Judges 20:10-20

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.

Judges 20:10-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 20

This chapter relates, how that there was an assembly of the children of Israel at Mizpeh, upon what had happened to the concubine of the Levite, where he appeared and related the whole affair to them, Jud 20:1-7 upon which they unanimously agreed to chastise the inhabitants of Gibeah for what they had done, Jud 20:8-11, and in order to do that sent to the tribe of Benjamin to deliver the guilty, but instead of that they took to their arms, and prepared for battle in defence of them, Jud 20:12-17 and two battles ensued on this, in which the Israelites, who were on the right side of the question, were worsted, Jud 20:18-25 but upon their seeking the Lord again, and their humiliation before him, they engaged a third time in battle, and got an entire victory over the Benjaminites, and destroyed them all excepting six hundred men, Jud 20:26-48.

Footnotes

• [a]. [One ancient translation] Gibeah; [Hebrew] Geba.
• [b]. [Some ancient translations] men; [Hebrew] men. In all this number there were seven hundred specially chosen men.