The Judges & Ruth

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.”

So all the men of Israel got up from their places and arrayed themselves at Baal-tamar, and the Israelites in ambush charged from their positions west of Gibeah.

Then 10,000 select men from all Israel made a frontal assault against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjamites did not realize that disaster was upon them.

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 in ambush rushed suddenly against Gibeah; they advanced and put the whole city to the sword.

The men of Israel had arranged a signal with the men in ambush: When they sent up a great cloud of smoke from the city,

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.”

But when the column of smoke began to go up from the city, the Benjamites looked behind them and saw the whole city going up in smoke.

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.

So they fled before the men of Israel toward the wilderness, but the battle overtook them, and the men coming out of the cities struck them down there.

They surrounded the Benjamites, pursued them, and easily overtook them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east.

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

Then the Benjamites turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and Israel cut down 5,000 men on the roads. And they overtook them at Gidom and struck down 2,000 more.

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

But 600 men turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months.

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.”

So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, lifting up their voices and weeping bitterly.

“Why, O LORD God of Israel,” they cried out, “has this happened in Israel? Today in Israel one tribe is missing!”

The next day the people got up early, built an altar there, and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings.

The Israelites asked, “Who among all the tribes of Israel did not come to the assembly before the LORD?” For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to come up before the LORD at Mizpah would surely be put to death.

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

What should we do about wives for the survivors, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them our daughters in marriage?”