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.
"Saul was still at Gilgal"  (1 Samuel 13:7).  The meaning is that Saul had not withdrawn his troops east of the Jordan, for the Gilgal here was evidently the one just west of the Jordan river near Jericho.  This gave Saul a comfortable distance from the Philistine forces at Michmash and also afforded him the option of fleeing across the Jordan if necessary.