Judges
Judges 20
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Judges 20 — Scripture text (King James Version)
Then all the children of went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from even to -, with the land of , unto the LORD in . And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of , presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew . (Now the children of heard that the children of were gone up to .) Then said the children of , Tell us, how was this wickedness? And the , the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into that belongeth to , I and my concubine, to lodge. And the men of rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead. And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of : for they have committed lewdness and folly in . Behold, ye are all children of ; give here your advice and counsel. And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house. But now this shall be the thing which we will do to ; we will go up by against it; And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of , and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to of , according to all the folly that they have wrought in . So all the men of were gathered against the city, knit together as one man. And the tribes of sent men through all the tribe of , saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you? Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of , which are in , that we may them to death, and away evil from . But the children of would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of : But the children of gathered themselves together out of the cities unto , to go out to battle against the children of . And the children of were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew , beside the inhabitants of , which were numbered seven hundred chosen men. Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could stones at an hair breadth, and not miss. And the men of , beside , were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew : all these were men of war. And the children of arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of ? And the LORD said, shall go up first. And the children of rose up in the morning, and encamped against . And the men of went out to battle against ; and the men of themselves in array to fight against them at . And the children of came forth out of , and destroyed down to the ground of the that day twenty and two thousand men. And the people the men of encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they themselves in array the first day. (And the children of went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.) And the children of came near against the children of the second day. And went forth against them out of the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the . Then all the children of , and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And the children of enquired of the LORD, (for the of God was there in those days, And , the son of , the son of , stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand. And set liers in wait round about . And the children of went up against the children of the third day, and themselves in array against , as at other times. And the children of went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to in the field, about thirty men of . And the children of said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways. And all the men of rose up out of their place, and themselves in array at -: and the liers in wait of came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of . And there came against ten thousand chosen men out of all , and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them. And the LORD smote before : and the children of destroyed of the that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the . So the children of saw that they were smitten: for the men of gave place to the , because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside . And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon ; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the . Now there was an appointed between the men of and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city. And when the men of retired in the battle, began to smite and kill of the men of about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle. But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven. And when the men of turned again, the men of were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them. Therefore they turned their backs before the men of unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them. Thus they inclosed the round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against toward the sunrising. And there fell of eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour. And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of : and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto , and slew two thousand men of them. So that all which fell that day of were twenty and five thousand men that drew the ; all these were men of valour. But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock , and abode in the rock four months. And the men of turned again upon the children of , and smote them with the edge of the , as the men of every city, as , and all that came to hand: also they set fire all the cities that they came to.