26. Then all the sons of Israel and all the people went up and came unto the house of God and wept and sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
27. And the sons of Israel enquired of the Lord (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
28. and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the sons of Benjamin, my brother, or shall I cease? And the Lord said, Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into thy hand.
29. And Israel set ambushes round about Gibeah.
30. And the sons of Israel went up against the sons of Benjamin on the third day and put themselves in order against Gibeah as at the other times.
31. And the sons of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city, and they began to smite of the people and kill as at the other times in the highways, one of which goes up to the house of God and the other to Gibeah by the field, and they killed about thirty men of Israel.
32. And the sons of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us as at the first. But the sons of Israel said, Let us flee and draw them from the city unto the highways.
33. Then all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and put themselves in order at Baaltamar, and also those of the ambushes of Israel came forth out of their place, out of the meadows of Gibeah.
34. And ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle was sore; but they did not know that evil was near them.
35. And the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel, and the sons of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men; all these drew the sword.
36. So the sons of Benjamin saw that they were smitten, for the men of Israel had given place to the Benjamites because they trusted those of the ambushes which they had set behind Gibeah.
37. Then the men of the ambushes rushed upon Gibeah and spread out and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.
38. Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the men of the ambushes that they should make a great signal by causing much smoke to rise up out of the city.
39. Then when the men of Israel turned their backs in the battle and those of Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons, for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us as in the first battle.