23. Now a detachment of Philistines had gone out to the pass at Michmash.
1. One day Jonathan son of Saul said to his young armour-bearer, ‘Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.’ But he did not tell his father.
2. Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron. With him were about six hundred men,
3. among whom was Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was a son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord’s priest in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left.
4. On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez and the other Seneh.
5. One cliff stood to the north towards Michmash, the other to the south towards Geba.
6. Jonathan said to his young armour-bearer, ‘Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.’
7. ‘Do all that you have in mind,’ his armour-bearer said. ‘Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.’
8. Jonathan said, ‘Come on, then; we will cross over towards them and let them see us.
9. If they say to us, “Wait there until we come to you,” we will stay where we are and not go up to them.
10. But if they say, “Come up to us,” we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.’
11. So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. ‘Look!’ said the Philistines. ‘The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.’
12. The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armour-bearer, ‘Come up to us and we’ll teach you a lesson.’So Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, ‘Climb up after me; the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.’
13. Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armour-bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armour-bearer followed and killed behind him.
14. In that first attack Jonathan and his armour-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre.a