¹⁶ And behold, an old man was coming from his work in the field at evening. The man was from ^(A)the hill country of Ephraim, and he was sojourning in Gibeah. ^(B)The men of the place were Benjaminites. ¹⁷ And he lifted up his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city. And the old man said, “Where are you going? And where do you come from?” ¹⁸ And he said to him, “We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, from which I come. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going ^(C)to the house of the Lord,^{[a] (D)}but no one has taken me into his house. ¹⁹ We have straw and feed for our donkeys, with bread and wine for me and your female servant and the young man with your servants. ^(E)There is no lack of anything.” ²⁰ And the old man said, ^(F)“Peace be to you; I will care for all your wants. ^(G)Only, do not spend the night in the square.” ²¹ So he brought him into his house and gave the donkeys feed. ^(H)And they washed their feet, and ate and drank.

Gibeah's Crime

²² As they were ^(I)making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, ^(J)surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him.” ²³ And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, ^(K)do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, ^(L)do not do this vile thing. ^24 (M)Behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out now. ^(N)Violate them and do with them what seems good to you, but against this man ^(O)do not do this outrageous thing.” ²⁵ But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. ²⁶ And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was, until it was light.

²⁷ And her master rose up in the morning, and when he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸ He said to her, “Get up, let us be going.” ^(P)But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey, and the man rose up and went away to his home. ²⁹ And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he ^(Q)divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. ^30 (R)And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day; ^(S)consider it, take counsel, and speak.”

Israel's War with the Tribe of Benjamin

20 Then ^(T)all the people of Israel came out, ^(U)from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at ^(V)Mizpah. ² And the ^(W)chiefs of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 men on foot ^(X)that drew the sword. ³ (Now the people of Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the people of Israel said, “Tell us, how did this evil happen?” ⁴ And the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, ^(Y)“I came to Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. ^5 (Z)And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night. They meant to kill me, and they violated my concubine, and she is dead. ^6 (AA)So I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed abomination and ^(AB)outrage in Israel. ⁷ Behold, you people of Israel, all of you, ^(AC)give your advice and counsel here.”

⁸ And all the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent, and none of us will return to his house. ⁹ But now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot, ¹⁰ and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand of ten thousand, to bring provisions for the people, that when they come they may repay Gibeah of Benjamin for all the outrage that they have committed in Israel.” ¹¹ So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man.

^12 (AD)And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What evil is this that has taken place among you? ¹³ Now therefore give up the men, ^(AE)the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death ^(AF)and purge evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. ¹⁴ Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the people of Israel. ¹⁵ And the people of Benjamin mustered out of their cities on that day ^(AG)26,000 men ^(AH)who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who mustered 700 chosen men. ¹⁶ Among all these were 700 chosen men who were ^(AI)left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. ¹⁷ And the men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered ^(AJ)400,000 men who drew the sword; all these were men of war.

¹⁸ The people of Israel arose and went up to ^(AK)Bethel and inquired of God, ^(AL)“Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?” And the Lord said, ^(AM)“Judah shall go up first.”

¹⁹ Then the people of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah. ²⁰ And the men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin, and the men of Israel drew up the battle line against them at Gibeah. ^21 (AN)The people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and destroyed on that day 22,000 men of the Israelites.

^6 (A)Turn to him from whom people^[a] have ^(B)deeply revolted, O children of Israel.