A holy civil war (It had something to do with rotting, concubine body-part messages)

Do you know the story about the Levite and his concubine? You know the one in Judges 19 where the Levite and his concubine are staying at a guy's house when a mob comes and asks to have sex with the Levite, and the host says no you can't have sex with him but I'll give you my virgin daughter and his concubine instead; so the Levite gives them his concubine and they rape her all night and she crawls back to the house and dies the next morning, and then the Levite puts her body on his donkey and goes home and chops her body into twelve pieces and sends a piece to each tribe of Israel? Yeah that one.

Well, this is the rest of the story.

You see, when the twelve tribes got the pieces of decaying concubine body parts, they immediately assembled before the Lord in Mizpeh, along with the entire population of Israel and 400,000 soldiers. (What else would you do if you got a hunk of rotting flesh in the mail?)

All the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man ... unto the LORD in Mizpeh. And ... four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword. Judges 20:1-2

When they arrived at Mizpeh, the Israelites asked the meaning of the rotting-flesh messages. So the Levite told them the nasty story that is found in Judges 19.

When the Israelites heard this, all 400,000 said in complete unison:

All the people arose as one man, saying ... This shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it. 20:8-9

Then they asked God what they should do about it. God told them to go to war with the Benjamites, saying that the tribe of Judah should go first.

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. 20:18

(God's just war theory: Since the town of Gibeah was where the incident with the concubine occurred, and the inhabitants of Gibeah were from the tribe of Benjamin, the other Israelite tribes must go to war with the Benjamites.)

So they did that, but it didn't work out too well, and 22,000 Israelites died.

The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin ... And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men. 20:20-21

After their first defeat, the Israelites wept before God and asked him what they should do next. God said to go fight the Benjamites (again).

The children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, 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. 20:23

So the next day they tried that, but it didn't turn out so well this time either. Another 18,000 Israelites were killed.

The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. 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. 20:24-25

Once again all of the Israelites sit and weep before God, and ask him (for the third time) if they should attack the Benjamites.

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD ... And the children of Israel enquired of the LORD. 20:26-27

God gave them his usual answer: Attack. This time he promised that he would deliver them into their hands.

The LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand. 20:28

And he did. It's not entirely clear, though, how many Benjamites were killed, 25,100 (as it says in 20.35), 25,000 (as in 20.46), or maybe both in two separate battles. But since there were only a total of 26,000 Benjamites soldiers (20.15), I'll just give God credit for killing another 25,100.

The LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men. 20.35

So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men. 20:46

The Israelites killed all but 600 Benjamite soldiers and then killed every one else in the tribe of Benjamin -- old men, women, children, and babies, even all their animals.

But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months. 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. 20:47-48

It seems to me that God was also at least partly responsible for the 40,000 Israelites that were killed in the first two unsuccessful battles that he told the Israelites to fight, along with the 25,100 Benjamite soldiers. So I'll add 65,100 to God's total.