So Israel hid men in ambush outside Gibeah.

Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: We will attack the city as the lot dictates.

The Israelites got up the next morning and moved against Gibeah.

He said to his servant, “Come on, we will go into one of the other towns and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.”

So they traveled on, and the sun went down when they were near Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin.

The Benjaminites came from their cities and assembled at Gibeah to make war against the Israelites.

They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them from Nohah, and annihilated them all the way to a spot east of Geba.

But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. We will travel on to Gibeah.”

They stopped there and decided to spend the night in Gibeah. They came into the city and sat down in the town square, but no one invited them to spend the night.

The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, spoke up, “I and my concubine stopped in Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin to spend the night.

The leaders of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying. They wanted to kill me; instead they abused my concubine so badly that she died.

The men of Israel marched out to fight Benjamin; they arranged their battle lines against Gibeah.

The Benjaminites attacked from Gibeah and struck down twenty-two thousand Israelites that day.

The Israelites attacked the Benjaminites the next day; they took their positions against Gibeah just as they had done before.

All the men of Israel got up from their places and took their positions at Baal Tamar, while the Israelites hiding in ambush jumped out of their places west of Gibeah.

Ten thousand men, well-trained soldiers from all Israel, then made a frontal assault against Gibeah – the battle was fierce. But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was at their doorstep.

Then the Benjaminites saw they were defeated. The Israelites retreated before Benjamin, because they had confidence in the men they had hid in ambush outside Gibeah.

The men hiding in ambush made a mad dash to Gibeah. They attacked and put the sword to the entire city.

But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field. The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.)

Now, hand over the good-for-nothings in Gibeah so we can execute them and purge Israel of wickedness.” But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their Israelite brothers.