Judges 20:29-36

New Catholic Bible

^29 [a]Israel set an ambush around Gibeah. ³⁰ The Israelites went up against the Benjaminites on the third day lined up in front of Gibeah as they had been the other times. ³¹ The Benjaminites came out against those people, and they were drawn away from the city. They began to strike and kill the people as they had before, so that thirty Israelites fell in the highways, one leading up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah, and also in the fields.

³² While the Benjaminites were saying to themselves, “We are striking them down like the other times,” the Israelites were saying, “Let us run away and draw them away from the city and onto the highways.” ³³ All of the Israelites rose up from their positions and they lined up at Baal-tamar. In the meantime, those who were lying in ambush on the western side of Gibeah charged forward. ³⁴ Ten thousand of the chosen men from out of all of Israel attacked Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that they did not realize that disaster was near. ³⁵ The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel. The Israelites cut down twenty-five thousand, one hundred Benjaminites that day, all of them armed with swords.

³⁶ The Benjaminites then saw that they were defeated. The Israelites had given way before the Benjaminites, because they trusted in the ambush that they had set near Gibeah.