1 Samuel 13–31

13Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he was king over Israel forty-two years. ^{n 2}Saul chose three thousand men from Israel. Two thousand men stayed with him at Micmash in the mountains of Bethel, and one thousand men stayed with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. Saul sent the other men in the army back home.

³Jonathan attacked the Philistine camp in Geba, and the other Philistines heard about it. Saul said, “Let the Hebrews hear what happened.” So he told the men to blow trumpets through all the land of Israel. ⁴All the Israelites heard the news. The men said, “Saul has defeated the Philistine camp. Now the Philistines will really hate us!” Then the Israelites were called to join Saul at Gilgal.

⁵The Philistines gathered to fight Israel with three thousand ⁿ chariots and six thousand men to ride in them. Their soldiers were as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. The Philistines went and camped at Micmash, which is east of Beth Aven. ⁶When the Israelites saw that they were in trouble, they went to hide in caves and bushes, among the rocks, and in pits and wells. ⁷Some Hebrews even went across the Jordan River to the land of Gad and Gilead.

But Saul stayed at Gilgal, and all the men in his army were shaking with fear. ⁸Saul waited seven days, because Samuel had said he would meet him then. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the soldiers began to leave.

⁹So Saul said, “Bring me the whole burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” Then Saul offered the whole burnt offering. ¹⁰Just as he finished, Samuel arrived, and Saul went to greet him.

¹¹Samuel asked, “What have you done?”

Saul answered, “I saw the soldiers leaving me, and you were not here when you said you would be. The Philistines were gathering at Micmash. ¹²Then I thought, ‘The Philistines will come against me at Gilgal, and I haven’t asked for the Lord’s approval.’ So I forced myself to offer the whole burnt offering.”

¹³Samuel said, “You acted foolishly! You haven’t obeyed the command of the Lord your God. If you had obeyed him, the Lord would have made your kingdom continue in Israel always, ¹⁴but now your kingdom will not continue. The Lord has looked for the kind of man he wants. He has appointed him to rule his people, because you haven’t obeyed his command.”

¹⁵Then Samuel left Gilgal and went to Gibeah in Benjamin. Saul counted the men who were still with him, and there were about six hundred.

Hard Times for Israel

¹⁶Saul and his son Jonathan and the soldiers with him stayed in Gibeah in the land of Benjamin. The Philistines made their camp at Micmash. ¹⁷Three groups went out from the Philistine camp to make raids. One group went on the Ophrah road in the land of Shual. ¹⁸The second group went on the Beth Horon road. The third group went on the border road that overlooks the Valley of Zeboim toward the desert.

¹⁹The whole land of Israel had no blacksmith because the Philistines had said, “The Hebrews might make swords and spears.” ²⁰So all the Israelites had to go down to the Philistines to have their plows, hoes, axes, and sickles sharpened. ²¹The Philistine blacksmiths charged about one-fourth of an ounce of silver for sharpening plows and hoes. And they charged one-eighth of an ounce of silver for sharpening picks, axes, and the sticks used to guide oxen.

²²So when the battle came, the soldiers with Saul and Jonathan had no swords or spears. Only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

Israel Defeats the Philistines

²³A group from the Philistine army had gone out to the pass at Micmash.

14One day Jonathan, Saul’s son, said to the officer who carried his armor, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine camp on the other side.” But Jonathan did not tell his father.

²Saul was sitting under a pomegranate tree at the threshing floor near Gibeah. He had about six hundred men with him. ³One man was Ahijah who was wearing the holy vest. (Ahijah was a son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub. Ichabod was the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord’s priest in Shiloh.) No one knew Jonathan had left.

⁴There was a steep slope on each side of the pass that Jonathan planned to go through to reach the Philistine camp. The cliff on one side was named Bozez, and the cliff on the other side was named Seneh. ⁵One cliff faced north toward Micmash. The other faced south toward Geba.

⁶Jonathan said to his officer who carried his armor, “Come. Let’s go to the camp of those men who are not circumcised. Maybe the Lord will help us. The Lord can give us victory if we have many people, or just a few.”

⁷The officer who carried Jonathan’s armor said to him, “Do whatever you think is best. Go ahead. I’m with you.”

⁸Jonathan said, “Then come. We will cross over to the Philistines and let them see us. ⁹If they say to us, ‘Stay there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are. We won’t go up to them. ¹⁰But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, and the Lord will let us defeat them. This will be the sign for us.”

¹¹When both Jonathan and his officer let the Philistines see them, the Philistines said, “Look! The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in!” ¹²The Philistines in the camp shouted to Jonathan and his officer, “Come up to us. We’ll teach you a lesson!”

Jonathan said to his officer, “Climb up behind me, because the Lord has given the Philistines to Israel!” ¹³So Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, and his officer climbed just behind him. Jonathan struck down the Philistines as he went, and his officer killed them as he followed behind him. ¹⁴In that first fight Jonathan and his officer killed about twenty Philistines over a half acre of ground.

¹⁵All the Philistine soldiers panicked—those in the camp and those in the raiding party. The ground itself shook! God had caused the panic.

¹⁶Saul’s guards were at Gibeah in the land of Benjamin when they saw the Philistine soldiers running in every direction. ¹⁷Saul said to his army, “Check to see who has left our camp.” When they checked, they learned that Jonathan and his officer were gone.

¹⁸So Saul said to Ahijah the priest, “Bring the Ark of God.” (At that time it was with the Israelites.) ¹⁹While Saul was talking to the priest, the confusion in the Philistine camp was growing. Then Saul said to Ahijah, “Put your hand down!”

²⁰Then Saul gathered his army and entered the battle. They found the Philistines confused, striking each other with their swords! ²¹Earlier, there were Hebrews who had served the Philistines and had stayed in their camp, but now they joined the Israelites with Saul and Jonathan. ²²When all the Israelites hidden in the mountains of Ephraim heard that the Philistine soldiers were running away, they also joined the battle and chased the Philistines. ²³So the Lord saved the Israelites that day, and the battle moved on past Beth Aven.

Saul Makes Another Mistake

²⁴The men of Israel were miserable that day because Saul had made an oath for all of them. He had said, “No one should eat food before evening and before I finish defeating my enemies. If he does, he will be cursed!” So no Israelite soldier ate food.

²⁵Now the army went into the woods, where there was some honey on the ground. ²⁶They came upon some honey, but no one took any because they were afraid of the oath. ²⁷Jonathan had not heard the oath Saul had put on the army, so he dipped the end of his stick into the honey and lifted some out and ate it. Then he felt better. ²⁸Then one of the soldiers told Jonathan, “Your father made an oath for all the soldiers. He said any man who eats today will be cursed! That’s why they are so weak.”

²⁹Jonathan said, “My father has made trouble for the land! See how much better I feel after just tasting a little of this honey! ³⁰It would have been much better for the men to eat the food they took from their enemies today. We could have killed many more Philistines!”

³¹That day the Israelites defeated the Philistines from Micmash to Aijalon. After that, they were very tired. ³²They had taken sheep, cattle, and calves from the Philistines. Now they were so hungry they killed the animals on the ground and ate them, without draining the blood from them! ³³Someone said to Saul, “Look! The men are sinning against the Lord. They’re eating meat without draining the blood from it!”

Saul said, “You have sinned! Roll a large stone over here now!” ³⁴Then he said, “Go to the men and tell them that each person must bring his ox and sheep to me and kill it here and eat it. Don’t sin against the Lord by eating meat without draining the blood from it.”

That night everyone brought his animals and killed them there. ³⁵Then Saul built an altar to the Lord. It was the first altar he had built to the Lord.

³⁶Saul said, “Let’s go after the Philistines tonight and rob them. We won’t let any of them live!”

The men answered, “Do whatever you think is best.”

But the priest said, “Let’s ask God.”

³⁷So Saul asked God, “Should I chase the Philistines? Will you let us defeat them?” But God did not answer Saul at that time. ³⁸Then Saul said to all the leaders of his army, “Come here. Let’s find out what sin has been done today. ³⁹As surely as the Lord lives who has saved Israel, even if my son Jonathan did the sin, he must die.” But no one in the army spoke.

⁴⁰Then Saul said to all the Israelites, “You stand on this side. I and my son Jonathan will stand on the other side.”

The men answered, “Do whatever you think is best.”

⁴¹Then Saul prayed to the Lord, the God of Israel, “Give me the right answer.”

And Saul and Jonathan were picked; the other men went free. ⁴²Saul said, “Now let us discover if it is I or Jonathan my son who is guilty.” And Jonathan was picked.

⁴³Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.”

So Jonathan told Saul, “I only tasted a little honey from the end of my stick. And must I die now?”

⁴⁴Saul said, “Jonathan, if you don’t die, may God punish me terribly.”

⁴⁵But the soldiers said to Saul, “Must Jonathan die? Never! He is responsible for…