⁴¹ “You answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord! We are ready to go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ So all of you strapped on your battle gear and thought it easy to go up into the hill country.^{(A) 42} The Lord said to me, ‘Say to them: “Do not go up, and do not fight, for I am not in the midst of you; otherwise you will be defeated by your enemies.” ’^{(B) 43} Although I told you, you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country.^{(C) 44} The Amorites who lived in that hill country then came out against you and chased you as bees do. They beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.^(D)

The Death of Saul and His Sons

31 Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines, and many fell^[a] on Mount Gilboa.^(A)

¹⁰ So the Philistines fought; Israel was defeated, and they fled, everyone to his home. There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers.^(A)

³⁹ the main body of Israel should turn in battle. But Benjamin had begun to inflict casualties on the Israelites, killing about thirty of them, so they thought, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.”^(A)

³⁸ Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your boast^[a] now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?’ Are not these the troops you made light of? Go out now and fight with them.”^{(A) 39} So Gaal went out at the head of the lords of Shechem and fought with Abimelech.^{(B) 40} Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him. Many fell wounded, up to the entrance of the gate.

²⁸ Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Did not the son of Jerubbaal and Zebul his officer serve the men of Hamor father of Shechem? Why then should we serve him?^(A)

¹⁶ The tribe of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us, yet all the Canaanites who live in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.”^{(A) 17} Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, “You are indeed a numerous people and have great power; you shall not have one lot only, ¹⁸ but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders, for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron and though they are strong.”

² They were archers and could shoot arrows and sling stones with either the right hand or the left; they were Benjaminites, Saul’s kindred.^(A)