Focused Passage
Israel's Civil War Against Benjamin: Justice, Judgment, and Near Tribal Ruin
Judges 20 moves from shocked national unity over Gibeah's outrage, through Benjamin's refusal to give up the guilty, through repeated defeat and intensified seeking of the LORD, into divinely granted victory that becomes catastrophic civil war and leaves Benjamin almost extinguished.
Berean Standard Bible, Public Domain - Translation notes - Reference sources
1Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.
2The leaders of all the people and all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of God’s people: 400,000 men on foot, armed with swords.
3(Meanwhile the Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) And the Israelites asked, “Tell us, how did this wicked thing happen?”
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