There is an interesting anecdotal story from World War I in connection with the events related in 1 Samuel 14 (Gidal 1985, 9-10). In the biblical account, the Israelites under Saul were facing the Philistines at a site five miles northeast of Gibeah and fifteen miles west of Gilgal. This was an unusual locale for the Philistines since it is in the central hill country, at Michmash, and not on the coastal plain. Michmash was strategically important, since it guarded the entrance of a pass to the Israelite highlands. The Israelite army was gathered on the opposite side of the pass at Geba with additional forces at Gibeah. Jonathan with his armor-bearer decided to try to break the stalemate by conducting a frontal assault on the Philistine outpost at Michmash. Jonathan waited for the Lord to give the proper sign, climbed the crag, and successfully routed the Philistine troops in the outpost, leading to a general rout of the enemy. Saul joined in chasing the Philistines back towards the coastal plain.

The World War I anecdote involves the English forces who were battling the Turks in the area of Michmash. Orders were given to take the Turkish outpost there. It is said that an English staff officer remembered dimly a biblical story happening in the area. He went to his Bible and found the incident of 1 Samuel 14. The officer then went to his general and read him the account of how Jonathan defeated the Philistine garrison by climbing the crag and killing about twenty Philistines in an area no larger than a half an acre. Some versions of the story say it was General Allenby himself who then devised the plan for the British.

In any event, scouts were sent out to find the trail that Jonathan might have taken up to this half-acre site. They found a pass with a "rocky crag on one side and a rocky crag on the other. . . . One crag rose on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba" (1 Sam. 14:4-5). Allenby's staff officer, a brigadier, sent a detachment of men up this trail to the half-acre plot before the Turkish squad awoke, and the Turkish army, a short distance away, was routed by the English as the Philistines had been routed by the Israelites.

There is another interesting part to the story in the Bible. The passage in 1 Samuel 14:21 states, "Those Hebrews who had previously been with the Philistines and had gone up with them to their camp went over to the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan" (NIV). Evidently because of Philistine domination, some Israelites had gone over to the Philistine side, but now that the Philistines were on the run, these Hebrews switched sides again. Later, we will encounter other examples of Hebrews in the Philistine camp (or hiding, as in v. 22) and the consequences of their actions.