Judges 20:7-18

⁷Now, all you Israelites, give your advice and counsel here.”

⁸All the people arose together as one man, and they said, “None of us will go to his tent, and none of us will return to his house!

⁹But now this is what we must do to Gibeah: We will attack it as the lot directs us.

¹⁰We will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred of a thousand, and one thousand of ten thousand, to get provisions for these people, so that when they come to Gibeah in Benjamin, they may punish them for the wickedness they committed in Israel.”

¹¹So all the soldiers of Israel assembled against the city, as one man.

¹²The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this wickedness that was done among you?

¹³Therefore, give us those wicked men of Gibeah, so we may put them to death, and so we will completely remove this evil from Israel.” But the Benjamites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel.

¹⁴Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities to Gibeah to get ready to fight against the people of Israel.

¹⁵The people of Benjamin brought together from their cities to fight on that day twenty-six thousand soldiers who were trained to fight with the sword. In addition, there were seven hundred of their chosen men from the inhabitants of Gibeah.

¹⁶Among all these soldiers were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed. Each of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

¹⁷The people of Israel, not counting the number from Benjamin, numbered 400,000 men, who were trained to fight with the sword. All of these were men of war.

¹⁸The people of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked for advice from God. They asked, “Who first will attack the people of Benjamin for us?” Yahweh said, “Judah will attack first.”