THE ADVENTURE OF THE GREAT TREMBLING The wife of King Saul was named Ahinoam. They had five children, three boys and two girls. And the name of their eldest son was Jonathan. Jonathan was like his father, tall and handsome, and he was as brave as he was modest. It was said that he could run as fast as an eagle could fly. At that time, most of the men of Israel who could run were running away, in fear of the Philistines. The Philistines had taken possession of the land. The Israelites had neither swords nor spears; and, in order to keep them from making any, the Philistines had banished the blacksmiths. Every time a man wanted to get his axe or his plow sharpened he had to go to the country of the Philistines. There was little use, however, for plows or axes, for the Israelites were afraid to go to work either in the fields or in the woods. They hid themselves in caves and in thickets and among the rocks and on the tops of the mountains and in pits. Some of them left the country, and went over the Jordan to the land of Gilead. Saul, indeed, had six hundred soldiers, but they followed him trembling. Now across the central mountains of the land, there was a pass, so that men might go across the country from the Jordan River on the east to the Mediterranean Sea on the west. The valley of Michmash led up from the Jordan on one side and the valley of Ajalon led down to the sea-coast on the other. On the south side of this deep and narrow pass was a place called Geba; there Saul was encamped with his six hundred trembling men. On the north side was a place called Michmash; there the Philistines had so great an army that to count them was like counting the sand of the sea. There was a sharp rock on the north, called Bozez, the Shining; and a sharp rock on the south, called Seneh, the Strong; and the wood lay between them. Then the young prince, Jonathan, spoke to his armor-bearer and said, “Come and let us go over to the Philistine garrison. It may be that the Lord will bless us, for it matters not to Him whether we be many or few.” And the squire, his armor-bearer, said, “Do what you will; I will go with you.” Now King Saul was sitting under a tree on the other side of the camp, so that he did not know what Jonathan was doing. Jonathan said, “We will climb down to the bottom of the pass and show ourselves to the enemy. If they say, ‘Stay there, you Israelites, till we come down and get you,’ we will stand still in our place. But if they say, ‘Come up here, if you dare,’ then we will go up. That shall be a sign that the Lord is on our side.” And pretty soon the watchmen of the Philistines saw two men in the wood at the bottom of the pass. And the Philistines said, “See, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they had hid themselves.” And they called to Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, “Come up to us, and we will show you something.” And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Come now, for the day is ours.”