1 Samuel 14 Jonathan's victory over the Philistines

 1 Samuel 14

Jonathan's victory over the Philistines

1 Then it came to pass that one day Jonathan, Saul's son, said to the young man who carried his weapons, Come, let us pass on to the Philistines' garrison who is there in that band. But he did not tell his father.

2 And Saul was at the end of Gibeah, under the pilgrimage that was at Migrom; and the people who were with him were about six hundred men.

3 And Aha the son of Ahitub, the brother of Ichabô, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, brought the ephod: but the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.

4 And in the passages through which Jonathan sought to pass into the garrison of the Philistines, this band had a sharp edge, and on the other side a sharp edge: and it was the name of one Bozez, and the name of the other Sené.

5 One rock to the north was in front of Micmash, and the other to the south in front of Gibeah.

6 Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his weapons, "Come, let us pass on to the garrison of these uncircumcised men; perhaps the Lord will work for us, because for the Lord there will be no impediment to deliver with many or with few.

7 Then his page of arms said to him, Do all that you have in your heart; return, here I am with you, according to your heart.

8 Then Jonathan said, "Behold, we will pass on to those men, and we will discover ourselves to them.

9 If they say to us like this: Stop until we come to you; then we will stay in our place, and we will not go up to them.

10 But saying thus, Go up to us; then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand, and this will be a sign to us.

11 When both of them were discovered, therefore, in the garrison of the Philistines, the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews have now come out of the caves in which they had hidden.

12 And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his page of arms, and said, Go up to us, and we will teach you. And Jonathan said to his page of arms, Go up behind me, because the Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel.

13 Then Jonathan climbed with his feet and hands, and the page of arms behind him: and they fell before Jonathan, and his page of arms killed them behind him.

14 And this first defeat happened, in which Jonathan and his page of arms wounded up to twenty men, almost in the middle of a stream of land that a team of oxen could plow.

15 And there was a tremor in the camp, in the field, and in all the people; also the same garrison and the destroyers trembled, and even the earth was excited, because it was the trembling of God.

16 So they looked at Saul's sentinels at Gibeah of Benjamin, and, behold, the multitude poured out, and fled, battling.

17 Saul said to the people who were with him, “Now tell, and see who has come out from among us. And they did, and behold, neither Jonathan nor his page of arms were there.

18 Then Saul said to Ahia, Bring the ark of God here (for that day was the ark of God with the children of Israel).

19 And it came to pass that while Saul was still speaking to the priest, the uproar that was in the camp of the Philistines was growing, and it multiplied, and Saul said to the priest, Withdraw your hand.

20 Then Saul and all the people who were with him came together and came to the battle; and, behold, the sword of one was against the other, and there was great turmoil.

21 There were also Hebrews with the Philistines, as before, who went up with them in the surrounding camp: and they also joined with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

22 When all the men of Israel heard that they hid by the mountain of Ephraim that the Philistines fled, they also pursued them closely in the battle.

23 So the Lord delivered Israel that day: and the camp passed over to Beth-Aven.