¹¹ Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the people were slipping away from me and that you did not come within the days appointed and that the Philistines were mustering at Michmash,^{(A) 12} I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal, and I have not entreated the favor of the Lord,’ so I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.” ¹³ Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. The Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever,^{(B) 14} but now your kingdom will not continue; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has appointed him to be ruler over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”^{(C) 15} And Samuel left and went on his way from Gilgal.^[a] The rest of the people followed Saul to join the army; they went up from Gilgal toward Gibeah of Benjamin.^[b]

Preparations for Battle

Saul counted the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.^{(D) 16} Saul, his son Jonathan, and the people who were present with them stayed in Geba of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped at Michmash. ¹⁷ And raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies; one company turned toward Ophrah to the land of Shual,^{(E) 18} another company turned toward Beth-horon, and another company turned toward the mountain^[c] that looks down upon the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.^(F)

¹⁹ Now there was no smith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “The Hebrews must not make swords or spears for themselves,”^{(G) 20} so all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, or sickles.^{[d] 21} The charge was two-thirds of a shekel^[e] for the plowshares and for the mattocks and one-third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads.^{[f] 22} So on the day of the battle neither sword nor spear was to be found in the possession of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and his son Jonathan had them.^(H)

Jonathan Surprises and Routs the Philistines

²³ Now a garrison of the Philistines had gone out to the pass of Michmash.

⁵ One crag rose on the north in front of Michmash and the other on the south in front of Geba.

³¹ Of Michmas, one hundred twenty-two.

³¹ The people of Benjamin also lived from Geba onward, at Michmash, Aija, Bethel and its villages,

²⁶ Of Ramah and Geba, six hundred twenty-one. ²⁷ The people of Michmas, one hundred twenty-two.