Judges 20
Brother Against Brother at Gibeah
← Judges 19 · Judges: all chapters · Judges 21 →
Israel Assembles at Mizpah
20:1All the sons of Israel came out, and the whole congregation assembled as one man, from Dan to Beersheba and the land of Gilead, before the Lord at Mizpah.
20:2The division of all the people, all Israel’s tribes, stood in the assembly of God’s people: four hundred thousand foot soldiers who drew the sword.
20:3The sons of Benjamin heard that the sons of Israel had gone up before the Lord at Mizpah. The sons of Israel said, “Tell us where this wickedness happened.”
20:4The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered, “I came with my concubine to Gibeah in Benjamin to lodge.
20:5The men from Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night. They wanted to kill me, and they violated my concubine and mocked her, and she died.
20:6I seized my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout Israel’s inherited territory, because they committed folly in Israel.
20:7Look, all of you sons of Israel, give your word and counsel.”
Israel Resolves to Act
20:8All the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will enter his dwelling, and none will turn aside to his house.
20:9Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot,
20:10and take ten men out of a hundred, a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to obtain provisions for the people going in to deal with Gibeah in Benjamin according to all the folly they committed in Israel.”
20:11All the men of Israel gathered from the cities, coming as one man.
Benjamin Refuses to Give Up the Men
20:12Israel’s tribes sent men throughout the whole tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this wickedness that has happened among you?
20:13Now hand over the impious men in Gibeah, the sons of Belial, so that we may put them to death and remove wickedness from Israel.” But the sons of Benjamin were unwilling to listen to their brothers, the sons of Israel.
20:14The sons of Benjamin gathered from their cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the sons of Israel.
20:15That day the sons of Benjamin were mustered from the cities: twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword, apart from Gibeah’s inhabitants. These were mustered as seven hundred chosen young men,
20:16skilled with both hands. All these were slingers who threw stones at a hair and did not miss.
20:17All the men of Israel were mustered, apart from the sons of Benjamin: four hundred thousand men who drew the sword, all warriors.
Two Days of Defeat
20:18They arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God. The sons of Israel said, “Who shall go up leading us to fight Benjamin?” The Lord said, “Judah shall go up as leader.”
20:19The sons of Israel arose and camped against Gibeah.
20:20All the men of Israel went out to war against Benjamin. The men of Israel drew up against them for war at Gibeah.
20:21The sons of Benjamin came out of the city and struck down twenty-two thousand men of Israel to the ground that day.
20:22The men of Israel strengthened themselves and again drew up for battle in the place where they had drawn up on the first day.
20:23The sons of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I again approach for battle against Benjamin my brother?” The Lord said, “Go up against him.”
20:24The sons of Israel approached Benjamin on the second day.
20:25Benjamin came out from Gibeah to meet them on the second day and struck down eighteen thousand men of the people to the ground, all men who drew the sword.
Fasting and Inquiry at Bethel
20:26All the sons of Israel and all the people went up and came to Bethel. They wept before the Lord, fasted that day, and offered whole burnt offerings of deliverance before the Lord.
20:27The sons of Israel inquired of the Lord. The ark of the Lord’s covenant was there in those days,
20:28and Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, stood before it in those days, saying, “Shall I again go out to battle against the sons of Benjamin, my brother, or shall I cease?” The Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will hand him into your hand.”
The Ambush at Gibeah
20:29The sons of Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah.
20:30Israel deployed against Benjamin on the third day and drew up against Gibeah as on the previous occasions.
20:31The sons of Benjamin came out to meet the people and were drawn away from the city. As before, they began to strike some of the people on the roads—one going up to Bethel and one going up to Gibeah in the field—about thirty men of Israel.
20:32The sons of Benjamin said, “They are stumbling before us as before.” But the sons of Israel said, “Let us flee and draw them out of the city to the roads.”
20:33All the men of Israel arose from their place and drew up at Baal-tamar. Israel’s ambush struggled forward from its place, from west of Gibeah.
20:34Ten thousand chosen men from all Israel came opposite Gibeah, and the battle grew heavy. They did not know that disaster had reached them.
20:35The Lord routed Benjamin before Israel. That day the sons of Israel struck down twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin, all men who drew the sword.
20:36Benjamin saw that it was routed. The men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin because they trusted the ambush they had set against Gibeah.
20:37The ambush rushed forward and poured toward Gibeah. The ambush went on, and they struck the whole city with the edge of the sword.
20:38The arrangement between Israel’s men and the ambush was for them to send up a smoke signal from the city.
20:39The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike down men of Israel, killing about thirty, saying, “Surely they are being routed before us as in the earlier battle.”
Benjamin Routed
20:40The signal began to ascend from the city, a pillar of smoke. Benjamin looked behind them, and look, the city’s destruction rose to heaven.
20:41The men of Israel turned back, and the men of Benjamin hurried and saw that disaster had reached them.
20:42They turned before Israel’s men toward the wilderness road, but the battle overtook them. Those from the cities destroyed them in their midst.
20:43They cut down Benjamin to put them to rest, and trampled them as far as opposite Gibeah on the east.
20:44Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; with all these were mighty men.
Six Hundred Flee to the Rock of Rimmon
20:45They turned and fled into the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon. The Israelites gleaned five thousand men on the roads, pressed after them as far as Gadaam, and struck down two thousand of them.
20:46All those of Benjamin who fell that day were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; with all these were mighty men.
20:47Six hundred men turned and fled into the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon. They stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months.
20:48The men of Israel hemmed in the sons of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, from one city to the next, livestock, and everything found in all the cities. They set fire to the cities they found.
← Judges 19 · Judges: all chapters · Judges 21 →
Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V2 · working draft awaiting specialist review.