8. All the people stood up together and said, “None of us, whether he lives in a tent or in a house, will go home.
9. This is what we will do: we will draw lots and choose some men to attack Gibeah.
10. One tenth of the men in Israel will provide food for the army, and the others will go and punish Gibeah for this immoral act that they have committed in Israel.”
11. So all the men in Israel assembled with one purpose — to attack the town.
12. The Israelite tribes sent messengers all through the territory of the tribe of Benjamin to say, “What is this crime that you have committed?
13. Now hand over those perverts in Gibeah, so that we can kill them and remove this evil from Israel.” But the people of Benjamin paid no attention to the other Israelites.
14. From all the cities of Benjamin they came to Gibeah to fight against the other people of Israel.
17. The rest of the Israelite tribes gathered 400,000 trained soldiers.
18. The Israelites went to the place of worship at Bethel, and there they asked God, “Which tribe should attack the Benjaminites first?”The Lord answered, “The tribe of Judah.”
19. So the Israelites started out the next morning and made camp near the city of Gibeah.
20. They went to attack the army of Benjamin, and placed the soldiers in position facing the city.
21. The army of Benjamin came out of the city, and before the day was over they had killed 22,000 Israelite soldiers.
24. They marched against the army of Benjamin a second time.
25. And for the second time the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah, and this time they killed 18,000 trained Israelite soldiers.
26. Then all the people of Israel went up to Bethel and mourned. They sat there in the Lord's presence and did not eat until evening. They offered fellowship sacrifices and burnt some sacrifices whole — all in the presence of the Lord.