6. So I took my concubine and cut her up and sent her through every part of the territory of Israel, because of the terrible thing they had done in Israel.
7. So now, all you Israelites, give your judgment and counsel in this matter.”
8. All the people rose as one to say, “None of us will leave for our tents or return to our homes.
9. Now as for Gibeah, this is what we will do: We will go up against it by lot,
10. taking from all the tribes of Israel ten men for every hundred, a hundred for every thousand, a thousand for every ten thousand, and procuring supplies for the soldiers who will go to exact from Gibeah of Benjamin the full measure of the terrible thing it committed in Israel.”
11. So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one.
12. The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin to say, “What is this evil that has occurred among you?
13. Now give up the men, the scoundrels who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and thus purge the evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their kindred, the Israelites.
14. Instead, the Benjaminites assembled from their cities at Gibeah, to march out to battle with the Israelites.
15. On that day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand swordsmen, in addition to the inhabitants of Gibeah, who mustered seven hundred picked men
16. who were left-handed, every one of them able to sling a stone at a hair without missing.
17. The men of Israel, without Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them warriors.
18. They went up to Bethel and consulted God. When the Israelites asked, “Who shall go up first for us to do battle with the Benjaminites?” the Lord said: Judah first.
19. The Israelites rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.
20. The men of Israel marched out to do battle with Benjamin and drew up in battle array against them at Gibeah.
21. The Benjaminites marched out of Gibeah that day and felled twenty-two thousand men of Israel.
22. But the army of the men of Israel took courage and again drew up for battle in the place where they had drawn up on the previous day.
23. Then the Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening. “Shall I again engage my brother Benjamin in battle?” they asked the Lord; and the Lord answered: Attack!
24. When the Israelites drew near to the Benjaminites on the second day,