1 Samuel

13* —— 2 And Saul selected three thousand men out of Israel, and two thousand were with Saul at Micmas and in the highland of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin; and the rest of the people he dismissed to their homes. 3** And Jonathan killed the prefect whom the Philistines had at Gibeah, and Saul blew the ram-horn throughout the country; and the Philistines heard the word “The Hebrews have revolted,” 4* and all Israel heard “Saul has killed the Philistines’ prefect, so Israel is at deadly feud with the Philistines,” and the people came out in arms behind Saul at the Gilgal. 5* And the Philistines came together to make war with Israel, three thousand chariots and six hundred cavalry and men in numbers like the sand on the seabeach, and came up and encamped at Micmas, east of Beth-Aven. 6* And the men of Israel saw that they were in straits, because the people were hard pushed; and the people hid in the caves and the briers and the cliffs and the burial-vaults and the cisterns, 7 and crossed the fords of the Jordan to the country of Gad and Gilead.

And Saul was still at the Gilgal; and the people were all dropping away from him in a panic. 8 And he waited seven days, in accordance with the appointment that Samuel had made; but Samuel did not come to the Gilgal, and the people were scattering away from him. 9 And Saul said “Bring the burnt-offering and the welfare-sacrifices to me,” and offered the burnt-offering. 10 And as he finished offering the burnt-offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to meet him and salute him. 11 And Samuel said “What have you done?” and Saul said “Why, I saw that the people were scattered away from me, and you had not come within the appointed days, and the Philistines had come together at Micmas, 12 and I thought ‘Now the Philistines will be coming down to the Gilgal against me, and I have not propitiated Jehovah’; and I strained a point and offered the burnt-offering.” 13 And Samuel said to Saul “You did foolishly: you did not keep your God Jehovah’s commandment that he had given you. For then Jehovah would have established your kingship over Israel forever; 14 but now your kingship shall not stand. Jehovah has looked out for himself a man to his mind, and Jehovah has appointed him warden over his people, because you did not keep what Jehovah commanded you.” 15 And Samuel left the Gilgal and went his own way; but the rest of the people went up behind Saul to the front, and came from the Gilgal to Gibeah in Benjamin; and Saul mustered the men that he had with him, and found that there were about six hundred of them. 16 And Saul and his son Jonathan, and the men he had with him, were staying at Gebaʽ in Benjamin, and the Philistines were encamped at Micmas. 17 And the ravaging force went out from the Philistines’ camp in three columns, one column taking the direction of Ghophrah, toward the country of Shuʽal, 18* and one that of Beth-Horon, and one that of the boundary that looks down on Hyena Valley, toward the wilderness.

19 And there was not a smith to be found in all the country of Israel, because the Philistines had thought “The Hebrews might make swords and spears”; 20* and all Israel went down to the Philistines for sharpening a man’s plowshare and hoe and ax and goad-point, 21 and the charge for the smith’s work was two-thirds for plowshares and hoes and a third of a shekel for ax-whetting and for goad-shoeing. 22* And on the day of the battle of Micmas there were no swords and spears to be found in the hands of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan; but Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

23 And the Philistines’ supporting force went out to Micmas Crossing.