Judges 20:16-48

¹⁶Who were left-handed, able to send a stone at a hair without error.

¹⁷And the men of Israel, other than Benjamin, were four hundred thousand in number, all armed with swords; they were all men of war.

¹⁸And they got up and went up to Beth-el to get directions from God, and the children of Israel said, Who is to be the first to go up to the fight against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah is to go up first.

¹⁹So the children of Israel got up in the morning and put themselves in position against Gibeah.

²⁰And the men of Israel went out to war against Benjamin (and the men of Israel put their forces in fighting order against them at Gibeah).

²¹Then the children of Benjamin came out from Gibeah, cutting down twenty-two thousand of the Israelites that day.

²²But the people, the men of Israel, taking heart again, put their forces in order and took up the same position as on the first day.

²³Now the children of Israel went up, weeping before the Lord till evening, requesting the Lord and saying, Am I to go forward again to the fight against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the Lord said, Go up against him.

²⁴So the children of Israel went forward against the children of Benjamin the second day.

²⁵And the second day Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah, cutting down eighteen thousand men of the children of Israel, all swordsmen.

²⁶Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up to Beth-el, weeping and waiting there before the Lord, going without food all day till evening, and offering burned offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord.

²⁷And the children of Israel made request to the Lord, (for the ark of the agreement of the Lord was there in those days,

²⁸And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was in his place before it,) and said, Am I still to go on with the fight against the children of Benjamin my brother, or am I to give it up? And the Lord said, Go on; for tomorrow I will give him into your hands.

²⁹So Israel put men secretly all round Gibeah to make a surprise attack on it.

³⁰And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in fighting order against Gibeah as before.

³¹And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, moving away from the town; and as before, at their first attack, they put to death about thirty men of Israel on the highways, of which one goes up to Beth-el and the other to Gibeah, and in the open country.

³²And the children of Benjamin said, They are giving way before us as at first. But the children of Israel said, Let us go in flight and get them away from the town, into the highways.

³³So all the men of Israel got up and put themselves in fighting order at Baal-tamar: and those who had been waiting secretly to make a surprise attack came rushing out of their place on the west of Geba.

³⁴And they came in front of Gibeah, ten thousand of the best men in all Israel, and the fighting became more violent; but the children of Benjamin were not conscious that evil was coming on them.

³⁵Then the Lord sent sudden fear on Benjamin before Israel; and that day the children of Israel put to death twenty-five thousand, one hundred men of Benjamin, all of them swordsmen.

³⁶So the children of Benjamin saw that they were overcome: and the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, putting their faith in the watchers who were to make the surprise attack on Gibeah.

³⁷And the watchers, rushing on Gibeah and overrunning it, put all the town to the sword without mercy.

³⁸Now the sign fixed between the men of Israel and those making the surprise attack was that when they made a pillar of smoke go up from the town,

³⁹The men of Israel were to make a turn about in the fight. And Benjamin had overcome and put to death about thirty of the men of Israel, and were saying, Certainly they are falling back before us as in the first fight.

⁴⁰Then the sign went up out of the town in the pillar of smoke, and the Benjamites, turning back, saw all the town going up in smoke to heaven.

⁴¹And the men of Israel had made a turn about, and the men of Benjamin were overcome with fear, for they saw that evil had overtaken them.

⁴²So turning their backs on the men of Israel, they went in the direction of the waste land; but the fight overtook them; and those who came out of the town were heading them off and putting them to the sword.

⁴³And crushing Benjamin down, they went after them, driving them from Nohah as far as the east side of Gibeah.

⁴⁴Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin came to their death, all strong men of war.

⁴⁵And turning, they went in flight to the rock of Rimmon in the waste land: and on the highways five thousand of them were cut off by the men of Israel, who, pushing on hard after them to Geba, put to death two thousand more.

⁴⁶So twenty-five thousand of the swordsmen of Benjamin came to their end that day, all strong men of war.

⁴⁷But six hundred men, turning back, went in flight to the rock of Rimmon in the waste land, and were living on the rock of Rimmon for four months.

⁴⁸And the men of Israel, turning again against the children of Benjamin, put to the sword without mercy all the towns and the cattle and everything there was, burning every town which came into their hands.