1 Samuel 11:2-11

2But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “I will make it with you on this condition, 1that I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you, and thereby I will inflict 2a disgrace on all Israel.” 3So 3the elders of Jabesh said to him, “Allow us seven days to send messengers throughout the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.” 4Then the messengers came 4to Gibeah of Saul and spoke these words in the hearing of the people, and all the people 5raised their voices and wept.

5Now behold, Saul was coming from the field 6behind the oxen, and Saul said, “What is the matter with the people that they weep?” So they reported to him the words of the men of Jabesh. 6Then 7the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and 8he became very angry. 7He then took a yoke of oxen and 9cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, “10Whoever does not come out after Saul and after Samuel, the same shall be done to his oxen.” Then the dread of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out 11as one person. 8He 12counted them in 13Bezek; and the 14sons of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah, thirty thousand. 9They said to the messengers who had come, “This is what you shall say to the men of Jabesh-gilead: ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will be saved.’” So the messengers went and told the men of Jabesh; and they rejoiced. 10Then the men of Jabesh said, “15Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good 16to you.” 11The next morning Saul put the people 17in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp at the morning watch, and struck and killed the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And those who survived scattered, so that no two of them were left together.