As for Saul, though he was now a king, he went back the next day to his own home and went to work again on the farm as if nothing had happened. Indeed, it seemed for a time as if the people, in spite of their shouting, would not take him for their king. Some of them said, “How shall this man save us?” And they despised him and sent him no presents. But he was silent as before, and attended to his own business in the field and in the barn, and held his peace. At last, one day, news came of the Challenge of the Right Eyes. The king was plowing when the messengers arrived, and as he came home in the afternoon, driving the oxen before him, he heard a great commotion among the people. “What is the matter?” he asked. “What ails the people that they weep?” So they told Saul the news. The men of Ammon, whom Jephthah had fought and chased away, had come back and laid siege to a town in Gilead called Jabesh. They had encamped around it, so that nobody could go out or come in, and the citizens could get no food. So the men of Jabesh said to Nahash the king of the men of Ammon, “We will surrender the city. Only make an agreement of peace with us, and we will be your servants.” But Nahash answered, “I will make peace with you on one condition: that I may thrust out all your right eyes.” Then the men of Jabesh were in a sad plight, and they said, “Give us seven days to find help. If at the end of the week, there is no one to save us, then we will come out, and you shall take our eyes.” Then they sent messengers across the Jordan, and it was their report which made Saul’s neighbors cry aloud. And when Saul heard it, the Spirit of God came upon him. His anger was kindled into a fierce blaze at the cruel threats of the men of Ammon. Instantly he took a yoke of oxen and killed them and cut them into pieces. And he sent messengers each with a bleeding piece of flesh to all the towns of Israel; and the messengers cried, “Whoever comes not forth after Saul to fight against the men of Ammon, so shall it be done to his oxen.” And great fear fell on all the people, and they came out with one consent. And word was sent to the men of Jabesh, “To-morrow by the time the sun is hot, you shall have help.” So the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “To-morrow we will come out to you, and you shall do to us all that is in your heart.” But Nahash had no knowledge of the march of Saul. Saul marched his army all that night; and early in the morning he fell upon the Ammonites before they were awake, and attacked them on this side and on that, and beat them, and chased them back into the desert, till no two of them were left together. Then some said, “Where are the enemies of Saul, who would not have him for their king? Let us put them to death.” But Saul would not permit it. “There shall not a man be put to death this day,” he said. So they crowned Saul over again. “Come,” they said, “let us renew the kingdom.” And all the people promised to obey King Saul. XXXI