Judges 20: Israel goes to war against Benjamin

In plain English: Then all the Israelites came out, and the community (this Bible: congregation) gathered as one man, from Dan to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Yahweh at Mizpah.

Good to know: This is the first verse of the Bible that says "from Dan even to Beersheba". Dan is the city named in 18:29. The same words are used later, as in 1 Samuel 3:20, "All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba".

In plain English: The leaders (literally: the corners) of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the assembly of God's people: four hundred thousand foot soldiers who carried swords (this Bible: drew sword).

In plain English: (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) The Israelites said, "Tell us, how did this evil thing happen?"

In plain English: The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, "I came to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night.

In plain English: The men (literally: the lords) of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house around me at night. They meant to kill me, and they raped my concubine, and she died.

Good to know: The Levite tells what happened in his own words. In 19:22 the men of the city said, "Bring out the man who came into your house, that we can have sex with him!"; here he says, "They intended to kill me". In 19:25 the text says "the man grabbed his concubine, and brought her out to them"; here he does not say that. The text gives both accounts and does not comment on the difference.

In plain English: I took my concubine, cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the land of Israel's inheritance, because they have done a wicked (this Bible: lewd) and disgraceful thing in Israel.

In plain English: Now all of you Israelites, give your word and your advice here."

In plain English: All the people rose up as one man, saying, "None of us will go home to his tent, and none of us will turn back to his house.

In plain English: But now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot.

In plain English: We will take ten men out of every hundred in all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to bring food for the army (this Bible: the people). Then, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, they may do to it according to all the disgraceful thing (this Bible: folly) that the men of Gibeah have done in Israel."

In plain English: So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man.

In plain English: The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What is this evil thing that has happened among you?

In plain English: Now hand over the men, the worthless men (this Bible: wicked fellows; literally: sons of Belial) who are in Gibeah, so that we may put them to death and remove the evil from Israel." But the Benjamites would not listen to their brothers, the Israelites.

In plain English: The Benjamites gathered from their cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the Israelites.

In plain English: That day the Benjamites from the cities were counted: twenty-six thousand men who carried swords, besides the people of Gibeah, who were counted as seven hundred chosen men.

In plain English: Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed (literally: held back in their right hand). Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

The Hebrew word: "Left-handed" is literally "held back in his right hand": the word itter, which the dictionary gives as "shut up, i.e. impeded (as to the use of the right hand)". It is used in only one other verse, 3:15, of Ehud the Benjamite.

In plain English: The men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, were counted: four hundred thousand men who carried swords, all of them fighting men.

In plain English: The Israelites got up, went up to Bethel, and asked God. They said, "Who of us is to go up first to battle against the Benjamites?" Yahweh said, "Judah first."

Good to know: Bethel is the place Jacob named in Genesis 28:19, after he said, "This is none other than God's house" (28:17). The question and the answer are close to 1:1 and 1:2, where Israel asked who should go up first against the Canaanites, and Yahweh said, "Judah shall go up."

In plain English: The Israelites got up in the morning and camped against Gibeah.

In plain English: The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and lined up for battle against them at Gibeah.

In plain English: The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and that day struck down twenty-two thousand men of Israel to the ground.

In plain English: But the people, the men of Israel, took courage (literally: made themselves strong) and lined up for battle again in the same place where they had lined up the first day.

In plain English: The Israelites went up and wept before Yahweh until evening. They asked Yahweh, "Shall I go near again to battle against the Benjamites, my brother?" Yahweh said, "Go up against him."

In plain English: So the Israelites came near against the Benjamites on the second day.

In plain English: On the second day Benjamin came out of Gibeah to meet them, and again struck down eighteen thousand men of Israel to the ground. All of them carried swords.

In plain English: Then all the Israelites and all the people went up and came to Bethel. They wept and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.

In plain English: The Israelites asked Yahweh (the ark of God's covenant was there in those days,

In plain English: and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days). They said, "Shall I go out again to battle against the Benjamites, my brother, or shall I stop?" Yahweh said, "Go up, because tomorrow I will give him into your hand."

Good to know: Phinehas, "the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron", is named with the same words in Numbers 25:7, and he is sent to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Joshua 22:13. The text says the ark was at Bethel "in those days" and gives no date.

Good to know: In verses 18 and 23 Yahweh answers "Judah first" and "Go up against him", and both times Israel loses: twenty-two thousand men (verse 21) and eighteen thousand (verse 25). Only here does Yahweh add, "tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand". The text does not explain this, and readers explain it in different ways.

In plain English: So Israel set men in ambush all around Gibeah.

In plain English: On the third day the Israelites went up against the Benjamites and lined up against Gibeah, as before.

In plain English: The Benjamites went out against the people and were drawn away from the city. As before, they began to strike down and kill some of the people on the roads, one going up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, and in the open field: about thirty men of Israel.

In plain English: The Benjamites said, "They are beaten before us, as at the first." But the Israelites said, "Let's run, and draw them away from the city to the roads."

In plain English: All the men of Israel got up from their place and lined up at Baal Tamar. Then Israel's ambush burst out of its place, out of Maareh Geba (or: the open ground near Geba).

In plain English: Ten thousand chosen men from all Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle was hard. But they did not know that disaster was close to them.

In plain English: Yahweh struck Benjamin before Israel. That day the Israelites killed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin. All of them carried swords.

In plain English: So the Benjamites saw that they were beaten. The men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin, because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah.

In plain English: The men in ambush hurried and rushed on Gibeah. They spread out and struck the whole city with the sword (literally: the mouth of the sword).

In plain English: The signal agreed between the men of Israel and the ambush was that they would send up a great cloud of smoke from the city.

In plain English: The men of Israel turned back in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike down and kill about thirty of the men of Israel, because they said, "They are surely beaten before us, as in the first battle."

In plain English: But when the cloud began to rise from the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and the whole city was going up in smoke to the sky.

In plain English: Then the men of Israel turned around, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, because they saw that disaster had come on them.

In plain English: So they turned their backs before the men of Israel toward the wilderness, but the battle caught up with them, and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the middle of it.

In plain English: They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and trampled them down where they rested (or: with ease), as far as opposite Gibeah toward the sunrise.

In plain English: Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell, all of them brave men (this Bible: men of valor).

In plain English: They turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon. The Israelites picked off (this Bible: gleaned) five thousand men of them on the roads, chased them hard as far as Gidom, and struck down two thousand men of them.

In plain English: So all of Benjamin who fell that day were twenty-five thousand men who carried swords, all of them brave men.

Good to know: Verse 35 says twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin were killed that day, and verse 46 says twenty-five thousand. The text gives both numbers and does not explain the difference.

In plain English: But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and stayed at the rock of Rimmon four months.

In plain English: The men of Israel turned back against the Benjamites and struck them with the sword (literally: the mouth of the sword): the whole city (or: the men of the city), the animals, and everything they found. They also set on fire all the cities they found.

The Hebrew words: "The entire city" is ir metom. The dictionary gives metom as "wholesomeness" and "completely". The same Hebrew letters, read with other vowels, are ir metim, "a city of men", the words of Deuteronomy 2:34, where this Bible says "every inhabited city". The old Greek (Brenton) takes it as a name: "from the city of Methla".

What changes: Read as "the entire city", they struck the whole city. Read as "the men of the city", they struck the people, then the animals, then everything they found. Either way, the verse says they set fire to all the cities they found.

Good to know: Chapter 20 says plainly what was done: twenty-five thousand men of Benjamin fell (verse 46), six hundred escaped to the rock of Rimmon (verse 47), and the towns of Benjamin were struck and burned. It is the book's own record of these events, and Jewish and Christian readers differ on how to read it now.