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 against the other people of Israel.
15-16. They called out 26,000 soldiers from their cities that day. Besides these, the citizens of Gibeah gathered 700 specially chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a strand of hair and never miss.
17. The rest of the Israelite tribes 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 made camp near the city of Gibeah.
20. They went to attack the army of Benjamin, and placed the soldiers in position facing the city.
21. The army of Benjamin came out of the city, and before the day was over they had killed 22,000 Israelite soldiers.
22-23. Then the Israelites went to the place of worship and mourned in the presence of the Lord until evening. They asked him, “Should we go again into battle against our brothers the Benjaminites?”The Lord answered, “Yes.”So the Israelite army was encouraged, and they placed their soldiers in the same position as they had been the day before.
24. They marched against the army of Benjamin a second time.
25. And for the second time the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah, and this time they killed 18,000 trained Israelite soldiers.
26. Then all the people of Israel went up to Bethel and mourned. They sat there in the Lord's presence and did not eat until evening. They offered fellowship sacrifices and burnt some sacrifices whole — all in the presence of the Lord.
27-28. God's Covenant Box was there at Bethel in those days, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, was in charge of it. The people asked the Lord, “Should we go out to fight our brothers the Benjaminites again, or should we give up?”The Lord answered, “Fight. Tomorrow I will give you victory over them.”
29. So the Israelites put some soldiers in hiding round Gibeah.
30. Then for the third successive day they marched against the army of Benjamin and placed their soldiers in battle position facing Gibeah, as they had done before.
31. The Benjaminites came out to fight and were led away from the city. As before, they began killing some Israelites in the open country on the road to Bethel and on the road to Gibeah. They killed about thirty Israelites.
32. The Benjaminites said, “We've beaten them just as we did before.”But the Israelites had planned to retreat and lead them away from the city on to the roads.