4. The husband of the murdered woman answered:My wife and I went into the town of Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night.
5. Later that night, the men of Gibeah surrounded the house. They wanted to kill me, but instead they raped and killed my wife.
6. It was a terrible thing for Israelites to do! So I cut up her body and sent pieces everywhere in Israel.
7. You are the people of Israel, and you must decide today what to do about the men of Gibeah.
8. The whole army was in agreement, and they said, “None of us will go home.
9-10. We'll send one tenth of the men from each tribe to get food for the army. And we'll ask God who should attack Gibeah, because those men deserve to be punished for committing such a horrible crime in Israel.”
11. Everyone agreed that Gibeah had to be punished.
12. The tribes of Israel sent messengers to every town and village in Benjamin. And wherever the messengers went, they said, “How could those worthless men in Gibeah do such a disgusting thing?
13. We can't allow such a terrible crime to go unpunished in Israel! Hand the men over to us, and we will put them to death.”But the people of Benjamin refused to listen to the other Israelites.
14. Men from towns all over Benjamin's territory went to Gibeah and got ready to fight Israel.
15. The Benjamin tribe had twenty-six thousand soldiers, not counting the seven hundred who were Gibeah's best warriors.
16. In this army there were seven hundred left-handed experts who could sling a stone at a target the size of a hair and hit it every time.