So Israel hid men in ambush outside Gibeah.

The Israelites got up the next morning and moved ¹  against Gibeah.

The Benjaminites came from their cities and assembled at Gibeah ¹  to make war against the Israelites.

The men of Israel marched out to fight Benjamin; they ¹  arranged their battle lines against Gibeah.

The Benjaminites attacked from Gibeah and struck down twenty-two thousand Israelites that day. ¹ 

So they traveled on, ¹  and the sun went down when they were near Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. ² 

Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: We will attack the city as the lot dictates. ¹ 

The Israelites attacked the Benjaminites the next day; ¹  they took their positions against Gibeah just as they had done before.

He said to his servant, ¹  “Come on, we will go into one of the other towns ²  and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.”

The Benjaminites again attacked them from Gibeah and struck down eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelite soldiers. ¹ 

The men hiding in ambush made a mad dash ¹  to Gibeah. They ²  attacked ³  and put the sword to the entire city.

But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. ¹  We will travel on to Gibeah.”

The Levite, ¹  the husband of the murdered woman, spoke up, “I and my concubine stopped in ²  Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin ³  to spend the night.

That day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand sword-wielding soldiers, besides seven hundred well-trained soldiers from Gibeah. ¹ 

Then the Benjaminites saw they were defeated. The Israelites retreated before ¹  Benjamin, because they had confidence in the men they had hid in ambush outside Gibeah.

The leaders of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying. ¹  They wanted to kill me; instead they abused my concubine so badly that she died.

Ten thousand men, well-trained soldiers from all Israel, then made a frontal assault against Gibeah – the battle was fierce. ¹  But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was at their doorstep. ² 

Now, hand over the good-for-nothings ¹  in Gibeah so we can execute them and purge Israel of wickedness.” ²  But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their Israelite brothers.

They stopped there and decided to spend the night ¹  in Gibeah. They came into the city and sat down in the town square, but no one invited them to spend the night. ² 

But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field. ¹  The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.) ²