Gibeah

Zelah, Haeleph, Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath-jearim—fourteen cities, along with their villages. This was the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.

But his master replied, “We will not turn aside to the city of foreigners, where there are no Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah.”

He continued, “Come, let us try to reach one of these towns to spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.”

So they continued on their journey, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin.

They stopped to go in and lodge in Gibeah. The Levite went in and sat down in the city square, but no one would take them into his home for the night.

That evening an old man from the hill country of Ephraim, who was residing in Gibeah (the men of that place were Benjamites), came in from his work in the field.

So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered: “I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night.

And during the night, the men of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house. They intended to kill me, but they abused my concubine, and she died.

Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: We will go against it as the lot dictates.

We will take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to supply provisions for the army when they go to Gibeah in Benjamin to punish them for the atrocity they have committed in Israel.”

Hand over the wicked men of Gibeah so we can put them to death and purge Israel of this evil.” But the Benjamites refused to heed the voice of their fellow Israelites.

And from their cities they came together at Gibeah to go out and fight against the Israelites.

On that day the Benjamites mobilized 26,000 swordsmen from their cities, in addition to the 700 select men of Gibeah.

The next morning the Israelites set out and camped near Gibeah.

And the men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin and took up their battle positions at Gibeah.

And the Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down 22,000 Israelites on the battlefield that day.

That same day the Benjamites came out against them from Gibeah and cut down another 18,000 Israelites, all of them armed with swords.

So Israel set up an ambush around Gibeah.

On the third day the Israelites went up against the Benjamites and arrayed themselves against Gibeah as they had done before.

The Benjamites came out against them and were drawn away from the city. They began to attack the people as before, killing about thirty men of Israel in the fields and on the roads, one of which led up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.

Then 10,000 select men from all Israel made a frontal assault against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjamites did not realize that disaster was upon them.

Then the Benjamites realized they had been defeated. Now the men of Israel had retreated before Benjamin because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah.

The men in ambush rushed suddenly against Gibeah; they advanced and put the whole city to the sword.

They surrounded the Benjamites, pursued them, and easily overtook them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east.

Saul also went to his home in Gibeah, and the men of valor whose hearts God had touched went with him.

When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and relayed these words in the hearing of the people, they all wept aloud.

He chose for himself three thousand men of Israel: Two thousand were with Saul at Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. And the rest of the troops he sent away, each to his own home.

Then Samuel set out from Gilgal and went up to Gibeah in Benjamin. And Saul numbered the troops who were with him, about six hundred men.

Meanwhile, Saul was staying under the pomegranate tree in Migron on the outskirts of Gibeah. And the troops who were with him numbered about six hundred men,

Now when Saul’s watchmen at Gibeah in Benjamin looked and saw the troops melting away and scattering in every direction,

Then Samuel went to Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul.

Soon Saul learned that David and his men had been discovered. At that time Saul was sitting under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, with his spear in hand and all his servants standing around him.

Then the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon?

Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hachilah, opposite Jeshimon?”

let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” “I will give them to you,” said the king.

Heled son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai son of Ribai from Gibeah of the Benjamites,

Ithai son of Ribai from Gibeah of the Benjamites, Benaiah the Pirathonite,

They have crossed at the ford: “We will spend the night at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.

Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah; raise the battle cry in Beth-aven: Lead on, O Benjamin!

They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.

Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel, and there you have remained. Did not the battle in Gibeah overtake the sons of iniquity?