¹ And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

² Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, I am the LORD your God.

³ After the doings of the land of Egypt in which ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

⁴ Ye shall perform my judgments, and keep my ordinances, to walk in them; I am the LORD your God.

⁵ Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments: which if a man doeth, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.

⁶ None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.

⁷ The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

⁸ The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness.

⁹ The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.

¹⁰ The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thy own nakedness.

¹¹ The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten by thy father, (she is thy sister) thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

¹² Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman.

¹³ Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister: for she is thy mother's near kinswoman.

¹⁴ Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thy aunt.

¹⁵ Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter-in-law: she is thy son's wife, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

¹⁶ Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife: it is thy brother's nakedness.

¹⁷ Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.

¹⁸ Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness besides the other in her life-time.

¹⁹ Also thou shalt not approach to a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.

²⁰ Moreover, thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor's wife, to defile thyself with her.

²¹ And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

²² Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

²³ Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

²⁴ Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

²⁵ And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit its iniquity upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

²⁶ Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you.

²⁷ (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, who were before you, and the land is defiled;)

²⁸ That the land may not vomit you out also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

²⁹ For whoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

³⁰ Therefore shall ye keep my ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves in them; I am the LORD your God.

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.