Judges 20:30-44

³⁰The people of Israel fought against the people of Benjamin for the third day, and they formed their battle lines against Gibeah as they had done before.

³¹The people of Benjamin went and fought against the people, and they were drawn away from the city. They began to kill some of the people. There were about thirty men of Israel who died in the fields and on the roads. One of the roads went up to Bethel, and the other went to Gibeah.

³²Then the people of Benjamin said, “They are defeated and they are running away from us, just as at first.” But the soldiers of Israel said, “Let us run back and draw them away from the city to the roads.”

³³All the people of Israel rose up out of their places and formed themselves into lines for battle at Baal Tamar. Then the soldiers of Israel who had been hiding in secret places ran out from their places from Maareh Gibeah.

³⁴There came out against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the fighting was fierce, but the Benjamites did not know that disaster was close to them.

³⁵Yahweh defeated Benjamin before Israel. On that day, the soldiers of Israel killed 25,100 men of Benjamin. All these who died were those who had been trained to fight with the sword.

³⁶So the soldiers of Benjamin saw they were defeated. The men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin, because they were counting on the men they had placed in hidden positions outside Gibeah.

³⁷Then the men who were hiding got up and hurried and they rushed into Gibeah, and they struck all the city with the edge of the sword.

³⁸The arranged signal between the soldiers of Israel and the men hiding in secret would be that a great cloud of smoke would rise up out of the city.

³⁹When the signal was sent the soldiers of Israel would turn from the battle. Now Benjamin began to attack and they killed about thirty men of Israel, and they said, “It is sure that they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.”

⁴⁰But when a pillar of smoke began to rise up out of the city, the Benjamites turned and saw the smoke rising to the sky from the whole city.

⁴¹Then the people of Israel turned against them. The men of Benjamin were terrified, for they saw that disaster had come on them.

⁴²So they ran away from the people of Israel, escaping on the way to the wilderness. But the fighting overtook them. The soldiers of Israel came out of the cities and killed them where they stood.

⁴³They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them and trampled them down at Nohah, all the way to the east side of Gibeah.

⁴⁴From the tribe of Benjamin, eighteen thousand people died, all of them men who were distinguished in battle.