King James Version · The judges
Judges 20
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Then all the went out, and was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beer–sheba, with the land of , unto in . And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in of the people of , four hundred thousand footmen that drew . (Now the children of heard that the were gone up to .) Then said the , Tell us, how was this wickedness? And the , the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into that belongeth to , I and my , to lodge. And the men of rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my have they forced, that she is . And I took my , and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel. Behold, ye are all ; give here your and . And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house. But now this shall be the thing which we will do to ; we will go up by lot against it; 10And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to of , according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel. 11So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man. And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of , saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you? Now therefore us the men, the children of Belial, which are in , that we may put them to , and evil from Israel. But the children of would not to the voice of their brethren the : But the children of gathered themselves together out of the cities unto , to go out to battle against the . And the children of were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew , beside the inhabitants of , which were numbered seven hundred chosen men. Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss. And the men of Israel, beside , were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew : all these were men of war. And the arose, and went up to the house of , and asked of , and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of ? And said, Judah shall go up first. And the rose up in the morning, and encamped against . 20And the men of Israel went out to battle against ; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at . And the children of came forth out of , and destroyed down to the ground of the that day twenty and two thousand men. And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day. (And the went up and wept before until even, and asked of , saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of my brother? And said, Go up against him.) 24And the came near against the children of the second day. And went forth against them out of the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the again eighteen thousand men; all these drew . Then all the , and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of , and wept, and sat there before , and that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and before . And the enquired of , (for the of was there in those days, And , the son of Eleazar, the son of , stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother, or shall I cease? And said, Go up; for to morrow I will them into thine hand. And Israel set liers in wait round about . 30And the went up against the children of on the third day, and put themselves in array against , as at other times. And the children of went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of , and the other to in the field, about thirty men of Israel. And the children of said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways. And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at –tamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of . And there came against ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them. And smote before Israel: and the destroyed of the that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew . So the children of saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the , because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside . And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon ; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of . Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city. And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle. But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to . And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them. Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto of ; but the battle overtook them; and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them. Thus they inclosed the round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against toward the sunrising. 44And there fell of eighteen thousand men; all these were . And they turned and fled toward unto of : and they of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them. So that all which fell that day of were twenty and five thousand men that drew ; all these were . But six hundred men turned and fled to unto , and abode in four months. And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of , and smote them with the edge of , as well the men of every city, as , and all that came to hand: also they set on all the cities that they came to.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The judges, 1200 BC to 1050 BC ›
No central government and no standing army. The great empires are weak, which is precisely why Israel's troubles come from close neighbors: Moab, Ammon, Midian, and the newly arrived Philistines on the coast.
- Egypt
- Broken into competing power centres and no longer able to project force into Canaan. Its withdrawal is the single biggest reason this period has no imperial overlord.
- Mesopotamia
- Assyria exists but is dormant, hemmed in and looking east. The century that would have crushed a stateless Israel simply has not arrived yet.
- The coast
- The Philistines settle their five cities after arriving from the Aegean world, bringing Mycenaean-style pottery, a taste for pork, and an early advantage in ironworking. Further north the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon start the trading expansion that will eventually give the alphabet to Greece.
- Further afield
- Greece has entered its dark age: the palaces are gone, Linear B is forgotten, and writing disappears from the Aegean for three centuries. In China the Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang in 1046 BC and issues the doctrine that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings, an idea with an interesting resemblance to the book of Judges.