Study Desk

When the man got up to go, along with his concubine and servant, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, "Behold now, the day has drawn to a close; please spend the night. Behold, the day is coming to an end; spend the night here so that your heart may be cheerful. Then tomorrow you may arise early for your journey and go home."

But the man was unwilling to spend the night, so he got up and left, and came to a place opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). And with him was a pair of saddled donkeys; his concubine also was with him.

However, his master said to him, "We will not turn aside into a city of foreigners who are not of the sons of Israel; instead, we will go on as far as Gibeah."

When he entered his house, he took a knife and seized his concubine, and cut her in twelve pieces, limb by limb. Then he sent her throughout the territory of Israel.

All who saw it said, "Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, make a plan, and speak up!"

"And we will take ten men out of a hundred throughout the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand to supply provisions for the people, so that when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, they may punish them for all the vile sin that they have committed in Israel."

Out of all these people seven hundred choice men were left-handed; each one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

Now the agreed sign between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise from the city.

But when the cloud began to rise from the city in a column of smoke, Benjamin looked behind them; and behold, the entire city was going up in smoke to heaven.

Then the sons of Israel said, "Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the LORD in the assembly?" For they had taken a solemn oath concerning anyone who did not go up to the LORD at Mizpah, saying, "He shall certainly be put to death."

"And this is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has slept with a male."

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known a man by sleeping with him; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

And the people were sorry for Benjamin, because the LORD had created a gap in the tribes of Israel.

And they said, "There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be wiped out from Israel.

"But we cannot give them wives from our daughters." For the sons of Israel had sworn, saying, "Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin!"

So they said, "Behold, there is a feast of the LORD from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south side of Lebonah."

"And when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we shall say to them, 'Give them to us voluntarily, because we did not take for each man of Benjamin a wife in battle, nor did you give them to them, otherwise you would now be guilty.'"

Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to reside in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.

"May the LORD grant that you may find a place of rest, each one in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them, and they raised their voices and wept.

"Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I were even to have a husband tonight and also give birth to sons,