Jonathan’s Raid at Michmash

Saul chose about three thousand men out of the people. Two thousand of them he took as his own bodyguard, and stayed in the city of Bethel; the rest he gave to his son Jonathan as his bodyguard, and sent him to Gibeah, where he besieged and took a garrison of the Philistines not far from Geba. For the Philistines, in subduing the Jews, had taken away their weapons, had put garrisons into the strongest places of the country, and had forbidden them to carry any iron tool or to use iron at all for any purpose. Because of this ban, whenever the farmers needed to sharpen any of their tools, whether the plow blade or the spade or any other farming implement, they had to come to the Philistines to have it done. As soon as the Philistines heard of the slaughter of their garrison, they were enraged. Taking this contempt as a terrible insult, they made war on the Jews with three hundred thousand foot soldiers, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and pitched their camp at the city of Michmash. When Saul, the king of the Hebrews, was told of this, he went down to the city of Gilgal and sent a proclamation through the whole country, calling on them to try to win back their freedom. He summoned them to war against the Philistines, making light of their forces and dismissing them as of no great account, not so great but that they might risk a battle with them. But when the people around Saul saw how numerous the Philistines were, they were filled with dismay. Some of them hid in caves and holes in the ground, but most fled into the land beyond the Jordan, which belonged to Gad and Reuben. [a]

Saul sent to the prophet and summoned him to consult with him about the war and the affairs of state. Samuel told him to wait there for him and to prepare sacrifices, for he would come to him within seven days, so that they could offer sacrifices on the seventh day and then join battle with their enemies. Saul did wait, as the prophet had sent word to him to do; yet he did not keep the command he had been given. When he saw that the prophet was taking longer than he expected, and that his soldiers were deserting him, he took the sacrifices and offered them. Then, when he heard that Samuel had come, he went out to meet him. But the prophet said he had not done well in disobeying the instructions he had sent him and in not waiting for his arrival. That arrival had been appointed according to the will of God, and Saul had forestalled him in offering the prayers and sacrifices that Samuel should have made for the people; so he had performed the divine rites badly and had been rash in performing them. At this Saul made his defense. He said that he had waited as many days as Samuel had appointed him, and that he had been so quick to offer his sacrifices because of the necessity he was under, and because his soldiers were leaving him out of fear of the enemy camp at Michmash, since a report had gone out that they were coming down on him at Gilgal. To this Samuel replied, “No; surely, if you had been a righteous man, and had not disobeyed me, nor disregarded the commands God gave me concerning the present state of affairs, and had not acted more hastily than the circumstances required, you would have been allowed to reign a long time, and your descendants after you.” So Samuel, grieved at what had happened, went home. But Saul came to the city of Gibeah with his son Jonathan, having only six hundred men with him, and most of these had no weapons, because that country was short of iron and of men who could make such weapons; for, as we showed a little earlier, the Philistines had not allowed them to have such iron or such workmen. The Philistines divided their army into three companies, took as many roads, and laid waste the country of the Hebrews, while King Saul and his son Jonathan watched what was being done but could not defend the land, having no more than six hundred men with them. As Saul, his son, and Ahijah the high priest, a descendant of Eli the high priest, sat on a high hill watching the land being laid waste, they were deeply disturbed by it. [d]

Now Saul’s son agreed with his armor-bearer that they would go secretly to the enemy camp and stir up an uproar and confusion among them. The armor-bearer readily promised to follow him wherever he led, even if he had to die in the attempt. So Jonathan took the young man’s help, went down from the hill, and set out toward the enemy. The enemy camp was on a precipice with three peaks, which ended in a small but sharp and long point, and a rock ran around them like earthworks built to keep off an enemy’s attack. As it happened, the outposts of the camp had been neglected, because the place felt secure by its very position, and because they thought it altogether impossible not only to climb up to the camp on that side but even to come near it. As soon as the two of them reached the camp, Jonathan encouraged his armor-bearer and said to him, “Let us attack our enemies. If, when they see us, they tell us to come up to them, take that as a sign of victory; but if they say nothing, as not meaning to invite us up, let us go back again.” So as they were approaching the enemy camp, just after daybreak, the Philistines saw them and said to one another, “The Hebrews are coming out of their dens and caves!” And they said to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, “Come on, climb up to us, so that we can give you the punishment you deserve for your rash attack on us!” Saul’s son accepted the invitation as a sign of victory for him. He at once came out of the place where the enemy had seen them, shifted his position, and came to the rock, which had no one guarding it because of its own strength. From there they crept up with great labor and difficulty, and so far overcame the nature of the place by force that they were able to fight with their enemies. They fell on them while they were asleep and killed about twenty of them, and so filled them with confusion and alarm that some threw away all their armor and fled. But most of them, not knowing one another, because they were of different nations, suspected one another of being enemies (for they did not imagine that only two of the Hebrews had come up), and so they fought one another. Some of them died in the fighting, and some, as they fled, were hurled headlong from the rock.

Saul’s watchmen told the king that the Philistine camp was in confusion. He asked whether anyone had gone away from the army, and when he heard that his son, and his armor-bearer with him, were missing, he told the high priest to put on the garments of his high priesthood and prophesy to him what success they would have. The high priest said that they would win the victory and prevail over their enemies. So Saul went out after the Philistines and fell on them while they were killing one another. Those who had fled to dens and caves also came running to him when they heard that Saul was winning. When the number of Hebrews who had come to Saul reached about ten thousand, he pursued the enemy, who were scattered all over the country. [g]

But then he fell into an act that was most unfortunate and very much open to blame. Whether out of ignorance, or out of joy at a victory so strangely won (for it often happens that people so fortunate cannot use their reason consistently at such a time), in his eagerness to avenge himself and exact due punishment from the Philistines, he pronounced a curse on the Hebrews: if anyone stopped killing the enemy and ate before night came on and put an end to the slaughter and the pursuit, he was to be accursed. After Saul had pronounced this curse, since they were now in a wood belonging to the tribe of Ephraim that was thick and full of bees, Saul’s son, who had not heard his father pronounce the curse, nor heard of the people’s approval of it, broke off a piece of honeycomb and ate part of it. Meanwhile he was told with what a curse his father had forbidden them to taste anything before sunset. So he stopped eating, and said his father had not done well in this ban, because if they had taken some food, they would have pursued the enemy with greater vigor and eagerness, and captured and killed many more of them.

When they had killed many tens of thousands of the Philistines, they fell to plundering the Philistine camp, but not until late in the evening. They took a great deal of plunder and cattle, slaughtered them, and ate them with their blood. The scribes told the king that the people were sinning against God as they sacrificed, eating before the blood had been properly washed away and the meat made clean. Then Saul ordered a great stone to be rolled into the middle of them, and made proclamation that they should kill their sacrifices on it and not eat the meat with the blood, for that was not acceptable to God. When all the people had done as the king commanded them, Saul set up an altar there and offered burnt offerings to God on it. This was the first altar that Saul built. [j] Saul wanted to lead his men against the enemy camp before daylight to plunder it, and the soldiers were not unwilling to follow him, but showed great readiness to do as he commanded. So the king called Ahitub the high priest and told him to find out from God whether he would grant them the favor and permission to go against the enemy camp and destroy those in it. When the priest said that God gave no answer, Saul replied, “It is not without cause that God refuses to answer what we ask him, when only a little while ago he told us beforehand everything we wanted, and even answered before we asked. Surely there is some sin against him hidden from us, and that is the reason for his silence. Now I swear by him himself that even if the one who has committed this sin should turn out to be my own son Jonathan, I will kill him, and so appease the anger of God against us, in just the same way as if I were punishing a stranger, not related to me at all, for the same offense.” When the people shouted to him to do so, he at once set all the rest on one side, and he and his son stood on the other, and he tried to discover the offender by lot. The lot appeared to fall on Jonathan himself. So when his father asked him what sin he had committed, and what he knew of in the course of his life that might be counted guilt or impiety, he answered, “Father, I have done nothing more than this: yesterday, not knowing of the curse and oath you had pronounced, while I was pursuing the enemy, I tasted some honeycomb.” But Saul swore that he would kill him, and that he would put the keeping of his oath ahead of all the ties of birth and nature. Jonathan was not dismayed at this threat of death, but offered himself to it nobly and fearlessly and said, “I do not ask you to spare me either, father. Death will be very welcome to me when it comes from your piety, and after a glorious victory; for it is the greatest comfort to me that I leave the Hebrews victorious over the Philistines.” At this all the people were very sorry and deeply distressed for Jonathan, and they swore that they would not stand by and see Jonathan die, the man who had won them their victory. In this way they snatched him out of the danger he was in from his father’s curse, and they also prayed to God for the young man, that he would forgive his sin. [k]

So Saul, having killed about sixty thousand of the enemy, returned home to his own city and reigned prosperously. He also fought against the neighboring nations, and subdued the Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines, Edomites and Amalekites, and also the king of Zobah. He had three sons, Jonathan, Ishvi and Malchishua, and two daughters, Merab and Michal. He had Abner, his uncle’s son, as commander of his army; that uncle’s name was Ner, and Ner and Kish, Saul’s father, were brothers, the sons of Abiel. Saul also had a great many chariots and horsemen. Whomever he made war against, he came back a conqueror, and he raised the affairs of the Hebrews to a high degree of success and prosperity and made them superior to other nations. And he made those of the young men who were remarkable for height and good looks his bodyguards. [l]