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 The Benjamites saw that they were defeated.Now the men of Israel had withdrawn from Benjamin, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah.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.
41. Then the men of Israel turned around, and the men of Benjamin were horrified because they saw that disaster had come on them.
42. So they fled from the men of Israel toward the direction of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them. Whoever came out of the cities destroyed them in their midst.
43. They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them without rest, and trampled them down near Gibeah toward the east.
44. Eighteen thousand men from Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor.