²⁰They went to attack the army of Benjamin, and placed the soldiers in position facing the city. ²¹The army of Benjamin came out of the city, and before the day was over they had killed 22,000 Israelite soldiers. ^22–23Then the Israelites went to the place of worship and mourned in the presence of the Lord until evening. They asked him, “Should we go again into battle against our brothers the Benjaminites?”

The Lord answered, “Yes.”

So the Israelite army was encouraged, and they placed their soldiers in the same position as they had been the day before. ²⁴They marched against the army of Benjamin a second time. ²⁵And for the second time the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah, and this time they killed 18,000 trained Israelite soldiers. ²⁶Then all the people of Israel went up to Bethel and mourned. They sat there in the Lord’s presence and did not eat until evening. They offered fellowship sacrifices and burnt some sacrifices whole—all in the presence of the Lord. ^27–28God’s Covenant Box was there at Bethel in those days, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, was in charge of it. The people asked the Lord, “Should we go out to fight our brothers the Benjaminites again, or should we give up?”

The Lord answered, “Fight. Tomorrow I will give you victory over them.”

²⁹So the Israelites put some soldiers in hiding round Gibeah. ³⁰Then for the third successive day they marched against the army of Benjamin and placed their soldiers in battle position facing Gibeah, as they had done before. ³¹The Benjaminites came out to fight and were led away from the city. As before, they began killing some Israelites in the open country on the road to Bethel and on the road to Gibeah. They killed about 30 Israelites. ³²The Benjaminites said, “We’ve beaten them just as we did before.”

But the Israelites had planned to retreat and lead them away from the city on to the roads.

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