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III. Saul and David

Chapter 13

[Saul was…years old when he became king and he reigned…-two years over Israel.][a]

Saul Offers Sacrifice. Saul chose three thousand of Israel, of whom two thousand remained with him in Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and one thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. He sent the rest of the army back to their tents. Now Jonathan struck the Philistine garrison[b] in Gibeah, and the Philistines got word of it. Then Saul sounded the horn throughout the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear!”(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 13:1 A formula like that of 2 Sm 5:4 was introduced here at some time; but the age of Saul when he became king remains a blank, and the two years assigned for his reign in the Masoretic text cannot be correct. Acts 13:21 offers the round number of forty years.
  2. 13:3–4 The Philistine garrison: see note on 10:5. Let the Hebrews hear: a different reading of these verses, based on the Greek, would yield: “And the Philistines heard that the Hebrews (or: the slaves) had revolted. Saul in the meantime sounded the trumpet throughout all the land (v. 4), and all Israel heard that Saul….”