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RichterKapitel 20

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Then all the Israelites came out, and the whole assembly gathered as one man before the LORD at Mizpah, from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead.
The leaders of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the assembly of the people of God—four hundred thousand men on foot, armed with swords.
Now the Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. And the Israelites said, "Tell us how this evil thing happened."
So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered: "I came to Gibeah in Benjamin with my concubine to spend the night.
During the night the citizens of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died.
So I took my concubine, cut her in pieces, and sent her through every part of Israel's inheritance, because they had committed this outrage and disgrace in Israel.
All the people rose as one man and said, "None of us will go home to his tent; none of us will return to his house.
We will take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to gather provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for this outrage committed in Israel."
So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man.
The tribes of Israel sent men throughout all the clans of Benjamin, saying, "What is this evil that has been done among you?
Now hand over those worthless men of Gibeah so we can put them to death and purge this evil from Israel." But the Benjaminites would not listen to their fellow Israelites.
Instead, the Benjaminites came together from their towns to Gibeah to go to war against the Israelites.
That day the Benjaminites mustered from their towns twenty-six thousand swordsmen, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who mustered seven hundred choice men.
Among all these troops were seven hundred choice men who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
The Israelites, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them fighting men.
They set out and went up to Bethel and inquired of God. The Israelites asked, "Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Benjaminites?" The LORD replied, "Judah first."
The Israelites rose early the next morning and camped near Gibeah.
The men of Israel went out to fight Benjamin and drew up their battle lines against Gibeah.
The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah, and that day they laid twenty-two thousand men of Israel dead on the ground.
But the men of Israel encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day.
The Israelites went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and they inquired of the LORD, "Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjaminites, our brothers?" The LORD answered, "Go up against them."
So the Israelites advanced against Benjamin on the second day.
That second day, when Benjamin came out from Gibeah to meet them, they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords.
Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD.
And the Israelites inquired of the LORD—for in those days the ark of the covenant of God was there,
with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it—and they asked, "Shall we go out again to fight against the Benjaminites, our brothers, or shall we stop?" The LORD answered, "Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands."
Then Israel set an ambush around Gibeah.
On the third day the Israelites went up against the Benjaminites and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before.
The Benjaminites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to strike down the Israelites as before, killing about thirty of them out in the open, along the roads—one leading up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.
The Benjaminites said, "We are defeating them as before." But the Israelites were saying, "Let us retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads."
All the men of Israel moved from their places and took up positions at Baal Tamar, and the Israelite ambush charged out from its place west of Geba.[^1] [^1]: The meaning of the Hebrew phrase is uncertain; it may read "from the clearing" or "from the meadows of Geba."
Ten thousand of the finest men from all Israel came up opposite Gibeah. The fighting was fierce, and Benjamin did not realize how close disaster was.
The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjaminites, all armed with swords.
Then the Benjaminites saw that they were beaten. Now the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, because they were relying on the ambush they had set near Gibeah.
The men in ambush rushed forward and swept into Gibeah; they spread out and put the whole city to the sword.
The men of Israel had agreed on a signal with the men in ambush: they would send up a great cloud of smoke from the city.
Then the men of Israel turned in the battle. Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites, killing about thirty of them, for they said, "Surely Israel is being beaten before us, as in the first battle!"
But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjaminites turned and saw the whole city going up in smoke to the sky.
Then the men of Israel turned on them, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, for they realized that disaster had come upon them.
So they fled before the Israelites toward the wilderness, but the battle overtook them, and those coming out of the towns cut them down there.
They surrounded the Benjaminites and pursued them without rest, cutting them down all the way to a point east of Gibeah.
Eighteen thousand Benjaminites fell, all of them valiant fighters.
As they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, the Israelites cut down five thousand men along the roads. They pressed after them as far as Gidom and struck down two thousand more.
In all, twenty-five thousand Benjaminite swordsmen fell that day, all of them valiant fighters.
But six hundred men turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months.
The men of Israel turned back against the Benjaminites and put them to the sword—the people of every town, along with the animals and everything else they found. And all the towns they came upon they set on fire.
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