³ And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.”

⁴ When Gideon came ^(A)to the Jordan, he and ^(B)the three hundred men who were with him crossed over, exhausted but still in pursuit. ⁵ Then he said to the men of ^(C)Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.”

⁶ And the leaders of Succoth said, ^(D)“Are^[a] the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that ^(E)we should give bread to your army?”

¹⁰ But David pursued, he and four hundred men; ^(A)for two hundred stayed behind, who were so weary that they could not cross the Brook Besor.

¹¹ Then they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David; and they gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water. ¹² And they gave him a piece of ^(B)a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So ^(C)when he had eaten, his strength came back to him; for he had eaten no bread nor 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 is the man who eats food this day.’ ” And the people were faint.

²⁹ But Jonathan said, “My father has troubled the land. Look now, how my countenance has brightened 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 which they found! For now would there not have been a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?”

³¹ Now they had ^[a]driven back the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon. So the people were very faint.