1Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and set up his camp against Jabeshgilead. All the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you."
2Nahash the Ammonite answered them, "I will make a covenant with you on this condition: that I dig out the right eye of every one of you, and so bring shame on all Israel."
3The elders of Jabesh said to him, "Give us seven days to wait, so that we may send messengers through all the land of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you."
4Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news to the people. And all the people lifted up their voices and wept.
5Look, Saul was coming out of the field behind the cattle. Saul said, "What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?" And they told him the news of the men of Jabesh.
6The Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard that news, and his anger burned hot.
7He took a pair of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them all through the land of Israel by the hands of messengers. He said, "Whoever does not come out after Saul and after Samuel, this is what will be done to his oxen." And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out as one man.
8When he counted them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
9They said to the messengers who had come, "Say this to the men of Jabeshgilead: 'Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will have help.'" The messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, and they were glad.
10So the men of Jabesh said, "Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you."
11The next day Saul divided the people into three companies. They came into the middle of the camp during the morning watch and killed the Ammonites until the heat of the day. Those who were left were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.
12The people said to Samuel, "Who was it that said, 'Shall Saul reign over us?' Bring the men here, so that we may put them to death."
13But Saul said, "No one shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has brought salvation to Israel."