¹ And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

² And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

³ And his soul cleaved to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spoke kindly to the damsel.

⁴ And Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel for a wife.

⁵ And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter (now his sons were with his cattle in the field:) and Jacob held his peace till they had come.

⁶ And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to commune with him.

⁷ And the sons of Jacob came from the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel, in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done.

⁸ And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you give her to him for a wife.

⁹ And make ye marriages with us: give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to you.

¹⁰ And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein.

¹¹ And Shechem said to her father, and to her brethren, Let me find favor in your eyes, and what ye shall say to me, I will give.

¹² Ask me never so much dower and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say to me: but give me the damsel for a wife.

¹³ And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, (because he had defiled Dinah their sister,)

¹⁴ And they said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised: for that would be a reproach to us:

¹⁵ But in this will we consent to you: If ye will be as we are, that every male of you shall be circumcised;

¹⁶ Then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.

¹⁷ But if ye will not hearken to us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone.

¹⁸ And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamor's son.

¹⁹ And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter: and he was more honorable than all the house of his father.

²⁰ And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying,

²¹ These men are peaceable with us, therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein: for the land, behold, it is large enough for them: let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.

²² Only herein, will the men consent to us to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us shall be circumcised, as they are circumcised.

²³ Will not their cattle, and their substance, and every beast of theirs be ours? only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.

²⁴ And to Hamor and to Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city: and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.

²⁵ And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.

²⁶ And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out.

²⁷ The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city; because they had defiled their sister.

²⁸ They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field.

²⁹ And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives they took captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.

³⁰ And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites, and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they will assemble themselves against me, and slay me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.

³¹ And they said, Should he deal with our sister, as with a harlot?

¹ Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, to the LORD in Mizpeh.

² And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.

³ (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?

⁴ And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.

⁵ And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.

⁶ And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

⁷ Behold, ye are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel.

⁸ 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:

⁹ But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up by lot against it;

¹⁰ And we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch provisions for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.

¹¹ So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

¹² And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?

¹³ Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and banish evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren, the children of Israel:

¹⁴ But the children of Benjamin assembled out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

¹⁵ And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

¹⁶ Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling stones to a hair-breadth, and not miss.

¹⁷ And the men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.

¹⁸ And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.

¹⁹ And the children of Israel rose in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.

²⁰ And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.

²¹ And the children of Benjamin came forth from Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.

²² 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.

²³ (And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, go up against him.)

²⁴ And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.

²⁵ And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

²⁶ Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before the LORD.

²⁷ And the children of Israel inquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

²⁸ And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to-morrow I will deliver them into thy hand.

²⁹ And Israel set liers in wait around Gibeah.

³⁰ And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

³¹ And the children of Benjamin 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 God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

³² And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city to the highways.

³³ And all the men of Israel rose out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.

³⁴ And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was severe: but they knew not that evil was near them.

³⁵ And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjaminites that day twenty and five thousand and a hundred men: all these drew the sword.

³⁶ So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjaminites, because they trusted to the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.

³⁷ And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.

³⁸ 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 to rise from the city.

³⁹ And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin 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.

⁴⁰ But when the flame began to rise from the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and behold, the flame of the city ascended to heaven.

⁴¹ And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil had come upon them.

⁴² Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them who came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.

⁴³ Thus they inclosed the Benjaminites on all sides, and chased them, and trod them down with ease over against Gibeah towards the sun-rising.

⁴⁴ And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor.

⁴⁵ And they turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them to Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.

⁴⁶ So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valor.

⁴⁷ But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness to the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.

⁴⁸ And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.