Bible Verses About Strategy in War

When Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.

All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them shofars, and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers.

He said to them, “Watch me, and do likewise. Behold, when I come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so you shall do.

When I blow the shofar, I and all who are with me, then blow the shofars also on every side of all the camp, and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’”

So Gideon, and the hundred men who were with him, came to the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the shofars, and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands.

The three companies blew the shofars, and broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands, and the shofars in their right hands with which to blow; and they shouted, “The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!”

They each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran; and they shouted, and put them to flight.

They blew the three hundred shofars, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, and against all the army; and the army fled as far as Beth Shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath.

The men of Israel were gathered together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after Midian.

Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah.

The children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

The children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

The children of Benjamin said, “They are struck down before us, as at the first.” But the children of Israel said, “Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.”

All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar: and the ambushers of Israel broke out of their place, even out of Maareh Geba.

There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was severe; but they didn’t know that evil was close on them.

The LORD struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword.

So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gibeah.

The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the ambushers drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.

Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambushers was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.

The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, “Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle.”

But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky.

The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them.

Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in its midst.

They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and trod them down at their resting place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrise.