¹⁴ When Judah turned, the battle was in front of them and behind them. They cried out to the Lord, and the priests blew the trumpets.^(A)

¹¹ Asa cried to the Lord his God, “O Lord, there is no difference for you between helping the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let no mortal prevail against you.”^(A)

¹⁰ As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord.^(A)

⁸ The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the gate, but the Arameans of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the open country.^(A)

⁹ When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the picked men of Israel and arrayed them against the Arameans; ¹⁰ the rest of the troops he put in the charge of his brother Abishai, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. ¹¹ He said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. ¹² Be strong, and let us be courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.”^{(B) 13} So Joab and the people who were with him moved forward into battle against the Arameans, and they fled before him.^{(C) 14} When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans fled, they likewise fled before Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.

³³ The main body of the Israelites drew back its battle line to Baal-tamar, while those Israelites who were in ambush rushed out of their place west^[a] of Geba.^{(A) 34} There came against Gibeah ten thousand picked men out of all Israel, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was close upon them.^(B)

³⁵ The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and the Israelites struck down twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin that day, all of them armed.

³⁶ Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated.

The Israelites gave ground to Benjamin because they relied on the troops in ambush that they had stationed against Gibeah.^{(C) 37} The troops in ambush rushed quickly upon Gibeah. Then they put the whole city to the sword.^{(D) 38} Now the agreement between the main body of Israel and the men in ambush was that when they sent up a cloud of smoke out of the city^{(E) 39} the main body of Israel should turn in battle. But Benjamin had begun to inflict casualties on the Israelites, killing about thirty of them, so they thought, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.”^{(F) 40} But when the cloud, a column of smoke, began to rise out of the city, the Benjaminites looked behind them—and there was the whole city going up in smoke toward the sky!^{(G) 41} Then the main body of Israel turned, and the Benjaminites were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was close upon them. ⁴² Therefore they turned away from the Israelites in the direction of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them, and those who came out of the city^[b] were striking them down in between.^{[c] 43} Surrounding the Benjaminites, they pursued them from Nohah^[d] and trod them down as far as a place east of Gibeah.

²⁰ So when the men of Ai looked back, the smoke of the city was rising to the sky. They had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers.

³¹ When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “It is the king of Israel.” So they turned to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him. God drew them away from him,^(A)