4. When the messengers arrived at Gibeah of Saul and reported the news in the people’s hearing, they all wept aloud.
5. Just then Saul came in from the field, behind his oxen. “Why are the people weeping?” he asked. They repeated the message of the inhabitants of Jabesh for him.
6. As he listened to this report, the spirit of God rushed upon him and he became very angry.
7. Taking a yoke of oxen, he cut them into pieces and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by messengers saying, “If anyone does not come out to follow Saul and Samuel, the same thing will be done to his oxen!” The dread of the Lord came upon the people and they went forth as one.
8. When Saul reviewed them in Bezek, there were three hundred thousand Israelites and seventy thousand Judahites.
9. To the messengers who had come he said, “Tell the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead that tomorrow, when the sun grows hot, they will be saved.” The messengers went and reported this to the inhabitants of Jabesh, and they rejoiced.