Webster Bible Translation

Judges 20:32-48 Webster Bible Translation (WBT)

32. And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city to the highways.

33. And all the men of Israel rose out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.

34. And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was severe: but they knew not that evil was near them.

35. And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjaminites that day twenty and five thousand and a hundred men: all these drew the sword.

36. So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjaminites, because they trusted to the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.

37. And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.

38. Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke to rise from the city.

39. And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.

40. But when the flame began to rise from the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and behold, the flame of the city ascended to heaven.

41. And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil had come upon them.

42. Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them who came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.

43. Thus they inclosed the Benjaminites on all sides, and chased them, and trod them down with ease over against Gibeah towards the sun-rising.

44. And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor.

45. And they turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them to Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.

46. So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valor.

47. But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness to the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.

48. And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.