31 So the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city. They began to strike down and kill some of the people, as at the other times, in the highways a(one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah) and in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
32 And the children of Benjamin said, “They are defeated before us, as at first.” But the children of Israel said, “Let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.”
33 So all the men of Israel rose from their place and put themselves in battle array at Baal Tamar. Then Israel’s men in ambush burst forth from their position in the plain of Geba.
34 And ten thousand select men from all Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce. aBut the Benjamites did not know that disaster was upon them.
35 The Lord1 defeated Benjamin before Israel. And the children of Israel destroyed that day twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamites; all these drew the sword.
36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. aThe men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah.
37 aAnd the men in ambush quickly rushed upon Gibeah; the men in ambush spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword.
38 Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they would make a great cloud of asmoke rise up from the city,
39 whereupon the men of Israel would turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun1 to strike and kill about thirty of the men of Israel. For they said, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.”
40 But when the cloud began to rise from the city in a column of smoke, the Benjamites alooked behind them, and there was the whole city going up in smoke to heaven.
41 And when the men of Israel turned back, the men of Benjamin panicked, for they saw that disaster had come upon them.
42 Therefore they1 turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them, and whoever came out of the cities they destroyed in their midst.
43 They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and easily trampled them down as far as the front of Gibeah toward the east.
44 And eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor.
45 Then1 they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of aRimmon; and they cut down five thousand of them on the highways. Then they pursued them relentlessly up to Gidom, and killed two thousand of them.
New King James Version®, Copyright© 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Commentaries:
No entry exists in John Wesley's Notes for Judges 20:33.
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