8. Saul brought his army together at Bezek. There were 300,000 men from Israel and 30,000 from Judah.
9. The messengers who had come were told, "Go back and report to the men of Jabesh Gilead. Tell them, 'By the hottest time of the day tomorrow, you will be saved.' " The messengers went and reported it to the men of Jabesh. It made those men very happy.
10. They said to the people of Ammon, "Tomorrow we'll hand ourselves over to you. Then you can do to us what seems best to you."
11. The next day Saul separated his men into three groups. While it was still dark, they broke into the camp of the Ammonite army. They kept killing the men of Ammon until the hottest time of the day. Those who got away alive were scattered. There weren't two of them left together anywhere.
12. The people said to Samuel, "Who asked, 'Is Saul going to rule over us?' Bring those people to us. We'll put them to death."
13. But Saul said, "We won't put anyone to death today! After all, this is the day the Lord has saved Israel."
14. Then Samuel said to the people, "Come on. Let's go to Gilgal. There we'll agree to have Saul as our king."