Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers-in-wait was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.
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).