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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
The army with which the Philistines now invaded the land was the largest and best
appointed,^123 which they had yet brought into the field. Avoiding the former mistake
of allowing their opponents to take them in flank by camping in Michmash, the
Philistines now occupied that post themselves, their line extending thither from
Beth-aven.^124
From their position at Gilgal the Israelites could see that mighty host, and under the
influence of terror rapidly melted away. Some passed across the Jordan, the most
part hid themselves in the caves and pits and rocks with which the whole district
around the position of the Philistines abounds. The situation was indeed becoming
critical in the extreme. Day by day the number of deserters increased, and even those
who yet remained "behind him," "were terrified."^125
And still Saul waited from day to day for that without which he had been told he
must not move out of Gilgal, and which now was so unaccountably and, as it would
seem to a commander, so fatally delayed! It will be remembered that on parting from
Saul, immediately after his anointing, Samuel had spoken these somewhat
mysterious words (1 Samuel 10:7, 8): "And it shall be when these signs shall come
(^)