⁴¹ “Then you answered and said to me, ^(A)‘We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain.

⁴² “And the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them, ^(B)“Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.” ’ ⁴³ So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but ^(C)rebelled against the command of the Lord, and ^(D)presumptuously^[a] went up into the mountain. ⁴⁴ And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you ^(E)as bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah.

The Tragic End of Saul and His Sons^(A)

31 Now ^(B)the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell slain on Mount ^(C)Gilboa.

¹⁰ So the Philistines fought, and ^(A)Israel was ^[a]defeated, and every man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers.

³⁹ whereupon the men of Israel would turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun ^[a]to strike and kill about thirty of the men of Israel. For they said, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.”

³⁸ Then Zebul said to him, “Where indeed is your mouth now, with which you ^(A)said, ‘Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?’ Are not these the people whom you despised? Go out, if you will, and fight with them now.”

³⁹ So Gaal went out, leading the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. ⁴⁰ And Abimelech chased him, and he fled from him; and many fell wounded, to the very entrance of the gate.

²⁸ Then Gaal the son of Ebed said, ^(A)“Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of ^(B)Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him?

¹⁶ But the children of Joseph said, “The mountain country is not enough for us; and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have ^(A)chariots of iron, both those who are of Beth Shean and its towns and those who are ^(B)of the Valley of Jezreel.”

¹⁷ And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph—to Ephraim and Manasseh—saying, “You are a great people and have great power; you shall not have only one ^[a]lot, ¹⁸ but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and its ^[b]farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, ^(C)though they have iron chariots and are strong.”