Parallel Bible results for "judges 20"

Judges 20

The Bible in Basic English BBE

1 Then all the children of Israel took up arms, and the people came together like one man, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and the land of Gilead, before the Lord at Mizpah.

2 And the chiefs of the people, out of all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the meeting of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen armed with swords.

3 (Now the children of Benjamin had word that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the children of Israel said, Make clear how this evil thing took place.

4 Then the Levite, the husband of the dead woman, said in answer, I came to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin, I and my servant-wife, for the purpose of stopping there for the night.

5 And the townsmen of Gibeah came together against me, going round the house on all sides by night; it was their purpose to put me to death, and my servant-wife was violently used by them and is dead.

6 So I took her, cutting her into parts which I sent through all the country of the heritage of Israel: for they have done an act of shame in Israel.

7 Here you all are, you children of Israel; give now your suggestions about what is to be done.

8 Then all the people got up as one man and said, Not one of us will go to his tent or go back to his house:

9 But this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by the decision of the Lord;

10 And we will take ten men out of every hundred, through all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, a thousand out of every ten thousand, to get food for the people, so that they may give to Gibeah of Benjamin the right punishment for the act of shame they have done in Israel.

11 So all the men of Israel were banded together against the town, united like one man.

12 And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying, What is this evil which has been done among you?

13 Now give up those good-for-nothing persons in Gibeah so that we may put them to death, clearing away the evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not give ear to the voice of their brothers, the children of Israel.

14 And the children of Benjamin came together from all their towns to Gibeah, to go to war with the children of Israel.

15 And the children of Benjamin who came that day from the towns were twenty-six thousand men armed with swords, in addition to the people of Gibeah, numbering seven hundred of the best fighting-men,

16 Who were left-handed, able to send a stone at a hair without error.

17 And the men of Israel, other than Benjamin, were four hundred thousand in number, all armed with swords; they were all men of war.

18 And they got up and went up to Beth-el to get directions from God, and the children of Israel said, Who is to be the first to go up to the fight against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah is to go up first.

19 So the children of Israel got up in the morning and put themselves in position against Gibeah.

20 And the men of Israel went out to war against Benjamin (and the men of Israel put their forces in fighting order against them at Gibeah).

21 Then the children of Benjamin came out from Gibeah, cutting down twenty-two thousand of the Israelites that day.

22 But the people, the men of Israel, taking heart again, put their forces in order and took up the same position as on the first day.

23 Now the children of Israel went up, weeping before the Lord till evening, requesting the Lord and saying, Am I to go forward again to the fight against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the Lord said, Go up against him.

24 So the children of Israel went forward against the children of Benjamin the second day.

25 And the second day Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah, cutting down eighteen thousand men of the children of Israel, all swordsmen.

26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up to Beth-el, weeping and waiting there before the Lord, going without food all day till evening, and offering burned offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord.

27 And the children of Israel made request to the Lord, (for the ark of the agreement of the Lord was there in those days,

28 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was in his place before it,) and said, Am I still to go on with the fight against the children of Benjamin my brother, or am I to give it up? And the Lord said, Go on; for tomorrow I will give him into your hands.

29 So Israel put men secretly all round Gibeah to make a surprise attack on it.

30 And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in fighting order against Gibeah as before.

31 And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, moving away from the town; and as before, at their first attack, they put to death about thirty men of Israel on the highways, of which one goes up to Beth-el and the other to Gibeah, and in the open country.

32 And the children of Benjamin said, They are giving way before us as at first. But the children of Israel said, Let us go in flight and get them away from the town, into the highways.

33 So all the men of Israel got up and put themselves in fighting order at Baal-tamar: and those who had been waiting secretly to make a surprise attack came rushing out of their place on the west of Geba.

34 And they came in front of Gibeah, ten thousand of the best men in all Israel, and the fighting became more violent; but the children of Benjamin were not conscious that evil was coming on them.

35 Then the Lord sent sudden fear on Benjamin before Israel; and that day the children of Israel put to death twenty-five thousand, one hundred men of Benjamin, all of them swordsmen.

36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were overcome: and the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, putting their faith in the watchers who were to make the surprise attack on Gibeah.

37 And the watchers, rushing on Gibeah and overrunning it, put all the town to the sword without mercy.

38 Now the sign fixed between the men of Israel and those making the surprise attack was that when they made a pillar of smoke go up from the town,

39 The men of Israel were to make a turn about in the fight. And Benjamin had overcome and put to death about thirty of the men of Israel, and were saying, Certainly they are falling back before us as in the first fight.

40 Then the sign went up out of the town in the pillar of smoke, and the Benjamites, turning back, saw all the town going up in smoke to heaven.

41 And the men of Israel had made a turn about, and the men of Benjamin were overcome with fear, for they saw that evil had overtaken them.

42 So turning their backs on the men of Israel, they went in the direction of the waste land; but the fight overtook them; and those who came out of the town were heading them off and putting them to the sword.

43 And crushing Benjamin down, they went after them, driving them from Nohah as far as the east side of Gibeah.

44 Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin came to their death, all strong men of war.

45 And turning, they went in flight to the rock of Rimmon in the waste land: and on the highways five thousand of them were cut off by the men of Israel, who, pushing on hard after them to Geba, put to death two thousand more.

46 So twenty-five thousand of the swordsmen of Benjamin came to their end that day, all strong men of war.

47 But six hundred men, turning back, went in flight to the rock of Rimmon in the waste land, and were living on the rock of Rimmon for four months.

48 And the men of Israel, turning again against the children of Benjamin, put to the sword without mercy all the towns and the cattle and everything there was, burning every town which came into their hands.

Good News Translation GNT

1 All the people of Israel from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, as well as from the land of Gilead in the east, answered the call. They gathered in one body in the Lord's presence at Mizpah.

2 The leaders of all the tribes of Israel were present at this gathering of God's people, and there were 400,000 foot soldiers.

3 Meanwhile the people of Benjamin heard that all the other Israelites had gathered at Mizpah. The Israelites asked, "Tell us, how was this crime committed?"

4 The Levite whose concubine had been murdered answered, "My concubine and I went to Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin to spend the night.

5 The men of Gibeah came to get me and surrounded the house at night. They intended to kill me; instead they raped my concubine, and she died.

6 I took her body, cut it in pieces, and sent one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. These people have committed an evil and immoral act among us.

7 All of you here are Israelites. What are we going to do about this?"

8 All the people stood up together and said, "None of us, whether he lives in a tent or in a house, will go home.

9 This is what we will do: we will draw lots and choose some men to attack Gibeah.

10 One tenth of the men in Israel will provide food for the army, and the others will go and punish Gibeah for this immoral act that they have committed in Israel."

11 So all the men in Israel assembled with one purpose - to attack the town.

12 The Israelite tribes sent messengers all through the territory of the tribe of Benjamin to say, "What is this crime that you have committed?

13 Now hand over those perverts in Gibeah, so that we can kill them and remove this evil from Israel." But the people of Benjamin paid no attention to the other Israelites.

14 From all the cities of Benjamin they came to Gibeah to fight the other people of Israel.

15 They called out twenty-six thousand soldiers from their cities that day. Besides these, the citizens of Gibeah gathered seven hundred specially chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a strand of hair and never miss.

17 Not counting the tribe of Benjamin, the Israelites gathered 400,000 trained soldiers.

18 The Israelites went to the place of worship at Bethel, and there they asked God, "Which tribe should attack the Benjaminites first?" The Lord answered, "The tribe of Judah."

19 So the Israelites started out the next morning and camped near the city of Gibeah.

20 They went to attack the army of Benjamin, and placed the soldiers in position facing the city.

21 The army of Benjamin came out of the city, and before the day was over they had killed twenty-two thousand Israelite soldiers.

22 Then the Israelites went to the place of worship and mourned in the presence of the Lord until evening. They asked him, "Should we go again into battle against our brothers the Benjaminites?" The Lord answered, "Yes." So the Israelite army was encouraged, and they placed their soldiers in position again, where they had been the day before.

24 They marched against the army of Benjamin a second time.

25 And for the second time the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah, and this time they killed eighteen thousand trained Israelite soldiers.

26 Then all the people of Israel went up to Bethel and mourned. They sat there in the Lord's presence and did not eat until evening. They offered fellowship sacrifices and burned some sacrifices whole - all in the presence of the Lord.

27 God's Covenant Box was there at Bethel in those days, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, was in charge of it. The people asked the Lord, "Should we go out to fight our brothers the Benjaminites again, or should we give up?" The Lord answered, "Fight. Tomorrow I will give you victory over them."

29 So the Israelites put some soldiers in hiding around Gibeah.

30 Then for the third straight day they marched against the army of Benjamin and placed their soldiers in battle position facing Gibeah, as they had done before.

31 The Benjaminites came out to fight and were led away from the city. As they had before, they began killing some Israelites in the open country, on the road to Bethel and on the road to Gibeah. They killed about thirty Israelites.

32 The Benjaminites said, "We've beaten them just as before." But the Israelites had planned to retreat and lead them away from the city onto the roads.

33 So when the main army of the Israelites pulled back and regrouped at Baaltamar, the men surrounding Gibeah suddenly rushed out of their hiding places in the rocky country around the city.

34 Ten thousand men, specially chosen out of all Israel, attacked Gibeah, and the fighting was hard. The Benjaminites had not realized that they were about to be destroyed.

35 The Lord gave Israel victory over the army of Benjamin. The Israelites killed 25,100 of the enemy that day,

36 and the Benjaminites realized they were defeated. The main body of the Israelite army had retreated from the Benjaminites because they were relying on the men that they had put in hiding around Gibeah.

37 These men ran quickly toward Gibeah; they spread out in the city and killed everyone there.

38 The main Israelite army and the men in hiding had arranged a signal. When they saw a big cloud of smoke going up from the town,

39 the Israelites out on the battlefield were to turn around. By this time the Benjaminites had already killed the thirty Israelites. They told themselves, "Yes, we've beaten them just as before."

40 Then the signal appeared; a cloud of smoke began to go up from the town. The Benjaminites looked behind them and were amazed to see the whole city going up in flames.

41 Then the Israelites turned around, and the Benjaminites were thrown into panic because they realized that they were about to be destroyed.

42 They retreated from the Israelites and ran toward the open country, but they could not escape. They were caught between the main army and the men who were now coming out of the city, and they were destroyed.

43 The Israelites had the enemy trapped, and without stopping they pursued them as far as a point east of Gibeah, killing them as they went.

44 Eighteen thousand of the best Benjaminite soldiers were killed.

45 The others turned and ran toward the open country to Rimmon Rock. Five thousand of them were killed on the roads. The Israelites continued to pursue the rest to Gidom, killing two thousand.

46 In all, twenty-five thousand Benjaminites were killed that day - all of them brave soldiers.

47 But six hundred men were able to escape to the open country to Rimmon Rock, and they stayed there four months.

48 The Israelites turned back against the rest of the Benjaminites and killed them all - men, women, and children, and animals as well. They burned every town in the area.