Judges 20

The Levite's Account of Crime Judges 20:5–13

⁵Verse 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. ⁶Verse 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 folly in Israel. ⁷Verse 7. Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.” ⁸Verse 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. ⁹Verse 9. But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot;

¹⁰Verse 10. and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, 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 Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have worked in Israel.” ¹¹Verse 11. So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man. ¹²Verse 12. The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What wickedness is this that has happened among you? ¹³Verse 13. Now therefore deliver up the men, the wicked fellows, 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 children of Israel.

Conflict Begins with Benjamin Judges 20:14–21

¹⁴Verse 14. The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel. ¹⁵Verse 15. The children of Benjamin were counted on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were counted seven hundred chosen men. ¹⁶Verse 16. Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. ¹⁷Verse 17. The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were counted four hundred thousand men who drew sword. All these were men of war.

¹⁸Verse 18. The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God. They asked, “Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin?” Yahweh said, “Judah first.” ¹⁹Verse 19. The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah. ²⁰Verse 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. ²¹Verse 21. The children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day destroyed twenty-two thousand of the Israelite men down to the ground.

Seeking God’s Guidance Judges 20:22–28

²²Verse 22. The people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day. ²³Verse 23. The children of Israel went up and wept before Yahweh until evening; and they asked of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother?” Yahweh said, “Go up against him.” ²⁴Verse 24. The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. ²⁵Verse 25. Benjamin went out against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men. All these drew the sword.

²⁶Verse 26. Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening; then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh. ²⁷Verse 27. The children of Israel asked Yahweh (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, ²⁸Verse 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 Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease?” Yahweh said, “Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand.”

Ambush Strategy Unfolds Judges 20:29–39

²⁹Verse 29. Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah. ³⁰Verse 30. The children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. ³¹Verse 31. The children of Benjamin 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 Israel. ³²Verse 32. The children of Benjamin said, “They are struck down before us, as at the first.” But the children of Israel said, “Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.”

³³Verse 33. All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar. Then the ambushers of Israel broke out of their place, even out of Maareh Geba. ³⁴Verse 34. Ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel came over against Gibeah, and the battle was severe; but they didn’t know that disaster was close to them. ³⁵Verse 35. Yahweh struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men. All these drew the sword. ³⁶Verse 36. So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Israel yielded to Benjamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gibeah.

³⁷Verse 37. The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; then the ambushers spread out, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. ³⁸Verse 38. Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambushers was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city. ³⁹Verse 39. The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, “Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle.”

Decisive Victory and Devastation Judges 20:40–48

⁴⁰Verse 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 city went up in smoke to the sky. ⁴¹Verse 41. The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that disaster had come on them. ⁴²Verse 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 middle of it. ⁴³Verse 43. They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and trod them down at their resting place, as far as near Gibeah toward the sunrise.

⁴⁴Verse 44. Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor. ⁴⁵Verse 45. They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon; and they gleaned five thousand men of them in the highways, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck two thousand men of them. ⁴⁶Verse 46. So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword. All these were men of valor. ⁴⁷Verse 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. ⁴⁸Verse 48. The men of Israel turned again on the children of Benjamin, 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.