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.
45. The rest turned and fled toward the wilderness to Rimmon Rock, and they cut down five thousand men on the main roads. They pursued them relentlessly until they reached Gidom and killed two thousand of them.
46. So the Benjamites who fell that day numbered twenty-five thousand, every one of them armed, valorous men.
47. However, six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness, to Rimmon Rock. They dwelled at Rimmon Rock for four months.
48. Yet the men of Israel turned back against the Benjamites and struck them with the edge of the sword—city inhabitants, animals, and everything that could be found. Indeed, they set on fire every city that could be found.