Antiquities of the Jews — Book 5, Chapter 2

1. After the death of Joshua and Eleazar, Phineas prophesied, 10 that
according to God's will they should commit the government to the tribe
of Judah, and that this tribe should destroy the race of the Canaanites;
for then the people were concerned to learn what was the will of God.
They also took to their assistance the tribe of Simeon; but upon this
condition, that when those that had been tributary to the tribe of Judah
should be slain, they should do the like for the tribe of Simeon.

2. But the affairs of the Canaanites were at this time in a flourishing
condition, and they expected the Israelites with a great army at the
city Bezek, having put the government into the hands of Adonibezek,
which name denotes the Lord of Bezek, for Adoni in the Hebrew tongue
signifies Lord. Now they hoped to have been too hard for the Israelites,
because Joshua was dead; but when the Israelites had joined battle with
them, I mean the two tribes before mentioned, they fought gloriously,
and slew above ten thousand of them, and put the rest to flight; and in
the pursuit they took Adonibezek, who, when his fingers and toes were
cut off by them, said, "Nay, indeed, I was not always to lie concealed
from God, as I find by what I now endure, while I have not been ashamed
to do the same to seventy-two kings." 11 So they carried him alive as
far as Jerusalem; and when he was dead, they buried him in the earth,
and went on still in taking the cities: and when they had taken the
greatest part of them, they besieged Jerusalem; and when they had taken
the lower city, which was not under a considerable time, they slew all
the inhabitants; but the upper city was not to be taken without great
difficulty, through the strength of its walls, and the nature of the
place.

3. For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had
taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the
race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely
different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and
terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this
very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men. Now they gave
this city to the Levites as an extraordinary reward, with the suburbs of
two thousand cities; but the land thereto belonging they gave as a free
gift to Caleb, according to the injunctions of Moses. This Caleb was one
of the spies which Moses sent into the land of Canaan. They also gave
land for habitation to the posterity of Jethro, the Midianite, who was
the father-in-law to Moses; for they had left their own country, and
followed them, and accompanied them in the wilderness.

4. Now the tribes of Judah and Simeon took the cities which were in the
mountainous part of Canaan, as also Askelon and Ashdod, of those that
lay near the sea; but Gaza and Ekron escaped them, for they, lying in a
flat country, and having a great number of chariots, sorely galled those
that attacked them. So these tribes, when they were grown very rich by
this war, retired to their own cities, and laid aside their weapons of
war.

5. But the Benjamites, to whom belonged Jerusalem, permitted its
inhabitants to pay tribute. So they all left off, the one to kill, and
the other to expose themselves to danger, and had time to cultivate the
ground. The rest of the tribes imitated that of Benjamin, and did the
same; and, contenting themselves with the tributes that were paid them,
permitted the Canaanites to live in peace.

6. However, the tribe of Ephraim, when they besieged Bethel, made no
advance, nor performed any thing worthy of the time they spent, and of
the pains they took about that siege; yet did they persist in it, still
sitting down before the city, though they endured great trouble thereby:
but, after some time, they caught one of the citizens that came to them
to get necessaries, and they gave him some assurances that, if he would
deliver up the city to them, they would preserve him and his kindred; so
he aware that, upon those terms, he would put the city into their hands.
Accordingly, he that, thus betrayed the city was preserved with his
family; and the Israelites slew all the inhabitants, and retained the
city for themselves.

7. After this, the Israelites grew effeminate as to fighting any more
against their enemies, but applied themselves to the cultivation of the
land, which producing them great plenty and riches, they neglected the
regular disposition of their settlement, and indulged themselves in
luxury and pleasures; nor were they any longer careful to hear the laws
that belonged to their political government: whereupon God was provoked
to anger, and put them in mind, first, how, contrary to his directions,
they had spared the Canaanites; and, after that, how those Canaanites,
as opportunity served, used them very barbarously. But the Israelites,
though they were in heaviness at these admonitions from God, yet were
they still very unwilling to go to war; and since they got large
tributes from the Canaanites, and were indisposed for taking pains by
their luxury, they suffered their aristocracy to be corrupted also, and
did not ordain themselves a senate, nor any other such magistrates as
their laws had formerly required, but they were very much given to
cultivating their fields, in order to get wealth; which great indolence
of theirs brought a terrible sedition upon them, and they proceeded so
far as to fight one against another, from the following occasion:—

8. There was a Levite 12 a man of a vulgar family, that belonged to the
tribe of Ephraim, and dwelt therein: this man married a wife from
Bethlehem, which is a place belonging to the tribe of Judah. Now he was
very fond of his wife, and overcome with her beauty; but he was unhappy
in this, that he did not meet with the like return of affection from
her, for she was averse to him, which did more inflame his passion for
her, so that they quarreled one with another perpetually; and at last
the woman was so disgusted at these quarrels, that she left her husband,
and went to her parents in the fourth month. The husband being very
uneasy at this her departure, and that out of his fondness for her, came
to his father and mother-in-law, and made up their quarrels, and was
reconciled to her, and lived with them there four days, as being kindly
treated by her parents. On the fifth day he resolved to go home, and
went away in the evening; for his wife's parents were loath to part with
their daughter, and delayed the time till the day was gone. Now they had
one servant that followed them, and an ass on which the woman rode; and
when they were near Jerusalem, having gone already thirty furlongs, the
servant advised them to take up their lodgings some where, lest some
misfortune should befall them if they traveled in the night, especially
since they were not far off enemies, that season often giving reason for
suspicion of dangers from even such as are friends; but the husband was
not pleased with this advice, nor was he willing to take up his lodging
among strangers, for the city belonged to the Canaanites, but desired
rather to go twenty furlongs farther, and so to take their lodgings in
some Israelite city. Accordingly, he obtained his purpose, and came to
Gibeah, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, when it was just dark; and
while no one that lived in the market-place invited him to lodge with
him, there came an old man out of the field, one that was indeed of the
tribe of Ephraim, but resided in Gibeah, and met him, and asked him who
he was, and for what reason he came thither so late, and why he was
looking out for provisions for supper when it was dark? To which he
replied, that he was a Levite, and was bringing his wife from her
parents, and was going home; but he told him his habitation was in the
tribe of Ephraim: so the old man, as well because of their kindred as
because they lived in the same tribe, and also because they had thus
accidentally met together, took him in to lodge with him. Now certain
young men of the inhabitants of Gibeah, having seen the woman in the
market-place, and admiring her beauty, when they understood that she
lodged with the old man, came to the doors, as contemning the weakness
and fewness of the old man's family; and when the old man desired them
to go away, and not to offer any violence or abuse there, they desired
him to yield them up the strange woman, and then he should have no harm
done to him: and when the old man alleged that the Levite was of his
kindred, and that they would be guilty of horrid wickedness if they
suffered themselves to be overcome by their pleasures, and so offend
against their laws, they despised his righteous admonition, and laughed
him to scorn. They also threatened to kill him if he became an obstacle
to their inclinations; whereupon, when he found himself in great
distress, and yet was not willing to overlook his guests, and see them
abused, he produced his own daughter to them; and told them that it was
a smaller breach of the law to satisfy their lust upon her, than to
abuse his guests, supposing that he himself should by this means prevent
any injury to be done to those guests. When they no way abated of their
earnestness for the strange woman, but insisted absolutely on their
desires to have her, he entreated them not to perpetrate any such act of
injustice; but they proceeded to take her away by force, and indulging
still more the violence of their inclinations, they took the woman away
to their house, and when they had satisfied their lust upon her the
whole night, they let her go about daybreak. So she came to the place
where she had been entertained, under great affliction at what had
happened; and was very sorrowful upon occasion of what she had suffered,
and durst not look her husband in the face for shame, for she concluded
that he would never forgive her for what she had done; so she fell down,
and gave up the ghost: but her husband supposed that his wife was only
fast asleep, and, thinking nothing of a more melancholy nature had
happened, endeavored to raise her up, resolving to speak comfortably to
her, since she did not voluntarily expose herself to these men's lust,
but was forced away to their house; but as soon as he perceived she was
dead, he acted as prudently as the greatness of his misfortunes would
admit, and laid his dead wife upon the beast, and carried her home; and
cutting her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, he sent them to every
tribe, and gave it in charge to those that carried them, to inform the
tribes of those that were the causes of his wife's death, and of the
violence they had offered to her.

9. Upon this the people were greatly disturbed at what they saw, and at
what they heard, as never having had the experience of such a thing
before; so they gathered themselves to Shiloh, out of a prodigious and a
just anger, and assembling in a great congregation before the
tabernacle, they immediately resolved to take arms, and to treat the
inhabitants of Gibeah as enemies; but the senate restrained them from
doing so, and persuaded them, that they ought not so hastily to make war
upon people of the same nation with them, before they discoursed them by
words concerning the accusation laid against them; it being part of
their law, that they should not bring an army against foreigners
themselves, when they appear to have been injurious, without sending an
ambassage first, and trying thereby whether they will repent or not: and
accordingly they exhorted them to do what they ought to do in obedience
to their laws, that is, to send to the inhabitants of Gibeah, to know
whether they would deliver up the offenders to them, and if they deliver
them up, to rest satisfied with the punishment of those offenders; but
if they despised the message that was sent them, to punish them by
taking, up arms against them. Accordingly they sent to the inhabitants
of Gibeah, and accused the young men of the crimes committed in the
affair of the Levite's wife, and required of them those that had done
what was contrary to the law, that they might be punished, as having
justly deserved to die for what they had done; but the inhabitants of
Gibeah would not deliver up the young men, and thought it too
reproachful to them, out of fear of war, to submit to other men's
demands upon them; vaunting themselves to be no way inferior to any in
war, neither in their number nor in courage. The rest of their tribe
were also making great preparation for war, for they were so insolently
mad as also to resolve to repel force by force.

10. When it was related to the Israelites what the inhabitants of Gibeah
had resolved upon, they took their oath that no one of them would give
his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite, but make war with greater fury
against them than we have learned our forefathers made war against the
Canaanites; and sent out presently an army of four hundred thousand
against them, while the Benjamites' army-was twenty-five thousand and
six hundred; five hundred of whom were excellent at slinging stones with
their left hands, insomuch that when the battle was joined at Gibeah the
Benjamites beat the Israelites, and of them there fell two thousand men;
and probably more had been destroyed had not the night came on and
prevented it, and broken off the fight; so the Benjamites returned to
the city with joy, and the Israelites returned to their camp in a great
fright at what had happened. On the next day, when they fought again,
the Benjamites beat them; and eighteen thousand of the Israelites were
slain, and the rest deserted their camp out of fear of a greater
slaughter. So they came to Bethel, 13 a city that was near their camp,
and fasted on the next day; and besought God, by Phineas the high
priest, that his wrath against them might cease, and that he would be
satisfied with these two defeats, and give them the victory and power
over their enemies. Accordingly God promised them so to do, by the
prophesying of Phineas.

11. When therefore they had divided the army into two parts, they laid
the one half of them in ambush about the city Gibeah by night, while the
other half attacked the Benjamites, who retiring upon the assault, the
Benjamites pursued them, while the Hebrews retired by slow degrees, as
very desirous to draw them entirely from the city; and the other
followed them as they retired, till both the old men and the young men
that were left in the city, as too weak to fight, came running out
together with them, as willing to bring their enemies under. However,
when they were a great way from the city the Hebrews ran away no longer,
but turned back to fight them, and lifted up the signal they had agreed
on to those that lay in ambush, who rose up, and with a great noise fell
upon the enemy. Now, as soon as ever they perceived themselves to be
deceived, they knew not what to do; and when they were driven into a
certain hollow place which was in a valley, they were shot at by those
that encompassed them, till they were all destroyed, excepting six
hundred, which formed themselves into a close body of men, and forced
their passage through the midst of their enemies, and fled to the
neighboring mountains, and, seizing upon them, remained there; but the
rest of them, being about twenty-five thousand, were slain. Then did the
Israelites burn Gibeah, and slew the women, and the males that were
under age; and did the same also to the other cities of the Benjamites;
and, indeed, they were enraged to that degree, that they sent twelve
thousand men out of the army, and gave them orders to destroy Jabesh
Gilead, because it did not join with them in fighting against the
Benjamites. Accordingly, those that were sent slew the men of war, with
their children and wives, excepting four hundred virgins. To such a
degree had they proceeded in their anger, because they not only had the
suffering of the Levite's wife to avenge, but the slaughter of their own
soldiers.

12. However, they afterward were sorry for the calamity they had brought
upon the Benjamites, and appointed a fast on that account, although they
supposed those men had suffered justly for their offense against the
laws; so they recalled by their ambassadors those six hundred which had
escaped. These had seated themselves on a certain rock called Rimmon,
which was in the wilderness. So the ambassadors lamented not only the
disaster that had befallen the Benjamites, but themselves also, by this
destruction of their kindred; and persuaded them to take it patiently;
and to come and unite with them, and not, so far as in them lay, to give
their suffrage to the utter destruction of the tribe of Benjamin; and
said to them, "We give you leave to take the whole land of Benjamin to
yourselves, and as much prey as you are able to carry away with you." So
these men with sorrow confessed, that what had been done was according
to the decree of God, and had happened for their own wickedness; and
assented to those that invited them, and came down to their own tribe.
The Israelites also gave them the four hundred virgins of Jabesh Gilead
for wives; but as to the remaining two hundred, they deliberated about
it how they might compass wives enough for them, and that they might
have children by them; and whereas they had, before the war began, taken
an oath, that no one would give his daughter to wife to a Benjamite,
some advised them to have no regard to what they had sworn, because the
oath had not been taken advisedly and judiciously, but in a passion, and
thought that they should do nothing against God, if they were able to
save a whole tribe which was in danger of perishing; and that perjury
was then a sad and dangerous thing, not when it is done out of
necessity, but when it is done with a wicked intention. But when the
senate were affrighted at the very name of perjury, a certain person
told them that he could show them a way whereby they might procure the
Benjamites wives enough, and yet keep their oath. They asked him what
his proposal was. He said, "That three times in a year, when we meet in
Shiloh, our wives and our daughters accompany us: let then the
Benjamites be allowed to steal away, and marry such women as they can
catch, while we will neither incite them nor forbid them; and when their
parents take it ill, and desire us to inflict punishment upon them, we
will tell them, that they were themselves the cause of what had
happened, by neglecting to guard their daughters, and that they ought
not to be over angry at the Benjamites, since that anger was permitted
to rise too high already." So the Israelites were persuaded to follow
this advice, and decreed, That the Benjamites should be allowed thus to
steal themselves wives. So when the festival was coming on, these two
hundred Benjamites lay in ambush before the city, by two and three
together, and waited for the coming of the virgins, in the vineyards and
other places where they could lie concealed. Accordingly the virgins
came along playing, and suspected nothing of what was coming upon them,
and walked after an unguarded manner, so those that laid scattered in
the road, rose up, and caught hold of them: by this means these
Benjamites got them wives, and fell to agriculture, and took good care
to recover their former happy state. And thus was this tribe of the
Benjamites, after they had been in danger of entirely perishing, saved
in the manner forementioned, by the wisdom of the Israelites; and
accordingly it presently flourished, and soon increased to be a
multitude, and came to enjoy all other degrees of happiness. And such
was the conclusion of this war.