1 Samuel 11

Nahash the Ammonite went up and camped against Jabesh-gilead. All the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.” Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On this condition I will make a covenant with you: that I gouge out every right eye among you and bring this reproach on all Israel.” The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days’ respite, so that we may send messengers throughout the territory of Israel. If no one saves us, we will come out to you.” The messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and spoke these words in the ears of the people. All the people lifted their voices and wept. Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. Saul said, “What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?” They told him the words of the men of Jabesh. When Saul heard these words, the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and his anger burned greatly. He took a pair of oxen, cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by the messengers, saying, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not come out after Saul and Samuel.” The dread of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out as one man. He mustered them at Bezek. The Israelites numbered three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. They said to the messengers who had come, “Tell the men of Jabesh-gilead, ‘Tomorrow, when the sun grows hot, you will have deliverance.’” The messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, and they rejoiced. The men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do to us whatever is good in your eyes.” The next day Saul divided the people into three companies. They entered the camp during the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. The survivors were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. The people said to Samuel, “Who said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Hand the men over, so that we may put them to death.” But Saul said, “No one shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has brought deliverance to Israel.” Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingship there.” All the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the LORD at Gilgal. There they offered peace offerings before the LORD, and Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

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