1 Samuel 12-13

Jubilee Bible 2000

12 ¶ And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me and have made a king over you.

² And now, behold, your king walks before you. I am old and grayheaded, and, behold, my sons are with you, and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.

³ Behold, here I am; witness against me before the LORD and before his anointed. If I have taken anyone’s ox or if I have taken anyone’s ass or if I have defrauded anyone or if I have oppressed anyone or if I have received a bribe {Heb. ransom} from anyone to blind my eyes, I will restore it you.

⁴ And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us nor oppressed us; neither hast thou taken anything of any man’s hand.

⁵ And he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day that ye have not found anything in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.

⁶ ¶ Then Samuel said unto the people, The LORD is he who advanced Moses and Aaron and who brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.

⁷ Now, therefore, stand still that I may contend with you before the LORD of all the righteousnesses of the LORD which he did to you and to your fathers.

⁸ After Jacob had entered into Egypt and your fathers cried unto the LORD, then the LORD sent Moses and Aaron who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place.

⁹ And when they forgot the LORD their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor and into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.

¹⁰ And they cried unto the LORD and said, We have sinned because we have forsaken the LORD and have served the Baalim and Ashtaroth, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee.

¹¹ Then the LORD sent Jerubbaal and Bedan and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelt safe.

¹² And when ye saw that Nahash, the king of the sons of Ammon, came against you, ye said unto me, No, but a king shall reign over us when the LORD your God was your king.

¹³ Now, therefore, behold the king whom ye have chosen and whom ye have desired! Behold, the LORD has set a king over you.

¹⁴ If ye will fear the LORD and serve him and hear his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye and also the king that reigns over you continue following the LORD your God.

¹⁵ But if ye will not hear the voice of the LORD but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD shall be against you as it was against your fathers.

¹⁶ ¶ Now, therefore, stand and see this great thing, which the LORD will do before your eyes.

¹⁷ Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto the LORD, and he shall send thunder and rain that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of the LORD in asking for a king over you.

¹⁸ So Samuel called unto the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.

¹⁹ And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy slaves unto the LORD thy God that we not die, for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask for a king over us.

²⁰ And Samuel said unto the people, Do not fear. Ye have done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart;

²¹ do not turn aside after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain.

²² For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake because it has pleased the LORD to make you his people.

²³ Moreover as for me, in no wise should I sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way.

²⁴ Only fear the LORD and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things he has done with you.

²⁵ But if ye shall persevere in doing wickedly, both ye and your king shall perish.

13 ¶ Saul was as a son of one year when he began to reign, and when he had reigned two years over Israel,

² Saul chose three thousand men of Israel, of which two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in Mount Bethel and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin; and of the rest of the people he sent each one to his tent.

³ And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul caused the shofar to be blown throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear.

⁴ And all Israel heard it said that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines and also that Israel had become a stench unto the Philistines. And the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal.

⁵ Then the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude; and they came up and pitched camp in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven.

⁶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were distressed), then the people hid themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in high places and in pits.

⁷ And some of the Hebrews went over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.

⁸ ¶ And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were deserting from him.

⁹ Then Saul said, Bring me a burnt offering and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering.

¹⁰ And it came to pass that as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him that he might bless him.

¹¹ Then Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were leaving me and that thou didst not come within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash,

¹² therefore, I said, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the LORD. I forced myself, therefore, and offered a burnt offering.

¹³ Then Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee, for now the LORD would have established thy kingdom over Israel for ever.

¹⁴ But now thy kingdom shall not stand; the LORD has sought a man after his own heart unto whom the LORD has commanded that he be captain over his people because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.

¹⁵ ¶ And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him, about six hundred men.

¹⁶ And Saul and Jonathan, his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash.

¹⁷ And three companies came out of the camp of the Philistines to destroy the land. One company turned unto the way that leads to Ophrah unto the land of Shual.

¹⁸ Another company turned the way to Bethhoron, and another company turned to the way of the border that looks to the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

¹⁹ Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines had said, Lest peradventure the Hebrews make swords or spears.

²⁰ But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen each man his share and his coulter and his axe and his mattock

²¹ and when they had nicks in the mattocks and the coulters and the forks and the axes, or to fix a goad.

²² So it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan except with Saul and with Jonathan his son who had them.

²³ And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the passage of Michmash.