Judges 20:29–43

²⁹So Israel set up an ambush around Gibeah. ³⁰On the third day the Israelites went up against the Benjamites and arrayed themselves against Gibeah as they had done before. ³¹The Benjamites came out against them and were drawn away from the city. They began to attack the people as before, killing about thirty men of Israel in the fields and on the roads, one of which led up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.

³²“We are defeating them as before,” said the Benjamites.

But the Israelites said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city onto the roads.”

³³So all the men of Israel got up from their places and arrayed themselves at Baal-tamar, and the Israelites in ambush charged from their positions west of Gibeah.^{b 34}Then 10,000 select men from all Israel made a frontal assault against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjamites did not realize that disaster was upon them. ³⁵The LORD defeated Benjamin in the presence of Israel, and on that day the Israelites slaughtered 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords. ³⁶Then the Benjamites realized they had been defeated.

Now the men of Israel had retreated before Benjamin because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah. ³⁷The men in ambush rushed suddenly against Gibeah; they advanced and put the whole city to the sword.

³⁸The men of Israel had arranged a signal with the men in ambush: When they sent up a great cloud of smoke from the city, ³⁹the men of Israel would turn in the battle.

When the Benjamites had begun to strike them down, killing about thirty men of Israel, they said, “They are defeated before us as in the first battle.” ⁴⁰But when the column of smoke began to go up from the city, the Benjamites looked behind them and saw the whole city going up in smoke.

⁴¹Then the men of Israel turned back on them, and the men of Benjamin were terrified when they realized that disaster had come upon them. ⁴²So they fled before the men of Israel toward the wilderness, but the battle overtook them, and the men coming out of the cities struck them down there. ⁴³They surrounded the Benjamites, pursued them, and easily overtook them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east.