Where is your king? Wasn’t he supposed to save you? Where are the rulers in all your towns? You said,‘ Give us a king and princes.’So I became angry and gave you a king. Then I took him away from you.
The Philistines fought against the Israelites. The Israelites ran away from them. But many Israelites were killed on Mount Gilboa.The Philistines kept chasing Saul and his sons. They killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki- Shua.The fighting was heavy around Saul. Men who were armed with bows and arrows caught up with him. They shot their arrows at him and wounded him badly.Saul spoke to the man carrying his armor. He said,“ Pull out your sword. Stick it through me. If you don’t, these fellows who aren’t circumcised will come. They’ll stick their swords through me and hurt me badly.” But the man was terrified. He wouldn’t do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.The man saw that Saul was dead. So he fell on his own sword and died with him.Saul and his three sons died together that same day. The man who carried his armor also died with them that day. So did all of Saul’s men.The Israelites who lived along the valley saw that their army had run away. So did those who lived across the Jordan River. They saw that Saul and his sons were dead. So they left their towns and ran away. Then the Philistines came and made their homes in them.
The Israelites ran away from them. God handed Israel over to Judah.Abijah and his troops wounded and killed large numbers of them. In fact, 500,000 of Israel’s capable men lay dead or wounded.
There David’s men won the battle over Israel’s army. A huge number of men were wounded or killed that day. The total number was 20,000.The fighting spread out over the whole countryside. But more men were killed in the forest that day than out in the open.
As soon as Moses finished saying all these words, what he had said came true. The ground under them broke open.It opened its mouth. It swallowed up those men. In fact, it swallowed up everyone who lived in their houses. It swallowed all Korah’s men. And it swallowed up everything they owned.They went down into the grave alive. Everything they owned went down with them. The ground closed over them and they died. And so they disappeared from the community.All the Israelites around them heard their cries. They ran away from them. They shouted,“ The ground is going to swallow us up too!”Then the Lord sent down fire. It burned up the 250 men offering the incense.
