So now arise, go out, and speak to the heart of your servants! For I swear by Adonai that if you do not go out, not a single man will stay with you tonight, and that would be worse for you than all the evil that has befallen you from your youth until now.”
But when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king saying: “What share have we in David? No inheritance in Jesse’s son! To your tents, O Israel! Now look at your own house, David!” So the Israelites departed to their tents.
Thus says Adonai: you are not to go up or fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Turn back every man to his own house, for this matter is from Me.” So they heeded the word of Adonai. They turned and went back, according to the word of Adonai.
Then he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills, as sheep without a shepherd. Then Adonai said, ‘These have no master; let each of them return home in peace.’”
The battle raged that day, and the king remained propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. But he died at evening—and the blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot.
So the Philistines did fight and Israel was defeated—they fled every man to his tent. The slaughter was very great, as 30,000 of Israel’s foot soldiers fell.