All Israel (except Jabesh Gilead), assembled before the Lord in Mizpah to deal with the moral outrage committed by the men of Gibeah. First they inquired God for divine direction, then they marched against Gibeah and the Benjamites as the disciplinary arm of the Lord, following him as their King.
Before any battle could begin, the people of Israel needed to know what was going on. The leaders of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God; four thousand soldiers armed with swords.
The Israelites asked how this all had happened. The Levite, the husband of the murdered women explained everything. Day 83, Judges 17-19
All the people of Israel rose as one man, saying none of them would go home. They would take men from each tribe and build an army to attack the Benjamites.
The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin telling them to bring forward the men who did the awful thing, so they could be put to death and purge the evil from Israel. But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites and came to fight them.
At once the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand swordsman from their towns, in addition to seven hundred chosen men from those living in Gibeah. Among all those soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone and not miss a hair.
Israel, apart from Benjamin muttered four hundred thousand swordsman, all fighting men. The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God, asking who should go first to fight. God said Judah should go first.
The next morning they went out to fight. The Benjamites cut down twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield that day. But the Israelites encouraged each other and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day. They went up and wept before the Lord and inquired as to whether they should continue the battle against their brothers the Benjamites.
The Lord answered and said to go up against them. The second day they drew near to Benjamin again, and the Benjamites cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites.
The Israelites, and all the people went up to Bethel and there they sat weeping before the Lord. They fasted all day and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. They once again inquired to the Lord if they should continue fighting.
*In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.
The Lord responded and told them to go out tomorrow and fight, and the Benjamites would be delivered into their hands. They fought the third day and the Israelites and the Lord struck down 25,100 Benjamites, and they saw that they were defeated.
The Benjamites that fled the city were cut down on the road by the Israelites, as was their plan. Eighteen thousand Benjamites fell in the battle, then five thousand along the road. They kept pressing after the Benjamites and struck down two thousand more.
That day twenty-five thousand Benjamite swordsman fell, and six hundred men fled into the desert to the rocks of Rimmon. They stayed there four months. The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including animals and all they found. All the towns they went to they set on fire.
The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah, saying that not one of them would give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite. They wept to the Lord asking why this had happened to them, and why should one tribe of Israel be blotted out.
All of Israel decided that Benjamin should not be cut of from Israel, but they needed to find wives. They went to Jabesh Gilead and killed every man and woman who was not a virgin. Then they took four hundred young women who were virgins and gave them as a peace offering to the Benjamites, but there were not enough for all of them.
The people knew that the Benjamites must have heirs in order to continue on, but they did not have anymore wives. Since they couldn’t give their daughters as wives, they had to find another way.
They instructed the Benjamites to hide in the vineyards during the time of the annual festival in Shiloh. Then when the young girls of Shiloh went out dancing, they could rush in and seize a wife.
When their fathers or brothers complained about it, they would just explain that this was how war worked. They forgot to leave wives for the soldiers, so now it was their duty to provide them. But they would still be innocent because they were not “technically” giving their daughters to the Benjamites. They sure found the loophole there.
So, that’s what they did. When the girls were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife. Then they returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled in them.
In those days Israel still had no king and everyone did as they saw fit.
[…] Day 84, Judges 20-21 […]