34. Then 10,000 troops chosen from all Israel made a frontal attack on Gibeah, and the battle became fierce; but the Benjamites did not know not that disaster was about to strike them.
35. Then Adonai struck Benjamin before Israel—Bnei-Yisrael killed 25,100 of Benjamin that day, all drawing the sword.
36. So the children of Benjamin realized that they were defeated. Now the men of Israel had yielded ground to Benjamin, because they relied on the ambush that they had laid against Gibeah.
37. So the men in ambush rushed suddenly upon Gibeah, then the men in another ambush advanced and struck the whole town with the edge of the sword.
38. Now there was a prearranged sign between the men of Israel and the men in ambush—they would make a great beacon of smoke rise up from the town—
39. then the men of Israel would return to the battle. When Benjamin began to strike, killing about 30 of the men of Israel, they said, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.”
40. But when the beacon began to arise up from the town in a pillar of smoke, Benjamin looked behind them, and behold, the whole town was going up in smoke to the sky.
41. Then the men of Israel turned back, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, for they realized that disaster had struck them.
42. Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel toward the way of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them. Meanwhile those who came from the towns massacred them in their midst.
43. They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them and easily overtook them, near Gibeah toward the east.
44. Thus 18,000 men of Benjamin fell, all them were men of valor.
45. Then the rest turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, but they picked off 5,000 of them on the highways. They pressed hard after them to Gidom, and struck down 2,000 more of them.
46. So all who fell that day of Benjamin were 25,000 men drawing the sword—all of them were men of valor.
47. But 600 men turned and escaped into the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon, and stayed at the rock of Rimmon four months.
48. The men of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword—the entire city, the cattle and all that they found. They also set on fire all the towns that they found.