Chapter F O U R

(chapter o n e)
(chapter t w o)

(chapter t h r e e)

The sun started to set and the Philistine raiding group was approaching Beth Horon. About three hundred swordsmen and a few dozen chariots had been constantly on the move for most of the day. In just a couple hours they would reach Beth Horon. Their orders were simple: Cause chaos. They wanted to frighten the Israelites. This could mean killing a large amount of innocent men, women, and children and burning a few houses. Then they were to return to camp. By the time the sun came up tomorrow, they should be back at camp telling each other stories of how they inflicted havoc on the unexpecting town.


~~~
The sun had faded from view and Jonathan and his armor bearer were still running. The two young men had been running all evening. They didn’t even take the time to stop and eat but ate as they ran. Now they ran in the dim light of a half dark and half orange sky.

Finally they reached a small hill from which they could see the silhouettes of the Beth Horon houses. The Philistines hadn’t arrived… yet. Relief filled the spirits of the two men.

They paused for a second to catch their breath.

Jonathan said, “There is a mound to the south a little ways from here. I should be able to see how close the Philistine army is. You go and get everyone out of the town.”

The young soldiers split up. Jonathan ran as fast as he could. The darkness camouflaged a rock from his site and he tripped on it and found himself sprawled on the ground. As he stood back up he noticed a noise in the distance. The Philistines. And they sounded close!

He hurried to the mound and in a few seconds was on top of it. Jonathan lied on his stomach so as not to be seen and peered into the distance toward the south.


~~~
Gareb entered Beth Horon yelling. It was the best way to get everyone’s attention. “The Philistines are coming! The Philistines are coming! We must move!”

People started wandering out of their houses trying to make sense of what was happening. They all knew Gareb since he was a baby but he had never acted this way before.

Soon, Gareb had a crowd gathered at the town square. He stood on a table and spoke to the two dozen men that were gathered there. “The Philistines are coming! They are coming here to Beth Horon! You must get all your wives and children and escape to the woods up north. We must escape immediately! Do not take time to gather belongings.” The men started to scatter. “Make sure all of your neighbors are aware that we need to act immediately!”

Gareb jumped down and started to answer questions but then said, “We don’t have time for this! Go get your families!”


~~~
Jonathan was running faster than he ever had in his life. How would he convince the people of Beth Horon how desperate the situation was? Jonathan and Gareb had practically arrived at the town the same time as the Philistines had--only minutes ahead of them. In a few minutes Beth Horon would be swarming with mad Philistines. Hopefully Gareb had already made some progress.

Jonathan arrived at Beth Horon and watched as the families got ready to go. They were moving too slow. Jonathan started running from door to door telling them they needed to leave now. As he began to think ahead, he realized that the Philistines were likely to see them as they ran for the cover of the woods. So he started to yell, “The Philistines are upon us! Bring your slings with you!” He also began to grab some of the younger men just in case he would have to distract the Philistines while the people fled. Soon he ran into Gareb. Gareb was helping his family get together so they could leave.

“Gareb! The Philistines are so close I almost ran into them at the mound!”

After sending his family north, Gareb joined Jonathan and the group of young men. Most of the city was empty now. The families that had either young or elderly members were trying to move but progress was slow. In the distance, the Philistines were now running over the mound and closing the distance between them and the town. Jonathan started frantically ordering his men to carry the children out of the city.

The Philistines reached the town and the last residents made it out almost simultaneously. Several dozen yards outside Beth Horon, Jonathan gathered his group once more in a field as he realized that the fleeing people would in fact need a diversion. All the men had were slings; Jonathan and Gareb were the only two with melee weapons. So the men started to retrieve rocks from the ground and then watched as the Philistines got closer and closer.

Jonathan began to inform the group, “What ever we do, we cannot lead the Philistines back to the people. We are going to try to lead them north-west to a different part of the woods. We are going to have to work together so at my command we will fire stones at the Philistines and at my command we will run to the north-west.”

The Philistines by now had realized that the city was empty and started running toward Jonathan and his men. The group lined up with Jonathan and Gareb in the middle. Gareb quickly tied his sling to his finger and gabbed a couple rocks. Then Jonathan commanded them to start swinging. The Philistines were pouring out of Beth Horon and a few chariots emerged into view. The cries of the men were filled with rage and echoed across the fields. Then Jonathan’s voice sent the first volley of rocks.

The young Israelites had fairly good aim and several Philistines dropped to the ground and were trampled under by the oncoming army. The second volley was even better and even took out a charioteer. But four other chariots were fast approaching and Jonathan knew that they needed to quickly get to grounds that were impassible by chariots. It may have been too late already. He ordered the men to start running. The great thing about slings is that the skilled slingers are able to load, swing, and fire while still running and these men knew how to work their slings.

It seemed like the chase went on forever even though it only lasted a few minutes. The chariots were quickly gaining on the running men. To Jonathan’s horror, one Israelite man, who was lagging just a little behind, was speared as a chariot passed him. Gareb was then able to get a good shot at that same charioteer and hit him in the eye. The Philistine caught himself from falling out of the back of the chariot but couldn’t keep himself going over the front twisting and pulling the reins, causing the horse slow down and stumble. The cart tipped over and slid sideways blocking the path of the next chariot. The two chariots collided and splintered into pieces. The other charioteer was thrown into the air and violently bounced on the ground.

Another chariot caught up with the men and was along side them and started swinging his spear at the fleeing men. Another Hebrew became a victim to the spear and dropped to the ground. Two nearby Israelites grabbed their bleeding friend and continued on. Jonathan hacked his sword into the chariot’s wheel. The chariot lost balance and busted up on the ground. The charioteer lost his footing and he tumbled to the ground. He held on to the reins with dear life and was dragged along with the splintering chariot colliding with him. The horse suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground while Jonathan was still running close by. Jonathan had to make an amazing jump over the falling horse as the chariot came crashing down. When he landed, Jonathan stumbled but Gareb was at his side to help him back to his feet.

Just in time, the group reached the woods and to their joy there was also an incline at the tree line. They would especially have an advantage now. The Israelites started taking cover behind trees and started firing rocks at the approaching army. Jonathan looked back and noticed that the two men trying to carry the injured Israelite where struggling to stay ahead of the Philistines. They were being slowed down by the weight of the limp Hebrew and there was no way they were going to make it to the forest before the Philistine foot soldiers reached them. Jonathan stopped in his tracks and ran to their aid. The massive amount of Philistines yelled and screamed at Jonathan as he slashed his blade into the soldiers that were gaining on them. The army was continually pelted with rocks from Israelite slings. Once everyone had taking cover in the forest, the Philistines had quit advancing.

The Hebrews were now very well positioned to endure a large amount of attackers. The Philistines still had plenty of men but they had already lost many more than they had planned to loose. So the large army turned around and returned to Beth Horon and did the second part of their mission: burning buildings.

Jonathan knelt down beside the injured Hebrew. He had a blood all over one side of his face and down his neck. It was hard to tell where the cut was. The young soldier was still conscious but quickly fading away. He was constantly trying to say something but he kept choking on what was likely his own blood. An older man tried to wipe the blood off with his cloak to find the cut. Everyone gasped when they saw that the cut ran from his ear and down his neck to his collar bone. The older man tried to stop the bleeding by pressing cloth on his cut while Jonathan tried to get the young man to cough up the blood by pumping his chest with both hands. But nothing worked. The cut was very deep. His whole body began to shake and his face was turning blue. Then young man suddenly gave up the struggle and he quit gagging. His chest lost all of its air and he began to quickly turn pale.

No one spoke for a long time. The tiered men sat there, in the dark. They accomplished their goal. They completely distracted the army and saved all of the women and children but not without loosing a few Hebrew men. However, they still felt fortunate that any of them had survived such an assault by the fierce Philistines. The air was mixed with feelings of relief and chilled sorrow as they watched their enemies engulf their homes with bright yellow flames.

TO BE CONTINUED…