Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had a signature atrocity: he gouged out the right eye of every man he conquered. The logic was military precision—with the left eye covered by a shield in battle, a one-eyed soldier was useless. He had already blinded and enslaved the Israelites east of the Jordan. Now he marched on the city of Jabesh-Gilead and offered its people a choice: surrender your right eyes, or be destroyed.
The people of Jabesh begged for seven days to seek help. Nahash, confident no one would come, granted it. Messengers spread across Israel, and every city that heard the news wept—but nobody moved. Then Saul came home from the fields and found his own city crying. When he learned why, a divine fury seized him. He slaughtered his oxen, cut them to pieces, and sent the pieces throughout Israel with a message: anyone who does not march to war will have this done to their cattle. Seven hundred thousand men assembled.
Saul divided his army into three columns, marched thirty furlongs through the night, and struck the Ammonite camp before sunrise. The slaughter was total. Nahash himself was killed. It was exactly the kind of victory Israel had wanted a king for.
But then came the moment that defined Saul's reign—and destroyed it. When the Philistines massed three hundred thousand infantry, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand cavalry at Michmash, Israel's army melted away. Men hid in caves. Entire tribes fled across the Jordan. Saul waited at Gilgal for Samuel, who had ordered him to hold off for seven days before offering sacrifices. Saul waited. His soldiers deserted. On the seventh day, with the prophet still absent, Saul offered the sacrifices himself.
Samuel arrived immediately after. "Had you been obedient," the prophet said, "your dynasty would have lasted forever." Instead, for this single act of impatience, God would tear the kingdom from Saul's line. Meanwhile, Jonathan, Saul's son, and his armor-bearer secretly climbed a cliff face into a Philistine outpost that no one thought could be scaled. They killed twenty men in their sleep. Panic spread through the entire Philistine camp—soldiers from different nations turned on each other in the confusion, unable to tell friend from enemy. God sent an earthquake. The Philistines routed themselves. And Saul, who had lost God's favor, rode the victory his son had won.