³ If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”

⁴ Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan^(A) and crossed it. ⁵ He said to the men of Sukkoth,^(B) “Give my troops some bread; they are worn out,^(C) and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna,^(D) the kings of Midian.”

⁶ But the officials of Sukkoth^(E) said, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread^(F) to your troops?”^(G)

¹⁰ Two hundred of them were too exhausted^(A) to cross the valley, but David and the other four hundred continued the pursuit.

¹¹ They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. They gave him water to drink and food to eat— ¹² part of a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of raisins. He ate and was revived,^(B) for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights.

²⁸ Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father bound the army under a strict oath, saying, ‘Cursed be anyone who eats food today!’ That is why the men are faint.”

²⁹ Jonathan said, “My father has made trouble^(A) for the country. See how my eyes brightened when I tasted a little of this honey. ³⁰ How much better it would have been if the men had eaten today some of the plunder they took from their enemies. Would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?”

³¹ That day, after the Israelites had struck down the Philistines from Mikmash^(B) to Aijalon,^(C) they were exhausted.