Judges Chapter 20

• Judges 20:1
  Judges.
• Judges 20:2
  Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to the L...
• Judges 20:3
  The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footm...
• Judges 20:4
  (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, “Tell us, how did this wickedness...
• Judges 20:5
  The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, “I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night.
• Judges 20:6
  The men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house by night. They intended to kill me and they raped my concubine, and she is dead.
• Judges 20:7
  I took my concubine and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and ...
• Judges 20:8
  Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.”
• Judges 20:9
  All the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent, neither will any of us turn to his house.
• Judges 20:10
  But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot;
• Judges 20:11
  and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand to ge...
• Judges 20:12
  So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
• Judges 20:13
  The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What wickedness is this that has happened among you?
• Judges 20:14
  Now therefore deliver up the men, the wicked fellows who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and put away evil from Israel.” But Benjamin wou...
• Judges 20:15
  The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
• Judges 20:16
  The children of Benjamin were counted on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, in addition to the inhabitants of Gibe...
• Judges 20:17
  Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
• Judges 20:18
  The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were counted four hundred thousand men who drew sword. All these were men of war.
• Judges 20:19
  The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God. They asked, “Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of...
• Judges 20:20
  The children of Israel rose up in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.
• Judges 20:21
  The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.
• Judges 20:22
  The children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day destroyed twenty-two thousand of the Israelite men down to the ground.
• Judges 20:23
  The people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day.
• Judges 20:24
  The children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until evening; and they asked of the LORD, saying, “Shall I again draw near to battle against ...
• Judges 20:25
  The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.
• Judges 20:26
  Benjamin went out against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men. A...
• Judges 20:27
  Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until eve...
• Judges 20:28
  The children of Israel asked the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
• Judges 20:29
  and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, “Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children o...
• Judges 20:30
  Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah.
• Judges 20:31
  The children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.
• Judges 20:32
  The children of Benjamin 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 t...
• Judges 20:33
  The children of Benjamin said, “They are struck down before us, as at the first.” But the children of Israel said, “Let’s flee, and draw them away fro...
• Judges 20:34
  All the men of Israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar. Then the ambushers of Israel broke out of their place, eve...
• Judges 20:35
  Ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel came over against Gibeah, and the battle was severe; but they didn’t know that disaster was close to them.
• Judges 20:36
  The LORD struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men. All these drew...
• Judges 20:37
  So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck, for the men of Israel yielded to Benjamin because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set ...
• Judges 20:38
  The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; then the ambushers spread out, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.
• Judges 20:39
  Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambushers was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.
• Judges 20:40
  The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, “Surely they a...
• Judges 20:41
  But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and behold, the whole city went up in sm...
• Judges 20:42
  The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that disaster had come on them.
• Judges 20:43
  Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness, but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came o...
• Judges 20:44
  They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and trod them down at their resting place, as far as near Gibeah toward the sunrise.
• Judges 20:45
  Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor.
• Judges 20:46
  They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon. They gleaned five thousand men of them in the highways, and followed hard after them...
• Judges 20:47
  So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword. All these were men of valor.
• Judges 20:48
  But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and stayed in the rock of Rimmon four months.
• Judges 20:49
  The men of Israel turned again on the children of Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword—including the entire city, the livestock, and a...