1 Samuel 11

1Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh-gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Cut a covenant with us, and we will serve you."

2Nahash the Ammonite said to them, "I will make a covenant with you on this condition: that I gouge out every right eye of yours and set it as a reproach upon all Israel."

3The elders of Jabesh said to him, "Hold off on us for seven days, and we will send messengers throughout all Israel's borders; then, if there is no deliverer for us, we will come out to you."

4The messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and spoke these words in the hearing of the people, and all the people raised their voices and wept.

5Just then Saul came from the field following the oxen, and he said, "What troubles the people that they weep?" They told him the words of the men of Jabesh.

6The Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger burned greatly.

7He took a pair of oxen, cut them in pieces, and sent them by messengers throughout all Israel's borders, saying, "Whoever fails to come out after Saul and Samuel, so it shall be done to his oxen." The dread of Yahweh fell on the people, and they came out as one man.

8He mustered them at Bezek, and Israel's sons were three hundred thousand, Judah's men thirty thousand.

9They said to the messengers who came, "Say this to the men of Jabesh-gilead: Tomorrow, by the time the sun grows hot, you will have deliverance." The messengers came and informed the men of Jabesh, and they rejoiced.

10The men of Jabesh said, "Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you shall do to us all that is good in your eyes."

11The next day Saul divided the people into three companies, and they entered the middle of the camp during the morning watch and struck the Ammonites until the heat of the day, after which the survivors scattered so that no two of them remained together.

12The people said to Samuel, "Who said, 'Shall Saul reign over us?' Hand those men over, and we will put them to death."

13Saul said, "No man shall die today, for today Yahweh has worked deliverance in Israel."

14Samuel said to the people, "Come, let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there."

15All the people went to Gilgal and made Saul king before Yahweh there in Gilgal; there they sacrificed peace offerings before Yahweh; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.