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    Judges · 48 verses

    Judges 20

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    Israel’s finest battlefield trick begins with a retreat: the Benjamites think the old disaster is happening again, until a column of smoke rises from Gibeah and the whole city is going up in smoke.

    A nation gathers, and Benjamin refuses the remedyvv. 1–18

    From Dan to Beersheba and from Gilead, Israel gathers at Mizpah in a magnificently alarming quantity: 400,000 swordsmen. The Levite tells the assembly what happened at Gibeah, including the detail that he cut up his concubine and sent the pieces through Israel—an announcement method with all the delicacy of a trumpet. Israel demands the guilty men, but Benjamin refuses to hand them over and instead gathers for war. The numbers are lopsided, though Benjamin has 700 left-handed slingers who can hit a hair without missing. At Bethel, Israel asks who should go first, and the answer is Judah.

    The answer is yes, and then yes againvv. 19–28

    Israel attacks Gibeah and loses 22,000 men. The survivors take courage, ask the LORD whether they should attack their brothers again, receive “Go up,” and lose another 18,000. Only then do they fast, present burnt offerings and peace offerings at Bethel, and ask a third time. The answer is still to fight—but now comes with tomorrow’s promise of victory. The chapter pauses to tell who serves before the ark: Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron. Even here, the battlefield has a footnote.

    Smoke, flight, and arithmetic with a loose threadvv. 29–48

    Israel sets an ambush around Gibeah and repeats the earlier-looking battle, drawing Benjamin away from the city. At Baal-tamar the main force takes its place while the ambush charges from the west. The signal is smoke. Benjamin, busy congratulating itself on another victory, turns and sees Gibeah burning; the confidence drains out of the scene rather efficiently. The Benjamites flee toward the wilderness and the rock of Rimmon, through roads and onward to Gidom. The summary gives 25,100 dead, while the later count gives 18,000, then 5,000, then 2,000—25,000, with the extra hundred quietly left standing in the margin. Six hundred men reach Rimmon and remain there four months; Israel then burns the Benjaminite cities, animals included.

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Judg 20:1Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.

    2. Judg 20:2The leaders of all the people and all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of God’s people: 400,000 men on foot, armed with swords.

    3. Judg 20:3(Meanwhile the Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) And the Israelites asked, “Tell us, how did this wicked thing happen?”

    4. Judg 20:4So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered: “I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night.

    5. Judg 20:5And during the night, the men of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house. They intended to kill me, but they abused my concubine, and she died.

    6. Judg 20:6Then I took my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout the land of Israel’s inheritance, because they had committed a lewd and disgraceful act in Israel.

    7. Judg 20:7Behold, all you Israelites, give your advice and verdict here and now.”

    8. Judg 20:8Then all the people stood as one man and said, “Not one of us will return to his tent or to his house.

    9. Judg 20:9Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: We will go against it as the lot dictates.

    10. Judg 20:10We will take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to supply provisions for the army when they go to Gibeah in Benjamin to punish them for the atrocity they have committed in Israel.”

    11. Judg 20:11So all the men of Israel gathered as one man, united against the city.

    12. Judg 20:12And the tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this wickedness that has occurred among you?

    13. Judg 20:13Hand over the wicked men of Gibeah so we can put them to death and purge Israel of this evil.” But the Benjamites refused to heed the voice of their fellow Israelites.

    14. Judg 20:14And from their cities they came together at Gibeah to go out and fight against the Israelites.

    15. Judg 20:15On that day the Benjamites mobilized 26,000 swordsmen from their cities, in addition to the 700 select men of Gibeah.

    16. Judg 20:16Among all these soldiers there were 700 select left-handers, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair without missing.

    17. Judg 20:17The Israelites, apart from Benjamin, mobilized 400,000 swordsmen, each one an experienced warrior.

    18. Judg 20:18The Israelites set out, went up to Bethel, and inquired of God, “Who of us shall go up first to fight against the Benjamites?” “Judah will be first,” the LORD replied.

    19. Judg 20:19The next morning the Israelites set out and camped near Gibeah.

    20. Judg 20:20And the men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin and took up their battle positions at Gibeah.

    21. Judg 20:21And the Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down 22,000 Israelites on the battlefield that day.

    22. Judg 20:22But the Israelite army took courage and again took their battle positions in the same place where they had arrayed themselves on the first day.

    23. Judg 20:23They went up and wept before the LORD until evening, inquiring of Him, “Should we again draw near for battle against our brothers the Benjamites?” And the LORD answered, “Go up against them.”

    24. Judg 20:24On the second day the Israelites advanced against the Benjamites.

    25. Judg 20:25That same day the Benjamites came out against them from Gibeah and cut down another 18,000 Israelites, all of them armed with swords.

    26. Judg 20:26Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, where they sat weeping before the LORD. That day they fasted until evening and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD.

    27. Judg 20:27And the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there,

    28. Judg 20:28and Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, served before it.) The Israelites asked, “Should we again go out to battle against our brothers the Benjamites, or should we stop?” The LORD answered, “Fight, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.”

    29. Judg 20:29So Israel set up an ambush around Gibeah.

    30. Judg 20:30On the third day the Israelites went up against the Benjamites and arrayed themselves against Gibeah as they had done before.

    31. Judg 20:31The Benjamites came out against them and were drawn away from the city. They began to attack the people as before, killing about thirty men of Israel in the fields and on the roads, one of which led up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.

    32. Judg 20:32“We are defeating them as before,” said the Benjamites. But the Israelites said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city onto the roads.”

    33. Judg 20:33So all the men of Israel got up from their places and arrayed themselves at Baal-tamar, and the Israelites in ambush charged from their positions west of Gibeah.

    34. Judg 20:34Then 10,000 select men from all Israel made a frontal assault against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjamites did not realize that disaster was upon them.

    35. Judg 20:35The LORD defeated Benjamin in the presence of Israel, and on that day the Israelites slaughtered 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords.

    36. Judg 20:36Then the Benjamites realized they had been defeated. Now the men of Israel had retreated before Benjamin because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah.

    37. Judg 20:37The men in ambush rushed suddenly against Gibeah; they advanced and put the whole city to the sword.

    38. Judg 20:38The men of Israel had arranged a signal with the men in ambush: When they sent up a great cloud of smoke from the city,

    39. Judg 20:39the men of Israel would turn in the battle. When the Benjamites had begun to strike them down, killing about thirty men of Israel, they said, “They are defeated before us as in the first battle.”

    40. Judg 20:40But when the column of smoke began to go up from the city, the Benjamites looked behind them and saw the whole city going up in smoke.

    41. Judg 20:41Then the men of Israel turned back on them, and the men of Benjamin were terrified when they realized that disaster had come upon them.

    42. Judg 20:42So they fled before the men of Israel toward the wilderness, but the battle overtook them, and the men coming out of the cities struck them down there.

    43. Judg 20:43They surrounded the Benjamites, pursued them, and easily overtook them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east.

    44. Judg 20:44And 18,000 Benjamites fell, all men of valor.

    45. Judg 20:45Then the Benjamites turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and Israel cut down 5,000 men on the roads. And they overtook them at Gidom and struck down 2,000 more.

    46. Judg 20:46That day 25,000 Benjamite swordsmen fell, all men of valor.

    47. Judg 20:47But 600 men turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months.

    48. Judg 20:48And the men of Israel turned back against the other Benjamites and put to the sword all the cities, including the animals and everything else they found. And they burned down all the cities in their path.

    01 — Also here

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    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 271 passages were voted onto 42 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 26Judges 20:23They went up and wept before the LORD until evening, inquiring of Him, “Should we again draw near for battle against our brothers the Benjamites?” And the LORD answered, “Go up against them.”
    • 13Deuteronomy 17:12But the man who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, or to the judge, must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.
    • 16Judges 3:15And again they cried out to the LORD, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjamite, as their deliverer. So they sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
    • 28Judges 7:9That night the LORD said to Gideon, “Get up and go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.
    • 1Judges 11:11So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the LORD at Mizpah.
    • 2Judges 8:10Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army of about fifteen thousand men—all that were left of the armies of the people of the east. A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had already fallen.
    • 5Judges 19:22While they were enjoying themselves, suddenly the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they said to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have relations with him!”
    • 6Judges 19:29When he reached his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her limb by limb into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel.
    • 7Judges 19:30And everyone who saw it said, “Nothing like this has been seen or done from the day the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt until this day. Think it over, take counsel, and speak up!”
    • 8Ecclesiastes 9:10Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
    • 161 Chronicles 12:2they were archers using both the right and left hands to sling stones and shoot arrows; and they were Saul’s kinsmen from Benjamin):
    • 18Judges 20:26–27Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, where they sat weeping before the LORD. That day they fasted until evening and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD.
    • 18Numbers 27:21He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who will seek counsel for him before the LORD by the judgment of the Urim. At his command, he and all the Israelites with him—the entire congregation—will go out and come in.”
    • 26Joel 2:12–18“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
    • 29Joshua 8:4with these orders: “Pay attention. You are to lie in ambush behind the city, not too far from it. All of you must be ready.
    • 37Joshua 8:19and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position. They rushed forward, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.

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