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¹ And Nahash the Ammonite comes up, and encamps against Jabesh-Gilead, and all the men of Jabesh say to Nahash, "Make a covenant with us, and we serve you."² And Nahash the Ammonite says to them, "For this I cut [a covenant] with you, in picking out every right eye of yours—and I have set it [for] a reproach on all Israel."³ And [the] elderly of Jabesh say to him, "Leave us alone [for] seven days, and we send messengers into all the border of Israel: and if there is none saving us—then we have come out to you."⁴ And the messengers come to Gibeah of Saul, and speak the words in the ears of the people, and all the people lift up their voice and weep;

⁵ and behold, Saul has come out of the field after the herd, and Saul says, "What [is that] to the people, that they weep?" And they recount the words of the men of Jabesh to him.⁶ And the Spirit of God prospers over Saul, in his hearing these words, and his anger burns greatly,⁷ and he takes a couple of oxen, and cuts them in pieces, and sends [them] through all the border of Israel, by the hand of the messengers, saying, "He who is not coming out after Saul and after Samuel—thus it is done to his oxen"; and the fear of YHWH falls on the people, and they come out as one man.⁸ And he inspects them in Bezek, and the sons of Israel are three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.⁹ And they say to the messengers who are coming, "Thus you say to the men of Jabesh-Gilead: Tomorrow you have safety—by the heat of the sun"; and the messengers come and declare [it] to the men of Jabesh, and they rejoice;¹⁰ and the men of Jabesh say [to the Ammonites], "Tomorrow we come out to you, and you have done to us according to all that [is] good in your eyes."¹¹ And it comes to pass, on the next day, that Saul puts the people in three detachments, and they come into the midst of the camp in the morning-watch, and strike Ammon until the heat of the day; and it comes to pass that those left are scattered, and there have not been left two of them together.

¹² And the people say to Samuel, "Who is he that says, Saul reigns over us? Give up the men, and we put them to death."¹³ And Saul says, "There is no man put to death on this day, for today YHWH has worked salvation in Israel."¹⁴ And Samuel says to the people, "Come and we go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there";¹⁵ and all the people go to Gilgal, and cause Saul to reign there before YHWH in Gilgal, and sacrifice sacrifices of peace-offerings there before YHWH, and Saul rejoices there—and all the men of Israel—very greatly.