Bible Strands
1 Samuel 28:4
The Philistines gathered together and camped at Shunem, while Saul gathered all Israel and camped at Gilboa.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records a simultaneous military mobilization between the Philistine coalition and Saul's Israelite forces. This occurs immediately after Samuel's death and Saul's purge of mediums, positioning the two armies for direct confrontation.
The words — וַ/יִּקָּבְצ֣וּ (va/yi.kav.tzu) and וַ/יִּקְבֹּ֤ץ (va/yi.kav.tz) both derive from H6908, meaning "to gather together." The text applies this identical verb to both camps to emphasize their coordinated, opposing movements.
The thread — The locations Shunem and Gilboa anchor the narrative in Joshua 19:18 and 1 Samuel 31:1, marking the geographic stage for the battle's outcome. The parallel gathering directly precipitates the fear described in 1 Samuel 28:5.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to track the historical and geographical continuity that frames Saul's crisis. The verse demands recognition of the symmetrical military buildup that precedes human desperation and divine abandonment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem: and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa.
Cross-references
- Joshua 19:18 Their territory included Jezreel, Chesulloth, Shunem,
- 1 Samuel 31:1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
- 2 Kings 4:8 One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal. So whenever he would pass by, he would stop there to eat.
- 2 Samuel 1:6 “I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,” he replied, “and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and the cavalry closing in on him.
- 2 Samuel 1:21 O mountains of Gilboa, may you have no dew or rain, no fields yielding offerings of grain. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, no longer anointed with oil.
- 2 Samuel 21:12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Saul at Gilboa.