³ So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the ^(A)people of the East would come up against them. ⁴ Then they would encamp against them and ^(B)destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ^(C)donkey. ⁵ For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were ^[a]without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it.

⁵ Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, ^[a]thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people ^(A)as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of ^(B)Beth Aven. ⁶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people ^(C)hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits. ⁷ And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the ^(D)land of Gad and Gilead.

As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. ^8 (E)Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.