Judges 19-21

Complete Jewish Bible

19 In those days, when there was no king in Isra’el, there was a certain Levi living on the far side of the Efrayim hills who took a woman from Beit-Lechem in Y’hudah to be his concubine. ² But his concubine was unfaithful to him and left him to go to her father’s house at Beit-Lechem in Y’hudah, where she stayed for some time, four months. ³ Then her husband went after her to persuade her to return; he had his servant with him and a pair of donkeys. She brought him into her father’s house; and when the girl’s father saw him, he was glad to meet him. ⁴ His father-in-law, the girl’s father, kept him there; so he remained with him three days; they ate, drank and stayed there. ⁵ On the fourth day they got up early in the morning, and he prepared to leave. But the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “You’ll feel better if you have a bite of food before you leave.” ⁶ So the two of them sat down and ate and drank together. Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Please stay one more night, and have a good time.” ⁷ The man rose to leave, but his father-in-law pressed him, so he stayed there again. ⁸ The morning of the fifth day, he got up early to leave; but the girl’s father said, “Why don’t you have something to eat, and leave this afternoon?” So the two men ate. ⁹ When the man got up to leave with his concubine and servant, his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look, it’s almost evening. Please stay the night — you see that it’s getting late. Stay on, enjoy yourself, and tomorrow get going early on your way home.” ¹⁰ But the man wouldn’t stay that night; so he got up and left with his concubine and his two saddled donkeys; and they arrived at Y’vus, also known as Yerushalayim.

¹¹ By the time they arrived at Y’vus it was nearly evening; and the servant said to his master, “Why don’t we go on into this city of the Y’vusi and stay there?” ¹² But his master said to him, “We won’t go into a city of foreigners which doesn’t belong to the people of Isra’el. We’ll go on across to Giv‘ah.” ¹³ He said to his servant, “Let’s go, and we’ll get to one of those places; we’ll stay in Giv‘ah or Ramah.” ¹⁴ So they went on and kept traveling, until the sun set on them near Giv‘ah, which belongs to Binyamin. ¹⁵ There they turned off the road to go and stay in Giv‘ah. He went in and sat down in the city’s open space, since no one had offered his home for them to spend the night.

¹⁶ In time, at nightfall, an old man came from his work in the field. He was from the Efrayim hills and was staying in Giv‘ah, although the residents were of Binyamin. ¹⁷ The old man looked up, saw the traveler in the city’s open space and said, “Where are you going, and where are you coming from?” ¹⁸ He replied, “We’re crossing from Beit-Lechem in Y’hudah to the far side of the Efrayim hills. That’s where I’m from. I went to Beit-Lechem in Y’hudah, and now I’m going to the house of Adonai; but there’s no one here who will let me spend the night in his home. ¹⁹ We have straw and food for our donkeys, also bread and wine for me, my concubine and the boy there with your servants; we don’t need anything else.” ²⁰ The old man said, “You’re welcome to stay with me. I’ll take care of anything you lack; just don’t spend the night out in the open.” ²¹ So he brought him home and gave food to the donkeys. Then they washed their feet, and ate and drank.

²² They were relaxing, when suddenly some men from the city, good-for-nothings, surrounded the house and began beating at the door. “Send out the man who came home with you!” they demanded of the old man whose house it was. “We want to have sex with him!” ²³ The man whose house it was went out and said to them, “No, my brothers, please don’t do anything as wrong as this. Look, he’s just a guest in my house; don’t do this degrading thing. ²⁴ Here’s my daughter, who’s a virgin, and his concubine. I’ll bring them out. Mistreat them, do what you want to them, but don’t do such a degrading thing to this man.” ²⁵ However, the men wouldn’t listen to him; so the man took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them. They raped her and abused her all night long; only at dawn did they let her go. ²⁶ At daybreak the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her husband was, and she was still there when it grew light. ²⁷ When her husband got up, opened the doors of the house, and went out to go on his way, he saw the woman lying there with her hands stretched out toward the door. ²⁸ He said to her, “Get up! Let’s go!” But there was no answer. So he loaded her body on the donkey and began his trip home. ²⁹ On arrival at his house, he got a knife, took hold of his concubine’s body, cut her up into twelve pieces, and sent them to all the regions of Isra’el. ³⁰ Everyone who saw it said, “From the day the people of Isra’el came up from Egypt until now, never has such a thing happened or been seen. What are we going to do about it? Talk it over and decide.”

20 All the people of Isra’el came out, from Dan to Be’er-sheva, including Gil‘ad; the community assembled with one accord before Adonai at Mitzpah. ² The leaders of all the tribes of Isra’el presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 foot soldiers armed with swords. ³ Now the people of Binyamin heard that the people of Isra’el had gone up to Mitzpah. The people of Isra’el said, “Tell us, how was this crime committed?” ⁴ The Levi, the husband of the murdered woman, answered, “I came to Giv‘ah, which belongs to Binyamin, I and my concubine, to stay the night; ⁵ and the men in Giv‘ah attacked me and surrounded the house I was staying in at night. They wanted to kill me, but instead they raped my concubine to death. ⁶ I took my concubine’s body, cut it into pieces and sent them throughout all the territories belonging to Isra’el ; because they committed a shockingly obscene and degrading crime in Isra’el. ⁷ Look, you are all people of Isra’el. So discuss what to do, and give your advice here and now.”

⁸ All the people stood up in agreement and said, “None of us will go home to his tent or his house. ⁹ What we will do now to Giv‘ah is this: we’ll draw lots, ¹⁰ we’ll take ten men out of each hundred throughout all the tribes of Isra’el, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand to collect food for the others. When these come to Giv‘ah in Binyamin, they will avenge the crime that was committed.” ¹¹ Thus all the men of Isra’el, joined together in complete agreement, assembled to attack the city.

¹² The tribes of Isra’el sent men throughout all the tribe of Binyamin with this message: “What is this crime committed by some of your people? ¹³ Turn over these good-for-nothings who are in Giv‘ah at once, so that we can execute them and rid Isra’el of such evil.” But the people of Binyamin refused to obey the order of their kinsmen the people of Isra’el. ¹⁴ Instead the people of Binyamin gathered themselves together from their cities and went to Giv‘ah to fight the people of Isra’el. ¹⁵ On that day there were 26,000 men from Binyamin armed with swords, besides the inhabitants of Giv‘ah, who numbered 700 specially chosen men. ¹⁶ All of these 700 specially picked men were left-handed, and every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

¹⁷ The army of Isra’el, apart from Binyamin, numbered 400,000 men with swords; they were all experienced soldiers. ¹⁸ The army of Isra’el began by going up to Beit-El, where they asked God, “Who should go up first to attack the army of Binyamin?” Adonai said, “Y’hudah first.” ¹⁹ So the army of Isra’el got up in the morning and set up their camp near Giv‘ah. ²⁰ Then the army of Isra’el went out to attack Binyamin and set up their battle line in front of Giv‘ah. ²¹ But the army of Binyamin came out of Giv‘ah and slaughtered the army of Isra’el; on that day 22,000 men fell. ²² The people, the men of Isra’el, restored their morale and again positioned themselves for battle where they had been the first day. ²³ Then the army of Isra’el went up and cried before Adonai until evening. They asked Adonai, “Should we attack our kinsmen the people of Binyamin again? Adonai answered, “Attack them.”

²⁴ So the army of Isra’el went out to attack the army of Binyamin the second day. ²⁵ But Binyamin went out against them from Giv‘ah the second day and slaughtered the army of Isra’el; 18,000 men armed with swords fell. ²⁶ Then the whole army of Isra’el, all the people, went up to Beit-El and cried and sat there in the presence of Adonai. They fasted that day until evening, offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to Adonai, ²⁷ and asked Adonai what to do. The ark for the covenant of God was there at that time; ²⁸ and Pinchas the son of El‘azar, the son of Aharon, stood before it at that time. They asked, “Should we still go out to battle again against our kinsmen the people of Binyamin, or should we stop?” Adonai answered, “Attack, because tomorrow I will hand them over to you.”

²⁹ Isra’el hid some men around Giv‘ah, ³⁰ and on the third day Isra’el attacked the army of Binyamin and took a position against Giv‘ah as they had the other times. ³¹ Again the army of Binyamin went out against the people. Lured away from the city, they began attacking and killing some of the people, as they had the other times — they killed about thirty men of Isra’el in the countryside and on the roads, one of which goes up to Beit-El and the other to Giv‘ah. ³² The army of Binyamin said, “They’re defeated, just as before.” But the army of Isra’el said, “Let’s run off and draw them away from the city onto the roads.” ³³ All the men of Isra’el left their places and took up a battle position at Ba‘al-Tamar, while the other Isra’el men burst out of their hiding places at Ma‘areh-Geva. ³⁴ Ten thousand men chosen out of all Isra’el came over to attack Giv‘ah, and the combat was intense. But the army of Binyamin didn’t know that they were about to be defeated. ³⁵ For Adonai routed Binyamin in Isra’el’s presence; that day the army of Isra’el destroyed 25,100 men of Binyamin, all of whom carried swords; ³⁶ and the people of Binyamin realized that they had been beaten.

The men of Isra’el, trusting the ones they had put in place to ambush Binyamin, gave ground to the men of Binyamin. ³⁷ Then the men who had been lying in wait rushed in on Giv‘ah, drew their swords and destroyed the city. ³⁸ The army of Isra’el and the ambushers had agreed that as a signal they would make a huge cloud of smoke rise from the city, ³⁹ at which time the men of Isra’el would turn back. When this happened, Binyamin began to attack. They killed about thirty of Isra’el’s men and said, “Clearly we’re defeating them again, as in the first battle.” ⁴⁰ But when the smoke signal began rising from the city, the men of Binyamin looked behind them and saw the whole city going up to the sky in smoke. ⁴¹ Then, as the men of Isra’el reversed direction, those of Binyamin were overcome with terror. When they saw that disaster had come upon them, ⁴² they turned their backs on the men of Isra’el and made for the road to the desert. But the battle followed them, and those who came out of the city destroyed them from the rear. ⁴³ They surrounded the men of Binyamin, chased them and trampled them down across from Giv‘ah on the east. ⁴⁴ Eighteen thousand men of Binyamin fell, all of them experienced soldiers. ⁴⁵ They turned and fled toward the desert to the Rock of Rimmon; and 5,000 of them were killed on the roads. They followed them to Gid‘om and killed another 2,000. ⁴⁶ Thus the total number from Binyamin who fell that day was 25,000 experienced, sword-bearing soldiers. ⁴⁷ But 600 turned and fled toward the desert to the Rock of Rimmon, and lived there four months. ⁴⁸ The men of Isra’el turned back on the people of Binyamin and killed them with the sword, the entire city, the cattle and everything they found. Moreover, they set on fire all the cities they encountered.

21 The men of Isra’el had sworn in Mitzpah that none of them would let his daughter marry a man from Binyamin. ² The people came to Beit-El and stayed there before God till evening crying out and weeping. ³ They said: “Adonai, why has this come about in Isra’el? Why should there be today in Isra’el one tribe missing?” ⁴ The next day the people got up early, built an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. ⁵ The people of Isra’el asked, “Who among the tribes of Isra’el did not come up to assemble before Adonai? For they had made a great oath to put to death whoever didn’t come up to Adonai at Mitzpah. ⁶ The people of Isra’el became sorry for Binyamin their brother and said, “Today one tribe has been cut off from Isra’el. ⁷ How are we going to obtain wives for those who remain alive, since we’ve sworn by Adonai that we won’t let our daughters marry them?”

⁸ Then they asked who from the tribes of Isra’el had not come up to Adonai at Mitzpah and found that none had come from Yavesh-Gil‘ad to the camp where the assembly was; ⁹ since when the people were counted, none of the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil‘ad were found there. ¹⁰ So the gathering sent 12,000 warriors there and ordered them, “Go, and put the people who live in Yavesh-Gil‘ad to death with the sword, including women and children. ¹¹ Completely destroy every man and every woman who has had sex with a man.” ¹² Among the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil‘ad they found 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Kena‘an.

¹³ Then the whole gathering sent a message proclaiming peace to the people of Binyamin who were at the Rock of Rimmon. ¹⁴ So Binyamin returned at that time, and the people of Isra’el gave them the women they had kept alive of the women from Yavesh-Gil‘ad. But those weren’t enough for them. ¹⁵ The people were still sorry for Binyamin because Adonai had made a division among the tribes of Isra’el.

¹⁶ The leaders of the assembly asked, “What are we to do for those who still don’t have wives, inasmuch as all the women of Binyamin have been killed?” ¹⁷ They said, “There has to be a way to help the survivors preserve Binyamin’s inheritance, so that a tribe will not be eliminated from Isra’el. ¹⁸ Yet we can’t give them our daughters as wives.” For the people of Isra’el had sworn, “Cursed be whoever gives a wife to Binyamin.”

¹⁹ Then they said, “Look, each year there’s a festival in honor of Adonai in Shiloh, north of Beit-El, on the east side of the road that goes up from Beit-El to Sh’khem, and south of Levonah.” ²⁰ They ordered the men of Binyamin, “Go, hide in the vineyards, ²¹ and keep watch. If the girls of Shiloh come out to do their dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each of you catch for himself a wife from the Shiloh girls, and go on to the land of Binyamin. ²² When their fathers or brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Give them as a personal favor to us, because we didn’t take wives for each of them in battle. You didn’t give them to them; that would have made you guilty of breaking your oath.’” ²³ So the men of Binyamin did this — they took wives for themselves from the girls who were dancing, as many as they needed. They carried them off, went back to the land of their inheritance, rebuilt the cities and lived in them. ²⁴ The people of Isra’el then left that place, each man returned to his tribe and family, and each man went out from there to the land he had inherited.

²⁵ At that time there was no king in Isra’el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.