Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel, of which two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in the Mount of Bethel, and one thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin: and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent.
The first problem is Saul’s age when he began to reign. No other text of Scripture gives us his age at this time. The NASB translators have supplied "40" and the NIV and NET translators "30." The AV translators wrote, "Saul [was . . . years old]," leaving the number undefined.