Judges 19-21

Until now Israelites faced  the outside threats from other nations, now we see that internal threats within Israel are taking place.

Chapter 19 of Judges closely resembles a story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
We read that a Levite and his wife were on the way home from Bethlehem to the hill of Ephraim. They were passing the city of Gibeah which belonged to Benjamin tribe, Levite and his wife decided to stop there for the night. But no one from the tribe invited them in to spend the night and only late at night the foreigner who lived in the city invited them in. And just like in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah people of Gibeah said,
"Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him."(Ch.19 verse 22)
But the man brought out his virgin daughters to the people and also Levite's wife. In the morning Levite got ready to head to his house on the hill of Ephraim and he found his wife dead laying on the porch of the house.

Levite takes his death wife home and cuts her into pieces and send it all throughout Israel to all the tribes, to call everyone's attention to the wicked thing that just happened.

"Then all the people  of Israel come out... presenting themselves in the assembly of people of God, 400,000 men on foot. "(Ch.20 verse 1-2)

Once Levite told them what happened they got up as one man and went to the tribe of Benjamin and told them, "Give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel." (Ch.20 verse 13)

But Benjamin (26,700 men) refused and instead went to war against the rest of the tribes. 
People of Israel went to ask God, who shall go first against Benjamin and the Lord said "Judah shall go up first." (Ch. 20 verse 18) So Judah went first and Benjamin destroyed 22,000 men of the Israelites on that day.
One the second day people of Israel came before the Lord and wept, and they asked the Lord if they should still go against Benjamin, and the Lord answered "Go up against them."(verse 23) And on the second day Benjamin destroyed 18,000 men of Israel.
After that all the people  of Israel who were left wept before the Lord and fasted and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord, and asked God again if they should go against Benjamin and the Lord said "Go up for tomorrow I will give them into your hand." (verse 28)
On that day people of Israel destroyed 25,100 men from Benjamin's tribe and  while the Benjamin tribe was fleeing people of Israel destroyed 1,000 more. Only 600 men survived.

All the tribes took an oath that they wont give their daughters to the Benjamin tribe, but they wanted Benjamin tribe to survive. Without asking God the people of Israel decided that since none of  the people of Jabesh-gilead showed up to fight against Benjamin they would go and destroy them and only take their virgin daughters to give to Benjamin men.
But after the battle it was not enough women for 600 men. The people of Israel told the men from Benjamin tribe "Go and lie in ambush in the vineyards and watch. If the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and snatch each man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh." (Ch. 21 verse 20-21)

"In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Ch. 21 verse 25)

Today...
Being a female these few chapters were kind of hard to read, because in those times women were just an accessory to men and it really bothered me when I was reading these chapters, who first Levite turn his wife over to those people and didn't even check on her throughout the night and found out she was dead only in the morning.

But the reason why these terrible things were happening was because people of Israel left the Lord and didn't follow his commandments.

I would also want to notice that when Israel wanted victory they were ready to listen to God and obey him and once they had their victory they put God behind them and went along their lives like God didn't exist anymore. It felt like they were just using God for their good and once they got what they wanted they no longer wanted to listen or even to ask Him for advice.

People today do the same thing to God, they only want His help and His advice when they need victory over something, and as soon as they get what they wanted they act like God wasn't the reason that this victory was accomplished.