3. So the elders of Jabesh said to him, “Leave us alone for seven days so that we may send messengers in all the territory of Israel, and if there is no deliverer for us, then we will come out to you.”
4. When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported these things to the people. Then all the people lifted up their voices and wept.
5. Just then, Saul was coming from the field behind the cattle. Saul said, “What is the matter with the people, that they are weeping?” So they recounted to him the words of the men of Jabesh.
6. Then the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and he became very angry.
7. So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them into pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, “Whoever is not going out after Saul and after Samuel, so will it be done to his oxen.” Then the fear of Yahweh fell on the people and they went out as one man.
8. He mustered them at Bezek; the Israelites were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah were thirty thousand.
9. They said to the messengers who had come, “Thus you will say to the men of Jabesh Gilead: ‘Tomorrow deliverance for you will come when the sun is hot.’ ” When the messengers went and told the men of Jabesh, they rejoiced.