Six hundred survivors turned and ran away to the wilderness, to the cliff of Rimmon. They stayed there four months.

So she slept beside him until morning. She woke up while it was still dark. Boaz thought, “No one must know that a woman visited the threshing floor.”

(Now this used to be the customary way to finalize a transaction involving redemption in Israel: A man would remove his sandal and give it to the other party. This was a legally binding act in Israel.)

Now the priests would always treat the people in the following way: Whenever anyone was making a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s attendant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand.

The Philistines arranged their forces to fight Israel. As the battle spread out, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

On that day a Benjaminite ran from the battle lines and came to Shiloh. His clothes were torn and dirt was on his head.

The Lord said to Samuel, “Do as they say and install a king over them.” Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Each of you go back to his own city.”

He had a son named Saul, a handsome young man. There was no one among the Israelites more handsome than he was; he stood head and shoulders above all the people.

So Saul said to his servant, “That’s a good idea! Come on. Let’s go.” So they went to the town where the man of God was.

Then Samuel brought Saul and his servant into the room and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited. There were about thirty people present.

A man who was from there replied, “And who is their father?” Therefore this became a proverb: “Is even Saul among the prophets?”

So they inquired again of the Lord, “Has the man arrived here yet?” The Lord said, “He has hidden himself among the equipment.”

But Saul said, “No one will be killed on this day. For today the Lord has given Israel a victory!”

Then Samuel set out and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. Saul mustered the army that remained with him; there were about six hundred men.

So all Israel had to go down to the Philistines in order to get their plowshares, cutting instruments, axes, and sickles sharpened.

Now Saul was sitting under a pomegranate tree in Migron, on the outskirts of Gibeah. The army that was with him numbered about six hundred men.

In this initial skirmish Jonathan and his armor bearer struck down about twenty men in an area that measured half an acre.

Saul and all the army that was with him assembled and marched into battle, where they found the Philistines in total panic killing one another with their swords.

When all the Israelites who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines had fled, they too pursued them in battle.