Chapter 14

¹ One day Jonathan, son of Saul, said to his armor-bearer, “Come, let us go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.” But he did not inform his father—^{(A) 2} Saul was sitting under the pomegranate tree in Migron on the outskirts of Gibeah; with him were about six hundred men. ³ Ahijah, son of Ahitub, brother of Ichabod, the son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord at Shiloh, was wearing the ephod—nor did the soldiers know that Jonathan had gone.^{(B) 4} Flanking the ravine through which Jonathan intended to cross to the Philistine outpost were rocky crags on each side, one named Bozez and the other Seneh. ⁵ One crag was to the north, toward Michmash; the other to the south, toward Geba. ⁶ Jonathan said to his armor-bearer: “Come, let us go over to that outpost of the uncircumcised. Perhaps the Lord will help us, because it is no more difficult for the Lord to grant victory by means of a few than it is by means of many.”^{(C) 7} His armor-bearer replied, “Do whatever you think best; I am with you in whatever you decide.” ⁸ Jonathan continued: “When we cross over to those men, we will be visible to them. ⁹ If they say to us, ‘Stay there until we can come to you,’ we will stop where we are; we will not go up to them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will go up, because the Lord has delivered them into our hand. That will be our sign.”^{[a](D) 11} When the two of them came into the view of the Philistine outpost, the Philistines remarked, “Look, some Hebrews^[b] are coming out of the holes where they have been hiding.” ¹² The men of the outpost called to Jonathan and his armor-bearer. “Come up here,” they said, “and we will teach you a lesson.” So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Climb up after me, for the Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel.” ¹³ Jonathan clambered up with his armor-bearer behind him. As the Philistines fell before Jonathan, his armor-bearer, who followed him, would finish them off. ¹⁴ In this first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed about twenty men within half a furlong. ¹⁵ Then terror spread through the camp and the countryside; all the soldiers in the outpost and in the raiding parties shuddered in terror. The earth shook with an awesome shuddering.^[c](E)

²⁷ On his arrival he sounded the horn in the mountain region of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down from the mountains with him as their leader.

³⁴ And Gideon was clothed with the spirit of the Lord,^[a](A) and he blew the horn summoning Abiezer to follow him.

Chapter 20

Sheba’s Rebellion. ¹ Now a scoundrel named Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite, happened to be there. He sounded the horn and cried out,

² So all the Israelites left David to follow Sheba, son of Bichri. But the Judahites, from the Jordan to Jerusalem, remained loyal to their king.