¹ And He saith unto me, `Son of man, that which thou findest eat, eat this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel.'

² And I open my mouth, and He causeth me to eat this roll.

³ And He saith unto me, `Son of man, thy belly thou dost feed, and thy bowels thou dost fill with this roll that I am giving unto thee;' and I eat it, and it is in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

⁴ And He saith unto me, `Son of man, go, enter in unto the house of Israel, and thou hast spoken with My words unto them.

⁵ For, not unto a people deep of lip and heavy of tongue [art] thou sent -- unto the house of Israel;

⁶ not unto many peoples, deep of lip and heavy of tongue, whose words thou dost not understand. If I had not sent thee unto them -- they, they do hearken unto thee,

⁷ but the house of Israel are not willing to hearken unto thee, for they are not willing to hearken unto Me, for all the house of Israel are brazen-faced and strong-hearted.

⁸ `Lo, I have made thy face strong against their face, and thy forehead strong against their forehead.

⁹ As an adamant harder than a rock I have made thy forehead; thou dost not fear them, nor art thou affrighted before them, for a rebellious house [are] they.'

¹⁰ And He saith unto me, `Son of man, all My words, that I speak unto thee, receive with thy heart, and with thine ears hear;

¹¹ and go, enter in unto the Removed, unto the sons of thy people, and thou hast spoken unto them, and hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: whether they hear, or whether they forbear.'

¹² And lift me up doth a spirit, and I hear behind me a noise, a great rushing -- `Blessed [is] the honour of Jehovah from His place!' --

¹³ even a noise of the wings of the living creatures touching one another, and a noise of the wheels over-against them, even a noise of a great rushing.

¹⁴ And a spirit hath lifted me up, and doth take me away, and I go bitterly, in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of Jehovah on me [is] strong.

¹⁵ And I come in unto the Removed, at Tel-Ahib, who are dwelling at the river Chebar, and where they are dwelling I also dwell seven days, causing astonishment in their midst.

¹⁶ And it cometh to pass, at the end of seven days,

¹⁷ that there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying, `Son of man, a watchman I have given thee to the house of Israel, and thou hast heard from My mouth a word, and hast warned them from Me.

¹⁸ In My saying to the wicked: Thou dost surely die; and thou hast not warned him, nor hast spoken to warn the wicked from his wicked way, so that he doth live; he -- the wicked -- in his iniquity dieth, and his blood from thy hand I require.

¹⁹ And thou, because thou hast warned the wicked, and he hath not turned back from his wickedness, and from his wicked way, he in his iniquity dieth, and thou thy soul hast delivered.

²⁰ `And in the turning back of the righteous from his righteousness, and he hath done perversity, and I have put a stumbling-block before him, he dieth; because thou hast not warned him, in his sin he dieth, and not remembered is his righteousness that he hath done, and his blood from thy hand I require.

²¹ And thou, because thou hast warned him -- the righteous -- that the righteous sin not, and he hath not sinned, he surely liveth, because he hath been warned; and thou thy soul hast delivered.'

²² And there is on me there a hand of Jehovah, and He saith to me, `Rise, go forth to the valley, and there I do speak with thee.'

²³ And I rise and go forth unto the valley, and lo, there the honour of Jehovah is standing as the honour that I had seen by the river Chebar, and I fall on my face.

²⁴ And come into me doth a spirit, and causeth me to stand on my feet, and He speaketh with me, and saith unto me, `Go in, be shut up in the midst of thy house.

²⁵ `And thou, son of man, lo, they have put on thee thick bands, and have bound thee with them, and thou goest not forth in their midst;

²⁶ and thy tongue I cause to cleave unto thy palate, and thou hast been dumb, and art not to them for a reprover, for a rebellious house [are] they.

²⁷ And in My speaking with thee, I do open thy mouth, and thou hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah; the hearer doth hear, and the forbearer doth forbear; for a rebellious house [are] they.

²⁷ And thou hast spoken unto them all these words, And they do not hearken to thee, And thou hast called unto them, And they do not answer thee.

¹ Now it fell on a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armor, "Come, and let us go over to the Philistines' garrison, that is on the other side." But he didn't tell his father.

² Saul stayed in the uttermost part of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people who were with him were about six hundred men;

³ and Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of Yahweh in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. The people didn't know that Jonathan was gone.

⁴ Between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines' garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side, and a rocky crag on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.

⁵ The one crag rose up on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba.

⁶ Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, "Come, and let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that Yahweh will work for us; for there is no restraint on Yahweh to save by many or by few."

⁷ His armor bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Turn and, behold, I am with you according to your heart."

⁸ Then Jonathan said, "Behold, we will pass over to the men, and we will reveal ourselves to them.

⁹ If they say thus to us, 'Wait until we come to you!' then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up to them.

¹⁰ But if they say this, 'Come up to us!' then we will go up; for Yahweh has delivered them into our hand. This shall be the sign to us."

¹¹ Both of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines said, "Behold, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they had hidden themselves!"

¹² The men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armor bearer, and said, "Come up to us, and we will show you something!" Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Come up after me; for Yahweh has delivered them into the hand of Israel."

¹³ Jonathan climbed up on his hands and on his feet, and his armor bearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan; and his armor bearer killed them after him.

¹⁴ That first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armor bearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land.

¹⁵ There was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people; the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled; and the earth quaked: so there was an exceeding great trembling.

¹⁶ The watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and behold, the multitude melted away, and they went [here] and there.

¹⁷ Then Saul said to the people who were with him, "Count now, and see who is missing from us." When they had counted, behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there.

¹⁸ Saul said to Ahijah, "Bring the ark of God here." For the ark of God was [there] at that time with the children of Israel.

¹⁹ It happened, while Saul talked to the priest, that the tumult that was in the camp of the Philistines went on and increased: and Saul said to the priest, "Withdraw your hand!"

²⁰ Saul and all the people who were with him were gathered together, and came to the battle: and behold, every man's sword was against his fellow, [and there was] a very great confusion.

²¹ Now the Hebrews who were with the Philistines as before, and who went up with them into the camp, [from the country] all around, even they also [turned] to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

²² Likewise all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle.

²³ So Yahweh saved Israel that day: and the battle passed over by Beth Aven.

²⁴ The men of Israel were distressed that day; for Saul had adjured the people, saying, "Cursed is the man who eats any food until it is evening, and I am avenged of my enemies." So none of the people tasted food.

²⁵ All the people came into the forest; and there was honey on the ground.

²⁶ When the people were come to the forest, behold, the honey dropped: but no man put his hand to his mouth; for the people feared the oath.

²⁷ But Jonathan didn't hear when his father commanded the people with the oath: therefore he put forth the end of the rod who was in his hand, and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened.

²⁸ Then one of the people answered, and said, "Your father directly commanded the people with an oath, saying, 'Cursed is the man who eats food this day.'" The people were faint.

²⁹ Then Jonathan said, "My father has troubled the land. Please look how my eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.

³⁰ How much more, if perhaps the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found? For now has there been no great slaughter among the Philistines."

³¹ They struck of the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon. The people were very faint;

³² and the people flew on the spoil, and took sheep, and cattle, and calves, and killed them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood.

³³ Then they told Saul, saying, "Behold, the people are sinning against Yahweh, in that they eat meat with the blood." He said, "You have dealt treacherously. Roll a large stone to me this day!"

³⁴ Saul said, "Disperse yourselves among the people, and tell them, 'Bring me here every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and kill them here, and eat; and don't sin against Yahweh in eating meat with the blood.'" All the people brought every man his ox with him that night, and killed them there.

³⁵ Saul built an altar to Yahweh. This was the first altar that he built to Yahweh.

³⁶ Saul said, "Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and take spoil among them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them." They said, "Do whatever seems good to you." Then the priest said, "Let us draw near here to God."

³⁷ Saul asked counsel of God, "Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you deliver them into the hand of Israel?" But he didn't answer him that day.

³⁸ Saul said, "Draw near here, all you chiefs of the people; and know and see in which this sin has been this day.

³⁹ For, as Yahweh lives, who saves Israel, though it is in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die." But there was not a man among all the people who answered him.

⁴⁰ Then he said to all Israel, "You be on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side." The people said to Saul, "Do what seems good to you."

⁴¹ Therefore Saul said to Yahweh, the God of Israel, "Show the right." Jonathan and Saul were chosen; but the people escaped.

⁴² Saul said, "Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son." Jonathan was selected.

⁴³ Then Saul said to Jonathan, "Tell me what you have done!" Jonathan told him, and said, "I certainly did taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand; and behold, I must die."

⁴⁴ Saul said, "God do so and more also; for you shall surely die, Jonathan."

⁴⁵ The people said to Saul, "Shall Jonathan die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it! As Yahweh lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he has worked with God this day!" So the people rescued Jonathan, that he didn't die.

⁴⁶ Then Saul went up from following the Philistines; and the Philistines went to their own place.

⁴⁷ Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon, and against Edom, and against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines: and wherever he turned himself, he put [them] to the worse.

⁴⁸ He did valiantly, and struck the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hands of those who despoiled them.

⁴⁹ Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishvi, and Malchishua; and the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn Merab, and the name of the younger Michal:

⁵⁰ and the name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of the captain of his army was Abner the son of Ner, Saul's uncle.

⁵¹ Kish was the father of Saul; and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel.

⁵² There was severe war against the Philistines all the days of Saul: and when Saul saw any mighty man, or any valiant man, he took him to him.