Judges 20:36 Explained in Context

Verse 29. ²⁹ And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah.

Verse 30. ³⁰ And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

Verse 31. ³¹ And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

Verse 32. 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 unto the highways.

Verse 33. ³³ And all the men of Israel rose up 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.

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

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

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

Verse 37. 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.

Verse 38. 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 rise up out of the city.

Verse 39. 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.

Verse 40. ⁴⁰ But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven.

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

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

Verse 43. ⁴³ Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.

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

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

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

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

Verse 48. 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.