Benjamin

They went up and wept before the LORD until evening, inquiring of Him, “Should we again draw near for battle against our brothers the Benjamites?” And the LORD answered, “Go up against them.”

On the second day the Israelites advanced against the Benjamites.

That same day the Benjamites came out against them from Gibeah and cut down another 18,000 Israelites, all of them armed with swords.

and Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, served before it.) The Israelites asked, “Should we again go out to battle against our brothers the Benjamites, or should we stop?” The LORD answered, “Fight, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.”

On the third day the Israelites went up against the Benjamites and arrayed themselves against Gibeah as they had done before.

The Benjamites came out against them and were drawn away from the city. They began to attack the people as before, killing about thirty men of Israel in the fields and on the roads, one of which led up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.

“We are defeating them as before,” said the Benjamites. But the Israelites said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city onto the roads.”

The LORD defeated Benjamin in the presence of Israel, and on that day the Israelites slaughtered 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords.

Then the Benjamites realized they had been defeated. Now the men of Israel had retreated before Benjamin because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah.

the men of Israel would turn in the battle. When the Benjamites had begun to strike them down, killing about thirty men of Israel, they said, “They are defeated before us as in the first battle.”

Then the men of Israel turned back on them, and the men of Benjamin were terrified when they realized that disaster had come upon them.

And 18,000 Benjamites fell, all men of valor.

That day 25,000 Benjamite swordsmen fell, all men of valor.

And the men of Israel turned back against the other Benjamites and put to the sword all the cities, including the animals and everything else they found. And they burned down all the cities in their path.

Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.”

And the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the Benjamites, and said, “Today a tribe is cut off from Israel.

Then the whole congregation sent a message of peace to the Benjamites who were at the rock of Rimmon.

And at that time the Benjamites returned and were given the women who were spared from Jabesh-gilead. But there were not enough women for all of them.

The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a void in the tribes of Israel.

Then the elders of the congregation said, “What should we do about wives for those who remain, since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?”

They added, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out.

But we cannot give them our daughters as wives.” For the Israelites had sworn, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to a Benjamite.”

So they commanded the Benjamites: “Go, hide in the vineyards

and watch. When you see the daughters of Shiloh come out to perform their dances, each of you is to come out of the vineyards, catch for himself a wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

The Benjamites did as instructed and carried away the number of women they needed from the dancers they caught. They went back to their own inheritance, rebuilt their cities, and settled in them.