30. They went to fight against the Benjaminites at Gibeah on the third day. They got into position for battle, as they had done before.
31. Then the Benjaminites came out of the city to fight them. The Israelites backed up and led the Benjaminites away from the city. The Benjaminites began to kill some of the Israelites as they had done before. About 30 men from Israel were killed. Some of them were killed in the fields and some on the roads. One road led to Bethel. Another road led to Gibeah.
32. The Benjaminites said, “We are winning as before!”But the Israelites said, “Let’s run. Let’s trick them into going farther away from their city and onto the roads.”
33. All the men of Israel moved from their places. They got into battle positions at a place named Baal Tamar. Then the Israelites ran out from their hiding places west of Gibeah.
34. Ten thousand of the best trained soldiers from the army of Israel attacked Gibeah. The battle was very hard. The Benjaminites did not know disaster was about to come to them.
35. The Lord used the Israelites to defeat the Benjaminites. On that day the Israelites killed 25,100 Benjaminites. All these men were armed with swords.
36. Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated.The men of Israel had moved back. They backed up because they were depending on the surprise attack. They had set it up near Gibeah.
37. The men in hiding rushed into Gibeah. They spread out and killed everyone in the city with their swords.
38. Now the men of Israel had made a plan with the men in hiding. The men in the surprise attack were to send up a signal. It was to be a big cloud of smoke from the city.
39. So the army of Israel turned around in the battle.The Benjaminites had killed about 30 Israelites. They were saying, “We are winning, as in the first battle!”
40. But then the big cloud of smoke began to rise from the city. The Benjaminites turned around and saw it. The whole city was full of smoke that went up into the sky.
41. Then the Israelites turned and began to fight. The Benjaminites were terrified. Now they knew that disaster was coming to them.
42. So the Benjaminites ran away from the Israelites. They ran toward the desert. But they could not escape the battle. And the Israelites who came out of the cities killed them.
43. They surrounded the Benjaminites and chased them. They caught them in the area east of Gibeah.
44. So 18,000 brave and strong Benjaminite fighters were killed.
45. The Benjaminites ran toward the desert. They ran to a place called the rock of Rimmon. But the Israelites killed 5,000 Benjaminites along the roads. They kept chasing them as far as a place named Gidom. And they killed 2,000 more Benjaminites there.
46. On that day 25,000 Benjaminites were killed. All of them had fought bravely with swords.
47. But 600 Benjaminites ran to the rock of Rimmon in the desert. They stayed there for four months.
48. Then the men of Israel went back to the land of Benjamin. They killed the people in every city. They also killed the animals. They destroyed everything they could find. And they burned every city they found.