So they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will think, ‘They are fleeing before us like the first time.’ While we are fleeing before them,
The enemy said, “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil. My lust shall gorge on them! I will draw my sword— my hand will destroy them.”
Moreover, no man knows his time: like fish caught in a fatal net or birds caught in a snare, so people are trapped in a time of calamity, that falls upon them suddenly.
Then I and all the troops with me will approach the city. Then it will be when they come out against us, like the first time, that we will flee before them.
So the children of Benjamin said, “They are defeated before us as before.” But Bnei-Yisrael said, “Let us flee and draw them away from the town to the highways.”