Verse 23
Judges 20:23
New Living Translation
23
For they had gone up to Bethel and wept in the presence of the LORD until evening. They had asked the LORD, “Should we fight against our relatives from Benjamin again?” And the LORD had said, “Go out and fight against them.”
Original Language Text
hebrew
וַ/יַּעֲל֣וּ בְנֵֽי יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וַ/יִּבְכּ֣וּ לִ/פְנֵֽי יְהוָה֮ עַד הָ/עֶרֶב֒ וַ/יִּשְׁאֲל֤וּ בַֽ/יהוָה֙ לֵ/אמֹ֔ר הַ/אוֹסִ֗יף לָ/גֶ֨שֶׁת֙ לַ/מִּלְחָמָ֔ה עִם בְּנֵ֥י בִנְיָמִ֖ן אָחִ֑/י וַ/יֹּ֥אמֶר יְהוָ֖ה עֲל֥וּ אֵלָֽי/ו
English Translation
And the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening and they asked of the Lord saying, “Shall we go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin our brothers?” And the Lord said, “Go up against them.”
AI translation from hebrew via gpt-4o-mini
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Chapter 20 Context
1
Then all the Israelites were united as one man, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, inc...
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2
The leaders of all the people and all the tribes of Israel — 400,000 warriors armed with swords — to...
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3
(Word soon reached the land of Benjamin that the other tribes had gone up to Mizpah.) The Israelites...
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4
The Levite, the husband of the woman who had been murdered, said, “My concubine and I came to spend...
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5
That night some of the leading citizens of Gibeah surrounded the house, planning to kill me, and the...
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6
So I cut her body into twelve pieces and sent the pieces throughout the territory assigned to Israel...
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7
Now then, all of you — the entire community of Israel — must decide here and now what should be done...
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8
And all the people rose to their feet in unison and declared, “None of us will return home! No, not...
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9
Instead, this is what we will do to Gibeah; we will draw lots to decide who will attack it.
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10
One-tenth of the men from each tribe will be chosen to supply the warriors with food, and the rest o...
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11
So all the Israelites were completely united, and they gathered together to attack the town.
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12
The Israelites sent messengers to the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What a terrible thing has been don...
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13
Give up those evil men, those troublemakers from Gibeah, so we can execute them and purge Israel of...
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14
Instead, they came from their towns and gathered at Gibeah to fight the Israelites.
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15
In all, 26,000 of their warriors armed with swords arrived in Gibeah to join the 700 elite troops wh...
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16
Among Benjamin’s elite troops, 700 were left-handed, and each of them could sling a rock and hit a t...
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17
Israel had 400,000 experienced soldiers armed with swords, not counting Benjamin’s warriors.
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18
Before the battle the Israelites went to Bethel and asked God (Elohim), “Which tribe should go first...
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19
So the Israelites left early the next morning and camped near Gibeah.
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20
Then they advanced toward Gibeah to attack the men of Benjamin.
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21
But Benjamin’s warriors, who were defending the town, came out and killed 22,000 Israelites on the b...
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22
But the Israelites encouraged each other and took their positions again at the same place they had f...
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23
For they had gone up to Bethel and wept in the presence of the LORD until evening. They had asked th...
24
So the next day they went out again to fight against the men of Benjamin,
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25
but the men of Benjamin killed another 18,000 Israelites, all of whom were experienced with the swor...
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26
Then all the Israelites went up to Bethel and wept in the presence of the LORD and fasted until even...
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27
The Israelites went up seeking direction from the LORD. (In those days the Ark of the Covenant of Go...
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28
and Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron was the priest.) The Israelites asked the LORD, “S...
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29
So the Israelites set an ambush all around Gibeah.
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30
They went out on the third day and took their positions at the same place as before.
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31
When the men of Benjamin came out to attack, they were drawn away from the town. And as they had don...
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32
Then the warriors of Benjamin shouted, “We’re defeating them as we did before!” But the Israelites h...
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33
When the main group of Israelite warriors reached Baal-tamar, they turned and took up their position...
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34
There were 10,000 elite Israelite troops who advanced against Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that...
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35
So the LORD helped Israel defeat Benjamin, and that day the Israelites killed 25,100 of Benjamin’s w...
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36
Then the men of Benjamin saw that they were beaten. The Israelites had retreated from Benjamin’s war...
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37
Then those who were hiding rushed in from all sides and killed everyone in the town.
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38
They had arranged to send up a large cloud of smoke from the town as a signal.
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39
When the Israelites saw the smoke, they turned and attacked Benjamin’s warriors. By that time Benjam...
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40
But when the warriors of Benjamin looked behind them and saw the smoke rising into the sky from ever...
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41
the men of Israel turned and attacked. At this point the men of Benjamin became terrified, because t...
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42
So they turned around and fled before the Israelites toward the wilderness. But they couldn’t escape...
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43
The Israelites surrounded the men of Benjamin and chased them relentlessly, finally overtaking them...
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44
That day 18,000 of Benjamin’s strongest warriors died in battle.
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45
The survivors fled into the wilderness toward the rock of Rimmon, but Israel killed 5,000 of them al...
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46
So that day the tribe of Benjamin lost 25,000 strong warriors armed with swords,
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47
leaving only 600 men who escaped to the rock of Rimmon, where they lived for four months.
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48
And the Israelites returned and slaughtered every living thing in all the towns — the people, the li...
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