Judges 20
20
1Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, unto Jehovah at Mizpah. 2And the chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword. 3(Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpah.) And the children of Israel said, Tell us, how was this wickedness brought to pass? 4And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was murdered, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. 5And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about me by night; me they thought to have slain, and my concubine they forced, and she is dead. 6And 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. 7Behold, ye children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.
8And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn unto his house. 9But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot; 10and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victuals for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel. 11So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
12And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is come to pass among you? 13Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, that are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel. 14And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel. 15And the children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men. 16Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss.
17And the men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war. 18And the children of Israel arose, and went up to Beth-el, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin? And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up first.
19And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah. 20And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah. 21And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day twenty and two thousand men. 22And 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. 23And the children of Israel went up and wept before Jehovah until even; and they asked of Jehovah, saying, Shall I again draw nigh to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And Jehovah said, Go up against him.
24And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. 25And Benjamin went forth 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. 26Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto Beth-el, and wept, and sat there before Jehovah, and fasted that day until even; and they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before Jehovah. 27And the children of Israel asked of Jehovah (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 28and 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? And Jehovah said, Go up; for to-morrow I will deliver him into thy hand.
29And Israel set liers-in-wait against Gibeah round about. 30And 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. 31And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to Beth-el, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel. 32And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city unto the highways. 33And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers-in-wait of Israel brake forth out of their place, even out of Maareh-geba. 34And there came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they knew not that evil was close upon them. 35And Jehovah smote Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty and five thousand and a hundred men: all these drew the sword.
36So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted unto the liers-in-wait whom they had set against Gibeah. 37And the liers-in-wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers-in-wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword. 38Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers-in-wait was, that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city. 39And the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle. 40But 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 heaven. 41And the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil was come upon them. 42Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and they that came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst thereof. 43They inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trod them down at their resting-place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrising. 44And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor. 45And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them unto Gidom, and smote of them two thousand men. 46So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valor. 47But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four months. 48And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the cattle, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire.
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Judges 20: ASV
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Shof'tim (Jdg) 20
20
1All the people of Isra’el came out, from Dan to Be’er-sheva, including Gil‘ad; the community assembled with one accord before Adonai at Mitzpah. 2The leaders of all the tribes of Isra’el presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 foot soldiers armed with swords. 3Now the people of Binyamin heard that the people of Isra’el had gone up to Mitzpah. The people of Isra’el said, “Tell us, how was this crime committed?” 4The Levi, the husband of the murdered woman, answered, “I came to Giv‘ah, which belongs to Binyamin, I and my concubine, to stay the night; 5and the men in Giv‘ah attacked me and surrounded the house I was staying in at night. They wanted to kill me, but instead they raped my concubine to death. 6I took my concubine’s body, cut it into pieces and sent them throughout all the territories belonging to Isra’el ; because they committed a shockingly obscene and degrading crime in Isra’el. 7Look, you are all people of Isra’el. So discuss what to do, and give your advice here and now.”
8All the people stood up in agreement and said, “None of us will go home to his tent or his house. 9What we will do now to Giv‘ah is this: we’ll draw lots, 10we’ll take ten men out of each hundred throughout all the tribes of Isra’el, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand to collect food for the others. When these come to Giv‘ah in Binyamin, they will avenge the crime that was committed.” 11Thus all the men of Isra’el, joined together in complete agreement, assembled to attack the city.
12The tribes of Isra’el sent men throughout all the tribe of Binyamin with this message: “What is this crime committed by some of your people? 13Turn over these good-for-nothings who are in Giv‘ah at once, so that we can execute them and rid Isra’el of such evil.” But the people of Binyamin refused to obey the order of their kinsmen the people of Isra’el. 14Instead the people of Binyamin gathered themselves together from their cities and went to Giv‘ah to fight the people of Isra’el. 15On that day there were 26,000 men from Binyamin armed with swords, besides the inhabitants of Giv‘ah, who numbered 700 specially chosen men. 16All of these 700 specially picked men were left-handed, and every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
17The army of Isra’el, apart from Binyamin, numbered 400,000 men with swords; they were all experienced soldiers. 18The army of Isra’el began by going up to Beit-El, where they asked God, “Who should go up first to attack the army of Binyamin?” Adonai said, “Y’hudah first.” 19So the army of Isra’el got up in the morning and set up their camp near Giv‘ah. 20Then the army of Isra’el went out to attack Binyamin and set up their battle line in front of Giv‘ah. 21But the army of Binyamin came out of Giv‘ah and slaughtered the army of Isra’el; on that day 22,000 men fell. 22The people, the men of Isra’el, restored their morale and again positioned themselves for battle where they had been the first day. 23Then the army of Isra’el went up and cried before Adonai until evening. They asked Adonai, “Should we attack our kinsmen the people of Binyamin again? Adonai answered, “Attack them.”
24So the army of Isra’el went out to attack the army of Binyamin the second day. 25But Binyamin went out against them from Giv‘ah the second day and slaughtered the army of Isra’el; 18,000 men armed with swords fell. 26Then the whole army of Isra’el, all the people, went up to Beit-El and cried and sat there in the presence of Adonai. They fasted that day until evening, offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to Adonai, 27and asked Adonai what to do. The ark for the covenant of God was there at that time; 28and Pinchas the son of El‘azar, the son of Aharon, stood before it at that time. They asked, “Should we still go out to battle again against our kinsmen the people of Binyamin, or should we stop?” Adonai answered, “Attack, because tomorrow I will hand them over to you.”
29Isra’el hid some men around Giv‘ah, 30and on the third day Isra’el attacked the army of Binyamin and took a position against Giv‘ah as they had the other times. 31Again the army of Binyamin went out against the people. Lured away from the city, they began attacking and killing some of the people, as they had the other times — they killed about thirty men of Isra’el in the countryside and on the roads, one of which goes up to Beit-El and the other to Giv‘ah. 32The army of Binyamin said, “They’re defeated, just as before.” But the army of Isra’el said, “Let’s run off and draw them away from the city onto the roads.” 33All the men of Isra’el left their places and took up a battle position at Ba‘al-Tamar, while the other Isra’el men burst out of their hiding places at Ma‘areh-Geva. 34Ten thousand men chosen out of all Isra’el came over to attack Giv‘ah, and the combat was intense. But the army of Binyamin didn’t know that they were about to be defeated. 35For Adonai routed Binyamin in Isra’el’s presence; that day the army of Isra’el destroyed 25,100 men of Binyamin, all of whom carried swords; 36and the people of Binyamin realized that they had been beaten.
The men of Isra’el, trusting the ones they had put in place to ambush Binyamin, gave ground to the men of Binyamin. 37Then the men who had been lying in wait rushed in on Giv‘ah, drew their swords and destroyed the city. 38The army of Isra’el and the ambushers had agreed that as a signal they would make a huge cloud of smoke rise from the city, 39at which time the men of Isra’el would turn back. When this happened, Binyamin began to attack. They killed about thirty of Isra’el’s men and said, “Clearly we’re defeating them again, as in the first battle.” 40But when the smoke signal began rising from the city, the men of Binyamin looked behind them and saw the whole city going up to the sky in smoke. 41Then, as the men of Isra’el reversed direction, those of Binyamin were overcome with terror. When they saw that disaster had come upon them, 42they turned their backs on the men of Isra’el and made for the road to the desert. But the battle followed them, and those who came out of the city destroyed them from the rear. 43They surrounded the men of Binyamin, chased them and trampled them down across from Giv‘ah on the east. 44Eighteen thousand men of Binyamin fell, all of them experienced soldiers. 45They turned and fled toward the desert to the Rock of Rimmon; and 5,000 of them were killed on the roads. They followed them to Gid‘om and killed another 2,000. 46Thus the total number from Binyamin who fell that day was 25,000 experienced, sword-bearing soldiers. 47But 600 turned and fled toward the desert to the Rock of Rimmon, and lived there four months. 48The men of Isra’el turned back on the people of Binyamin and killed them with the sword, the entire city, the cattle and everything they found. Moreover, they set on fire all the cities they encountered.
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