1 Samuel 13:5-18

English Standard Version

⁵ And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops ^(A)like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of ^(B)Beth-aven. ⁶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves ^(C)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 (D)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, ^(E)“You have done foolishly. ^(F)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 ^(G)your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man ^(H)after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince^[a] 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^[b] to ^(I)Gibeah of Benjamin.

And Saul numbered the people who were present with him, ^(J)about six hundred men. ¹⁶ And Saul and Jonathan his son and the people who were present with them stayed in ^(K)Geba of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash. ¹⁷ And ^(L)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 ^(M)Beth-horon; and another company turned toward the border that looks down on the Valley of ^(N)Zeboim toward the wilderness.