When Israel’s fighting men saw that they were in a strait (for the people were distressed), then the people hid themselves in caves, in hollows, among rocks, and in cellars and cisterns.
But this is a people robbed and despoiled; they are all snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; they are for a prey, and no one delivers, for a spoil, and no one says, “Restore them.”
Now the cistern in which Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men, whom he had slain because of Gedaliah, was what Asa the king had made because of Baasha the king of Israel. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were slain.
Thus you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and him who is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the forts and in the caves shall die of pestilence.
So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven! So they had no power to feel this way or that way, and the people who had fled into the wilderness had turned back toward their pursuers.
So the two of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, “Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the caves where they have hidden themselves.”
Also all of Israel’s fighting men, who had hidden themselves in mountains of Ephraim, heard that the Philistines fled, and even they followed hard after them in the battle.
Then the Ziphites went up to Saul to Gibeah saying, “Is David not hiding himself with us in strongholds in Horesh, on the hill of Hakilah, which is south of Jeshimon?
He came to the sheep pens by the way and a cave was there. And Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the rear of the cave.
When Israel’s fighting men who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were on the other side of the Jordan, saw that Israel’s fighting men fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. So the Philistines came and lived in them.
When the Philistines heard that the Israelites were gathered together to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the Israelites heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.