Judges 20:36–48

³⁶Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated.

The Israelites gave ground to Benjamin because they relied on the troops in ambush that they had stationed against Gibeah.^{* 37}The troops in ambush rushed quickly upon Gibeah. Then they put the whole city to the sword.^{* 38}Now the agreement between the main body of Israel and the men in ambush was that when they sent up a cloud of smoke out of the city^{* 39}the main body of Israel should turn in battle. But Benjamin had begun to inflict casualties on the Israelites, killing about thirty of them, so they thought, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.”^{* 40}But when the cloud, a column of smoke, began to rise out of the city, the Benjaminites looked behind them—and there was the whole city going up in smoke toward the sky!^{* 41}Then the main body of Israel turned, and the Benjaminites were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was close upon them. ⁴²Therefore they turned away from the Israelites in the direction of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them, and those who came out of the city^g were striking them down in between.^{h 43}Surrounding the Benjaminites, they pursued them from Nohahⁱ and trod them down as far as a place east of Gibeah. ⁴⁴Eighteen thousand Benjaminites fell, all of them courageous fighters. ⁴⁵When they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, five thousand of them were cut down on the main roads, and they were pursued as far as Gidom, and two thousand of them were slain.^{* 46}So all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand arms-bearing men, all of them courageous fighters. ⁴⁷But six hundred turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon and remained at the rock of Rimmon for four months.^{* 48}Meanwhile, the Israelites turned back against the Benjaminites and put them to the sword—the city, the people, the animals, and all that remained. Also the remaining towns they set on fire.