13:1Saul was a son of one year when he had begun to reign: and he reigned for two years over Israel. 13:2And Saul chose for himself three thousand from Israel: and there were with Saul two thousand in Michmash, and on the mountain of Bethel: and a thousand with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin: and the rest of the people he sent back, each one into his tents. 13:3And Jonathan struck the garrison of the Philistines which was in Gibeah. 13:3And when the Philistines had heard this, Saul sounded the trumpet in all the land, saying: "Let the Hebrews hear." 13:4And all Israel heard a report of this kind: "Saul has struck the garrison of the Philistines, and Israel has raised itself up against the Philistines."
13:4So the people shouted, following Saul, at Gilgal. 13:5And the Philistines were gathered to fight against Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and the rest of the common crowd, like the sand which is on the shore of the sea, very much. 13:5And going up they pitched camp in Michmash to the east of Beth-aven. 13:6And when the men of Israel had seen that they were placed in a tight spot (for the people was distressed), they hid themselves in caves, and in hidden places, in rocks too, and in hollows, and in cisterns. 13:7And the Hebrews crossed the Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead. 13:7And while Saul was still in Gilgal, all the people who followed him were terrified.
13:8And he waited for seven days according to the appointment of Samuel, and Samuel did not come into Gilgal, and the people slipped away from him. 13:9So Saul says: "Bring me the burnt-offering and the peace-offerings." 13:9And he offered the burnt-offering. 13:10And when he had finished offering the burnt-offering, look, Samuel was coming: and Saul went out to meet him in order to greet him. 13:11And Samuel spoke to him: "What have you done?" 13:11Saul answered: "Because I saw that the people were slipping away from me, and you had not come according to the appointed days, and the Philistines had gathered in Michmash, I said: Now the Philistines will come down against me in Gilgal, and I have not appeased the face of the Lord.
13:12Compelled by necessity, I offered the burnt-offering." 13:13And Samuel said to Saul: "You have acted foolishly, nor have you kept the commands of the Lord your God which he commanded you. 13:13For if you had not done this, the Lord would already now have prepared your kingdom over Israel for ever: but by no means will your kingdom rise up any further. 13:14The Lord has sought for himself a man according to his heart: and the Lord has commanded him to be leader over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded." 13:15And Samuel rose, and went up from Gilgal into Gibeah of Benjamin. 13:15And the rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the people who were attacking them, coming from Gilgal into Gibeah, on the hill of Benjamin.
13:15And Saul counted the people who had been found with him, about six hundred men. 13:16And Saul and Jonathan his son, and the people who had been found with them, were in Gibeah of Benjamin: but the Philistines had encamped in Michmash. 13:17And there went out from the camp of the Philistines to plunder three bands. 13:17One band was proceeding towards the way of Ophrah to the land of Shual: and another was going in by the way of Beth-horon: and the third had turned itself to the road of the border overhanging the valley of Zeboim towards the desert. 13:19Now an iron-smith was not to be found in all the land of Israel: for the Philistines had taken care, lest perhaps the Hebrews should make a sword or spear.
13:20So all Israel used to go down to the Philistines, so that each one might sharpen his ploughshare, and his mattock, and his axe, and his hoe. 13:21And so the edges of the ploughshares, and of the mattocks, and of the forks, and of the axes, had become blunt, even to the goad that needed mending. 13:22And when the day of battle had come, there was not found a sword or spear in the hand of all the people who were with Saul and Jonathan, except Saul and Jonathan his son. 13:23And the garrison of the Philistines went out, to cross over to Michmash.