Joshua sent some men from Jericho to Ai, a city east of Bethel, near Bethaven, with orders to go and explore the land. When they had done so,

The people of the tribe of Benjamin lived in Geba, Michmash, Ai, Bethel and the nearby villages,

who was camping under a pomegranate tree in Migron, not far from Gibeah; he had about six hundred men with him.

Saul picked three thousand men, keeping two thousand of them with him in Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel and sending one thousand with his son Jonathan to Gibeah, in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. The rest of the men Saul sent home.

The Philistines assembled to fight the Israelites; they had thirty thousand war chariots, six thousand cavalry troops, and as many soldiers as there are grains of sand on the seashore. They went to Michmash, east of Bethaven, and camped there.

One was on the north side of the pass, facing Michmash, and the other was on the south side, facing Geba.

That day the Israelites defeated the Philistines, fighting all the way from Michmash to Aijalon. By this time the Israelites were very weak from hunger,