1Then all the people of Israel went out, and the assembly gathered as one man, from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, to Yahweh at Mizpah.
2The chiefs of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of God's people: four hundred thousand foot soldiers who could draw a sword.
3(Now the people of Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The people of Israel asked, "Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?"
4The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered, "I came to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night.
5The men of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house by night. They intended to kill me, and they raped my concubine, and she died.
6I took my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout all the country that Israel inherited, because they committed such a vile and shameful act in Israel.
7Look, all of you people of Israel, give your advice and counsel here."
8All the people stood up together and said, “None of us will go home or to our tents.”
9“Instead, this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will draw lots to decide who will attack it.”
10“We will choose ten out of every hundred men from all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to get food for the army. Then, when they arrive at Gibeah in Benjamin, they can deal with all the terrible wickedness that has been done in Israel.”
11So all the men of Israel gathered together against the city, united as one person.
12The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the entire tribe of Benjamin, asking, “What is this terrible crime that has happened among you?”
13“Now hand over the men, those criminals in Gibeah, so we can kill them and remove this evil from Israel.” But Benjamin would not listen to their Israelite brothers.
14The people of Benjamin gathered from their cities in Gibeah to fight against the people of Israel.
15On that day, a count of the Benjaminite population from their cities showed twenty-six thousand men who could use a sword, in addition to seven hundred skilled men from Gibeah itself.
16Among all these soldiers, there were seven hundred expert left-handed men. Each one could sling a stone at a target as small as a hair and never miss.
17The men of Israel, excluding Benjamin, were counted at four hundred thousand men who could use a sword. All of them were experienced warriors.
18The people of Israel went to Bethel and asked God for guidance. They asked, “Who should lead us into battle first against the people of Benjamin?” Yahweh answered, “Judah should go first.”
19The people of Israel woke up in the morning and camped near Gibeah.
20The men of Israel marched out to fight Benjamin and arranged their battle lines against them at Gibeah.
21The people of Benjamin came out from Gibeah, and on that day, they killed twenty-two thousand Israelite men.
22The people of Israel encouraged each other and set up their battle lines again in the same place as the first day.
23The people of Israel went up and cried before Yahweh until evening. They asked Yahweh, “Should I go to battle again against my brothers, the people of Benjamin?” Yahweh said, “Go up against them.”
24The people of Israel approached the people of Benjamin on the second day.
25On the second day, Benjamin came out from Gibeah against them and again killed eighteen thousand men from Israel. All of these men could use a sword.
26Then all the people of Israel went to Bethel. They cried and sat there before Yahweh, and they fasted that day until evening. After that, they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to Yahweh.
27The people of Israel asked Yahweh (because the ark of God’s covenant was there at that time,
28and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, served as priest in those days). They asked, “Should I go out again to fight against my relatives, the Benjamites, or should I stop?” Yahweh answered, “Go; tomorrow I will hand them over to you.”
29So the Israelites set up ambushes all around Gibeah.
30On the third day, the Israelites went up against the Benjamites and arranged themselves for battle against Gibeah, just as they had done before.
31The Benjamites marched out to meet the people and were drawn away from the city. As they had done before, they began to kill some of the people on the roads, one leading to Bethel and the other to Gibeah in the open country, killing about thirty men of Israel.
32The Benjamites said, “They are losing to us again, just like the first time.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s run away and lure them away from the city onto the roads.”
33All the men of Israel then left their positions and lined up at Baal Tamar. Meanwhile, the men in ambush for Israel rushed out from their positions near Maareh Geba.
34Ten thousand skilled fighters from all over Israel attacked Gibeah, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjamites didn't realize that disaster was about to strike them.
35Yahweh defeated Benjamin in front of Israel, and on that day, the Israelites destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamite men, all of whom were expert swordsmen.
36So the Benjamites saw that they were losing. The men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin because they were relying on the ambushers they had placed around Gibeah.
37The ambushers quickly moved and rushed into Gibeah. Then they spread out and killed everyone in the city with their swords.
38The agreed signal between the men of Israel and the ambushers was that the ambushers would make a large cloud of smoke rise from the city.
39The men of Israel retreated in battle, and the Benjamites started to kill about thirty of the men of Israel, saying, "They are definitely being defeated by us, just like in the first battle."
40But when a cloud of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamites looked behind them. And behold, the whole city was going up in smoke toward the sky.
41The men of Israel then turned around, and the Benjamites were terrified, because they realized that disaster had struck them.
42So they turned their backs and fled from the men of Israel toward the wilderness. But the battle relentlessly pursued them, and those who came out of the cities destroyed them along the way.
43They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and trampled them down at their resting place, as far as the area near Gibeah toward the east.
44Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin died; all of them were brave warriors.
45They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon. The Israelites picked off five thousand of them on the roads, pursued them relentlessly to Gidom, and killed two thousand more.
46So, that day, a total of twenty-five thousand Benjamite men who carried swords were killed. All of them were brave warriors.
47But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and they stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months.
48The men of Israel turned on the people of Benjamin again and killed them with swords. They destroyed the entire city, the livestock, and everything they found. They also set fire to all the cities they came across.