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Judges 20 New American Bible
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Judges 20 New American Bible</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/judges/20.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="/bmcc/judges/20-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com/catholic">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NABRE</a> > Judges 20</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../judges/19.htm" title="Judges 19">◄</a> Judges 20 <a href="../judges/21.htm" title="Judges 21">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New American Bible Revised Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><section id="ch07020" class="chapter"> <h1 id="cn07020" class="cn"></h1> <p class="pf"><span class="hemb">Assembly of Israelites.</span> <span id="v07020001" class="ver">1</span>So all the Israelites came out as one, from Dan to Beer-sheba<a id="rfn07020001-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn07020001-1">*</a> <a id="ren07020001-a" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07020001-a">a</a> including the land of Gilead, and the assembly gathered to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> at Mizpah. <span id="v07020002" class="ver">2</span>The leaders of all the people, all the staff-bearers of Israel,<a id="rfn07020002-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn07020002-1">*</a> presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God—four hundred thousand foot soldiers who carried swords. <span id="v07020003" class="ver">3</span>Meanwhile, the Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. The Israelites asked, “How did this evil thing happen?” <span id="v07020004" class="ver">4</span>and the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, testified: “It was at Gibeah of Benjamin, which my concubine and I had entered for the night.<a id="ren07020004-b" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07020004-b">b</a> <span id="v07020005" class="ver">5</span><a id="ren07020005-c" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07020005-c">c</a> The lords of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded me in the house at night. I was the one they intended to kill, but they abused my concubine and she died. <span id="v07020006" class="ver">6</span><a id="ren07020006-d" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07020006-d">d</a> 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. <span id="v07020007" class="ver">7</span>So now, all you Israelites, give your judgment and counsel in this matter.”<a id="ren07020007-e" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07020007-e">e</a> <span id="v07020008" class="ver">8</span>All the people rose as one to say, “None of us will leave for our tents or return to our homes. <span id="v07020009" class="ver">9</span>Now as for Gibeah, this is what we will do: We will go up against it by lot, <span id="v07020010" class="ver">10</span>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.”</p> <p><span id="v07020011" class="ver">11</span>So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one. <span id="v07020012" class="ver">12</span>The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin to say, “What is this evil that has occurred among you? <span id="v07020013" class="ver">13</span>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. <span id="v07020014" class="ver">14</span>Instead, the Benjaminites assembled from their cities at Gibeah, to march out to battle with the Israelites. <span id="v07020015" class="ver">15</span>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 <span id="v07020016" class="ver">16</span><a id="rfn07020016-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn07020016-1">*</a> who were left-handed, every one of them able to sling a stone at a hair without missing. <span id="v07020017" class="ver">17</span>The men of Israel, without Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them warriors. <span id="v07020018" class="ver">18</span>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 <span class="tetr">Lord</span> said: Judah first.<a id="rfn07020018-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn07020018-1">*</a> <a id="ren07020018-f" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07020018-f">f</a> <span id="v07020019" class="ver">19</span><a id="rfn07020019-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn07020019-1">*</a> The Israelites rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">War with Benjamin.</span> <span id="v07020020" class="ver">20</span>The men of Israel marched out to do battle with Benjamin and drew up in battle array against them at Gibeah. <span id="v07020021" class="ver">21</span>The Benjaminites marched out of Gibeah that day and felled twenty-two thousand men of Israel. <span id="v07020022" class="ver">22</span><a id="rfn07020022-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn07020022-1">*</a> 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. <span id="v07020023" class="ver">23</span>Then the Israelites went up and wept before the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> until evening. “Shall I again engage my brother Benjamin in battle?” they asked the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>; and the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> answered: Attack! <span id="v07020024" class="ver">24</span>When the Israelites drew near to the Benjaminites on the second day, <span id="v07020025" class="ver">25</span>Benjamin marched out of Gibeah against them again and felled eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them swordsmen. <span id="v07020026" class="ver">26</span>So the entire Israelite army went up and entered Bethel, where they sat weeping before the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and communion offerings before the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>. <span id="v07020027" class="ver">27</span>The Israelites consulted the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> (for the ark of the covenant of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> was there in those days, <span id="v07020028" class="ver">28</span>and Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron,<a id="rfn07020028-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn07020028-1">*</a> was standing in his presence in those days), and asked, “Shall I again go out to battle with my brother Benjamin, or shall I stop?” The <span class="tetr">Lord</span> said: Attack! For tomorrow I will deliver him into your power. <span id="v07020029" class="ver">29</span><a id="rfn07020029-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn07020029-1">*</a> <a id="ren07020029-g" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07020029-g">g</a> So Israel set men in ambush around Gibeah.</p> <p><span id="v07020030" class="ver">30</span>When the Israelites went up against the Benjaminites on the third day, they drew up against Gibeah as on other occasions. <span id="v07020031" class="ver">31</span>When the Benjaminites marched out to meet the army, they began, as on other occasions, to strike down some of the troops along the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel and one to Gibeah in the open country; about thirty Israelites were slain. <span id="v07020032" class="ver">32</span>The Benjaminites thought, “They are routed before us as previously.” The Israelites, however, were thinking, “We will flee and draw them out from the city onto the highways.” <span id="v07020033" class="ver">33</span>And then all the men of Israel rose from their places, forming up at Baal-tamar, and the Israelites in ambush rushed from their place west of Gibeah <span id="v07020034" class="ver">34</span>and advanced against Gibeah with ten thousand picked men from all Israel. The fighting was severe, but no one knew that a disaster was closing in. <span id="v07020035" class="ver">35</span>The <span class="tetr">Lord</span> defeated Benjamin before Israel; and on that day the Israelites killed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin, all of them swordsmen.</p> <p><span id="v07020036" class="ver">36</span>Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated. The men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin, trusting in the ambush they had set at Gibeah. <span id="v07020037" class="ver">37</span>Then the men in ambush, having made a sudden dash against Gibeah, marched in and put the whole city to the sword. <span id="v07020038" class="ver">38</span>The arrangement the men of Israel had with the men in ambush was that they would send up a smoke signal from the city, <span id="v07020039" class="ver">39</span>and the men of Israel would then wheel about in the battle. Benjamin, having begun by killing off some thirty of the men of Israel, thought, “Surely they are completely routed before us, as in the earlier fighting.” <span id="v07020040" class="ver">40</span>But when the signal, the column of smoke, began to rise up from the city, Benjamin looked back and there was the whole city going up in smoke toward heaven. <span id="v07020041" class="ver">41</span>Then when the men of Israel wheeled about, the men of Benjamin were thrown into confusion, for they realized that disaster was closing in on them. <span id="v07020042" class="ver">42</span>They retreated before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness, but the fighting kept pace with them, and those who had been in the city were spreading destruction in between. <span id="v07020043" class="ver">43</span>They surrounded the men of Benjamin, pursued them from Nohah and drove them along to a point east of Gibeah. <span id="v07020044" class="ver">44</span>Eighteen thousand from Benjamin fell, all of them warriors. <span id="v07020045" class="ver">45</span>They turned and fled into the wilderness to the crag of Rimmon. The Israelites picked off five thousand men on the highways and kept pace with them as far as Gidom, where they struck down another two thousand of them. <span id="v07020046" class="ver">46</span>The total of those from Benjamin who fell that day was twenty-five thousand swordsmen, all of them warriors. <span id="v07020047" class="ver">47</span>Six hundred men turned and fled into the wilderness to the crag of Rimmon, where they remained for four months.<a id="ren07020047-h" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07020047-h">h</a></p> <p><span id="v07020048" class="ver">48</span>Then the men of Israel turned back against the Benjaminites, putting them to the sword—the inhabitants of the cities, the livestock, and all they came upon.<a id="ren07020048-i" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07020048-i">i</a> Moreover they destroyed by fire all the cities they came upon.</p> </section> <br /><h1 class="cn"><a class="xref" href="intro.htm"><span class="ac">Book Introduction</span></a></h1><h1 class="cn"><a class="xref" href="footnotes.htm"><span class="ac">Footnotes</span></a></h1></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the <i>New American Bible, revised edition</i> © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. 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