CLV(i)
1 And Nahash the Ammonite comes up, and encamps against Jabesh-Gilead, and all the men of Jabesh say unto Nahash, `Make with us a covenant, and we serve you..
2 And Nahash the Ammonite said unto them, `For this I covenant with you, by picking out to you every right eye--and I have put it a reproach on all Israel..
3 And the elders of Jabesh say to him, `Let us alone seven days, and we send messengers into all the border of Israel:and if there is none saving us--then we have come out unto 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 lo, Saul has come after the herd out of the field, and Saul said, `What--to the people, that they weep?' and they recount to him the words of the men of Jabesh.
6 And the Spirit of Elohim does prosper 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 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 Yahweh 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 do you say to the men of Jabesh-Gilead:To-morrow you have safety--by the heat of the sun;' and the messengers come and declare to the men of Jabesh, and they rejoice;"
10 and the men of Jabesh say [to the Ammonites], `To-morrow we come out unto you, and you have done to us according to all that [is] good in your eyes..
11 And it comes to pass, on the morrow, that Saul puts the people in three detachments, and they come into the midst of the camp in the morning-watch, and smite Ammon till the heat of the day; and it comes to pass that those left are scattered, and there have not been left of them two together.