²³ The Ammonites^(A) and Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir^(B) to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another.^(C)

⁸ Jonathan said, “Come on, then; we will cross over toward them and let them see us. ⁹ If they say to us, ‘Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are and not go up to them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, because that will be our sign^(A) that the Lord has given them into our hands.^(B)”

¹¹ So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. “Look!” said the Philistines. “The Hebrews^(C) are crawling out of the holes they were hiding^(D) in.” ¹² The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, “Come up to us and we’ll teach you a lesson.^(E)”

So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Climb up after me; the Lord has given them into the hand^(F) of Israel.”

¹³ Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. ¹⁴ In that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre.

Israel Routs the Philistines

¹⁵ Then panic^(G) struck the whole army—those in the camp and field, and those in the outposts and raiding^(H) parties—and the ground shook. It was a panic sent by God.^[a]

¹⁶ Saul’s lookouts^(I) at Gibeah in Benjamin saw the army melting away in all directions.

²³ This is what the Lord says:

²¹ And the Lord sent an angel,^(A) who annihilated all the fighting men and the commanders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he went into the temple of his god, some of his sons, his own flesh and blood, cut him down with the sword.^(B)

⁸ With him is only the arm of flesh,^(A) but with us^(B) is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.”^(C) And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.

⁹ Later, when Sennacherib king of Assyria and all his forces were laying siege to Lachish,^(D) he sent his officers to Jerusalem with this message for Hezekiah king of Judah and for all the people of Judah who were there: