Judges, Chapter 20:

Verses from Judges, Chapter 20 of the book of Judges in the Bible.

Judges - Old Testament — Judges – Old Testament

The Israelites fight the Benjamites

1. Then all the Israelites, from Dan to Beersheba, and from Gilead, gathered together as one man before the Lord at Mizpah.
2. The leaders of all the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly, four hundred thousand soldiers armed with swords.
3. (The Benjamites learned that the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah.) The Israelites asked, “How did this evil happen?”
4. Then the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said: “My concubine and I have come to Gibeah of Benjamin to spend the night.
5. During the night, the men of Gibeah came to attack me and surrounded the house with the intention of killing me. They raped my concubine, and she died.
6. I took my concubine, cut her into pieces and sent a piece to each region of Israel, because they committed this shameful evil in Israel.
7. Now, all of you Israelites, speak out and pronounce your verdict.”
8. All the people stood up as one man, saying, “None of us will go home. None of us will return home.
9. But this is what we will do against Gibeah: we will draw lots among all the tribes of Israel,
10. and out of every hundred men we will select ten, out of every thousand we will select one hundred, and out of every ten thousand we will select a thousand, to provide provisions for the army that will go to Gibeah of Benjamin to punish the evil that was committed in Israel.”
11. And all the Israelites gathered together and united as one against the city.
12. The tribes of Israel sent men to all the tribes of Benjamin, saying, “What is your opinion about this terrible evil that has been committed among you? Hand over these wicked people from Gibeah so that we can execute them and eliminate this evil from Israel.”
13. But the Benjamites would not listen to their Israelite brothers.
14. Then, coming from their cities, they gathered together in Gibeah to fight against the Israelites.
15. That day, the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand soldiers armed with swords who came from their cities, in addition to the seven hundred best soldiers who lived in Gibeah.
16. Among all these soldiers, there were seven hundred left-handed men, extremely skilled, able to throw a stone with a sling and not miss their target.
17. Israel, without the Benjamites, summoned four hundred thousand men armed with swords, all warriors.
18. The Israelites went up to Bethel and consulted God. They asked, “Which of us will fight the Benjamites first?” The Lord replied, “Judah will go first.”
19. The next morning the Israelites got up, camped near Gibeah, and prepared to fight the Benjamites.
20. The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjamites and took up fighting positions against them at Gibeah.
21. The Benjamites left Gibeah and that day they killed twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield.
22. But the Israelites were encouraged and took up their position again, as on the first day.
23. They went up, wept before the Lord until evening, and inquired of the Lord, asking, “Shall we attack our Benjamite brothers again?” The Lord replied, “Yes, attack.”
24. Then the Israelites advanced against the Benjamites on the second day.
25. This time, when the Benjamites left Gibeah to confront them, they killed another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords.
26. The Israelites went to Bethel, where they sat and wept before the Lord. They fasted until evening, offering burnt offerings and communion offerings to the Lord.
27. They inquired of the Lord. (In those days the ark of the covenant was there,
28. and Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, served before her.) They asked, “Shall we fight again against our Benjamite brothers?” The Lord replied, “Yes, go forward tomorrow, and I will deliver them into your hands.”
29. Then the Israelites set up an ambush around Gibeah.
30. On the third day they advanced again against the Benjamites and took up position against Gibeah, as they had done before.
31. The Benjamites went out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to wound some Israelites, as they had done before, and killed about thirty men in the fields and on the roads, one going to Bethel and the other going to Gibeah.
32. While the Benjamites said, “We are defeating them as before,” the Israelites said, “Let us withdraw and draw them away from the city, onto the roads.”
33. All the men of Israel rose from their places and took up positions at Baal-Tamar, while the Israelite ambush attacked from their position west of Gibeah. The Israelites pretended to retreat before Benjamin, as they trusted in the ambush they had prepared near Gibeah.
34. The Benjamites began to attack the Israelites, killing about thirty of them, and said: “We are defeating them as in the first battle.”
35. But the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel that day. The Israelites killed twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamites, all of them armed with swords.
36. Then the Benjamites realized that they were defeated.
37. The men from the ambush quickly advanced against Gibeah, spread out, and killed all the inhabitants of the city with the edge of the sword.
38. The Israelites had arranged with the ambush men that they would send up a great cloud of smoke from the city,
39. and then the Israelites would turn to fight.
40. When the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamites turned around and saw the smoke rising into the sky.
41. Then the Israelites turned against them, and the Benjamites were terrified, for they realized that disaster had come to them.
42. They fled from the presence of the Israelites towards the desert, towards the rock of Rimmon, but they were unable to escape the fighting. The Israelites who left the cities killed them there.
43. They surrounded the Benjamites, pursued them, and overtook them near Gibeah, to the east.
44. Eighteen thousand Benjamites were killed, all of them valiant warriors.
45. When the Benjamites turned and fled toward the desert to the Rock of Rimmon, the Israelites killed five thousand more men along the roads. They continued to pursue the Benjamites as far as Gidon and killed more than two thousand men.
46. On that day twenty-five thousand Benjamites, all of them armed with swords, were killed.
47. Six hundred men, however, turned their backs and fled into the desert, to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed for four months.
48. The Israelites returned to Benjamin, put all the cities to the sword, including the animals and everything they found, and set fire to all the cities they passed.