1
Then all the children of Yisra'el went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Be'er-Sheva, with the land of Gil`ad, to the LORD at Mitzpah.
2
The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Yisra'el, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword.
3
(Now the children of Binyamin heard that the children of Yisra'el had gone up to Mitzpah.) The children of Yisra'el said, Tell us, how was this wickedness brought to pass?
4
The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, I came into Gevah that belongs to Binyamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.
5
The men of Gevah 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.
6
I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Yisra'el; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Yisra'el.
7
Behold, you children of Yisra'el, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.
8
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 to his house.
9
But now this is the thing which we will do to Gevah: [we will go up] against it by lot;
10
and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Yisra'el, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to get victuals for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gevah of Binyamin, according to all the folly that they have worked in Yisra'el.
11
So all the men of Yisra'el were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
12
The tribes of Yisra'el sent men through all the tribe of Binyamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is happen among you?
13
Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gevah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Yisra'el. But Binyamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Yisra'el.
14
The children of Binyamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gevah, to go out to battle against the children of Yisra'el.
15
The children of Binyamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gevah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
16
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss.
17
The men of Yisra'el, besides Binyamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war.
18
The children of Yisra'el arose, and went up to Beit-El, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Binyamin? the LORD said, Yehudah [shall go up] first.
19
The children of Yisra'el rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gevah.
20
The men of Yisra'el went out to battle against Binyamin; and the men of Yisra'el set the battle in array against them at Gevah.
21
The children of Binyamin came forth out of Gevah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Yisra'elites on that day Twenty-two thousand men.
22
The people, the men of Yisra'el, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day.
23
The children of Yisra'el went up and wept before the LORD until even; and they asked of the LORD, saying, Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Binyamin my brother? the LORD said, Go up against him.
24
The children of Yisra'el came near against the children of Binyamin the second day.
25
Binyamin went forth against them out of Gevah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Yisra'el again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.
26
Then all the children of Yisra'el, and all the people, went up, and came to Beit-El, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even; and they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before the LORD.
27
The children of Yisra'el asked of the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
28
and Pinechas, the son of El`azar, the son of Aharon, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Binyamin my brother, or shall I cease? the LORD said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand.
29
Yisra'el set liers-in-wait against Gevah round about.
30
The children of Yisra'el went up against the children of Binyamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gevah, as at other times.
31
The children of Binyamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Beit-El, and the other to Gevah, in the field, about thirty men of Yisra'el.
32
The children of Binyamin said, They are struck down before us, as at the first. But the children of Yisra'el said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.
33
All the men of Yisra'el rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Ba`al-Tamar: and the liers-in-wait of Yisra'el broke forth out of their place, even out of Ma`areh-Geva.
34
There came over against Gevah ten thousand chosen men out of all Yisra'el, and the battle was sore; but they didn't know that evil was close on them.
35
The LORD struck Binyamin before Yisra'el; and the children of Yisra'el destroyed of Binyamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword.
36
So the children of Binyamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Yisra'el gave place to Binyamin, because they trusted to the liers-in-wait whom they had set against Gevah.
37
The liers-in-wait hurried, and rushed on Gevah; and the liers-in-wait drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.
38
Now the appointed sign between the men of Yisra'el and the liers-in-wait was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.
39
The men of Yisra'el turned in the battle, and Binyamin began to strike and kill of the men of Yisra'el about thirty persons; for they said, Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle.
40
But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Binyamini looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky.
41
The men of Yisra'el turned, and the men of Binyamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them.
42
Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Yisra'el to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst of it.
43
They enclosed the Binyamini round about, [and] chased them, [and] trod them down at [their] resting-place, as far as over against Gevah toward the sunrise.
44
There fell of Binyamin eighteen thousand men; all these [were] men of valor.
45
They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them to Gid`om, and struck of them two thousand men.
46
So that all who fell that day of Binyamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these [were] men of valor.
47
But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four months.
48
The men of Yisra'el turned again on the children of Binyamin, and struck 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.