²⁰The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjaminites and took their battle position at Gibeah. ²¹Then the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and killed 22,000 Israelites during the battle that day. ^22–23The Israelites went before the Lord and cried until evening. They asked the Lord, “Shall we go to fight our relatives, the Benjaminites, again?”

The Lord answered, “Go up and fight them.” The men of Israel encouraged each other. So they took the same battle positions they had taken the first day.

²⁴The Israelites came to fight the Benjaminites the second day. ²⁵The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah to attack the Israelites. This time, the Benjaminites killed 18,000 Israelites, all of whom carried swords.

²⁶Then the Israelites went up to Bethel. There they sat down and cried to the Lord and fasted all day until evening. They also brought burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. ²⁷The Israelites asked the Lord a question. (In those days the Ark of the Agreement with God was there at Bethel. ²⁸A priest named Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, served before the Ark of the Agreement.) They asked, “Shall we go to fight our relatives, the Benjaminites, again, or shall we stop fighting?”

The Lord answered, “Go, because tomorrow I will hand them over to you.”

²⁹Then the Israelites set up ambushes all around Gibeah. ³⁰They went to fight against the Benjaminites at Gibeah on the third day, getting into position for battle as they had done before. ³¹When the Benjaminites came out 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 thirty Israelites were killed—some in the fields and some on the roads leading to Bethel and to Gibeah.

³²The 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.”

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