³ And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.”

⁴ And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and ^(A)the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. ⁵ So he said to the men of ^(B)Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” ⁶ And the officials of Succoth said, ^(C)“Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, ^(D)that we should give bread to your army?”

¹⁰ But David pursued, he and four hundred men. ^(A)Two hundred stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor.

¹¹ They found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David. And they gave him bread and he ate. They gave him water to drink, ¹² and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, ^(B)his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

²⁸ Then one of the people said, “Your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the man who eats food this day.’” And the people were ^(A)faint. ²⁹ Then Jonathan said, “My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey. ³⁰ How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies that they found. For now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great.”

³¹ They struck down the Philistines that day from ^(B)Michmash to ^(C)Aijalon. And the people were very ^(D)faint.