³⁶Saul said, “Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and let us plunder them until the morning light, and let us not leave alive a man among them.” So they said, “Do all that is good in your eyes.” But the priest said, “Let us draw near to God here.” ³⁷So Saul inquired of God, “Should I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?” But he did not answer him on that day. ³⁸Then Saul said, “Come here, all you leaders of the people, so that we find outⁱ what the sin was this day. ³⁹For as Yahweh lives, who delivers Israel, I swear that even if it is in Jonathan my son, he will certainly die!”^j But nobody from all the army answered him. ⁴⁰Then he said to all Israel, “You will be on one side,^k and I and my son Jonathan will be on the other.”^l And the army said to Saul, “Do what is good in your eyes.” ⁴¹Then Saul said to Yahweh the God of Israel, “Render a decision perfectly.”^m Jonathan and Saul were chosen by lot and the people went out. ⁴²Then Saul said, “Let them cast the lot between me and my son Jonathan,” and Jonathan was chosen.

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Footnotes

iLiterally “and know and see”
jLiterally “surely dying he will die”
kLiterally “opposite one”
lLiterally “opposite one”
mLiterally “give what is perfect”; the LXX includes additional words not found in the Masoretic Hebrew text but included in a number of modern English versions: “If this guilt is on me or in my son Jonathan, give Urim, but if this guilt is in your people Israel, give Thummim”