¹Saul was one year old when he started to reign, and he reigned over Israel for two years. ²And Saul chose for himself three thousand men from Israel, and there were two thousand men with Saul in Michmas and at the mountain of Beth-El, and one thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin, and he sent each of the rest of the people to his tent. ³And Jonathan attacked the Philistines' garrison which was in Geba, and the Philistines heard about it, and Saul blew the ramshorn throughout all the land, and he said, “Let the Hebrews hear.” ⁴And all Israel heard it said, “Saul has defeated the Philistines' garrison, and also Israel has become odious among the Philistines.” And the people were called together behind Saul in Gilgal. ⁵And the Philistines gathered to fight against Israel – thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people like the sand on the sea-shore in profusion – and they came up and encamped at Michmas, to the east of Beth-Aven. ⁶And the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, for the people were distressed, and the people hid in caves and in thorn bushes and in rocks and in watchtowers and in pits. ⁷And the Hebrews crossed the Jordan, to the land of Gad and Gilead, whereas Saul was still in Gilgal, and all the people were trembling behind him. ⁸And he waited seven days, for the time which Samuel had said, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people dispersed away from him. ⁹Then Saul said, “Bring me a burnt offering and a peace-offering.” And he performed a burnt offering. ¹⁰And it came to pass when he had finished offering the burnt offering that he saw Samuel coming, and Saul went out to meet him to bless him. ¹¹And Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people had dispersed away from me, and that you had not come after the appointed number of days, and that the Philistines were assembled in Michmas, ¹²I then said, ‘Now the Philistines will descend on me in Gilgal, and I have not entreated the Lord.’ Then I constrained myself and offered a burnt offering.” ¹³At this Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly. You have not kept the commandments of the Lord your God which he commanded you, for the Lord would have now appointed your kingdom over Israel age-abidingly. ¹⁴But now your kingdom will not stand. The Lord has sought a man for himself according to his heart, and the Lord will command him as leader of his people, for you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” ¹⁵Then Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul counted the people who were present with him – about six hundred men. ¹⁶Then while Saul and Jonathan his son and the people who were present with them were living in Geba of Benjamin, the Philistines encamped at Michmas. ¹⁷And the fighting force came out from the Philistines' camp in three contingents. One contingent turned into the road to Ophrah, to the land of Shual, ¹⁸and one contingent turned into the road to Beth-Horon, and one contingent turned into the road to the border which overlooks the Valley of Zeboim, going towards the desert. ¹⁹Now there was no blacksmith to be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines had said, “Prevent them, in case the Hebrews make swords or spears.” ²⁰So all Israel went down to the Philistines for each to sharpen his ploughshare and his coulter and his axe and his mattock. ²¹And there was a file for the mattocks and coulters and for the three-pronged pitchfork and the axes, and to sharpen the goad. ²²And it came to pass on the day of war that no sword or spear was to be found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan, but with Saul and Jonathan his son themselves each item was to be found. ²³And the Philistines' garrison went out to the pass of Michmas.

Reference(s) in Chapter 13: v.14 ↔ Acts 13:22.