Judges - Chapter 20

20:1 Then all the B'nai Yisrael went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Mar-Yah at Mizpah. 20:2 The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Yisrael, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword. 20:3 (Now the children of Benyamin heard that the B'nai Yisrael had gone up to Mizpah.) The B'nai Yisrael said, "Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?"

20:4 The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, "I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benyamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. 20:5 The men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house by night. They thought to have slain me, and they forced my concubine, and she is dead. 20:6 I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Yisrael; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Yisrael. 20:7 Behold, you B'nai Yisrael, all of you, give here your advice and counsel."

20:8 All the people arose as one man, saying, "None of us will go to his tent, neither will any of us turn to his house. 20:9 But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot; 20:10 and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Yisrael, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to get food for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benyamin, according to all the folly that they have worked in Yisrael." 20:11 So all the men of Yisrael were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

20:12 The tribes of Yisrael sent men through all the tribe of Benyamin, saying, "What wickedness is this that is happen among you? 20:13 Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Yisrael." But Benyamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the B'nai Yisrael.

20:14 The children of Benyamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the B'nai Yisrael. 20:15 The children of Benyamin 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. 20:16 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss. 20:17 The men of Yisrael, besides Benyamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war.

20:18 The B'nai Yisrael 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 children of Benyamin?" Mar-Yah said, "Judah first."

20:19 The B'nai Yisrael rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah. 20:20 The men of Yisrael went out to battle against Benyamin; and the men of Yisrael set the battle in array against them at Gibeah. 20:21 The children of Benyamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Yisraelites on that day twenty-two thousand men. 20:22 The people, the men of Yisrael, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day. 20:23 The B'nai Yisrael went up and wept before Mar-Yah until evening; and they asked of Mar-Yah, saying, "Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Benyamin my brother?" Mar-Yah said, "Go up against him."

20:24 The B'nai Yisrael came near against the children of Benyamin the second day. 20:25 Benyamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the B'nai Yisrael again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

20:26 Then all the B'nai Yisrael, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Mar-Yah, and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Mar-Yah. 20:27 The B'nai Yisrael asked of Mar-Yah (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 20:28 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 children of Benyamin my brother, or shall I cease?" Mar-Yah said, "Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand."

20:29 Yisrael set ambushes all around Gibeah. 20:30 The B'nai Yisrael went up against the children of Benyamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. 20:31 The children of Benyamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Yisrael.

20:32 The children of Benyamin said, "They are struck down before us, as at the first." But the B'nai Yisrael said, "Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways."

20:33 All the men of Yisrael rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar: and the ambushers of Yisrael broke forth out of their place, even out of Maareh Geba. 20:34 There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Yisrael, and the battle was severe; but they did not know that evil was close on them. 20:35 Mar-Yah struck Benyamin before Yisrael; and the B'nai Yisrael destroyed of Benyamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword. 20:36 So the children of Benyamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Yisrael gave place to Benyamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gibeah. 20:37 The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the ambushers drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. 20:38 Now the appointed sign between the men of Yisrael and the ambushers was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city. 20:39 The men of Yisrael turned in the battle, and Benyamin began to strike and kill of the men of Yisrael about thirty persons; for they said, "Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle."

20:40 But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky. 20:41 The men of Yisrael turned, and the men of Benyamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them. 20:42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Yisrael to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in its midst. 20:43 They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and trod them down at their resting place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrise. 20:44 There fell of Benyamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour. 20:45 They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men. 20:46 So that all who fell that day of Benyamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these were men of valor. 20:47 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and stayed in the rock of Rimmon four months. 20:48 The men of Yisrael turned again on the children of Benyamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the livestock, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire.