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Everyone in Israel heard this message: ‘Saul has attacked the Philistines' camp. Now the Philistines hate the Israelites even more than they did before.’ So all the soldiers in Israel came to join Saul at Gilgal.

Saul prepares to fight the Philistines

The Philistines' army came together to fight against the Israelites. The Philistines had 3,000 chariots. They had 6,000 soldiers who rode on horses. Their whole army had more soldiers than the sand on the shore of the sea! The Philistine army went to make their camp at Michmash, which was east of Beth Aven. The Israelites realized that they would be in big trouble if the Philistines attacked them. Some of them went and hid in caves or among the bushes. Others hid among the rocks, in holes in the ground or in wells.

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So all Israel heard the news: “Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become obnoxious(A) to the Philistines.” And the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.

The Philistines assembled(B) to fight Israel, with three thousand[a] chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand(C) on the seashore. They went up and camped at Mikmash,(D) east of Beth Aven.(E) When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid(F) in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 13:5 Some Septuagint manuscripts and Syriac; Hebrew thirty thousand