Gibeah of Saul is Saul’s hometown, approximately seventy kilometres south-west of Jabesh-gilead.1 It would have taken at least two days of travel for the messengers to reach the town of Gibeah.2 This town is the same town as the Gibeah mentioned in Judges (Judges 19:22–30) when it was a place similar to Sodom (Genesis 19:1–38) and worthy of destruction. Now it would be the place from which salvation comes.3
4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud.