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.  We do not know how far his influence extended northwards; it probably stopped short at the neighbourhood of Mount Tabor, and the Galileans either refused to submit to his authority, or acknowledged it merely in theory.  In the south the clans of Judah and Simeon were not long in rallying round him, and their neighbours the Kenites, with Caleb and Jerahmeel, soon followed their example.  These southerners, however, appear to have been somewhat half-hearted in their allegiance to the Benjamite king:  it was not enough to have gained their adhesion—­a stronger tie was needed to attach them to the rest of the nation.  Saul endeavoured to get rid of the line of Canaanite cities which isolated them from Ephraim, but he failed in the effort, we know not from what cause, and his attempt produced no other result than to arouse against him the hatred of the Gibeonite inhabitants.* He did his best to watch over the security of his new subjects, and protected them against the Amalekites, who were constantly harassing them.