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 the midst of it.
The Israelites did to the Benjamites as they had done to the Canaanites who were under the ban (Judges 20:48). This was excessively severe treatment contrary to God’s will (Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 19:18).