you by strange signals; for what none of you ever saw here
before, I mean a winter storm in the midst of harvest, [10] I will
entreat of God, and will make it visible to you." Now, as soon as he had
said this, God gave such great signals by thunder and lightning, and the
descent of hail, as attested the truth of all that the prophet had said,
insomuch that they were amazed and terrified, and confessed they had
sinned, and had fallen into that sin through ignorance; and besought the
prophet, as one that was a tender and gentle father to them, to render
God so merciful as to forgive this their sin, which they had added to
those other offenses whereby they had affronted him and transgressed
against him. So he promised them that he would beseech God, and persuade
him to forgive them these their sins. However, he advised them to be
righteous, and to be good, and ever to remember the miseries that had
befallen them on account of their departure from virtue: as also to
remember the strange signs God had shown them, and the body of laws that
Moses had given them, if they had any desire of being preserved and made
happy with their king. But he said, that if they should grow careless
of these things, great judgments would come from God upon them, and
upon their king. And when Samuel had thus prophesied to the Hebrews, he
dismissed them to their own homes, having confirmed the kingdom to Saul
the second time.

CHAPTER 6. How The Philistines Made Another Expedition Against The
Hebrews And Were Beaten.

1. Now Saul chose out of the multitude about three thousand men, and he
took two thousand of them to be the guards of his own body, and abode in
the city Bethel, but he gave the rest of them to Jonathan his son, to
be the guards of his body; and sent him to Gibeah, where he besieged and
took a certain garrison of the Philistines, not far from Gilgal; for the
Philistines of Gibeah had beaten the Jews, and taken their weapons away,
and had put garrisons into the strongest places of the country, and had
forbidden them to carry any instrument of iron, or at all to make use of
any iron in any case whatsoever. And on account of this prohibition it
was that the husbandmen, if they had occasion to sharpen any of their
tools, whether it were the coulter or the spade, or any instrument of
husbandry, they came to the Philistines to do it. Now as soon as the
Philistines heard of this slaughter of their garrison, they were in
a rage abou