was that they would send up a great cloud of smoke to show the town had fallen.
39 By that time, the men of the tribe of Benjamin said, “We are winning the battle, as we did before!”
The Israelite army turned to attack the Benjamites, who had already killed about thirty Israelites. The Benjamites were saying, “We're completely defeating them, just like the first battle!”
40 But then smoke [from the burning buildings] began to rise up from the city. The men of the tribe of Benjamin turned around and saw that the whole city was burning.
However, when the Israelites saw the columns of smoke rising heavenwards to form a great cloud over the whole of the town,
41 Then the main group of Israeli men [also saw the smoke, and they knew that the smoke signaled that they should] turn around and begin to attack. The men of the tribe of Benjamin were very afraid, because they realized that they were about to suffer a disastrous defeat.
they turned on their enemies. The Benjamites were horrified when they saw it and realized they were doomed.
42 So the men of the tribe of Benjamin tried to run away toward the desert to escape from the Israeli men, but they were not able to escape, because the Israeli men who had burned the two cities came out of those cities and killed many of them.
They turned and ran from the Israelites towards the desert, but the battle caught up with them, and the Israelites also killed those who left the towns on the way.
43 They surrounded [some of] the men of the tribe of Benjamin, and pursued the others to the area east of Gibeah.
Chasing after the Benjamites, the Israelites surrounded them, easily overtaking them east of Gibeah.
44 They killed 18,000 strong soldiers of the tribe of Benjamin.
Eighteen thousand Benjamites were killed, all of them courageous warriors.
45 Then the rest of the men of the tribe of Benjamin realized that they had been defeated. They ran toward the desert to Rimmon Rock, but the Israeli men killed 5,000 more men of the tribe of Benjamin along the roads. They pursued the rest of them to Gidom, and they killed 2,000 more men of the tribe of Benjamin there.
Some of the Benjamites that were left ran towards Pomegranate Rock in the desert, and the Israelites killed another five thousand men on the way. They chased another group of Benjamites as far as Gidom and killed another thousand.
46 Altogether, there were 25,000 men of the tribe of Benjamin who were killed, all of whom had swords.
So that day twenty-five thousand Benjamite were killed, all armed with swords and all courageous warriors.
47 But 600 men of the tribe of Benjamin ran to Rimmon Rock in the desert. They stayed there for four months.
There were six hundred who ran away to Pomegranate Rock in the desert and they stayed there four months.
48 Then the Israeli men went back to the land belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, and killed the people in every city. They also killed all the animals, and destroyed everything else that they found there. And they burned all the cities that they came to.
The Israelites went back into the territory of the Benjamites, and going from town to town, they killed everything: people, animals, everything they found. Then they burned down every town on their way.
