Judges 20:7-18

⁷Here you all are, you children of Israel; give now your suggestions about what is to be done.

⁸Then all the people got up as one man and said, Not one of us will go to his tent or go back to his house:

⁹But this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by the decision of the Lord;

¹⁰And we will take ten men out of every hundred, through all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, a thousand out of every ten thousand, to get food for the people, so that they may give to Gibeah of Benjamin the right punishment for the act of shame they have done in Israel.

¹¹So all the men of Israel were banded together against the town, united like one man.

¹²And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying, What is this evil which has been done among you?

¹³Now give up those good-for-nothing persons in Gibeah so that we may put them to death, clearing away the evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not give ear to the voice of their brothers, the children of Israel.

¹⁴And the children of Benjamin came together from all their towns to Gibeah, to go to war with the children of Israel.

¹⁵And the children of Benjamin who came that day from the towns were twenty-six thousand men armed with swords, in addition to the people of Gibeah, numbering seven hundred of the best fighting-men,

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.