# Judges 20

> Lumin Translation

Source: https://www.lumin.faith/read/judges/20

Lumin’s own translation, drafted with AI from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, checked verse by verse against them, and approved by Lumin. Brackets mark verses not found in the earliest manuscripts.

How it was made: https://www.lumin.faith/lumin-translation.md

1. Then all the Israelites came out, from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled as one before Yahweh at Mizpah.
2. The leaders of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the assembly of the people of God: four hundred thousand foot soldiers armed with swords.
3. The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. The Israelites said, “Tell us, how did this evil thing happen?”
4. So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered, “I came with my concubine to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, to spend the night.
5. The men of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house at night because of me. They meant to kill me, and they raped my concubine, and she died.
6. So I took my concubine, cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel’s inheritance, because they have committed a wicked and disgraceful act in Israel.
7. Now all of you Israelites, speak up and give your advice here.”
8. All the people rose as one and said, “Not one of us will go home to his tent, and not one of us will return to his house.
9. Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it as the lot directs.
10. From all the tribes of Israel we will take ten men out of every hundred, a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to get provisions for the troops. Then, when they come to Geba of Benjamin, they can repay it for all the outrage it has 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 all the clans of Benjamin to say, “What is this evil thing that has happened among you?
13. Now hand over those worthless men in Gibeah, so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites would not listen to their brothers, the Israelites.
14. Instead the Benjaminites came together from their towns to Gibeah to go out to battle against the Israelites.
15. That day the Benjaminites mustered from their towns twenty-six thousand men armed with swords, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who mustered seven hundred chosen men.
16. Among all these troops there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed, and every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
17. The men of Israel, not counting Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand men armed with swords, all of them experienced soldiers.
18. The Israelites set out, went up to Bethel, and inquired of God. They asked, “Which of us is to go up first to battle against the Benjaminites?” Yahweh said, “Judah is to go first.”
19. So the Israelites got up in the morning and camped against Gibeah.
20. The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel drew up their battle lines against them at Gibeah.
21. The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand men of Israel on the battlefield that day.
22. But the troops, the men of Israel, took courage and again drew up their battle lines in the same place where they had formed them on the first day.
23. The Israelites went up and wept before Yahweh until evening. They inquired of Yahweh, “Should we again go into battle against our brothers the Benjaminites?” Yahweh said, “Go up against them.”
24. So the Israelites advanced against the Benjaminites on the second day.
25. On the second day Benjamin came out of Gibeah to meet them and cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites on the battlefield, all of them armed with swords.
26. Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up and came to Bethel. They wept and sat there before Yahweh. They fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before Yahweh.
27. The Israelites inquired of Yahweh, for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
28. and Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was serving before it in those days. They asked, “Should we go out once more to battle against our brothers the Benjaminites, or should we stop?” Yahweh said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.”
29. So Israel set men in ambush all around Gibeah.
30. On the third day the Israelites went up against the Benjaminites and drew up their lines against Gibeah as they had before.
31. The Benjaminites came out to meet the army and were drawn away from the city. As before, they began to strike down some of the troops on the roads, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah through the open country. They killed about thirty men of Israel.
32. The Benjaminites said, “They are being defeated before us as before.” But the Israelites had said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads.”
33. All the men of Israel rose up from their places and drew up their lines at Baal-tamar, while the Israelites in ambush charged out of their position in the open ground near Geba.
34. Ten thousand chosen men from all Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was about to strike them.
35. Yahweh defeated Benjamin before Israel, and that day the Israelites cut down 25,100 men of Benjamin, all of them armed with swords.
36. Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated. The men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin, because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah.
37. The men in ambush rushed in quickly and attacked Gibeah. The men in ambush spread out and struck down the whole city with the sword.
38. The men of Israel had arranged a signal with the men in ambush: they were to send up a great cloud of smoke from the city.
39. When the men of Israel turned back in the battle, Benjamin began to strike down the men of Israel, killing about thirty of them, and they said, “They are certainly being defeated before us, just as in the first battle.”
40. But when the signal, a column of smoke, began to rise from the city, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and there was the whole city going up in smoke to the sky.
41. Then the men of Israel turned around, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, because they saw that disaster had struck them.
42. So they turned and fled before the men of Israel toward the wilderness, but the fighting overtook them, and those who came out of the towns cut them down in the middle of it.
43. They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them, and trampled them down at their resting place, as far as the area opposite Gibeah on the east.
44. Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell, all of them brave warriors.
45. The survivors turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon. The Israelites picked off five thousand of them along the roads, and they kept after them as far as Gidom and struck down two thousand more.
46. So the total of the Benjaminites who fell that day was twenty-five thousand men armed with swords, all of them brave warriors.
47. But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon, and they stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months.
48. Then the men of Israel turned back against the Benjaminites and put them to the sword: the whole city, people and animals alike, and everything they found. They also set on fire all the towns they came across.

## Nearby chapters

[Judges 19](https://www.lumin.faith/read/judges/19.md)
[Judges 21](https://www.lumin.faith/read/judges/21.md)

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