In this verse the narrator shifts things back to the Benjamites’ point of view in the battle. As they pursued the men of Israel, their confidence was strong because they saw the situation unfolding in the same way as in the earlier battles. Their confidence was also strong for as long as they did not see what was happening behind them. And their initial success was encouraging to them: they killed thirty Israelite men, with seemingly none of their own slain.1 Their emphatic expression of confidence comes at the end of the verse: Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.
They say this while in fact the city of Gibeah is going up in flames, which they are about to notice.
39 the men of Israel should turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about thirty men of Israel. They said, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.”