Saul’s Reign Gets Off to a Bad Start

13 Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty-two years.^[a]

² Saul chose for himself three thousand men of Israel. Two thousand were with Saul at Mikmash and in the hill country near Bethel, and one thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah^[b] of Benjamin. He sent the rest of the people to their own tents.

³ Jonathan struck the Philistine garrison^[c] that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Saul blew the ram’s horn throughout the land and said, “Let the Hebrews hear!” ⁴ All Israel heard that Saul had struck the garrison of the Philistines and that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines. The people were summoned to meet Saul at Gilgal.

⁵ The Philistines assembled their forces to fight against Israel with three thousand^[d] chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They came up and camped at Mikmash, east of Beth Aven. ⁶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble because their army was under pressure, the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets,^[e] among the rocks, in dugouts,^[f] and in cisterns. ⁷ Some of the Hebrews had gone across the Jordan River to the territory of Gad and Gilead, but Saul remained in Gilgal, and all the people who remained with him were shaking with fear.