Bible Verses About Jabesh-Gilead

Then they asked who from the tribes of Isra'el had not come up to ADONAI at Mitzpah and found that none had come from Yavesh-Gil'ad to the camp where the assembly was;

since when the people were counted, none of the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil'ad were found there.

So the gathering sent 12,000 warriors there and ordered them, "Go, and put the people who live in Yavesh-Gil'ad to death with the sword, including women and children.

Completely destroy every man and every woman who has had sex with a man."

Among the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil'ad they found 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Kena'an.

Then the whole gathering sent a message proclaiming peace to the people of Binyamin who were at the Rock of Rimmon.

So Binyamin returned at that time, and the people of Isra'el gave them the women they had kept alive of the women from Yavesh-Gil'ad. But those weren't enough for them.

The people were still sorry for Binyamin because ADONAI had made a division among the tribes of Isra'el.

Then Nachash the 'Amoni came up and set up camp to fight Yavesh-Gil'ad. All the men of Yavesh said to Nachash, "If you will make a treaty with us, we will be your subjects."

Nachash the 'Amoni replied, "I'll do it on this condition: that all your right eyes be gouged out and thus bring disgrace on all of Isra'el."

The leaders of Yavesh answered him, "Give us seven days' grace to send messengers throughout Isra'el's territory; then, if no one will rescue us, we will surrender to you."

The messengers came to Giv'ah, where Sha'ul lived, and said these words in the hearing of the people; and all the people cried out and wept.

As this was going on, Sha'ul came, following the oxen out of the field. Sha'ul asked, "What's wrong with the people to make them cry like that?"They told him what the men from Yavesh had said.

The Spirit of God fell on Sha'ul when he heard this; blazing furiously with anger,

he seized a pair of oxen and cut them in pieces; then he sent them throughout the territory of Isra'el with messengers saying, "Anyone who doesn't come and follow Sha'ul and Sh'mu'el, this is what will be done to his oxen!"The fear of ADONAI fell on the people, and they came out with united hearts.

He reviewed them in Bezek; there were 300,000 from the people of Isra'el; the men of Y'hudah numbered 30,000.

To the messengers that had come they said, "Tell the men of Yavesh-Gil'ad, 'Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will have been rescued.'"The messengers returned and told the men of Yavesh; they were overjoyed.

Then the men of Yavesh said [to Nachash], "Tomorrow we will surrender to you, and you can do with us whatever you like."

The next day Sha'ul divided the people into three companies. Then they entered the camp of the 'Amoni during the morning watch and kept attacking until the heat of the day, until those who remained were so scattered that no two of them were left together.

When the people living in Yavesh-Gil'ad heard what the P'lishtim had done to Sha'ul,

all their warriors set out, traveling all night. They took the body of Sha'ul and the bodies of his sons off the wall of Beit-Sh'an, returned to Yavesh and burned them there.

Then they took their bones, buried them under the tamarisk tree in Yavesh and fasted seven days.

So David went and took the bones of Sha'ul and the bones of Y'honatan his son from the men of Yavesh-Gil'ad, who had stolen them from the open square of Beit-Sh'an, where the P'lishtim had hanged them at the time the P'lishtim had killed Sha'ul at Gilboa;

and he brought up from there the bones of Sha'ul and the bones of Y'honatan his son. They also gathered the bones of those who had been hanged.

Then they buried the bones of Sha'ul and Y'honatan his son in the territory of Binyamin in Tzela, in the tomb of Kish his father; they did everything the king ordered. Only after that was God prevailed on to show mercy to the land.