8. All the people stood up together and said, “None of us, whether he lives in a tent or in a house, will go home.
9. This is what we will do: we will draw lots and choose some men to attack Gibeah.
10. One tenth of the men in Israel will provide food for the army, and the others will go and punish Gibeah for this immoral act that they have committed in Israel.”
11. So all the men in Israel assembled with one purpose — to attack the town.
12. The Israelite tribes sent messengers all through the territory of the tribe of Benjamin to say, “What is this crime that you have committed?
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.”