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

¹³ Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel." But Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Israel.

¹⁴ The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

¹⁵ The children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

¹⁶ Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss.

¹⁷ The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war.

¹⁸ The children of Israel arose, and went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God; and they said, "Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin?" Yahweh said, "Judah [shall go up] first."

¹⁹ The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.

²⁰ The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.

²¹ The children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day Twenty-two thousand men.

²² 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.

²³ The children of Israel went up and wept before Yahweh until evening; and they asked of Yahweh, saying, "Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother?" Yahweh said, "Go up against him."

²⁴ The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.

²⁵ Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

²⁶ Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.

²⁷ The children of Israel asked of Yahweh (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

²⁸ 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 of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease?" Yahweh said, "Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand."

²⁹ Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah.

³⁰ 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.

³¹ 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 times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

³² The children of Benjamin said, "They are struck down before us, as at the first." But the children of Israel said, "Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways."

³³ All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar: and the ambushers of Israel broke forth out of their place, even out of Maareh Geba.

³⁴ There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was severe; but they didn't know that evil was close on them.

³⁵ Yahweh struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword.

³⁶ So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gibeah.

³⁷ The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the ambushers drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.

³⁸ 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.

³⁹ 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 are struck down before us, as in the first battle."

⁴⁰ 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 of the city went up in smoke to the sky.

⁴¹ The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them.

⁴² 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 out of the cities destroyed them in its midst.

⁴³ They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, [and] trod them down at [their] resting place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrise.

⁴⁴ There fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these [were] men of valor.

⁴⁵ They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men.

⁴⁶ So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these [were] men of valor.

⁴⁷ But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and stayed in the rock of Rimmon four months.

⁴⁸ The men of Israel turned again on the children of Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the livestock, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire.

¹ Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, "There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin as wife."

² The people came to Bethel, and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept severely.

³ They said, "Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel?"

⁴ It happened on the next day that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

⁵ The children of Israel said, "Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn't come up in the assembly to Yahweh?" For they had made a great oath concerning him who didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah, saying, "He shall surely be put to death."

⁶ The children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, "There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.

⁷ How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?"

⁸ They said, "What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah?" Behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly.

⁹ For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there.

¹⁰ The congregation sent there twelve thousand men of the most valiant, and commanded them, saying, "Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones.

¹¹ This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain with a man."

¹² They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

¹³ The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.

¹⁴ Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead: and yet so they weren't enough for them.

¹⁵ The people grieved for Benjamin, because that Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

¹⁶ Then the elders of the congregation said, "How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?"

¹⁷ They said, "There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel.

¹⁸ However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, 'Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.'"

¹⁹ They said, "Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah."

²⁰ They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, "Go and lie in wait in the vineyards,

²¹ and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each man catch his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

²² It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, 'Grant them graciously to us, because we didn't take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, otherwise you would now be guilty.'"

²³ The children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them.

²⁴ The children of Israel departed there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from there every man to his inheritance.

²⁵ In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.