Judges 20:1-23

So all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, joined together before the LORD in the city of Mizpah. The leaders of all the tribes of Israel took their places in the meeting of the people of God. There were 400,000 soldiers with swords. (The people of Benjamin heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said to the Levite, “Tell us how this evil thing happened.” So the husband of the murdered woman answered, “My slave woman and I came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night. During the night the men of Gibeah came after me. They surrounded the house and wanted to kill me. They forced my slave woman to have sexual relations and she died. I took her and cut her into parts and sent one part to each area of Israel because the people of Benjamin did this wicked and terrible thing in Israel. Now, all you Israelites, speak up. What is your decision?” Then all the people stood up at the same time, saying, “None of us will go home. Not one of us will go back to his house! Now this is what we will do to Gibeah. We will throw lots. That way we will choose ten men from every hundred men from all the tribes of Israel, and we will choose a hundred men from every thousand, and a thousand men from every ten thousand. These will find supplies for the army. Then the army will go to the city of Gibeah of Benjamin to repay them for the terrible thing they have done in Israel.” So all the men of Israel were united and gathered against the city. The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin demanding, “What is this evil thing some of your men have done? Hand over the wicked men in Gibeah so that we can put them to death. We must remove this evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. The Benjaminites left their own cities and met at Gibeah to fight the Israelites. In only one day the Benjaminites got 26,000 soldiers together who were trained with swords. They also had 700 chosen men from Gibeah. Seven hundred of these trained soldiers were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss! The Israelites, except for the Benjaminites, gathered 400,000 soldiers with swords. The Israelites went up to the city of Bethel and asked God, “Which tribe shall be first to attack the Benjaminites?” The LORD answered, “Judah shall go first.” The next morning the Israelites got up and made a camp near Gibeah. The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjaminites and took their battle position at Gibeah. Then the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and killed 22,000 Israelites during the battle that day. The Israelites went before the LORD and cried until evening. They asked the LORD, “Shall we go to fight our relatives, the Benjaminites, again?” The LORD answered, “Go up and fight them.” The men of Israel encouraged each other. So they took the same battle positions they had taken the first day.

Free Reading Plans and Devotionals related to Judges 20:1-23