Parallel Bible results for "judges 20"

Judges 20

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.

World English Bible WEB

1 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Yahweh at Mizpah.

2 The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword.

3 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, Tell us, how was this wickedness brought to pass?

4 The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.

5 The men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about me by night; me they thought to have slain, and my concubine they forced, and she is dead.

6 I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

7 Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.

8 All the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn to his house.

9 But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: [we will go up] against it by lot;

10 and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to get victuals for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have worked in Israel.

11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

12 The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is happen among you?

13 Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Israel.

14 The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

15 The children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

17 The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war.

18 The children of Israel arose, and went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin? Yahweh said, Judah [shall go up] first.

19 The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.

20 The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.

21 The children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day Twenty-two thousand men.

22 The people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day.

24 The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.

25 Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until even; and they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before Yahweh.

27 The children of Israel asked of Yahweh (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

29 Israel set liers-in-wait against Gibeah round about.

30 The children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

31 The children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

32 The children of Benjamin said, They are struck down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.

33 All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers-in-wait of Israel broke forth out of their place, even out of Maareh-geba.

34 There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they didn't know that evil was close on them.

35 Yahweh struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword.

36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted to the liers-in-wait whom they had set against Gibeah.

37 The liers-in-wait hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the liers-in-wait drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.

38 Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers-in-wait was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.

39 The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle.

40 But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky.

41 The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them.

42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst of it.

43 They enclosed the Benjamites round about, [and] chased them, [and] trod them down at [their] resting-place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrise.

44 There fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these [were] men of valor.

45 They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men.

46 So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these [were] men of valor.

47 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four months.

48 The men of Israel turned again on the children of Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the cattle, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire.