A Levite and His Servant

19 At that time the people of Israel did not have a king.

There was a Levite who lived in the faraway part of the mountains of Ephraim. He had taken a slave woman. She was from the city of Bethlehem in the land of Judah. ² But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her father’s house. It was in Bethlehem in Judah. She stayed there for four months. ³ Then her husband went to ask her to come back to him. He took with him his servant and two donkeys. The Levite came to her father’s house. And she invited the Levite to come in. Her father was happy to see him. ⁴ The father-in-law, the young woman’s father, asked him to stay. So he stayed for three days. He ate, drank and slept there.

⁵ On the fourth day they got up early in the morning. The Levite was getting ready to leave. But the woman’s father said to his son-in-law, “Refresh yourself by eating something. Then you may go.” ⁶ So the two men sat down to eat and drink together. After that, the father said to him, “Please stay tonight. Relax and enjoy yourself.” ⁷ When the man got up to go, his father-in-law asked him to stay. So he stayed again that night. ⁸ On the fifth day the man got up early in the morning to leave. The woman’s father said, “Refresh yourself. Wait until this afternoon.” So the two men ate together.

⁹ Then the Levite, his slave woman and his servant got up to leave. His father-in-law, the young woman’s father, said, “It’s almost night. The day is almost gone. So spend the night here and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow morning you may get up early and go on your way home.” ¹⁰ But the Levite did not want to stay another night. He took his two saddled donkeys and his slave woman. He traveled toward the city of Jebus. (Jebus is another name for Jerusalem.)

¹¹ The day was almost over. They were near Jebus. So the servant said to his master, “Let’s stop at this city. It’s the city of the Jebusite people. Let’s spend the night here.”

¹² But his master said, “No. We won’t go inside a strange city. Those people are not Israelites. We will go on to the city of Gibeah.” ¹³ Then he said, “Come on. Let’s try to make it to Gibeah or Ramah. We can spend the night in one of those cities.” ¹⁴ So they went on. And the sun went down as they came near Gibeah. Gibeah belongs to the tribe of Benjamin. ¹⁵ So they stopped there to spend the night. They came to the public square in the middle of the city and sat down. But no one invited them home to spend the night.

¹⁶ That evening an old man came into the city from his work in the fields. His home was in the mountains of Ephraim. But now he was living in Gibeah. (The men of Gibeah were from the tribe of Benjamin.) ¹⁷ He saw the traveler, the Levite, in the public square. He asked, “Where are you going? Where did you come from?”

¹⁸ The Levite answered, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah. We’re going to my home. I’m from a faraway part of the mountains of Ephraim. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah. Now I am going to the Holy Tent of the Lord. No one has invited me to stay in his house. ¹⁹ We already have straw and food for our donkeys. There is bread and wine for me, the young woman and my servant. We don’t need anything.”

²⁰ The old man said, “You are welcome to stay at my house. Let me give you anything you need. But don’t spend the night in the public square.” ²¹ So the old man took the Levite into his house. He fed their donkeys, and they washed their feet. Then he gave them something to eat and drink.

²² While they were enjoying themselves, some wicked men of the city surrounded the house. They beat on the door. They shouted to the old man who owned the house. They said, “Bring out the man who came to your house. We want to force him to have physical relations with us.”

²³ The owner of the house went outside. And he said to them, “No, my friends. Don’t be so evil. This man is a guest in my house. Don’t do this terrible thing! ²⁴ Look, here is my daughter. She is a virgin. And here is the man’s slave woman. I will bring them out to you now. Do anything you want with them. But don’t do such a terrible thing to this man.”

²⁵ But the men would not listen to him. So the Levite took his slave woman and sent her outside to them. They raped her. They treated her very badly all night long. Then, at dawn, they let her go. ²⁶ She came back to the house where her master was staying. She fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.

²⁷ In the morning the Levite got up. He opened the door of the house. He went outside to go on his way. But there lay his slave woman. She had fallen down at the doorway of the house. Her hands were on the doorsill. ²⁸ Then the Levite said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But she did not answer. So he put her on his donkey and went home.

²⁹ When the Levite got home, he took a knife and cut his slave woman into 12 parts. Then he sent a part to each of the areas where the people of Israel lived. ³⁰ Everyone who saw this said, “Nothing like this has ever happened before. It has never happened since the people of Israel came out of Egypt. Think about it. Tell us what to do.”

The War Between Israel and Benjamin

20 So all the Israelites joined together. They came to stand before the Lord in the city of Mizpah. They came from as far away as the cities of Dan and Beersheba.^[a] Even the Israelites from the land of Gilead were there. ² The leaders of all the tribes of Israel were there. They took their places in the meeting of the people of God. There were 400,000 soldiers with swords. ³ (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.”

⁴ So the husband of the murdered woman answered: “My slave woman and I came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night. ⁵ During the night the men of Gibeah came after me. They surrounded the house and wanted to kill me. They raped my slave woman. And she died! ⁶ So I took her and cut her into parts. Then I sent one part to each area of Israel’s land. I did it because the people of Benjamin have done this wicked and terrible thing in Israel. ⁷ Now, all you men of Israel, speak up. Tell what you have decided we should do.”

⁸ Then all the people stood up at the same time. They said, “None of us will go home. Not one of us will go back to his house! ⁹ Now this is what we will do to Gibeah. We will throw lots so that God can show us what to do. ¹⁰ We will choose 10 men from each 100 men. They will be from all the tribes of Israel. And we will choose 100 men from each 1,000. We will choose 1,000 men from each 10,000. These men will find supplies for the army. Then the army will go to the city of Gibeah of Benjamin. They will repay those people for the terrible thing they have done in Israel.” ¹¹ So all the men of Israel gathered against the city. They all agreed about what they were doing.

¹² The tribes of Israel sent men to all the family groups of Benjamin with a message. They said, “What is this evil thing some of your men have done? ¹³ Give up the evil 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 relatives, the people of Israel. ¹⁴ The Benjaminites left their own cities and met at Gibeah. They went to fight against the Israelites. ¹⁵ In only one day the Benjaminites got 26,000 soldiers together. These soldiers were trained with swords. They also had 700 chosen men from Gibeah. ¹⁶ Seven hundred of these trained soldiers were left-handed. Each of these left-handed soldiers could sling a stone at a hair and not miss!

¹⁷ The Israelites, except for the Benjaminites, gathered 400,000 fighting men. These 400,000 men used swords and were trained soldiers.

¹⁸ The Israelites went up to the city of Bethel. They asked God, “Which tribe shall be first to attack the Benjaminites?”

The Lord answered, “Judah shall go first.”

¹⁹ The next morning the Israelites got up. They made a camp near Gibeah. ²⁰ Then the men of Israel went out to fight the Benjaminites. The Israelites got into battle position at Gibeah. ²¹ Then the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah. They killed 22,000 Israelites during the battle that day. ^22-23 The Israelites went before the Lord. They 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.

²⁴ The Israelites brought their battle lines against the Benjaminites the second day. ²⁵ The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah to attack the Israelites. This time, the Benjaminites killed 18,000 Israelites. All of these Israelites had been trained with swords.

²⁶ Then the Israelites went up to Bethel. There they sat down and cried to the Lord. They went without food all day until evening. They also brought burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. ²⁷ The Israelites asked the Lord a question. (In those days the Ark of the Covenant with God was there at Bethel. ²⁸ A priest named Phinehas served before the Ark of the Covenant. He was the son of Eleazar, who was the son of Aaron.) The people of Israel asked, “Shall we again go to fight against our relatives the Benjaminites? Or shall we stop fighting?”

The Lord answered, “Go, because tomorrow I will help you defeat them.”

²⁹ Then the Israelites hid some men all around Gibeah. ³⁰ They went to fight against the Benjaminites at Gibeah on the third day. They got into position for battle, as they had done before. ³¹ Then the Benjaminites came out of the city to fight them. The Israelites backed up and led the Benjaminites away from the city. The Benjaminites began to kill some of the Israelites as they had done before. About 30 men from Israel were killed. Some of them were killed in the fields and some on the roads. One road led to Bethel. Another road led to Gibeah.

³² The Benjaminites said, “We are winning as before!”

But the Israelites said, “Let’s run. Let’s trick them into going farther away from their city and onto the roads.”

³³ All the men of Israel moved from their places. They got into battle positions at a place named Baal Tamar. Then the Israelites ran out from their hiding places west of Gibeah. ³⁴ Ten thousand of the best trained soldiers from the army of Israel attacked Gibeah. The battle was very hard. The Benjaminites did not know disaster was about to come to them. ³⁵ The Lord used the Israelites to defeat the Benjaminites. On that day the Israelites killed 25,100 Benjaminites. All these men were armed with swords. ³⁶ Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated.

The men of Israel had moved back. They backed up because they were depending on the surprise attack. They had set it up near Gibeah. ³⁷ The men in hiding rushed into Gibeah. They spread out and killed everyone in the city with their swords. ³⁸ Now the men of Israel had made a plan with the men in hiding. The men in the surprise attack were to send up a signal. It was to be a big cloud of smoke from the city. ³⁹ So the army of Israel turned around in the battle.

The Benjaminites had killed about 30 Israelites. They were saying, “We are winning, as in the first battle!” ⁴⁰ But then the big cloud of smoke began to rise from the city. The Benjaminites turned around and saw it. The whole city was full of smoke that went up into the sky. ⁴¹ Then the Israelites turned and began to fight. The Benjaminites were terrified. Now they knew that disaster was coming to them. ⁴² So the Benjaminites ran away from the Israelites. They ran toward the desert. But they could not escape the battle. And the Israelites who came out of the cities killed them. ⁴³ They surrounded the Benjaminites and chased them. They caught them in the area east of Gibeah. ⁴⁴ So 18,000 brave and strong Benjaminite fighters were killed. ⁴⁵ The Benjaminites ran toward the desert. They ran to a place called the rock of Rimmon. But the Israelites killed 5,000 Benjaminites along the roads. They kept chasing them as far as a place named Gidom. And they killed 2,000 more Benjaminites there.

⁴⁶ On that day 25,000 Benjaminites were killed. All of them had fought bravely with swords. ⁴⁷ But 600 Benjaminites ran to the rock of Rimmon in the desert. They stayed there for four months. ⁴⁸ Then the men of Israel went back to the land of Benjamin. They killed the people in every city. They also killed the animals. They destroyed everything they could find. And they burned every city they found.

Wives for the Men of Benjamin

21 At Mizpah the men of Israel had made a promise. This was their promise: “Not one of us will let his daughter marry a man from the tribe of Benjamin.”

² The people went to the city of Bethel. There they sat before God until evening, crying loudly. ³ They said, “Lord, you are the God of Israel. Why has this terrible thing happened to us? Why has one tribe of Israel been taken away?”

⁴ Early the next day the people built an altar. They put burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to God on it.

⁵ Then the Israelites asked, “Did any tribe of Israel not come here to meet with us before the Lord?” They asked this question because they had made a great promise. They had promised that anyone who did not meet with them at Mizpah would be killed.

⁶ The Israelites felt sorry for their relatives, the Benjaminites. They said, “Today one tribe has been separated from Israel. ⁷ We made a promise before the Lord. We will not allow our daughters to marry a Benjaminite. How can we make sure that the men of Benjamin will have wives?” ⁸ Then they asked, “Which one of the tribes of Israel did not come here to Mizpah?” They found that no one from the city of Jabesh Gilead was there. ⁹ The people of Israel counted everyone, but no one from Jabesh Gilead was there.

¹⁰ So the whole group of Israelites sent 12,000 soldiers to Jabesh Gilead. They told the soldiers to kill the people in Jabesh Gilead with their swords. Even the women and children were to be killed.

¹¹ “This is what you must do: Kill every man in Jabesh Gilead. Also kill every woman who is not a virgin.” ¹² The soldiers found 400 young women in Jabesh Gilead who were virgins. They brought these women to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.

¹³ Then the whole group of Israelites sent a message to the men of Benjamin. They offered to make peace with them. The men of Benjamin were at the rock of Rimmon. ¹⁴ So the men of Benjamin came back at that time. The Israelites gave them the women from Jabesh Gilead who had not been killed. But there were not enough women for all of them.

¹⁵ The people of Israel felt sorry for the Benjaminites. This was because the Lord had separated the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶ The elders of the Israelites spoke. They said, “The women of Benjamin have been killed. Where can we get wives for the men of Benjamin who are still alive? ¹⁷ These men must have children to continue their families. This is so a tribe in Israel will not die out. ¹⁸ But we cannot allow our daughters to marry them. We have made this promise: ‘Anyone who gives a wife to a man of Benjamin is cursed.’ ¹⁹ We have an idea! There is a yearly festival of the Lord at Shiloh. Shiloh is north of the city of Bethel. It is east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem. And it is south of the city of Lebonah.”

²⁰ So the elders told the men of Benjamin about their idea. They said, “Go and hide in the vineyards. ²¹ Watch for the young women from Shiloh to come out. They will come to join the dancing. Then run out from the vineyards. Each of you take one of the young Shiloh women and go to the land of Benjamin. ²² The fathers or brothers of those young women will come to us. They will complain, but we will say: ‘Be kind to the men of Benjamin. We did not get wives for Benjamin during the war. And you did not give the women to the men from Benjamin. So you are not guilty.’”

²³ So that is what the Benjaminites did. While the young women were dancing, each man caught one of them. They took them away and married them. Then they went back to the land God had given them. They rebuilt their cities and lived there.

²⁴ Then the Israelites went home. They went to their own tribes and family groups. They went to their own land that God had given them.

²⁵ In those days the Israelites did not have a king. Everyone did what he thought was right.