down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways. 020:033 All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar: and the ambushers of Israel broke forth out of their place, even out of Maareh Geba. 020:034 There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they didn't know that evil was close on them. 020:035 Yahweh struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword. 020:036 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gibeah. 020:037 The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the ambushers drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. 020:038 Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambushers was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city. 020:039 The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle. 020:040 But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky. 020:041 The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them. 020:042 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst of it. 020:043 They enclosed the Benjamites round about, [and] chased them, [and] trod them down at [their] resting place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrise. 020:044 There fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these [were] men of valor. 020:045 They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men. 020:046 So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these [were] men of valor. 020:047 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four months. 020:048 The men of Israel turned again on the children of Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the livestock, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire. 021:001 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin as wife. 021:002 The people came to Bethel, and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore. 021:003 They said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel? 021:004 It happened on the next day that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. 021:005 The children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn't come up in the assembly to Yahweh? For they had made a great oath concerning him who didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death. 021:006 The children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. 021:007 How shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them of our daughters to wives? 021:008 They said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah? Behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly. 021:009 For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there. 021:010 The congregation sent there twelve thousand men of the most valiant, and commanded them, saying, Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. 021:011 This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain by man. 021:012 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. 021:013 The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. 021:014 Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead: and yet so they weren't enough for them. 021:015 The people grieved for Benjamin, because that Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 021:016 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin? 021:017 They said, There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel. 021:018 However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin. 021:019 They said, Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah. 021:020 They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, 021:021 and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come you out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. 021:022 It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, Grant them graciously to us, because we didn't take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else would you now be guilty. 021:023 The children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off: and they went and returned to their inheritance, and built the cities, and lived in them. 021:024 The children of Israel departed there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from there every man to his inheritance. 021:025 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

THE END