13:2
Whatever the opening verse is meant to say, we now get on to more solid ground. Saul set about gathering an army. Following the ESV line of translation, he started to do this after two years of his reign. The gathered army was split into two divisions, one of two thousand with Saul, the other of one thousand with his son Jonathan. Neither army was particularly large.
13:3,4
“Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba.” Jonathan was getting on with the job, taking the initiative. The Philistines, unsurprisingly, heard about it. Saul also heard about it, seemed to think this was the way to go and issued a clarion call (actually with a ram’s horn) throughout Israel, heralding the event. However, the attack meant that Israel had become “obnoxious to the Philistines”. Prior to this Israel was under the Philistines thumb, but was causing little trouble. Now they would have to do something about Israel. So the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal, in preparation for dealing with any action that the Philistines might take. So far Saul, as has been the case throughout his life, is responding to events. He neither takes the initiative, nor does he seek guidance from the Lord.
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