es in single file to the enemy.
Jonathan, however, resolved to attempt a surprise in broad daylight,
accompanied only by his armour-bearer. "There was a rocky crag on the
one side, and a rooky crag on the other side: and the name of the one
was Bozez (the Shining), and the name of the other Seneh (the Acacia).
The one crag rose up on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on
the south in front of Geba (Gribeah)." The two descended the side of the
gorge, on the top of which they were encamped, and prepared openly to
climb the opposite side. The Philistine sentries imagined they were
deserters, and said as they approached: "Behold, the Hebrews come forth
out of the holes where they had hid themselves. And the men of the
garrison answered Jonathan and his armour-bearer, and said, Come up
to us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his
armour-bearer, Come up after me: for the Lord hath delivered them into
the hand of Israel. And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his
feet, and his armour-bearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan;
and his armour-bearer slew them after him. And that first slaughter that
Jonathan and his armour-bearer made, was about twenty men, within as
it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land." From Gribeah, where
Saul's troops were in ignorance of what was passing, the Benjamite
sentinels could distinguish a tumult. Saul guessed that a surprise had
taken place, and marched upon the enemy.

[Illustration: 314.jpg THE WADY SUWEINIT]

Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 402 of the _Palestine
Exploration Fund_.

The Philistines were ousted from their position, and pursued hotly
beyond Bethel as far as Ajalon.* This constituted the actual birthday of
the Israelite monarchy.

* The account of these events, separated by the parts
relating to the biography of Samuel (1 Sam. xiii. 76-15a,
thought by some to be of a later date), and of the breaking
by Jonathan of the fast enjoined by Saul (1 Sam. xiv. 23-
45), covers 1 Sam. xiii. 3-7a, 156-23, xiv. 1-22, 46. The
details appear to be strictly historical; the number of the
Philistines, however, seems to be exaggerated; "30,000
chariots, and 6000 horsemen, and people as the sand which is
on the sea-shore in multitude "(1 Sam. xiii. 5).

Gilead, the whole house of Joseph--Ephraim and Manasseh--and Benjamin
formed its nucleus, and were Saul's strongest supporters