Saul Marches against the Philistines - Position of the two Camps - Jonathan's Feat of Arms - Saul Retreats to

Gilgal - Terror among the People - Saul's Disobedience to the Divine Command, and Rejection of his

Kingdom. (1 SAMUEL 13)

AT Gilgal Saul had been accepted by the whole people as their king,120 and it now behooved him to show

himself such by immediately taking in hand as his great work the liberation of the land from Israel's

hereditary enemy the Philistines.

For this purpose he selected from the armed multitude at Gilgal three thousand men, of whom two thousand

under his own command were posted in Michmash and in Mount Bethel, while the other thousand

advanced under Jonathan to Gibeah of Benjamin (or Gibeah of Saul). Close to this, a little to the north, at

Geba, the Philistines had pushed forward an advanced post, perhaps from Gibeah, to a position more

favorable than the latter. Unable, with the forces at his disposal, to make a regular attack, it seems to have

been Saul's purpose to form the nucleus of an army, and meanwhile to blockade and watch the Philistines in

Geba. So far as we can judge, it does not appear to have lain within his plan to attack that garrison, or else

the enterprise would have been undertaken by himself, nor would it have caused the surprise afterwards

excited by Jonathan's success.

As it is of considerable importance for the understanding of this history to have a clear idea of the scene

where these events took place, we add the most necessary details. Geba, the-post of the Philistines, lay on a

low conical eminence, on the western end of a ridge which shelves eastwards towards the Jordan. Passing

from Geba northwards and westwards we come to a steep descent, leading into what now is called the

Wady-es -Suweinit. This, no doubt, represents the ancient "passage of Michmash" (1 Samuel 13:23). On the

opposite steep brow, right over against Geba, lies Michmash, at a distance of barely three miles in a north-

westerly direction. This Wady-es -Suweinit is also otherwise interesting. Running up in a north-westerly

direction towards Bethel, the ridge on either side the wady juts out into two very steep rock-covered

eminences - one south-west, towards Geba, the other northwest, towards Michmash. Side wadys, trending

from north to south behind these two eminences, render them quite abrupt and isolated. These two peaks, or

"teeth," were respectively called Bozez, "the shining," and Seneh, either "the tooth-like," "the pointed," or

perhaps "the thorn," afterwards the scene of Jonathan's daring feat of arms (1 Samuel 14:1-13). Bethel itself

lies on the ridge, which runs in a north-westerly direction from Michmash. From this brief sketch it will be

seen that, small as Saul's army was, the Philistine garrison in Geba was, to use a military term, completely

enfiladed by it, since Saul with his two thousand men occupied Michmash and Mount Bethel to the north-

east, north, and north-west, threatening their communications through the Wady-es -Suweinit with Philistia,

while Jonathan with his thousand men lay at Gibeah to the south of Geba.

But the brave spirit of Jonathan could ill brook enforced idleness in face of the enemy. Apparently without

consultation with his father, he attacked and "smote" the Philistine garrison in Geba. The blow was equally

unexpected by Philistine and Israelite. In view of the preparations made by the enemy, Saul now retired to

Gilgal - probably not that in which the late assembly had been held, but the other Gilgal near Jericho.121

Hither "the people were called together after Saul." But the impression left on us is, that from the first the

people were depressed rather than elated, frightened rather than encouraged by Jonathan's feat of arms.

And no wonder, considering not only the moral unpreparedness of the people, but their unfitness to cope

with the Philistines, alike so far as arms and military training were concerned. The hundreds of thousands

who had followed Saul to Jabesh were little better than an undisciplined mob that had seized any kind of

weapons. Such a multitude would be rather a hindrance than a help in a war against disciplined infantry,

horsemen, and war-chariots. In fact, only three thousand of them were fit to form the nucleus of an army,

and even they, or what at last remained of them to encounter the Philistines, were so badly equipped that

they could be truthfully described as without either "sword or spear" (13:22).122