In Judges 20:30–32, the narrator describes Israel as doing the same things as in the previous encounters. Israel positions themselves to the north of Gibeah, as they did so earlier. And as previously, the Benjamites experience immediate success in their response to the Israelites’ action: they kill some in the highways, the one leading up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, and they kill some in the open country. This lulls the reader, not to mention the Benjamites, into expecting a result similar to those earlier battles.1 Benjamin sees the same thing happening for the third time and thinks, Let’s do this!
But it will soon become obvious that this time it will be different.
30 And the people of Israel went up against the people of Benjamin on the third day and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.