8. All the people arose as one man and said, “Not a man among us will go to his tent, and no one will turn aside to his house.
9. Now this is what we will do to Gibeah. We will go against it by lot.
10. We will take ten men out of every hundred, from every tribe of Israel, a hundred from every thousand, and a thousand from every ten thousand, to bring provisions for the troops. Then when they come to Gibeah in Benjamin, they may repay them for all the evil that they committed in Israel.”
11. So all the men of Israel gathered at the city, united like one man.
12. The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the whole tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this evil that has been committed among you?
13. Now hand over the wicked men in Gibeah, so that we can kill them and purge the evil from Israel.”Yet the Benjamites were not willing to listen to their fellow children of Israel.
14. The Benjamites gathered from their cities at Gibeah in order to go out and wage war against the children of Israel.
15. That day, the Benjamites mustered twenty-six thousand armed men from the cities and seven hundred specially chosen men from Gibeah.
16. Out of all these people there were seven hundred specially chosen men who were left-handed, all of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
17. The men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, gathered four hundred thousand armed men who drew the sword; all of them were men of war.
18. The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked God, “Who should go up first to wage war against the Benjamites?”The Lord said, “Judah first.”
19. The children of Israel got up in the morning and camped against Gibeah.
20. The men of Israel went out for battle with Benjamin, and the men of Israel lined up for battle at Gibeah.
21. Then the Benjamites came out from Gibeah and struck twenty-two thousand Israelite men down to the ground.
22. The people, the men of Israel, rallied and lined up for battle again in the place where they had lined up on the first day.
23. Then the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They asked the Lord, “Should we advance and fight our brother-tribesmen the Benjamites again?”The Lord said, “Advance against them.”
24. So the children of Israel advanced against the Benjamites for the second day.
25. And on the second day, the Benjamites went out from Gibeah to meet them and again struck eighteen thousand men down to the ground, every one of them armed.