Study Desk

The Israelites took courage, and again formed the battle line in the same place where they had formed it on the first day. So the Israelites advanced against the Benjaminites the second day. Benjamin moved out against them from Gibeah the second day, and struck down eighteen thousand of the Israelites, all of them armed men. Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went back to Bethel and wept, sitting there before the Lord ; they fasted that day until evening. Then they offered burnt offerings and sacrifices of well-being before the Lord . And the Israelites inquired of the Lord (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, and Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days), saying, "Shall we go out once more to battle against our kinsfolk the Benjaminites, or shall we desist?" The Lord answered, "Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand." So Israel stationed men in ambush around Gibeah. Then the Israelites went up against the Benjaminites on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as before. When the Benjaminites went out against the army, they were drawn away from the city. As before they began to inflict casualties on the troops, along the main roads, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, as well as in the open country, killing about thirty men of Israel. The Benjaminites thought, "They are being routed before us, as previously." But the Israelites said, "Let us retreat and draw them away from the city toward the roads." The main body of the Israelites drew back its battle line to Baal-tamar, while those Israelites who were in ambush rushed out of their place west of Geba. There came against Gibeah ten thousand picked men out of all Israel, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was close upon them. The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel; and the Israelites destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin that day, all of them armed. Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated. The Israelites gave ground to Benjamin, because they trusted to the troops in ambush that they had stationed against Gibeah. The troops in ambush rushed quickly upon Gibeah. Then they put the whole city to the sword. Now the agreement between the main body of Israel and the men in ambush was that when they sent up a cloud of smoke out of the city the main body of Israel should turn in battle. But Benjamin had begun to inflict casualties on the Israelites, killing about thirty of them; so they thought, "Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle." But when the cloud, a column of smoke, began to rise out of the city, the Benjaminites looked behind them—and there was the whole city going up in smoke toward the sky! Then the main body of Israel turned, and the Benjaminites were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was close upon them. Therefore they turned away from the Israelites in the direction of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them, and those who came out of the city were slaughtering them in between. Cutting down the Benjaminites, they pursued them from Nohah and trod them down as far as a place east of Gibeah. Eighteen thousand Benjaminites fell, all of them courageous fighters. When they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, five thousand of them were cut down on the main roads, and they were pursued as far as Gidom, and two thousand of them were slain. So all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand arms-bearing men, all of them courageous fighters. But six hundred turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and remained at the rock of Rimmon for four months. Meanwhile, the Israelites turned back against the Benjaminites, and put them to the sword—the city, the people, the animals, and all that remained. Also the remaining towns they set on fire.

Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated. The Israelites gave ground to Benjamin, because they trusted to the troops in ambush that they had stationed against Gibeah.

The people had compassion on Benjamin because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

Then if their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Be generous and allow us to have them; because we did not capture in battle a wife for each man. But neither did you incur guilt by giving your daughters to them.'"

would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me."

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, "Is this Naomi?"

but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb.

Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.

Hannah prayed and said, "My heart exults in the Lord ; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory.

For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.

She named the child Ichabod, meaning, "The glory has departed from Israel," because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

The descendants of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the people of Beth-shemesh when they greeted the ark of the Lord ; and he killed seventy men of them. The people mourned because the Lord had made a great slaughter among the people.

And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day."

They answered, "Yes, there he is just ahead of you. Hurry; he has come just now to the town, because the people have a sacrifice today at the shrine.

"Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be ruler over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines; for I have seen the suffering of my people, because their outcry has come to me."

Then they cried to the Lord , and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord , and have served the Baals and the Astartes; but now rescue us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.'

For the Lord will not cast away his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.

but now your kingdom will not continue; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart; and the Lord has appointed him to be ruler over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you."

Then Jonathan said, "My father has troubled the land; see how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey.

For rebellion is no less a sin than divination, and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord , he has also rejected you from being king."