1 Samuel 11 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~1050 BC, within about a month of Saul's selection at Mizpah
Location
Jabesh-gilead, an Israelite town east of the Jordan river in Gilead, with Saul mustering troops from Gibeah and the army assembling at Bezek before crossing the river
Audience
Israelites of the early monarchy, shown the victory that made a disputed king into an accepted one
Situation
Nahash, king of the Ammonites, besieges Jabesh-gilead and offers surrender terms that include gouging out every man's right eye. Saul, hearing the news while ploughing, is seized with fury, raises a national army, routs the Ammonites at dawn, and is confirmed as king at Gilgal.
Key Background
Ammon lay east of the Jordan and had long pressed against the Israelite settlements in Gilead, which were the most exposed and hardest to defend. Mutilating a defeated population was a deliberate policy rather than cruelty for its own sake: a man without his right eye could not sight past the shield held on his left arm, so the town would be permanently disarmed and put on display as a warning. Saul's method of summoning the tribes, cutting up a team of oxen and sending the pieces around the country, was a recognized emergency call to arms, understood as a threat that the same would happen to the herds of anyone who stayed home.
the came up and set up camp against All the men of Jabesh said to "Make a with us, and we'll serve you."
But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, "I'll make a deal with you on condition — I out every of That's how I'll all of Israel."
The of Jabesh said to him, "Give us seven days so we can send messengers throughout all of Israel's territory. If no one comes to us, we'll come out and surrender to you."
When the messengers arrived at — Saul's hometown — and reported the situation to the people, everyone down out
Just then, Saul was in from the Saul asked, "What's wrong with everyone? Why are they crying?" So they told him what the men of Jabesh had reported.
When Saul heard their report, the of and
He took a pair of oxen, them and sent them throughout all of Israel's territory by messengers, saying, "Whoever doesn't march out behind Saul and Samuel — this is what will be done to his oxen!" The of fell on the people, and they came out as
He counted them at the men of Israel numbered and the men of Judah thirty
They told the messengers who had come, "Say this to the men of Jabesh-gilead: 'Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will be When the messengers went and told the men of Jabesh, they were
So the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Tomorrow we'll come out to you, and you can do you to us."
The next day, Saul organized the army into They broke into the Ammonite camp during the and struck them down until the heat of the day. The survivors scattered — no of them were
Then the people said to Samuel, "Who was it that said, 'Should Saul really be our king?' those and we'll put them to death!"
But Saul said, "No one will be put to death today, because today has a in Israel."
Then Samuel said to the people, "Come, let's go to and there the
So all the people went to Gilgal, and there, in they made Saul king. They offered in and Saul and all the men of Israel with