1 Samuel 13:23-14:14

Living Bible

²³ The mountain pass at Michmash had meanwhile been secured by a contingent of the Philistine army.

14 A day or so later, Prince Jonathan said to his young bodyguard, “Come on, let’s cross the valley to the garrison of the Philistines.” But he didn’t tell his father that he was leaving.

² Saul and his six hundred men were camped at the edge of Gibeah, around the pomegranate tree at Migron. ³ Among his men was Ahijah the priest (the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother; Ahitub was the son of Phinehas and the grandson of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh).

No one realized that Jonathan had gone. ⁴ To reach the Philistine garrison, Jonathan had to go over a narrow pass between two rocky crags which had been named Bozez and Seneh. ⁵ The crag on the north was in front of Michmash and the southern one was in front of Geba.

⁶ “Yes, let’s go across to those heathen,” Jonathan had said to his bodyguard. “Perhaps the Lord will do a miracle for us. For it makes no difference to him how many enemy troops there are!”

⁷ “Fine!” the youth replied. “Do as you think best; I’m with you heart and soul, whatever you decide.”

⁸ “All right, then this is what we’ll do,” Jonathan told him. ⁹ “When they see us, if they say, ‘Stay where you are or we’ll kill you!’ then we will stop and wait for them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come on up and fight!’ then we will do just that; for it will be God’s signal that he will help us defeat them!”

¹¹ When the Philistines saw them coming they shouted, “Look! The Israelis are crawling out of their holes!” ¹² Then they shouted to Jonathan, “Come on up here and we’ll show you how to fight!”

“Come on, climb right behind me,” Jonathan exclaimed to his bodyguard, “for the Lord will help us defeat them!”

¹³ So they clambered up on their hands and knees, and the Philistines fell back as Jonathan and the lad killed them right and left, ¹⁴ about twenty men in all, and their bodies were scattered over about half an acre of land.