1 Samuel 11King James Version
The Ammonites besiege the town of Jabesh-gilead and offer humiliating terms. Messengers go out through Israel. Saul, working his fields, hears the news. The Spirit of God comes on him. He takes a yoke of oxen, cuts them in pieces, and sends them through Israel with a call to arms. The whole nation rises. Saul defeats the Ammonites and saves the town. The kingdom is renewed at Gilgal.
Nahash the Ammonite besieges Jabesh-gilead and offers humiliating surrender terms: gouge out every right eye. The news reaches Gibeah. The Spirit of God comes on Saul in power; he cuts up oxen, sends the pieces throughout Israel as a rallying cry, and gathers 330,000 men. The siege is broken. The people want to execute those who had doubted Saul, but Saul shows mercy. Samuel calls an assembly at Gilgal to renew the kingdom.
Crisis reveals character. Saul's first act as king is military deliverance followed by mercy, and it is the best version of him we see.
13: "And Saul said, There shall not a man be put to death this day: for to day the LORD hath wrought salvation in Israel." In this moment, Saul points away from himself. It will not last.
Around 1049 BC, Trans-Jordan. Jabesh-gilead has deep history in Israel; the tribe of Benjamin had a special bond with this city. Nahash's offer to blind everyone was a common military humiliation. Saul's intervention is exactly what the elders had hoped a king would do.
Saul at the peak of his power: decisive, fierce, magnanimous; Nahash the Ammonite, whose cruelty provokes the crisis that makes Saul king in practice, not just title.
This is the monarchy's inaugural success story, and it follows the pattern of the judges exactly: crisis, Spirit-empowerment, deliverance. The tragedy is that Saul will forget this model.
The mercy at the end is unexpected and moving. A man who just cut oxen apart to summon an army tells his supporters not to kill the skeptics. The generosity makes what comes later harder to watch.
1Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabeshgilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee.
2And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.
3And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days' respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel: and then, if there be no man to save us, we will come out to thee.
4Then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul, and told the tidings in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voices, and wept.
5And, behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field; and Saul said, What aileth the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh.
6And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.
7And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.
8And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
9And they said unto the messengers that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabeshgilead, To morrow, by that time the sun be hot, ye shall have help. And the messengers came and shewed it to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad.
10Therefore the men of Jabesh said, To morrow we will come out unto you, and ye shall do with us all that seemeth good unto you.
11And it was so on the morrow, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the host in the morning watch, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day: and it came to pass, that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them were not left together.
12And the people said unto Samuel, Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us? bring the men, that we may put them to death.
13And Saul said, There shall not a man be put to death this day: for to day the LORD hath wrought salvation in Israel.
14Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
15And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.