⁴⁸ The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire.^(A)

¹⁵ you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely,^[a](A) both its people and its livestock.^{(B) 16} You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town^(C) and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God.^(D) That town is to remain a ruin^(E) forever, never to be rebuilt, ¹⁷ and none of the condemned things^[b] are to be found in your hands. Then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger,^(F) will show you mercy,^(G) and will have compassion^(H) on you. He will increase your numbers,^(I) as he promised^(J) on oath to your ancestors—

⁶ In one day Pekah^(A) son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers in Judah^(B)—because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ⁷ Zikri, an Ephraimite warrior, killed Maaseiah the king’s son, Azrikam the officer in charge of the palace, and Elkanah, second to the king. ⁸ The men of Israel took captive from their fellow Israelites who were from Judah^(C) two hundred thousand wives, sons and daughters. They also took a great deal of plunder, which they carried back to Samaria.^(D)

⁹ But a prophet of the Lord named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army when it returned to Samaria. He said to them, “Because the Lord, the God of your ancestors, was angry^(E) with Judah, he gave them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches to heaven.^(F)

¹³ Meanwhile the troops that Amaziah had sent back and had not allowed to take part in the war raided towns belonging to Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon. They killed three thousand people and carried off great quantities of plunder.