Judges 20:30-44

³⁰The other Israeli men went and stood in their positions for fighting a battle just like they had done on the previous days.

³¹When the men of the tribe of Benjamin came out of the city to fight against them, the Israeli men retreated away from the city, and the men of the tribe of Benjamin pursued them. The men of the tribe of Benjamin killed many Israelis, like they had done before. They killed about thirty Israelis. They killed some in the fields, and they killed some on the road that went to Bethel and on the road that went to Gibeah.

³²The men of the tribe of Benjamin said, “We are defeating them like we did before!” But then Israeli men did what they had planned. The main group of Israeli men retreated a short distance from the city, to trick the men of Gibeah and cause them to pursue the Israeli men along the roads outside the city.

³³The main group of Israeli men left their positions and retreated, and then they stood in their battle positions again at a place named Baal-Tamar.

³⁴Then while the men of Gibeah were running out of the city toward them, the other 10,000 Israelis came out from the places where they had been hiding, west of Gibeah. They were men who had come from all parts of Israel. There was a very big battle. But the men of the tribe of Benjamin did not know that they were about to suffer a disastrous defeat.

³⁵Yahweh enabled the Israeli men to defeat the men of the tribe of Benjamin. They killed 25,000 of them, even though they all were using swords. This is what happened:

³⁶The main group of Israeli men arranged with the men who would be hiding that they should send up a smoke signal to enable the main group of soldiers to know when they should attack. Then the main group of Israeli men retreated for a short distance, because they knew that the other Israeli men who had been hiding on the other side of Gibeah would attack the people of the tribe of Benjamin by surprise. So after the main group of Israeli men retreated a little distance, the men who had been hiding rushed out and ran into Gibeah and used their swords to kill everyone in the city. Then they started to burn the buildings.

³⁹By that time, the men of the tribe of Benjamin said, “We are winning the battle, as we did before!”

⁴⁰But then smoke from the burning buildings began to rise up from the city. The men of the tribe of Benjamin turned around and saw that the whole city was burning.

⁴¹Then the main group of Israeli men also saw the smoke, and they knew that the smoke signaled that they should turn around and begin to attack. The men of the tribe of Benjamin were very afraid, because they realized that they were about to suffer a disastrous defeat.

⁴²So the men of the tribe of Benjamin tried to run away toward the desert to escape from the Israeli men, but they were not able to escape, because the Israeli men who had burned the two cities came out of those cities and killed many of them.

⁴³They surrounded some of the men of the tribe of Benjamin, and pursued the others to the area east of Gibeah.

⁴⁴They killed 18,000 strong soldiers of the tribe of Benjamin.