Samuel will live for several more years and will continue to serve Israel as a prophet and as a religious leader, but with the establishment of Saul as the king of Israel and the success of Saul’s first military encounter with the Ammonites, Samuel’s leadership as a judge has ended.

On the east side of the Jordan River the Ammonite King Nahash was willing to cut a covenant, or a vassal treaty, with the people of Jabesh Gilead by cutting out their right eye (instead of cutting animals to secure the covenant.) Jabesh Gilead is on the east side of the Jordan River, south of the Sea of Galilee and opposite of Beth Shean and Shechem. In Judges 19-21 four hundred women were taken from Jabesh Gilead to become wives for some of the six hundred surviving men from the tribe of Benjamin. This family connection was most likely the cause of the weeping in Gibeah, Saul’s hometown, when the news of Nahash’s oppression of Jabesh Gilead reached them.

When Saul returned from working in the fields and heard the news of the oppression in Jabesh Gilead the anointing of the Spirit of God stirred him to action. Saul followed a custom of his day, as is documented in the Nuzi Tablets from Mesopotamia, by dismembered his oxen and sending the pieces throughout the land of Israel summoning the troops to assemble for battle.

Within 2-3 days the Israelite troops had assembled at Bezek, which was about 17 miles north of Gibeah of Saul and 9 miles west of the Jordan River directly across from Jabesh Gilead which sets of the east side. From there Saul led a successful military campaign to deliver the eastern portion of Israel from the Ammonites. With this military victory the Lord established Saul as the rightful and worthy king of Israel.