28. and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it then), “Should we go out again to wage war with our brother-tribesmen the Benjamites, or should we not?”The Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.”
29. So Israel set an ambushing force around Gibeah.
30. The children of Israel went up against the Benjamites on the third day and lined up at Gibeah as before.
31. The Benjamites went out to engage the people and were drawn away from the city. They began to strike the people down as before. On the main roads that go up to Bethel and Gibeah and in the field, they struck down about thirty children of Israel.
32. The Benjamites said, “They are struck down before us like at the beginning.” But the children of Israel said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city toward the main roads.”
33. So all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and assumed their battle positions at Baal Tamar. Then the men of Israel in ambush charged out of their places, out of the meadows of Gibeah.
34. Ten thousand specially chosen men from all of Israel came against Gibeah. The battle was fierce, and the Benjamites did not know that disaster was upon them.
35. The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and that day the children of Israel struck down twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamites, every one of them armed.
36. The Benjamites saw that they were defeated.Now the men of Israel had withdrawn from Benjamin, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah.
37. So the ambushing force rushed on and attacked Gibeah. They struck down the whole city with the edge of the sword.
38. The men of Israel had made an agreement with the ambushing force that when they sent up a large amount of smoke from the city,
39. the children of Israel would turn around in battle.When the Benjamites had begun to strike the children of Israel down, about thirty men, they said, “Surely they are struck down before us like at the beginning.”
40. Yet when the smoke began to rise up from the city in a column, the Benjamites looked behind them and suddenly noticed the whole city going up in smoke to the sky.