Battle of Michmash
| Battle of Michmash | |||||||
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| Part of Later Israelite Campaigns | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Israelites | Phillistines | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Jonathan | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 600 soldiers, later reinforced by 10,000 Israelite soldiers (Josephus) |
6,000 cavalry 300,000 infantry 30,000 chariots (Josephus) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Relatively few | 60,000 men killed (Josephus) | ||||||
| Hebrew Bible battles |
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| Hebrew Bible battles |
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According to the Bible, the Battle of Michmash was fought between Israelites under Jonathan, son of King Saul and a force of Phillistines at Michmash, a town east of Bethel and south of Migron.[1]
Biblical account
As described in 1 Samuel 13, "Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash."[2] Jonathan is recalled to have found a secret path around the Phillistines, allowing him to flank them and defeat them.[3]
Jonathan silently approached the Phillistine garrison with his armour-bearer, not telling his father of the act, and passed two rocky crags: "there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez and the name of the other Seneh."[4] The two single-handedly climbed the ramparts and attacked the garrison "within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plough." They are said to have killed twenty men together. The remainder of the camp awoke with confusion, and "melted away and they went on beating down one another."[5] Finally, a miraculous earthquake threw the entire Phillistine host into disarray. Drawn by the sounds of combat, Saul approached the garrison with his own force only to find that the army had already torn itself apart in fear, with the majority of survivors fleeing from Saul's army.