Judges 20:18-48

The Israelites went up to the city of Bethel and asked God, “Which tribe shall be first to attack the Benjaminites?” The LORD answered, “Judah shall go first.” The next morning the Israelites got up and made a camp near Gibeah. The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjaminites and took their battle position at Gibeah. Then the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and killed 22,000 Israelites during the battle that day. The Israelites went before the LORD and cried until evening. They asked the LORD, “Shall we go to fight our relatives, the Benjaminites, again?” The LORD answered, “Go up and fight them.” The men of Israel encouraged each other. So they took the same battle positions they had taken the first day. The Israelites came to fight the Benjaminites the second day. The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah to attack the Israelites. This time, the Benjaminites killed 18,000 Israelites, all of whom carried swords. Then the Israelites went up to Bethel. There they sat down and cried to the LORD and fasted all day until evening. They also brought burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD. The Israelites asked the LORD a question. (In those days the Ark of the Agreement with God was there at Bethel. A priest named Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, served before the Ark of the Agreement.) They asked, “Shall we go to fight our relatives, the Benjaminites, again, or shall we stop fighting?” The LORD answered, “Go, because tomorrow I will hand them over to you.” Then the Israelites set up ambushes all around Gibeah. They went to fight against the Benjaminites at Gibeah on the third day, getting into position for battle as they had done before. When the Benjaminites came out to fight them, the Israelites backed up and led the Benjaminites away from the city. The Benjaminites began to kill some of the Israelites as they had done before. About thirty Israelites were killed—some in the fields and some on the roads leading to Bethel and to Gibeah. The Benjaminites said, “We are winning as before!” But the Israelites said, “Let’s run. Let’s trick them into going farther away from their city and onto the roads.” All the Israelites moved from their places and got into battle positions at a place named Baal Tamar. Then the Israelites ran out from their hiding places west of Gibeah. Ten thousand of the best trained soldiers from all of Israel attacked Gibeah. The battle was very hard. The Benjaminites did not know disaster was about to come to them. The LORD used the Israelites to defeat the Benjaminites. On that day the Israelites killed 25,100 Benjaminites, all armed with swords. Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated. The Israelites had moved back because they were depending on the surprise attack they had set up near Gibeah. The men in hiding rushed into Gibeah, spread out, and killed everyone in the city with their swords. Now the Israelites had set up a signal with the men in hiding. The men in the surprise attack were to send up a cloud of smoke from the city. Then the army of Israel turned around in the battle. The Benjaminites had killed about thirty Israelites. They were saying, “We are winning, as in the first battle!” But then a cloud of smoke began to rise from the city. The Benjaminites turned around and saw that the whole city was going up in smoke. Then the Israelites turned and began to fight. The Benjaminites were terrified because they knew that disaster was coming to them. So the Benjaminites ran away from the Israelites toward the desert, but they could not escape the battle. And the Israelites who came out of the cities killed them. They surrounded the Benjaminites and chased them and caught them in the area east of Gibeah. So 18,000 brave Benjaminite fighters were killed. The Benjaminites ran toward the desert to the rock of Rimmon, but the Israelites killed 5,000 Benjaminites along the roads. They chased them as far as Gidom and killed 2,000 more Benjaminites there. On that day 25,000 Benjaminites were killed, all of whom had fought bravely with swords. But 600 Benjaminites ran to the rock of Rimmon in the desert, where they stayed for four months. Then the Israelites went back to the land of Benjamin and killed the people in every city and also the animals and everything they could find. And they burned every city they found.