The Philistines assembled themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea-shore in multitude: and they came up, and encamped in Michmash, eastward of Beth Aven.
The hiding of the Israelites in caves, holes, rocks, tombs and cisterns was similar to that of the people in the days of the Judges  (Judges 6:2,11) and in the times of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem  (Jeremiah 40:11-12).  The situation looked bleak indeed for Israel at the time indicated here.