Judges 20:18-48

Before the battle, the armies of Israel went to the house of God to seek counsel from God. The Israelites inquired, “Which tribe gets to go first to battle the Benjamites?” YAHWEH answered, “Judah will go first.” The Israelites got up the next morning and encamped near Gibeah. The men of Israel took up battle positions against the Benjamites at Gibeah, but the Benjamites rushed out of the city, and slaughtered twenty-two thousand Israelites. The men of Israel encouraged one another and resumed their battle positions where they had lined up the first day. The Israelites wept before YAHWEH until evening, and they inquired of YAHWEH, “Should we go out again to battle with our brothers the Benjamites?” And YAHWEH answered, “Yes, go back into the battle!” The next day, the Israelites advanced toward the Benjamites. When Benjamin marched out from Gibeah to engage them, they struck down another eighteen thousand Israelite swordsmen. After losing again, the entire Israelite army went up to the house of God, and they sat there fasting and weeping before YAHWEH all day until evening and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings before YAHWEH. The Israelites inquired of YAHWEH at Shiloh, for the ark of God’s covenant was there in those days. Phineas son of Eleazer, son of Aaron, ministered there before the ark. He inquired of YAHWEH, saying, “Should we resume our battle with our brothers, the Benjamites? Or should we quit?” YAHWEH answered, “Attack! For tomorrow I will give you the victory!” So Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah. On the third day, one company of Israelites advanced against the Benjamites, deploying against Gibeah as they had before. This tactic drew the Benjamites out of the city to attack the advancing Israelite army, leaving the city unguarded. They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before. There they killed about thirty men of Israel. The Benjamites boasted, “We are defeating them just as we did before!” But when the Benjamites had taken the bait, the Israelites said, “Retreat, and draw them away from the city to the main roads.” Every Israelite rose from his position and took their assumed positions at Baal-Tamar. Then the Israelites who were hiding in ambush jumped up from their positions west of Gibeah. Ten thousand elite soldiers from all over Israel made their direct assault on Gibeah. The fighting was fierce. And the Benjamites had no clue that disaster was at their doorstep. On that day, YAHWEH struck down the Benjamites before Israel. The Israelites slaughtered 25,100 swordsmen of Benjamin. Then the Benjamites realized 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 of Israel who had been waiting in ambush made a mad dash for Gibeah, attacked the city, and killed its inhabitants. The Israelites’ strategy was to send up a smoke signal from the city once they had sacked it, and when the men of Israel saw the smoke signal, they would turn and rejoin the battle. When the Benjamites had inflicted about thirty casualties on the men of Israel, they said, “Look, we are defeating them as we did in the first battle!” But when the smoke signal began to go up from the city, the Benjamites looked behind them and saw the whole city going up in smoke! When the men of Israel turned back, the men of Benjamin saw that disaster had come upon them, and they panicked. So they fled toward the wilderness, retreating from the Israelites, but the Israelites overtook them and killed them there. Surrounding the Benjamites, the Israelites chased them and easily overran them in the area east of Gibeah. Eighteen thousand Benjamites died, all of them valiant fighters. As they turned and fled in the wilderness to Rimmon Rock, the Israelites picked off another five thousand Benjamites on the main roads. They chased them as far as Gidom, killing two thousand more there. That day, a total of twenty-five thousand sword-bearing Benjamites fell, all of them valiant fighters. But six hundred men who had fled to the wilderness camped at Rimmon Rock and remained there for four months. The men of Israel went back to the Benjamites and slaughtered every living thing in every town—men and beasts and all that were found, and they burned down every town they came across.