35. The Lord wiped out the Benjaminites before Israel. The Israelites slaughtered twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjaminite men that day, all of them armed with swords.
36. Then the Benjaminites saw that they had been defeated.The Israelites had given ground to the Benjaminites because they relied on the ambush that they had set around Gibeah.
37. Indeed, those in the ambush had dashed swiftly into Gibeah and killed all the people in the city with their swords.
38. The plan between the main force of the Israelites and those in the ambush was that when they sent up a big cloud of smoke from the city,
39. the Israelites would turn around in battle. The Benjaminites had begun to defeat some of the Israelites and had killed about thirty men, thinking, They are definitely going to be wiped out before us, as in the first battle!
40. But then the column of smoke began to rise from the city. When the Benjaminites looked back, there was the entire city going up in smoke to the sky.
41. The main force of the Israelites turned around, and the Benjaminites lost heart, because they recognized that disaster had fallen on them.
42. They turned back before the Israelites in the direction of the desert, but the fighting caught up with them, and those from the towns were slaughtering them there.
43. They encircled the Benjaminites, chased them from Nohah, and trampled them to the east of Gibeah.
44. Eighteen thousand Benjaminites fell, all of whom were strong warriors.