1 Samuel 11:3

3. Give us seven days’ respite Literally, Let us alone seven days. They deemed this a sufficient length of time to ascertain whether help could be obtained for them beyond the Jordan. But why, it may be asked, would Nahash, who could dictate such barbarous terms of surrender, allow the defenceless town such an opportunity to strengthen itself? He probably supposed that the tribes on the west of the Jordan were in no condition to render Jabesh any considerable aid, and that it would add all the more to Israel’s reproach to have it said that the inhabitants of Jabesh implored their aid in vain. Josephus tells us that the besieged had already sought in vain for aid from the tribes on the east of the Jordan, and this fact may have made Nahash feel all the more secure. Then, perhaps, he was not just at that time in a condition to take the city easily, in case the besieged should offer a fierce resistance; nor must we forget that Jehovah designed, by this war with the Ammonites, to magnify Saul in the eyes of Israel.