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Saul [is] a son of [[thirty]] years in his reigning, and he has reigned over Israel [forty]-two years,
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then Saul chooses for himself three thousand [men] out of Israel; and two thousand are with Saul in Michmash, and in the hill-country of Beth-El; and one thousand have been with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin; and he has sent each one of the remnant of the people to his tents.
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And Jonathan strikes the garrison of the Philistines which [is] in Geba, and the Philistines hear, and Saul has blown with a horn through all the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear.”
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And all Israel have heard, saying, “Saul has struck the garrison of the Philistines,” and also, “Israel has been abhorred by the Philistines”; and the people are called after Saul to Gilgal.
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And the Philistines have been gathered to fight with Israel; thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and a people as the sand which [is] on the seashore for multitude; and they come up and encamp in Michmash, east of Beth-Aven.
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And the men of Israel have seen that they are distressed, that the people have been oppressed, and the people hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits.
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And Hebrews have passed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; and Saul [is] yet in Gilgal, and all the people have trembled after him.
Saul’s Unlawful Sacrifice
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And he waits seven days, according to the appointment with Samuel, and Samuel has not come to Gilgal, and the people are scattered from off him.
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And Saul says, “Bring the burnt-offering and the peace-offerings near to me”; and he causes the burnt-offering to ascend.
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And it comes to pass at his completing to cause the burnt-offering to ascend, that behold, Samuel has come, and Saul goes out to meet him, to bless him;
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and Samuel says, “What have you done?” And Saul says, “Because I saw that the people were scattered from off me, and you had not come at the appointment of the days, and the Philistines are gathered to Michmash,
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and I say, Now the Philistines come down to me to Gilgal, and I have not appeased the face of YHWH; and I force myself, and cause the burnt-offering to ascend.”
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And Samuel says to Saul, “You have been foolish; you have not kept the command of your God YHWH, which He commanded you, for now YHWH had established your kingdom over Israel for all time;
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and now, your kingdom does not stand, YHWH has sought [for] a man for Himself according to His own heart, and YHWH charges him for leader over His people, for you have not kept that which YHWH commanded you.”
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And Samuel rises, and goes up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin; and Saul inspects the people who are found with him, about six hundred men,
Israel without Weapons
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and Saul, and his son Jonathan, and the people who are found with them, are abiding in Gibeah of Benjamin, and the Philistines have encamped in Michmash.
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And the destroyer goes out from the camp of the Philistines—three detachments: one detachment turns to the way of Ophrah, to the land of Shual,
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and one detachment turns the way of Beth-Horon, and one detachment turns the way of the border which is looking on the Valley of the Zeboim, toward the wilderness.
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And a craftsman is not found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make sword or spear”;
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and all Israel goes down to the Philistines, to each sharpen his plowshare, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock;
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and there has been the file for mattocks, and for coulters, and for three-pronged rakes, and for the axes, and to set up the goads.
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And it has been, in the day of battle, that there has not been found a sword and spear in the hand of any of the people who [are] with Saul and with Jonathan—but it is found with Saul and with his son Jonathan.
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And the station of the Philistines goes out to the passage of Michmash.
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