The Israelis defeated the Philistia army

16 Saul’s ◄lookouts/men who were watching to see if enemies were coming► were in Gibeah town in the land of the tribe of Benjamin. They saw that the soldiers of the Philistia army were running away in all directions. 17 Saul realized that some of his soldiers must have attacked the Philistia army. So he said to the soldiers who were with him, “Check to see if any of our men are not here.” So they checked, and they found out that Jonathan and the man who carried his weapons were gone.

18 So Saul said to Ahijah the Supreme Priest, “Bring the sacred vest here and find out what we should do.” On that day Ahijah was wearing the sacred vest, going in front of the Israelis. 19 But while Saul was talking to the priest, he saw that the Philistia soldiers were becoming more panicked/confused. So Saul said to Ahijah, “Take your hand down from the sacred vest. Do not waste any more time using the marked stones in the vest to find out what Yahweh wants us to do.”

20 Then Saul gathered his men and they went toward the battle. They found that the Philistia soldiers were so confused that they were striking each other with their swords. 21 Before that, some of the Hebrew men had deserted their army and gone to join with the Philistia army. But now those men revolted and joined with Saul and Jonathan and the other Israeli soldiers. 22 Some of the Israeli soldiers had previously run away and hidden in the mountains where the tribe of Ephraim lived. But when they heard that the Philistia soldiers were running away, they came down and joined the other Israeli soldiers and pursued the Philistia soldiers. 23 So Yahweh rescued the Israelis on that day. The Israeli soldiers continued to pursue their enemies beyond Beth-Aven town.