Judges 19:16-20:21
In the evening, an old man came in from his work in the field. He was from the hill country of Ephraim but was residing in Gibeah, and the men of that place were Benjaminites.When he looked up and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked,“ Where are you going, and where do you come from?”He answered him,“ We’re traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote hill country of Ephraim, where I am from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and now I’m going to the house of the Lord. No one has taken me into his home,although we have both straw and feed for our donkeys, and bread and wine for me, your female servant, and the young man with your servant. There is nothing we lack.”“ Peace to you,” said the old man.“ I’ll take care of everything you need. Only don’t spend the night in the square.”So he brought him to his house and fed the donkeys. Then they washed their feet and ate and drank.While they were enjoying themselves, all of a sudden, perverted men of the city surrounded the house and beat on the door. They said to the old man who was the owner of the house,“ Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him!”The owner of the house went out and said to them,“ No, don’t do this evil, my brothers. After all, this man has come into my house. Don’t do this horrible thing.Here, let me bring out my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine now. Use them and do whatever you want to them. But don’t do this horrible thing to this man.”But the men would not listen to him, so the man seized his concubine and took her outside to them. They raped her and abused her all night until morning. At daybreak they let her go.Early that morning, the woman made her way back, and as it was getting light, she collapsed at the doorway of the man’s house where her master was.When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went out to leave on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, collapsed near the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold.“ Get up,” he told her.“ Let’s go.” But there was no response. So the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.When he entered his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her into 12 pieces, limb by limb, and then sent her throughout the territory of Israel.Everyone who saw it said,“ Nothing like this has ever happened or has been seen since the day the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt to this day. Think it over, discuss it, and speak up!”All the Israelites from Dan to Beer-sheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the community assembled as one body before the Lord at Mizpah.The leaders of all the people and of all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of God’s people: 400,000 armed foot soldiers.The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. The Israelites asked,“ Tell us, how did this outrage occur?”The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered:“ I went to Gibeah in Benjamin with my concubine to spend the night.Citizens of Gibeah ganged up on me and surrounded the house at night. They intended to kill me, but they raped my concubine, and she died.Then I took my concubine and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout Israel’s territory, because they committed a horrible shame in Israel.Look, all of you are Israelites. Give your judgment and verdict here and now.”Then all the people stood united and said,“ None of us will go to his tent or return to his house.Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go against it by lot.We will take 10 men out of every 100 from all the tribes of Israel, and 100 out of every 1,000, and 1,000 out of every 10,000 to get provisions for the people when they go to Gibeah in Benjamin to punish them for all the horror they did in Israel.”So all the men of Israel gathered united against the city.Then the tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying,“ What is this outrage that has occurred among you?Hand over the perverted men in Gibeah so we can put them to death and eradicate evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites would not obey their fellow Israelites.Instead, the Benjaminites gathered together from their cities to Gibeah to go out and fight against the Israelites.On that day the Benjaminites rallied 26,000 armed men from their cities, besides 700 choice men rallied by the inhabitants of Gibeah.There were 700 choice men who were left-handed among all these people; all could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.The Israelites, apart from Benjamin, rallied 400,000 armed men, every one an experienced warrior.They set out, went to Bethel, and inquired of God. The Israelites asked,“ Who is to go first to fight for us against the Benjaminites?” And the Lord answered,“ Judah will be first.”In the morning, the Israelites set out and camped near Gibeah.The men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin and took their battle positions against Gibeah.The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and slaughtered 22,000 men of Israel on the field that day.