Saul was anointed by the Prophet Shmuel as the first King of Israel. His first opportunity to demonstrate his leadership came when the Ammonites under Nachash surrounded the city of Yavesh Gilead and demanded the debasing privilege of blinding the right eye of each of its citizens as the price of peace. Saul mobilized a large force from all of Eretz Yisrael and subdued the Ammonite army.

The people of Yavesh Gilead never forgot the king who saved them. When the Philistines fastened the corpses of Saul and his sons to the walls of Beit Shean after vanquishing the Israelite army, it was the men of Yavesh Gilead who marched all night to remove the bodies and give them honorable burial.

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