1 Samuel 13

1Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel for forty-two years.

2Saul chose for himself three thousand men of Israel. Two thousand were with Saul at Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. The rest of the people he sent home, each to his tent.

3Jonathan attacked the Philistine garrison at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul had the ram’s horn blown throughout the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear!”

4All Israel heard the news: “Saul has attacked the Philistine garrison, and now Israel has become a stench to the Philistines.” So the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal.

5The Philistines gathered to fight against Israel, with thirty thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and troops as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth-aven.

6When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble, because the army was hard pressed, the people hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in holes and cisterns.

7Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people with him were trembling.

8He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people began to slip away from Saul.

9So Saul said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering.

10Just as he finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to meet him and greet him.

11Samuel asked, “What have you done?” Saul answered, “When I saw that the people were slipping away from me, and that you had not come at the appointed time, and that the Philistines were gathering at Michmash,

12I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of Yahweh.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

13Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly. You have not kept the command that Yahweh your God gave you. Yahweh would now have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

14But now your kingdom will not last. Yahweh has sought out for himself a man after his own heart, and Yahweh has appointed him leader over his people, because you have not kept what Yahweh commanded you.”

15Then Samuel set out and went up from Gilgal and went on his way. The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army, and they came from Gilgal to Gibeah in Benjamin. Saul counted the men who were with him, about six hundred.

16Saul and his son Jonathan and the men with them were staying in Geba of Benjamin, while the Philistines camped at Michmash.

17Raiders went out from the Philistine camp in three companies. One company turned toward the road to Ophrah, in the land of Shual,

18another turned toward the road to Beth-horon, and another turned toward the border road that looks down over the Valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

19No blacksmith could be found anywhere in the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears.”

20So all Israel had to go down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and hoes.

21The price was a pim for plowshares and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for setting goads.

22So on the day of battle, not one of the soldiers with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

23Now a Philistine outpost had gone out to the pass at Michmash.