Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Samuel 13:3 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 3. 3And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Credits Jonathan with striking the Philistine garrison before Saul sounds the alarm.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 13:1–13:4
Read 1 Samuel 13:3 as one step in 1 Samuel 13:1–13:4: it credits Jonathan with striking the Philistine garrison before Saul sounds the alarm. The complete scene shows that A textually damaged reign notice leads to Saul's selected force, Jonathan's strike at a Philistine garrison, Saul's trumpet, and Israel's summons to Gilgal.
Why This Verse Appears Here
At verse 13:3, the scene credits Jonathan with striking the Philistine garrison before Saul sounds the alarm. That movement matters to “A broken regnal notice opens war with Philistia” while the unit's uncertainty and ethical boundary continue to govern application.
What Remains True
Credits Jonathan with striking the Philistine garrison before Saul sounds the alarm. Within 1 Samuel 13:1–13:4, this contribution supports the unit's enduring claim: The enduring claim is contextual rather than triumphal: A textually damaged reign notice leads to Saul's selected force, Jonathan's strike at a Philistine garrison, Saul's trumpet, and Israel's summons to Gilgal. The broken number must not be repaired silently, and the campaign does not authorize ethnic hatred, militarism, or transferring Jonathan's action into Saul's personal glory.
How It Can Shape Life
- Credits Jonathan with striking the Philistine garrison before Saul sounds the alarm. The proportionate response is therefore the one traced from the complete unit: In situations that resemble “A broken regnal notice opens war with Philistia,” act truthfully, attend to the people affected, and choose accountable care rather than copying an ancient actor or forcing the scene into a modern slogan. The broken number must not be repaired silently, and the campaign does not authorize ethnic hatred, militarism, or transferring Jonathan's action into Saul's personal glory.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 13:1–13:4 — A broken regnal notice opens war with PhilistiaSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 13:1–13:4, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 13:1–13:4; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 13:1–13:4
Open source ↗