7. Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.”
8. All the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent, neither will any of us turn to his house.
9. But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot;
10. and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to get food for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have worked in Israel.”
11. So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
12. The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What wickedness is this that is happen among you?
13. Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel.” But Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Israel.
14. The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
15. The children of Benjamin were counted on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were counted seven hundred chosen men.
16. Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.