36
So the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. The men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah.
37
And the men in ambush quickly rushed upon Gibeah; the men in ambush spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword.
38
Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city,
39
whereupon the men of Israel would turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about thirty of the men of Israel. For they said, "Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle."
40
But when the cloud began to rise from the city in a column of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and there was the whole city going up in smoke to heaven.
41
And when the men of Israel turned back, the men of Benjamin panicked, for they saw that disaster had come upon them.
42
Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them, and whoever came out of the cities they destroyed in their midst.
43
They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and easily trampled them down as far as the front of Gibeah toward the east.
44
And eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor.
45
Then they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon; and they cut down five thousand of them on the highways. Then they pursued them relentlessly up to Gidom, and killed two thousand of them.
46
So all who fell of Benjamin that day were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these were men of valor.
47
But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and they stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months.
48
And the men of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin, and struck them down with the edge of the sword--from every city, men and beasts, all who were found. They also set fire to all the cities they came to.