Judges 20

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Israel gathers at Mizpah

¹ Then all the children of Israel came out, and the congregation assembled as one man, from Dan to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Yahweh at Mizpah. ² The chiefs of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of Elohim: four hundred thousand foot soldiers who drew the sword. ³ Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah. And the children of Israel said, "Tell us, how did this evil happen?"

⁴ So the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, "I came to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. ⁵ And the men of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night. They intended to kill me, and they violated my concubine, and she died. ⁶ So I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed a lewd and disgraceful act in Israel. ⁷ See, all of you are children of Israel; give your word and counsel here."

⁸ Then all the people arose as one man, saying, "None of us will go to his tent, nor will any of us turn back to his house. ⁹ But now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot. ¹⁰ We will take ten men out of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to bring provisions for the people, so that when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin they may repay it in full for the disgraceful thing that it has done in Israel." ¹¹ So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man.

¹² And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What is this evil that has happened among you? ¹³ Now therefore give up the men, the worthless men who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel." But the children of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the children of Israel. ¹⁴ Instead the children of Benjamin gathered out of their cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel. ¹⁵ And from their cities the children of Benjamin were counted that day, twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were counted, seven hundred chosen men. ¹⁶ Among all these people were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed; every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. ¹⁷ Then the men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, were counted, four hundred thousand men who drew the sword; all of these were men of war.

The war against Benjamin

¹⁸ Then the children of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of Elohim, and said, "Who shall go up first for us to battle against the children of Benjamin?" And Yahweh said, "Judah first." ¹⁹ So the children of Israel rose in the morning and camped against Gibeah. ²⁰ And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel drew up in battle array against them at Gibeah. ²¹ Then the children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and struck down to the ground that day twenty-two thousand men of Israel.

²² But the people, the men of Israel, took courage, and again drew up in battle array in the place where they had drawn up on the first day. ²³ And the children of Israel went up and wept before Yahweh until evening, and inquired of Yahweh, saying, "Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother?" And Yahweh said, "Go up against him." ²⁴ So the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. ²⁵ And Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah the second day, and struck down to the ground eighteen thousand more of the children of Israel; all these drew the sword.

²⁶ Then all the children of Israel, all the people, went up and came to Bethel and wept; they sat there before Yahweh and fasted that day until evening, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh. ²⁷ And the children of Israel inquired of Yahweh, for the ark of the covenant of Elohim 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?" And Yahweh said, "Go up, for tomorrow I will give him into your hand."

²⁹ So Israel set men in ambush all around Gibeah. ³⁰ And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and drew up in battle 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 as at other times they began to strike some of the people and kill them, about thirty men of Israel, on the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, in the open field. ³² And 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 Then all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and drew up in battle array at Baal-tamar, and the men of Israel in ambush burst out of their place, from the open ground of Gibeah. ³⁴ Ten thousand chosen men from all Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce; but they did not know that disaster was close upon them. ³⁵ And 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.

How the battle was won

³⁶ So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck down. Now the men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin, because they trusted the ambush which they had set against Gibeah. ³⁷ And the men in ambush hurried and rushed upon Gibeah; the ambush spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword. ³⁸ Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city. ³⁹ Then the men of Israel turned in the battle. Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about thirty men of Israel, for they said, "Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle." ⁴⁰ But when the cloud began to rise from the city in a pillar of smoke, Benjamin looked behind them, and there the whole city was going up in smoke to the heavens. ⁴¹ Then the men of Israel turned back, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, for they saw that disaster had come upon them. ⁴² So they turned their backs before the men of Israel toward the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them, and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in their midst. ⁴³ They surrounded Benjamin, pursued them, and trod them down where they rested, as far as opposite Gibeah toward the sunrise. ⁴⁴ And eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor. ⁴⁵ Then they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon; and they cut down five thousand of them on the highways, and pursued them hard as far as Gidom, and struck two thousand men of them. ⁴⁶ So all who fell of Benjamin that day 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 they stayed at the rock of Rimmon four months. ⁴⁸ And the men of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, from the people of the city to the livestock and all that was found; and they set on fire all the cities that they found.

Notes

• 20:5 The Levite tells the truth selectively: he says the men meant to kill him, where the narrator reported that they demanded to "know" him (19:22), and he leaves out that she was seized and put outside to them, most likely by his own hand (19:25). The assembly hears only his version.
• 20:10 Here and in verse 33 the Hebrew spells the name Geba, a related form of the same word, "hill." A separate town, "Geba of Benjamin," lay a few kilometers away (Joshua 18:24; 1 Samuel 13:16), but both verses speak of the city that committed the crime and that the ambush surrounded (verse 29), and the two names seem to be interchanged elsewhere too (compare 1 Samuel 13:2-3), so with many translations we read Gibeah. In verse 33 "open ground" (ma'areh) is an uncertain word; the Greek translation reads "west of Gibeah."
• 20:18 The question closely echoes the opening of the book (1:1-2), with one terrible change: at the beginning Judah went up first against the Canaanites; now Judah goes up first against Benjamin, a brother tribe. Bethel means "house of El," and some translate here "to the house of Elohim"; verse 27 explains why Israel inquired there.
• 20:28 Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, whose zeal at Peor won him a covenant of priesthood (Numbers 25:7-13), is still serving. The text does not say why Israel lost twice although Yahweh told them to go up; only after the second defeat do they fast and offer sacrifices, and only then does Yahweh promise victory, which many take to mean that the whole nation, not only Benjamin, needed to be humbled.
• 20:36 Verses 36-46 tell the same battle again in more detail, a common way of Hebrew storytelling: first the outcome (verses 29-35), then how it came about. The totals are given in round numbers: twenty-five thousand fell (verse 46) and six hundred escaped (verse 47), close to the twenty-six thousand seven hundred counted in verse 15, the difference perhaps being those who fell in the first two days.
• 20:40 The ambush and the rising smoke follow the plan by which Joshua took Ai (Joshua 8:2-21): Israel now fights one of its own cities as it once fought the Canaanites. "The whole city" is kelil, the word Deuteronomy 13:16 uses when an Israelite city that turned to other gods is burned "as a whole offering."

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