1
And Nahash the Ammonite comes up, and encamps against Jabesh-Gilead, and all the men of Jabesh say to Nahash, “Make a covenant with us, and we serve you.”
2
And Nahash the Ammonite says to them, “For this I cut [a covenant] with you, in picking out every right eye of yours—and I have set it [for] a reproach on all Israel.”
3
And [the] elderly of Jabesh say to him, “Leave us alone [for] seven days, and we send messengers into all the border of Israel: and if there is none saving us—then we have come out to you.”
4
And the messengers come to Gibeah of Saul, and speak the words in the ears of the people, and all the people lift up their voice and weep;
5
and behold, Saul has come out of the field after the herd, and Saul says, “What [is that] to the people, that they weep?” And they recount the words of the men of Jabesh to him.
6
And the Spirit of God prospers over Saul, in his hearing these words, and his anger burns greatly,
7
and he takes a couple of oxen, and cuts them in pieces, and sends [them] through all the border of Israel, by the hand of the messengers, saying, “He who is not coming out after Saul and after Samuel—thus it is done to his oxen”; and the fear of YHWH falls on the people, and they come out as one man.
8
And he inspects them in Bezek, and the sons of Israel are three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
9
And they say to the messengers who are coming, “Thus you say to the men of Jabesh-Gilead: Tomorrow you have safety—by the heat of the sun”; and the messengers come and declare [it] to the men of Jabesh, and they rejoice;
10
and the men of Jabesh say [to the Ammonites], “Tomorrow we come out to you, and you have done to us according to all that [is] good in your eyes.”
11
And it comes to pass, on the next day, that Saul puts the people in three detachments, and they come into the midst of the camp in the morning-watch, and strike Ammon until the heat of the day; and it comes to pass that those left are scattered, and there have not been left two of them together.
Saul Confirmed as King
12
And the people say to Samuel, “Who is he that says, Saul reigns over us? Give up the men, and we put them to death.”
13
And Saul says, “There is no man put to death on this day, for today YHWH has worked salvation in Israel.”
14
And Samuel says to the people, “Come and we go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there”;
15
and all the people go to Gilgal, and cause Saul to reign there before YHWH in Gilgal, and sacrifice sacrifices of peace-offerings there before YHWH, and Saul rejoices there—and all the men of Israel—very greatly.
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