1 Samuel 11:9

9. They said unto the messengers that came These messengers were the ones that came from Jabesh to Gibeah. They had repaired to Bezek to wait to see the result of Saul’s call for the people to assemble there.

Tomorrow, by that time the sun be hot That is, about noon.

Whether this “morrow” was the last day of the seven granted by Nahash to the elders of Jabesh cannot be certainly decided by any thing here recorded. But on the supposition that it was, the question has been raised: Was a period of seven days sufficient time for all these things to be done? It would require at least a day for the messengers to reach Gibeah, and it would seem at first sight that a week would be barely sufficient to notify the tribes, much less to get together an army of three hundred and thirty thousand men in readiness for battle. Indeed, with our modern ideas and methods of raising and marshalling an army, it would be utterly impossible for the most experienced general to get together, without any previous arrangement, so large an army in so short a time. But we must divest our minds of our modern notions of warfare, and remember that in ancient Israel every able-bodied man was made familiar from his childhood with the implements of war. A bow, a sword or a spear, and a shield, or simply a sling, were the weapons most commonly used. From 1 Samuel 13:22, it appears that swords and spears were scarce among the people, but at such a time the sling was probably regarded as a much more serviceable weapon. Compare the feat of David, 1 Samuel 17:49, and the statement of Judges 20:16, that the little tribe of Benjamin had seven hundred chosen men, each of whom could sling stones at a hair-breadth and not miss. Accordingly, when summoned out to battle, every man would provide his own weapons and his own food, and hasten at once to the place of rendezvous. No great length of time would be necessary, under such circumstances, for the mustering of an army. A man notified in the morning, might equip himself and travel forty or fifty miles before night, and in circumstances of great peril he would probably travel in the night time also. Joshua 10:9. Then we must not imagine that the roads of Palestine were, at that time, in the ruined and neglected state in which the modern traveller finds them: nor should we obscure the subject by the supposition that the summons of Saul was carried through the coasts of Israel by a few slow-footed travellers. Doubtless every town had one or more swift-footed runners, who, like Asahel, (2 Samuel 2:18,) were as light of foot as the wild roe; and as the tidings reached one town, swift messengers would fly forth in different directions; and the alarm might spread still more rapidly by the erection of ensigns on the tops of the high hills. Such tidings, of course, would spread by night as well as by day, and thirty or forty hours would be sufficient to send the call of the king through all the coasts of Israel. Saul probably sent forth ten swift runners, (for it is hardly likely that the tribes on the east of the Jordan were summoned,) each bearing a piece of the slaughtered oxen to the chief city of each tribe; and from such central city of every tribe the call rapidly flew to all the surrounding country. Attention to all these circumstances will show that a vast army might, without great difficulty, be mustered in a few days.