1 Samuel 11:1-14:23

English Standard Version

Saul Defeats the Ammonites

11 ^(A)Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged ^(B)Jabesh-gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, ^(C)“Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.” ² But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On this condition I will make a treaty with you, ^(D)that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus ^(E)bring disgrace on all Israel.” ³ The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days' respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you.” ⁴ When the messengers came to ^(F)Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, ^(G)and all the people wept aloud.

⁵ Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. And Saul said, “What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?” So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh. ^6 (H)And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. ⁷ He took a yoke of oxen ^(I)and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, ^(J)“Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” Then the dread of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out ^(K)as one man. ⁸ When he mustered them at ^(L)Bezek, ^(M)the people of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. ⁹ And they said to the messengers who had come, “Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-gilead: ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have ^(N)salvation.’” When the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad. ¹⁰ Therefore the men of Jabesh said, ^(O)“Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.” ^11 (P)And the next day Saul put the people ^(Q)in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.

The Kingdom Is Renewed

¹² Then the people said to Samuel, ^(R)“Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ ^(S)Bring the men, that we may put them to death.” ¹³ But Saul said, ^(T)“Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today ^(U)the Lord has worked ^(V)salvation in Israel.” ¹⁴ Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom.” ¹⁵ So all the people went to ^(W)Gilgal, and there they made Saul king ^(X)before the Lord in Gilgal. There ^(Y)they sacrificed peace offerings before the Lord, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

Samuel's Farewell Address

12 And Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have obeyed ^(Z)your voice in all that you have said to me ^(AA)and have made a king over you. ² And now, behold, the king ^(AB)walks before you, ^(AC)and I am old and gray; and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. ³ Here I am; testify against me before the Lord and before ^(AD)his anointed. ^(AE)Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me^[a] and I will restore it to you.” ⁴ They said, “You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand.” ⁵ And he said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and ^(AF)his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything ^(AG)in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness.”

⁶ And Samuel said to the people, ^(AH)“The Lord is witness,^[b] who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. ⁷ Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers. ^8 (AI)When Jacob went into Egypt, and the Egyptians oppressed them,^{[c] (AJ)}then your fathers cried out to the Lord and ^(AK)the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, ^(AL)who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. ⁹ But ^(AM)they forgot the Lord their God. ^(AN)And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor,^{[d] (AO)}and into the hand of the Philistines, ^(AP)and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. ^10 (AQ)And they cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord ^(AR)and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now ^(AS)deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’ ¹¹ And the Lord sent ^(AT)Jerubbaal ^(AU)and Barak^{[e] (AV)}and Jephthah and ^(AW)Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety. ¹² And when you saw that ^(AX)Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, ^(AY)you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ ^(AZ)when the Lord your God was your king. ¹³ And now ^(BA)behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, ^(BB)the Lord has set a king over you. ¹⁴ If you will ^(BC)fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. ¹⁵ But ^(BD)if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then ^(BE)the hand of the Lord will be against you and ^(BF)your king.^{[f] 16} Now therefore ^(BG)stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. ^17 (BH)Is it not wheat harvest today? ^(BI)I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that ^(BJ)your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.” ¹⁸ So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, ^(BK)and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.

¹⁹ And all the people said to Samuel, ^(BL)“Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” ²⁰ And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet ^(BM)do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. ²¹ And ^(BN)do not turn aside after ^(BO)empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. ^22 (BP)For the Lord will not forsake his people, ^(BQ)for his great name's sake, because ^(BR)it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. ²³ Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing ^(BS)to pray for you, ^(BT)and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. ^24 (BU)Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider ^(BV)what great things he has done for you. ²⁵ But if you still do wickedly, ^(BW)you shall be swept away, ^(BX)both you and your king.”

Saul Fights the Philistines

13 Saul lived for one year and then became king, and when he had reigned for two years over Israel,^{[g] 2} Saul chose three thousand men of Israel. Two thousand were with Saul in ^(BY)Michmash and the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in ^(BZ)Gibeah of Benjamin. The rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent. ³ Jonathan defeated ^(CA)the garrison of the Philistines that was ^(CB)at Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul ^(CC)blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear.” ⁴ And all Israel heard it said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines. And the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal.

⁵ And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops ^(CD)like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of ^(CE)Beth-aven. ⁶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves ^(CF)in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns, ⁷ and some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.

Saul's Unlawful Sacrifice

^8 (CG)He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. ⁹ So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. ¹⁰ As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. ¹¹ Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, ¹² I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” ¹³ And Samuel said to Saul, ^(CH)“You have done foolishly. ^(CI)You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ But now ^(CJ)your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man ^(CK)after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince^[h] over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” ¹⁵ And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal. The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army; they went up from Gilgal^[i] to ^(CL)Gibeah of Benjamin.

And Saul numbered the people who were present with him, ^(CM)about six hundred men. ¹⁶ And Saul and Jonathan his son and the people who were present with them stayed in ^(CN)Geba of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash. ¹⁷ And ^(CO)raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned toward Ophrah, to the land of Shual; ¹⁸ another company turned toward ^(CP)Beth-horon; and another company turned toward the border that looks down on the Valley of ^(CQ)Zeboim toward the wilderness.

^19 (CR)Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.” ²⁰ But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle,^{[j] 21} and the charge was two-thirds of a shekel^[k] for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel^[l] for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads.^{[m] 22} So on the day of the battle ^(CS)there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them. ²³ And ^(CT)the garrison of the Philistines went out to the ^(CU)pass of ^(CV)Michmash.

Jonathan Defeats the Philistines

14 One day Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.” But he did not tell his father. ² Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave^[n] at ^(CW)Migron. The people who were with him were about ^(CX)six hundred men, ³ including ^(CY)Ahijah the son of Ahitub, ^(CZ)Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord ^(DA)in Shiloh, ^(DB)wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. ⁴ Within ^(DC)the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. ⁵ The one crag rose on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of ^(DD)Geba.

⁶ Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these ^(DE)uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, ^(DF)for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.” ⁷ And his armor-bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish.^[o] Behold, I am with you heart and soul.” ⁸ Then Jonathan said, “Behold, we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them. ⁹ If they say to us, ‘Wait until we come to you,’ then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand. And this shall be the sign to us.” ¹¹ So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, “Look, Hebrews are coming ^(DG)out of the holes where they have hidden themselves.” ¹² And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, “Come up to us, and we will show you a thing.” And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.” ¹³ Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor-bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer killed them after him. ¹⁴ And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, killed about twenty men within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre^[p] of land. ¹⁵ And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and even ^(DH)the raiders trembled, the earth quaked, and it became a very great panic.^[q]

¹⁶ And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude ^(DI)was dispersing here and there.^{[r] 17} Then Saul said to the people who were with him, “Count and see who has gone from us.” And when they had counted, behold, Jonathan and his armor-bearer were not there. ¹⁸ So Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the ark of God here.” For the ark of God went at that time with the people^[s] of Israel. ¹⁹ Now ^(DJ)while Saul was talking to the priest, the tumult in the camp of the Philistines increased more and more. So Saul said to the priest, “Withdraw your hand.” ²⁰ Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle. And behold, ^(DK)every Philistine's sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. ²¹ Now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time and who had gone up with them into the camp, ^(DL)even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. ²² Likewise, when all the men of Israel ^(DM)who had hidden themselves ^(DN)in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle. ^23 (DO)So the Lord saved Israel that day. And the battle passed beyond ^(DP)Beth-aven.