32
The children of Binyamin said, They are struck down before us, as at the first. But the children of Yisra'el said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.
33
All the men of Yisra'el rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Ba`al-Tamar: and the liers-in-wait of Yisra'el broke forth out of their place, even out of Ma`areh-Geva.
34
There came over against Gevah ten thousand chosen men out of all Yisra'el, and the battle was sore; but they didn't know that evil was close on them.
35
The LORD struck Binyamin before Yisra'el; and the children of Yisra'el destroyed of Binyamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword.
36
So the children of Binyamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Yisra'el gave place to Binyamin, because they trusted to the liers-in-wait whom they had set against Gevah.
37
The liers-in-wait hurried, and rushed on Gevah; and the liers-in-wait drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.
38
Now the appointed sign between the men of Yisra'el and the liers-in-wait was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.
39
The men of Yisra'el turned in the battle, and Binyamin began to strike and kill of the men of Yisra'el about thirty persons; for they said, Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle.
40
But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Binyamini looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky.
41
The men of Yisra'el turned, and the men of Binyamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them.
42
Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Yisra'el to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst of it.