But his master replied, "We're not going to turn aside into a city of foreigners who are not part of the Israelis. Instead, we'll go on to Gibeah."

He also told his servant, "Come on, let's go to one of these places and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah."

So they continued on their way, and the sun set on them near Gibeah, which is part of Benjamin's territorial allotment.

They turned aside there, intending to enter Gibeah and spend the night.

After they entered the city, they had to sit down in the public square because no one would take them into their home for the night. Just then, an old man was coming out of the fields that evening from work. The man was from the mountainous region of Ephraim and had been staying in Gibeah, even though the men of that place were descendants of Benjamin.

So the descendant of Levi, the husband of the murdered woman, spoke up and replied, "I came to spend the night at Gibeah, which is part of Benjamin, along with my mistress.

But the officials of Gibeah attacked me and surrounded the house because of me. They intended to kill me, but instead they tortured my mistress to death.

This is what we'll do to Gibeah: we're going to assemble an army by lottery.

We'll take ten men out of 100 from all of the tribes of Israel. We'll appoint 100 out of 1,000 and 1,000 out of 10,000 to supply provisions for the army. And when we reach Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin, we'll punish them for all of the stupid things that they've done in Israel."

But the descendants of Benjamin wouldn't obey the request of their own relatives, the Israelis, so the descendants of Benjamin assembled from the cities of Gibeah to fight the Israelis in battle.

The day of the battle, the army from the descendants of Benjamin numbered 26,000 expert swordsmen from their cities, not including the inhabitants of Gibeah, who numbered 700 special forces soldiers.

So the Israelis got up in the morning, encamped near Gibeah,

and the army of Israel went out to fight the tribe of Benjamin, assembling in battle array against them at Gibeah.

The descendants of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and 22,000 soldiers of Israel fell in battle that day.

and the tribe of Benjamin went to war against them from Gibeah during that second day, and 18,000 soldiers from the Israelis all of them expert swordsmen fell to the ground.

So Israel set soldiers in ambush around Gibeah.

The Israelis went out against the descendants of Benjamin on the third day, arraying themselves against Gibeah as they had done previously.

They attacked the army and were drawn away from the city as they began to inflict casualties on the soldiers along the roads to Bethel and Gibeah, just as they had done the other times. About 30 soldiers from Israel fell in battle there and in the fields.

As 10,000 of Israel's best soldiers came to fight Gibeah, the battle became fierce, but the army of Benjamin didn't know that disaster was close at hand.

Then the descendants of Benjamin realized that they had been defeated. The army of Israel pretended to retreat from the army of Benjamin, knowing that they had set some soldiers in ambush near Gibeah.

The soldiers in ambush rushed out to attack Gibeah, deploying in force and executing the entire city with swords.

They surrounded the army of Benjamin, pursuing them ceaselessly until they defeated them near the east-facing border of Gibeah.