Judges 20:34-42 ▼

34 And came over against Gibeah ten thousand select men from all Israel, and the battle was fierce. And they did not know that evil was upon them.

35 And YHWH defeated Benjamin before the face of Israel, and the sons of Israel destroyed in Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand and a hundred men, all these drawing the sword.

36 And the sons of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. And the men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin, because they trusted in those lying in wait whom they had set against Gibeah.

37 And those lying in wait quickly rushed upon Gibeah, and those lying in wait spread out and struck all the city with the mouth of the sword.

38 And there was a signal between the men of Israel and between those lying in wait, that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city,

39 and the men of Israel would turn in the battle. And Benjamin had begun to strike and kill of the men of Israel—about thirty men—for they said, “Surely he is utterly struck before us, as in the first battle.”

40 And the cloud began to rise from the city in a column of smoke, and Benjamin looked behind them, and there was going up all the city to the heavens.

41 And the men of Israel turned back, and the men of Benjamin were alarmed, for they saw that disaster had come upon them.

42 And they turned before the faces of the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness, and the battle overtook him, and whoever came out of the cities they destroyed him in the midst of him.