Judges 20:36–48

³⁶So the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. ^eThe men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah. ^37fAnd 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. ³⁸Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they would make a great cloud of ^gsmoke rise up from the city, ³⁹whereupon the men of Israel would turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun ⁶to strike and kill about thirty of the men of Israel. For they said, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.” ⁴⁰But when the cloud began to rise from the city in a column of smoke, the Benjamites ^hlooked behind them, and there was the whole city going up in smoke to heaven. ⁴¹And when the men of Israel turned back, the men of Benjamin panicked, for they saw that disaster had come upon them. ⁴²Therefore they ⁷turned 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. ⁴³They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and easily trampled them down as far as the front of Gibeah toward the east. ⁴⁴And eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor. ⁴⁵Then ⁸they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of ⁱRimmon; 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. ⁴⁶So all who fell of Benjamin that day were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these were ⁹men of valor.

^47jBut 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. ⁴⁸And 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.