IN dismissing Saul from Ramah after their first interview, Samuel, it will be remembered, had told him that he would pass _a garrison of the Philistines_ (1 Sam. x. 5; xiii. 3) Recovering from their defeat at Ebenezer this people had again renewed their old hostilities, and pitched in the heart of the mountains of Benjamin. Two years after his accession (1 Sam. xiii. 1), Saul resolved to throw off a yoke which pressed so severely on the neighbourhood of his native place. Gathering round him a small standing army of 3,000 men, he placed 1,000 under the command of his valiant son JONATHAN at Geba[237], while he himself with 2,000 took up a position at Michmash (_Mŭkhmas_) about 7 miles north of Jerusalem, and along the ridge of intervening heights in the direction of Bethel. Either at or close to Jonathan’s position was posted a garrison of the Philistines. For some time the rival forces stood watching one another, and at length Jonathan in a fit of youthful ardour fell upon the garrison, and put it to flight. Tidings of this event quickly reached the Philistines in their rich southern plains, who forthwith swarmed with a vast force up through the passes of Benjamin, while Saul retired to Gilgal, and there summoned a general gathering of the nation. But in face of the enormous masses of their foes, the Israelites, seized with a sudden panic, as in the days of Gideon (Judg. vi. 2), fled for refuge to the natural hiding-places of the country, to the dens, the inaccessible fastnesses, and the caves with which it abounded, while some even crossed the Jordan into the territory of Gad and Gilead (1 Sam. xiii. 7).