¹⁴ And when Judah looked around, to their surprise the battle line was at both front and rear; and they ^(A)cried out to the Lord, and the priests sounded the trumpets.

¹¹ And Asa ^(A)cried out to the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, it is ^(B)nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and ^(C)in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!”

¹⁰ And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel ^(A)cried out to the Lord.

⁸ Then the people of Ammon came out and put themselves in battle array at the entrance of the gate. And ^(A)the Syrians of Zoba, Beth Rehob, Ish-Tob, and Maacah were by themselves in the field.

⁹ When Joab saw that the battle line was against him before and behind, he chose some of Israel’s best and put them in battle array against the Syrians. ¹⁰ And the rest of the people he put under the command of ^(B)Abishai his brother, that he might set them in battle array against the people of Ammon. ¹¹ Then he said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the people of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. ^12 (C)Be of good courage, and let us ^(D)be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may ^(E)the Lord do what is good in His sight.”

¹³ So Joab and the people who were with him drew near for the battle against the Syrians, and they fled before him. ¹⁴ When the people of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fleeing, they also fled before Abishai, and entered the city. So Joab returned from the people of Ammon and went to ^(F)Jerusalem.

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. ^(A)But ^[a]the Benjamites did not know that disaster was upon them. ³⁵ The Lord ^[b]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. ^(B)The men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah. ^37 (C)And 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 ^(D)smoke rise up from the city, ³⁹ whereupon the men of Israel would turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun ^[c]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 ^(E)looked 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 they ^[d]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.

²⁰ And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven. So they had no power to flee this way or that way, and the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.

³¹ So it was, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, “It is the king of Israel!” Therefore they surrounded him to attack; but Jehoshaphat ^(A)cried out, and the Lord helped him, and God diverted them from him.