Study Desk

The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image: and Yonatan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moshe, he and his sons were Kohanim to the tribe of the Dani until the day of the captivity of the land.

His master said to him, We won't turn aside into the city of a foreigner, that is not of the children of Yisra'el; but we will pass over to Gevah.

It was so, that all who saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Yisra'el came up out of the land of Mitzrayim to this day: consider it, take counsel, and speak.

Then all the children of Yisra'el went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Be'er-Sheva, with the land of Gil`ad, to the LORD at Mitzpah.

(Now the children of Binyamin heard that the children of Yisra'el had gone up to Mitzpah.) The children of Yisra'el said, Tell us, how was this wickedness brought to pass?

Behold, you children of Yisra'el, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.

Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gevah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Yisra'el. But Binyamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Yisra'el.

The children of Binyamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gevah, to go out to battle against the children of Yisra'el.

The children of Binyamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gevah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

The children of Yisra'el arose, and went up to Beit-El, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Binyamin? the LORD said, Yehudah [shall go up] first.

The children of Yisra'el rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gevah.

The children of Binyamin came forth out of Gevah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Yisra'elites on that day Twenty-two thousand men.

The children of Yisra'el went up and wept before the LORD until even; and they asked of the LORD, saying, Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Binyamin my brother? the LORD said, Go up against him.

The children of Yisra'el came near against the children of Binyamin the second day.

Binyamin went forth against them out of Gevah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Yisra'el again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

Then all the children of Yisra'el, and all the people, went up, and came to Beit-El, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even; and they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before the LORD.

The children of Yisra'el asked of the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

and Pinechas, the son of El`azar, the son of Aharon, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Binyamin my brother, or shall I cease? the LORD said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand.

The children of Yisra'el went up against the children of Binyamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gevah, as at other times.

The children of Binyamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Beit-El, and the other to Gevah, in the field, about thirty men of Yisra'el.