Saul's Unlawful Sacrifice

1 Samuel 13

⁸ He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people began to slip away from Saul. ₁ ⁹ So Saul said, "Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the offerings of well-being." And he offered the burnt offering. ¹⁰ As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel arrived; and Saul went out to meet him and salute him. ¹¹ Samuel said, "What have you done?" Saul replied, "When I saw that the people were slipping away from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines were mustering at Michmash, ¹² I said, "Now the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal, and I have not entreated the favor of the Lord'; so I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering." ¹³ Samuel said to Saul, "You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. The Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, ¹⁴ but now your kingdom will not continue; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart; and the Lord has appointed him to be ruler over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you."

¹⁵ And Samuel left and went on his way from Gilgal. ₂ The rest of the people followed Saul to join the army; they went up from Gilgal toward Gibeah of Benjamin. ₃
Saul counted the people who were present with him, about six hundred men. ¹⁶ Saul, his son Jonathan, and the people who were present with them stayed in Geba of Benjamin; but the Philistines encamped at Michmash. ¹⁷ And raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies; one company turned toward Ophrah, to the land of Shual, ¹⁸ another company turned toward Beth-horon, and another company turned toward the mountain ₄ that looks down upon the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

¹⁹ Now there was no smith to be found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, "The Hebrews must not make swords or spears for themselves"; ²⁰ so all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, or sickles; ₅ ²¹ The charge was two-thirds of a shekel ₆ for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and one-third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads. ₇ ²² So on the day of the battle neither sword nor spear was to be found in the possession of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan; but Saul and his son Jonathan had them. ²³ Now a garrison of the Philistines had gone out to the pass of Michmash.