1 Samuel 13
He Could Not Wait Seven Days
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Jonathan Strikes the Foreigners’ Station
13:2Saul chose three thousand men from Israel’s men for himself. Two thousand were with Saul at Michmash and on Bethel’s hill, and one thousand were with Jonathan in Benjamin’s Geba. He sent the rest of the people away, each to his tent.
13:3Jonathan struck Nasib the foreigner on the hill, and the foreigners heard. Saul sounded a trumpet throughout the land, saying, “The slaves have rebelled!”
13:4All Israel heard people saying, “Saul has struck Nasib the foreigner, and Israel has been put to shame among the foreigners.” The people cried out after Saul at Gilgal.
Israel Hides from the Foreigners
13:5The foreigners gathered for war against Israel. They went up against Israel with thirty thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and people as numerous as the sand by the sea. They went up and camped at Michmash, opposite Baithon toward the south.
13:6The men of Israel saw that they were in straits and could not advance. The people hid in caves, enclosures, rocks, trenches, and pits.
13:7Those crossing crossed the Jordan into Gad’s land and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people were terrified behind him.
Saul Offers the Whole Burnt Offering
13:8He waited seven days for the testimony, as Samuel had said, but Samuel did not arrive at Gilgal, and his people scattered away from him.
13:9Saul said, “Bring them forward so that I may make a whole burnt offering and peace offerings.” He offered the whole burnt offering.
13:10Just as he finished offering the whole burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet him and bless him.
13:11Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “I saw the people scattering away from me, you had not come as you had ordered at the testimony of the days, and the foreigners had gathered at Michmash.
13:12I said, ‘Now the foreigners will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not entreated the Lord’s face.’ So I mastered myself and offered the whole burnt offering.”
13:13Samuel said to Saul, “It has come to nothing for you, because you have not kept my commandment that the Lord commanded you. For now the Lord had prepared your kingdom over Israel forever.
13:14But now your kingdom will not stand. The Lord will seek for Himself a man according to His heart, and the Lord will appoint him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept everything the Lord commanded you.”
No Ironworker in Israel
13:15Samuel rose and went away from Gilgal on his way. The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet, following the fighting people. When they came from Gilgal to Benjamin’s Gibeah, Saul mustered the people who were with him, about six hundred men.
13:16Saul, his son Jonathan, and the people who were with them stayed in Benjamin’s Geba and wept, while the foreigners had camped at Michmash.
13:17A destroying force went out from the foreigners’ country in three companies. One company faced the road to Gophera, toward the land of Sogal;
13:18one company faced the road to Beth-horon; and one company faced the road to Geba overlooking Gai, the Sabin.
13:19No ironworker could be found throughout Israel’s land, for the foreigners had said, “The Hebrews must not make sword and spear.”
13:20All Israel went down into the foreigners’ land to have worked at the forge, each man, his reaping tool, his implement, his axe, and his sickle.
13:21The vintage was ready for reaping. The implements were three shekels per tooth, and for the axe and the sickle the rate was the same.
13:22In the days of the war at Michmash, neither sword nor spear was found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan; they were found with Saul and his son Jonathan.
13:23He went out from the foreigners’ station, the one beyond Michmash.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.