And the children of Benjamin went out against the people
Sallied out of Gibeah upon them, where they had put themselves in array against them:
and were drawn away from the city;
the Israelites retreating, and dissembling a flight, which drew the Benjaminites to pursue after them, by which means they were drawn off to a greater distance from the city of Gibeah:
and they began to smite the people, and kill as at other times;
at the other two battles;
in the highways;
where it seems two ways met:
of which one goeth up to the house of God;
to Bethel, as the Targum {t}; or rather to Shiloh, where the house or tabernacle of God was, and was two miles from Gibeah, as Bunting F21 says:
and the other to Gibeah in the field;
so called, to distinguish it from the other Gibeah situated on an hill:
about thirty men of Israel;
which were killed in this running fight; and it seems as if one part of the army of Israel took one road, and the other the other road, and so divided the army of the Benjaminites that pursued after them.