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1 After about a month, Nahash the Ammonite came up and camped against Jabesh Gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, |Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.| 2 And Nahash the Ammonite said to them, |On this condition I will make a covenant with you, that all your right eyes are put out; and I will make it a disgrace on all Israel.| 3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, |Give us seven days, that we may send messengers to all the borders of Israel; and then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.| 4 Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, and spoke these words in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voice, and wept. 5 Look, Saul came following the oxen out of the field; and Saul said, |What ails the people that they weep?| They told him the words of the men of Jabesh. 6 The Spirit of God came mightily on Saul when he heard those words, and his anger was kindled greatly. 7 He took a yoke of oxen, and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the borders of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, |Whoever doesn't come forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen.| The dread of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out as one man. 8 He numbered them in Bezek; and the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9 And he said to the messengers who came, |Thus you shall tell the men of Jabesh, 'Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have deliverance.'| The messengers came and told the men of Jabesh; and they were glad. 10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, |Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you shall do with us all that seems good to you.| 11 It was so on the next day, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, and struck the Ammonites until the heat of the day: and it happened, that those who remained were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. 12 And the people said to Samuel, |Who is it that said Saul should not reign over us? Bring those men so we may put them to death.| 13 Saul said, |There shall not a man be put to death this day; for today the LORD has worked deliverance in Israel.| 1 Samuel 11:1-13, New Heart English Bible. Public domain.
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