Beginning
A Levite and his slave wife
19 At that time, Israel had no king to rule over them. There was a Levite who was living in the hill country of Ephraim, far away from any towns. He took a woman from Bethlehem in Judah to be his slave wife. 2 But she became angry with him. She left him and she returned to her father's house in Bethlehem. After she had been there four months, 3 her husband went to find her. He wanted to ask her to return home with him. He took his servant and two donkeys with him. When he arrived, she took him into her father's house. Her father was happy to see him. 4 He asked the Levite to stay there with them, and he stayed for three days. They ate food and they drank wine together. The Levite slept there.
5 On the fourth day they got up early. The Levite was ready to leave with his wife. But the woman's father said to the Levite, ‘Eat some food so that you are strong for your journey. Then you may go.’ 6 So the two men sat down and they ate a meal together. Then the woman's father said to the Levite, ‘Stay here one more night. Then we can continue to be happy together.’ 7 The Levite got up to go, but his wife's father made him stay. 8 The Levite got up early in the morning of the fifth day. He was ready to leave. But the woman's father said, ‘Make yourself strong with some food. Wait until this afternoon and then you can go.’ So the two of them ate a meal together.
9 The Levite prepared to leave with his wife and his male servant. Then her father said, ‘Look! It is nearly evening already. Sleep here tonight. The day is almost over. Stay one more night and enjoy yourself. Early tomorrow morning you can leave on your journey to go home.’ 10 But the Levite did not want to stay there for another night. So he left with his two donkeys and his wife. They travelled as far as Jebus, which is now called Jerusalem.
11 When they arrived near to Jebus, it was getting dark. The servant said to his master, ‘Let us stay in this city of the Jebusites. We can sleep here for the night.’
12 The Levite replied, ‘No, we should not stay in a foreign city. The people who live here are not Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah.’ 13 He said to his servant, ‘Let us try to reach Gibeah or Ramah. Then we can stay in one of those places for the night.’
14 So they continued on their journey. It was sunset when they came near to Gibeah, in Benjamin's land. 15 They decided to stay there for the night. They went into the city. They sat down in the public place in the middle of the city. But no one took them in to their home to sleep for the night.
16 That evening, there was an old man who was returning home from his work in the fields. He was from the hill country of Ephraim but he was living in Gibeah at that time. 17 He saw the Levite traveller in the public place. He asked, ‘Where are you travelling to? Where have you come from?’
18 The Levite answered, ‘We are travelling from Bethlehem in Judah to the hill country of Ephraim, far from other towns. That is where I live. I needed to go to Bethlehem and now I am returning home.[a] But no one has taken me into his house to sleep. 19 We have straw and food for our donkeys. We have food and wine for myself, my wife and my servant. We have everything that we need.’ 20 The old man said, ‘Do not worry. I will take care of you. Please come into my house, but do not stay for the night in this public place.’
21 So the old man took the Levite into his house, and he fed the donkeys. When they had washed their feet, they ate a meal.
22 They were enjoying their time together. Suddenly, some wicked men who lived in the city came to the house. They stood all around it and they hit the door hard. They shouted to the old man who lived there, ‘Bring out the man who came to visit you. We want to have sex with him.’
23 The old man went outside to them. He said to them, ‘Friends, do not try to do this very evil thing! This man is a visitor in my house. Do not do such a wicked thing. 24 Look! Here is my daughter. She has never had sex with anyone before. Here is my visitor's slave wife too. I will bring them outside to you. Then you can do whatever cruel things you want to do to them. But do not do such a terrible thing to this man.’
25 But the men would not agree to this. So the Levite took hold of his slave wife and he pushed her outside. They made her have sex with them all night and they were very cruel to her. At dawn, they let her go. 26 She went back to the house where her master was staying. She fell down at the door and she lay there until it became light.
27 When her master got up in the morning, he opened the door. He was ready to continue his journey. He saw the woman who was his wife lying on the ground outside the door. She was trying to reach the door with her hands.
28 He said to her, ‘Get up. It is time to go!’ But she did not answer. Then he put her on his donkey and he started on his way home.
29 When he arrived home, he picked up a knife. He cut his slave wife's body into 12 pieces. Then he sent them to each of Israel's 12 tribes. 30 Everyone who saw what he had done said, ‘In all the time since the Israelites left Egypt, nothing as bad as this has ever happened before. We have never seen anything like it. Think carefully about it. We must decide what to do!’
War against Benjamin's tribe
20 Then all the Israelites agreed to come together. They came from everywhere in Israel, from Dan in the north as far as Beersheba in the south. They also came from the Gilead region on the east side of the Jordan River. They all came together at Mizpah, to meet with the Lord. 2 The leaders of all Israel's tribes stood there with the people of God. There were 400,000 Israelite men who had their weapons, ready to fight. 3 By this time, the people of Benjamin's tribe had heard the news that the other tribes were meeting in Mizpah.
Then the Israelites asked, ‘Tell us how this evil thing happened.’
4 So the Levite, the husband of the dead woman, told them. He said, ‘My slave wife and I arrived in Gibeah to sleep there for the night. It is a town that belongs to the people of Benjamin's tribe. 5 That night some important men of Gibeah came to the house to attack me. They stood all around the house. They wanted to kill me, but they took hold of my wife instead. They made her have sex with them, and she died. 6 I took her body home and I cut it into 12 pieces. I sent the pieces everywhere in the land of Israel. I did this to show what a terrible thing these men had done. 7 So now all you people of Israel must decide what you will do about it.’
8 All the people stood up together. They all promised, ‘None of us will go home. Not one of us will return to his house. 9 Instead, this is what we will do to the people of Gibeah. We will use lots to decide who should attack the city. 10 We will take ten men from every 100 men in each tribe. We will take 100 men from every 1,000 men, and 1,000 men from every 10,000 men. Those men will find food for the other soldiers. That will be their job. Then the other soldiers will be able to attack Gibeah. They will punish Gibeah's people as they deserve for the terrible thing that they have done.’ 11 So all the Israelites agreed together that they would attack Gibeah, in the land of Benjamin.
12 The Israelite tribes sent men with a message to all the places in Benjamin. They said, ‘You must know that some of your men have done an evil thing. 13 Send those wicked men of Gibeah out to us. We must punish them with death. Only that will remove this terrible sin from Israel.’
But the people of Benjamin did not agree to do that. 14 Instead, they came from all their towns and they met together at Gibeah to fight against the other Israelites. 15 26,000 soldiers came to Gibeah with their weapons, ready to fight. There were also 700 brave soldiers already in Gibeah. 16 In Benjamin's army there were 700 men who used their left hands to fight. Each of them could use a sling to throw a stone at a very small thing. They could even hit a hair!
17 The other Israelite tribes, without Benjamin, had an army of 400,000 soldiers who knew how to use their weapons. 18 They went to Bethel.[b] They asked God which tribe should go first to attack Benjamin's army. The Lord replied, ‘Judah must go first.’
19 The next morning, the Israelites got up and they prepared to attack Gibeah. 20 The Israelite army marched forward to fight against Benjamin's army. They stood in their places around the city. 21 Benjamin's soldiers came out of Gibeah to attack. They killed 22,000 Israelites in the battle that day.
22-23 The Israelite soldiers told each other to be brave. They went to meet with the Lord and they wept until the evening. They asked the Lord, ‘Should we march out again to fight against our relatives, the men of Benjamin?’ The Lord said, ‘Yes, attack them.’ So they went to stand in the same places around the city as they had done the day before.
24 The Israelites went to fight against Benjamin's army on the second day. 25 This time, when the soldiers of Benjamin came out of Gibeah to attack them, they killed another 18,000 Israelite soldiers in the battle.
26 Then the whole Israelite army went back to Bethel to meet with the Lord. They sat there and they wept. They did not eat any food that day until evening. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord.
27-28 The Covenant Box was in Bethel at that time. Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, was the priest who served the Lord there. The Israelites asked the Lord, ‘Should we march out to fight against our relatives, the men of Benjamin, again? Or should we leave them?’ The Lord said, ‘Attack them. Tomorrow I will put them under your power.’
29 This time, the Israelites made some of their soldiers hide in places around Gibeah. 30 On the third day, their other soldiers stood in the same places as before. They were ready to fight. 31 The soldiers of Benjamin came out of Gibeah to attack them. But the Israelites moved away from the city so that Benjamin's soldiers chased after them. The men of Benjamin began to kill the Israelites, as they had done before. They killed about 30 Israelites in the fields and on the roads that went to Bethel and Gibeah.
32 The soldiers of Benjamin were saying, ‘We are winning against them, as we have done before!’ But the Israelites were saying, ‘We will continue to run away so that their soldiers chase us. We will lead them away from the city onto the roads.’
33 When the men of Israel reached Baal Tamar, they stopped there. They stood in their places, ready to fight. At the same time, the Israelite soldiers who had hidden themselves on the west side of Gibeah ran out of their places. 34 10,000 Israelite soldiers who knew how to fight well attacked Gibeah. There was a big battle. The men of Benjamin did not realize that they were in a lot of trouble.
35 The Lord destroyed Benjamin's army as the Israelites attacked them. Israel's soldiers killed more than 25,000 soldiers of Benjamin's army that day. 36 Finally, the men of Benjamin realized that they had lost the battle.
This is how it happened: Israel's soldiers let Benjamin's army chase after them. They trusted the soldiers who were hiding around Gibeah to attack the city. 37-38 The Israelites had agreed a sign with their men who were hiding. When those men ran into Gibeah and they destroyed everything there, they would make the sign. They would light a big fire so that the smoke went up into the sky. 39 Then the other Israelite soldiers would turn round to attack the soldiers who were chasing them.
Benjamin's soldiers had begun to kill the Israelites. When they had killed about 30 of them, they said, ‘Look! We are winning again, as we always do!’ 40 Then they turned and they saw the tall pillar of smoke. It was rising from their city up to the sky. 41 The Israelite soldiers saw the sign and they attacked the soldiers of Benjamin. The men of Benjamin suddenly became very afraid. They realized that they were in a lot of trouble. 42 So they ran away on the road towards the desert while the Israelites chased after them. But they could not escape from the Israelites. Israelite men came out from their towns and killed them in the battle. 43 They attacked Benjamin's soldiers from all sides and they continued to chase them. They were killing them all the way to a place on the east of Gibeah.
44 They killed 18,000 strong soldiers of Benjamin's tribe. 45 The rest of Benjamin's soldiers ran towards the desert, as far as the rock of Rimmon. The Israelites killed 5,000 of them as they ran along the roads. They chased them to Gidom, and they killed 2,000 more of Benjamin's soldiers there.
46 On that day, 25,000 soldiers of Benjamin's tribe died. They were all brave men who knew how to fight well. 47 But 600 soldiers turned and ran away to the rock of Rimmon. They stayed there for four months.
48 The Israelites returned to the land that belonged to Benjamin's tribe. They killed the people and animals in all the towns there. As they came to each town, they destroyed it with fire.
Wives for the men of Benjamin's tribe
21 The Israelites had made a promise to the Lord at Mizpah. They agreed together, ‘None of us will allow our daughters to marry a man of Benjamin's tribe.’
2 After the war against Benjamin's army, the people went to Bethel to meet with God. They sat there until evening. They could not stop weeping loudly. 3 They said, ‘Lord, Israel's God, why has this terrible thing happened in Israel? We have lost one whole tribe of Israel.’
4 The next morning, the people got up early. They built an altar. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord there.
5 Then the Israelites asked, ‘Which people from Israel's tribes did not join us when we all met together at Mizpah?’ They asked this because they had made a serious promise at Mizpah. They had said, ‘We must punish with death anyone who does not join us here to meet with the Lord.’
6 The Israelites were very upset about what had happened to Benjamin's tribe. They said, ‘We have destroyed a whole tribe of Israel. They were our relatives. 7 How can we find women to marry the few men who are left? We all made a serious promise to the Lord that we would not let them marry our daughters.’
8 So they asked, ‘When we met with the Lord at Mizpah, which people from all Israel's tribes did not come with us?’ They realized that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the meeting. 9 When they had counted the people, there had been no men from Jabesh Gilead among them.
10 So all the Israelites decided to send an army of 12,000 soldiers to attack Jabesh Gilead. They commanded them, ‘Use your swords to kill everyone there, including the women and children. 11 This is what you must do: Kill every male and every woman who has slept with a man. But do not kill the women who have never had sex.’
12 The Israelite army attacked Jabesh Gilead. They found 400 young women who had not had sex with anyone. They took the women back to their camp at Shiloh in Canaan.
13 Then all the Israelites sent a message of peace to the men of Benjamin who were still at the rock of Rimmon. 14 So the men returned from the rock at that time. The Israelites gave the women of Jabesh Gilead that they had not killed to them. But there were not enough women for all the men of Benjamin.
15 The Israelite people were very sad about what had happened to Benjamin's tribe. The Lord had caused their tribe to become very weak. 16 The Israelite leaders asked, ‘How can we find wives for the other men of Benjamin? We killed all their own women. 17 Benjamin's people who are still alive must have children. If they do not, their whole tribe will disappear. 18 But we cannot allow our daughters to marry them. We promised that we would never do that. We said, “God himself will punish anyone who allows his daughter to marry a man of Benjamin.” 19 But every year there is a big feast at Shiloh to give honour to the Lord. That will happen soon.’
Shiloh is north of Bethel and south of Lebonah. It is on the east side of the road from Bethel to Shechem. 20 The Israelites told the men of Benjamin, ‘Go there and hide in the vineyards. 21 Watch carefully. When the young women of Shiloh come out to dance at the feast, run out from the vineyards. Each of you should catch one of the young women of Shiloh. Take them home to the land of Benjamin to be your wives. 22 Their fathers or their brothers may come to us and complain. If they do, we will say, “Please agree to help the men of Benjamin. We could not find a wife for each of them in the war. You did not choose to give your daughters to them, so you will not be guilty. The men of Benjamin caught them and took them away.” ’
23 So that is what the 200 men of Benjamin did. Each of them caught a young woman as she was dancing at the feast. They took them home to their own land to be their wives. They built their towns again and they lived in them.
24 After that, the Israelites left there. They went back home to the places where their tribes and their clans lived.
25 At that time, Israel had no king to rule over them. Everyone did what they thought was right.
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