17. The Israelites, except for the Benjaminites, gathered 400,000 fighting men. These 400,000 men used swords and were trained soldiers.
18. The Israelites went up to the city of Bethel. They asked God, “Which tribe shall be first to attack the Benjaminites?”The Lord answered, “Judah shall go first.”
19. The next morning the Israelites got up. They made a camp near Gibeah.
20. Then the men of Israel went out to fight the Benjaminites. The Israelites got into battle position at Gibeah.
21. Then the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah. They killed 22,000 Israelites during the battle that day.
22-23. The Israelites went before the Lord. They cried until evening. They asked the Lord, “Shall we go to fight our relatives, the Benjaminites, again?”The Lord answered, “Go up and fight them.” The men of Israel encouraged each other. So they took the same battle positions they had taken the first day.
24. The Israelites brought their battle lines against the Benjaminites the second day.
25. The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah to attack the Israelites. This time, the Benjaminites killed 18,000 Israelites. All of these Israelites had been trained with swords.
26. Then the Israelites went up to Bethel. There they sat down and cried to the Lord. They went without food all day until evening. They also brought burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord.
27. The Israelites asked the Lord a question. (In those days the Ark of the Covenant with God was there at Bethel.
28. A priest named Phinehas served before the Ark of the Covenant. He was the son of Eleazar, who was the son of Aaron.) The people of Israel asked, “Shall we again go to fight against our relatives the Benjaminites? Or shall we stop fighting?”The Lord answered, “Go, because tomorrow I will help you defeat them.”
29. Then the Israelites hid some men all around Gibeah.
30. They went to fight against the Benjaminites at Gibeah on the third day. They got into position for battle, as they had done before.
31. Then the Benjaminites came out of the city to fight them. The Israelites backed up and led the Benjaminites away from the city. The Benjaminites began to kill some of the Israelites as they had done before. About 30 men from Israel were killed. Some of them were killed in the fields and some on the roads. One road led to Bethel. Another road led to Gibeah.
32. The Benjaminites said, “We are winning as before!”But the Israelites said, “Let’s run. Let’s trick them into going farther away from their city and onto the roads.”
33. All the men of Israel moved from their places. They got into battle positions at a place named Baal Tamar. Then the Israelites ran out from their hiding places west of Gibeah.
34. Ten thousand of the best trained soldiers from the army of Israel attacked Gibeah. The battle was very hard. The Benjaminites did not know disaster was about to come to them.
35. The Lord used the Israelites to defeat the Benjaminites. On that day the Israelites killed 25,100 Benjaminites. All these men were armed with swords.
36. Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated.The men of Israel had moved back. They backed up because they were depending on the surprise attack. They had set it up near Gibeah.
37. The men in hiding rushed into Gibeah. They spread out and killed everyone in the city with their swords.
38. Now the men of Israel had made a plan with the men in hiding. The men in the surprise attack were to send up a signal. It was to be a big cloud of smoke from the city.