³ For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and ^[a]go against them. ⁴ So they would camp against them and ^(A)destroy the produce of the earth ^[b]as far as Gaza, and ^(B)leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. ⁵ For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in ^(C)like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it.

⁵ Now the Philistines assembled to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and ^(A)people like the sand which is on the seashore in abundance; and they came up and camped in Michmash, east of ^(B)Beth-aven. ⁶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were hard-pressed), then ^(C)the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in cliffs, in cellars, and in pits. ⁷ Also some of the Hebrews crossed the Jordan into the land of ^(D)Gad and Gilead. But as for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.

⁸ Now ^(E)he waited seven days, according to the appointed time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattering from him.