31. The Benjaminites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before, so that about thirty men fell in the open field and on the roads – the one leading to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.
32. While the Benjaminites were saying, ‘We are defeating them as before,’ the Israelites were saying, ‘Let’s retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads.’
33. All the men of Israel moved from their places and took up positions at Baal Tamar, and the Israelite ambush charged out of its place on the west of Gibeah.
34. Then ten thousand of Israel’s able young men made a frontal attack on Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjaminites did not realise how near disaster was.
35. The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjaminites, all armed with swords.
36. Then the Benjaminites saw that they were beaten.Now the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, because they relied on the ambush they had set near Gibeah.
37. Those who had been in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibeah, spread out and put the whole city to the sword.
38. The Israelites had arranged with the ambush that they should send up a great cloud of smoke from the city,
39. and then the Israelites would counterattack.The Benjaminites had begun to inflict casualties on the Israelites (about thirty), and they said, ‘We are defeating them as in the first battle.’
40. But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjaminites turned and saw the whole city going up in smoke.
41. Then the Israelites counterattacked, and the Benjaminites were terrified, because they realised that disaster had come on them.
42. So they fled before the Israelites in the direction of the wilderness, but they could not escape the battle. And the Israelites who came out of the towns cut them down there.
43. They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them and easily overran them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east.
44. Eighteen thousand Benjaminites fell, all of them valiant fighters.
45. As they turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, the Israelites cut down five thousand men along the roads. They kept pressing after the Benjaminites as far as Gidom and struck down two thousand more.
46. On that day twenty-five thousand Benjaminite swordsmen fell, all of them valiant fighters.