Judges 20:29-48

²⁹ So Israel put men secretly all round Gibeah to make a surprise attack on it. ³⁰ And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in fighting order against Gibeah as before. ³¹ And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, moving away from the town; and as before, at their first attack, they put to death about thirty men of Israel on the highways, of which one goes up to Beth-el and the other to Gibeah, and in the open country. ³² And the children of Benjamin said, They are giving way before us as at first. But the children of Israel said, Let us go in flight and get them away from the town, into the highways. ³³ So all the men of Israel got up and put themselves in fighting order at Baal-tamar: and those who had been waiting secretly to make a surprise attack came rushing out of their place on the west of Geba. ³⁴ And they came in front of Gibeah, ten thousand of the best men in all Israel, and the fighting became more violent; but the children of Benjamin were not conscious that evil was coming on them. ³⁵ Then the Lord sent sudden fear on Benjamin before Israel; and that day the children of Israel put to death twenty-five thousand, one hundred men of Benjamin, all of them swordsmen. ³⁶ So the children of Benjamin saw that they were overcome: and the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, putting their faith in the watchers who were to make the surprise attack on Gibeah. ³⁷ And the watchers, rushing on Gibeah and overrunning it, put all the town to the sword without mercy. ³⁸ Now the sign fixed between the men of Israel and those making the surprise attack was that when they made a pillar of smoke go up from the town, ³⁹ The men of Israel were to make a turn about in the fight. And Benjamin had overcome and put to death about thirty of the men of Israel, and were saying, Certainly they are falling back before us as in the first fight. ⁴⁰ Then the sign went up out of the town in the pillar of smoke, and the Benjamites, turning back, saw all the town going up in smoke to heaven. ⁴¹ And the men of Israel had made a turn about, and the men of Benjamin were overcome with fear, for they saw that evil had overtaken them. ⁴² So turning their backs on the men of Israel, they went in the direction of the waste land; but the fight overtook them; and those who came out of the town were heading them off and putting them to the sword. ⁴³ And crushing Benjamin down, they went after them, driving them from Nohah as far as the east side of Gibeah. ⁴⁴ Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin came to their death, all strong men of war. ⁴⁵ And turning, they went in flight to the rock of Rimmon in the waste land: and on the highways five thousand of them were cut off by the men of Israel, who, pushing on hard after them to Geba, put to death two thousand more. ⁴⁶ So twenty-five thousand of the swordsmen of Benjamin came to their end that day, all strong men of war. ⁴⁷ But six hundred men, turning back, went in flight to the rock of Rimmon in the waste land, and were living on the rock of Rimmon for four months. ⁴⁸ And the men of Israel, turning again against the children of Benjamin, put to the sword without mercy all the towns and the cattle and everything there was, burning every town which came into their hands.