1Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as one man and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah.2The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand soldiers armed with swords.3(The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said, "Tell us how this awful thing happened."4So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said, "I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night.5During the night the men of Gibeah came after me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died.6I took my concubine, cut her into pieces and sent one piece to each region of Israel's inheritance, because they committed this lewd and disgraceful act in Israel.7Now, all you Israelites, speak up and give your verdict."8All the people rose as one man, saying, "None of us will go home. No, not one of us will return to his house.9But now this is what we'll do to Gibeah: We'll go up against it as the lot directs.10We'll take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred from a thousand, and a thousand from ten thousand, to get provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for all this vileness done in Israel."11So all the men of Israel got together and united as one man against the city.12The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What about this awful crime that was committed among you?13Now surrender those wicked men of Gibeah so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel." But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites.14From their towns they came together at Gibeah to fight against the Israelites.15At once the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand swordsmen from their towns, in addition to seven hundred chosen men from those living in Gibeah.16Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.17Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them fighting men.18The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, "Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?" The LORD replied, "Judah shall go first."19The next morning the Israelites got up and pitched camp near Gibeah.20The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjamites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah.21The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield that day.22But the men of Israel encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day.23The Israelites went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and they inquired of the LORD. They said, "Shall we go up again to battle against the Benjamites, our brothers?" The LORD answered, "Go up against them."24Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day.25This time, when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them, they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords.26Then the Israelites, all the people, 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.27And the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there,28with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, "Shall we go up again to battle with Benjamin our brother, or not?" The LORD responded, "Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands."29Then Israel set an ambush around Gibeah.30They went up against the Benjamites on the third day and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before.31The Benjamites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before, so that about thirty men fell in the open field and on the roads-the one leading to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.32While the Benjamites were saying, "We are defeating them as before," the Israelites were saying, "Let's retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads."33All the men of Israel moved from their places and took up positions at Baal Tamar, and the Israelite ambush charged out of its place on the west of Gibeah.34Then ten thousand of Israel's finest men made a frontal attack on Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realize how near disaster was.35The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords.36Then the Benjamites saw that they were beaten. Now the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, because they relied on the ambush they had set near Gibeah.37The men who had been in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibeah, spread out and put the whole city to the sword.38The men of Israel had arranged with the ambush that they should send up a great cloud of smoke from the city,39and then the men of Israel would turn in the battle. The Benjamites had begun to inflict casualties on the men of Israel (about thirty), and they said, "We are defeating them as in the first battle."40But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamites turned and saw the smoke of the whole city going up into the sky.41Then the men of Israel turned on them, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, because they realized that disaster had come upon them.42So they fled before the Israelites in the direction of the desert, but they could not escape the battle. And the men of Israel who came out of the towns cut them down there.43They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them and easily overran them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east.44Eighteen thousand Benjamites fell, all of them valiant fighters.45As they turned and fled toward the desert to the rock of Rimmon, the Israelites cut down five thousand men along the roads. They kept pressing after the Benjamites as far as Gidom and struck down two thousand more.46On that day twenty-five thousand Benjamite swordsmen fell, all of them valiant fighters.47But six hundred men turned and fled into the desert to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months.48The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire.
Scripture quoted by permission. The passage above is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online)