Judges 20:8-17

8All the people stood up together. They all promised, ‘None of us will go home. Not one of us will return to his house.

9Instead, this is what we will do to the people of Gibeah. We will use lots to decide who should attack the city.

10We will take ten men from every 100 men in each tribe. We will take 100 men from every 1,000 men, and 1,000 men from every 10,000 men. Those men will find food for the other soldiers. That will be their job. Then the other soldiers will be able to attack Gibeah. They will punish Gibeah's people as they deserve for the terrible thing that they have done.’

11So all the Israelites agreed together that they would attack Gibeah, in the land of Benjamin.

12The Israelite tribes sent men with a message to all the places in Benjamin. They said, ‘You must know that some of your men have done an evil thing.

13Send those wicked men of Gibeah out to us. We must punish them with death. Only that will remove this terrible sin from Israel.’ But the people of Benjamin did not agree to do that.

14Instead, they came from all their towns and they met together at Gibeah to fight against the other Israelites.

1526,000 soldiers came to Gibeah with their weapons, ready to fight. There were also 700 brave soldiers already in Gibeah.

16In Benjamin's army there were 700 men who used their left hands to fight. Each of them could use a sling to throw a stone at a very small thing. They could even hit a hair!

17The other Israelite tribes, without Benjamin, had an army of 400,000 soldiers who knew how to use their weapons.