PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Division 
 
 Section \ 
 
 Shelf Number 
 
 :bs-s:8o 
 
MEN OF 
 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
 Under an arrangement with the English pub- 
 lishers, Messrs. A. D. F. Randolph & Co. 
 will issue a series of volumes by distinguished 
 scholars, on 
 
 THE MEN OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ABRAHAM : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the 
 
 Rev. W. J. Deane, M.A. 
 MOSES : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the Rev. 
 
 Canon G. Rawlinson, M.A. 
 SOLOMON : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the Ven. 
 
 Archdeacon Farrar, D.D. 
 ISAIAH : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the Rev. 
 
 Canon S. R. Driver, M.A. 
 SAMUEL AND SAUL: THEIR LIVES AND 
 
 TIMES. By Rev. William J. Dean, M.A. 
 
 IN PREPARATION. 
 GIDEON : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the Rev. 
 
 J. M. Lang, D.D. 
 JEREMIAH: HIS LIFE AND TIMES. By the 
 
 Rev. Canon T. K. Cheyne, M.A. 
 JESUS THE CHRIST : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 
 
 By the Rev. F. J. Vallings, M.A. 
 
 To the student and the general reader these 
 volumes will be found alike useful and inter- 
 esting, and the questio7i may well be asked, why 
 the intelligent reader should not find the lives 
 of the great men of the Bible as useful or as 
 fascinating as the story of those who have won 
 a conspicuous place in the annals of secular 
 history. And yet how indifferent thousands of 
 cultivated persons are to these lives, save only 
 as they are recorded in outline in the Holy 
 Scriptures. Price, $i.oo each. 
 
 *^* Sent by mail on receipt of price. 
 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 
 
 38 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET, N. Y. 
 
SAMUEL AND SAUL 
 
 THEIR LIVES AND TIMES. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. WILLIAM J. DEANE, M.A., 
 
 RECTOR OF ASHEN, ESSEX. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 
 
 38 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The materials for the lives of Samuel and Saul are found only 
 in the First Book of Samuel, the First Book of Chronicles, and 
 in some few notices in the New Testament. The ancient 
 monuments afford no help, except in so far as they have 
 tended to settle the chronology of the Exodus and the reign of 
 Solomon, and consequently of events reckoned from those eras. 
 Of late years such a mass of illustrative matter, historical, 
 geographical, and connected with manners and customs, has 
 been collected, that the writer's task is greatly facilitated, and 
 he has rather to select and employ existing materials than to 
 busy himself with independent investigation. I have largely 
 availed myself of such aids, and gladly own my obligations to 
 the commentaries of Bishop Ellicott, Mr. Kirkpatrick, and 
 especially of Dean Payne Smith in " The Pulpit Commentary." 
 I have also found some aid in three recent continental publi- 
 cations, viz., the commentary of Clair in " La Sainte Bible avec 
 Commentaires," of Hummelauer in " Cursus Scripturse sacrse," 
 and of Klostermann in *' Kurzgefasster Kommentar." 
 
 As the Life of David forms a separate number of this series 
 of " Men of the Bible," I have touched but lightly on some 
 particulars wherein he and Saul are concerned. The reader 
 will find a fuller account in " David : his Life and Times." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FAGS 
 
 Samuel's Youth .* ,i 
 
 Ramathaim-Zophim — Elkanah ; his wives ; attends the annual 
 festival — Shiloh — The Judges — EH and his sons — Hannah's vow 
 — Nazirism — Samuel born ; dedicated at the Tabernacle — Scrip- 
 ture canticles — Hannah's Mag7iificat — Women of the Tabernacle 
 — Samuel's early training — Sins of Eli's sons— The prophet's 
 warning. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 First Revelation to Samuel. Capture and Restoration of 
 THE Akk 28 
 
 Life of Samuel at Shiloh— The doom of Eli revealed to Samuel — 
 Samuel accredited as Prophet ; meaning of the term — Condition 
 of Israel and need of reformation — Oppression by the Philistines 
 — Rebellion of the Israelites— Battle of Aphek — Defeat of the 
 Israelites — Capture of the Ark — Death of Eli — Tabernacle re- 
 moved to Nob— Shiloh destroyed — The ark taken to Ashdod — 
 Dagon— Philistines plagued — Ark sent to Gath ; to Ekron — Divi- 
 nations—Propitiatory offerings— Ark returned to the IsraeUtes 
 at Bethshemesh ; placed at Kirjath-Jearim. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Samuel, Judge and Prophet 59 
 
 Samuel's efforts at reformation— Samuel recf gni ed as Judge — 
 Assembles the people at Mizpah — National repentance— insur- 
 rection —Philistines defeated at Ebenezer — Effects of the victory — 
 Theocratic government — Samuel's judicial circuit — He establishes 
 "Schools of the Prophets" — Chronology of his life — Samuel's sons 
 — The people demand a king — Samuel, by God's conmiand, ac- 
 quiesces in their request, but warns them of the consequences — 
 The people persist in their demand. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Saul Anointed King 79 
 
 Saul ; his genealogy — Is advised to consult Samuel at Ramah 
 concerning the loss of his father's asses— The high-place — 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Simuel warned of the coming of the destined king, receives Saul 
 with high honour — Intimates his future lot — Privately anoints 
 him king — Meaning of such unction -Samuel gives Saul three 
 signs, and a premonition as a trial of faith- Saul returns home — 
 Keeps his own counsel — Is publicly chosen king at Mizpah — 
 Divination by lot — Saul's early policy. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Saul's First Victory 99 
 
 The Ammonites ; they attack Jabesh-Gilead ; offer ignominious 
 terms to the inhabitants— Saul hears of the distress ; summons 
 all Israel ; makes a forced march and relieves Jabesh-Gilead— His 
 wise forbearance and magnanimity. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Samuel Abdicates 109 
 
 Renewal of the monarchy— Samuel abrogates the office of Judge ; 
 defends his past career ; shows thnt nothing in it excused the 
 demand for a king— His words confirmed by a portent ; endorsed 
 by acclamation— He promises to intercede for the people. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Saul's First Rejection 117 
 
 Chronology of Sauls reign — Saul chooses a body-guard — Mich- 
 mash— Jonathan destroys the column at Gcba— Philistines prepare 
 for war with overwhelming force — Saul retreats to Gilgal — Israel- 
 ites disheartened^Trial of Saul's faith — His failure and disobedi- 
 ence—His sin explained— He is punished by rejection —A successor 
 is announced — Samuel leaves Saul. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Battle of Michmash 129 
 
 Saul at Geba — The Philistines devastate the land — Jonathan and 
 his armour-bearer attack their garrison— The Philistines, panic- 
 stricken, fly — Saul joins in the pursuit— Great slaughter of the 
 Philistines — Saul's rash vow ; broken unwittingly by Jonathan — 
 The violater discovered by lot— Jonathan rescued from death by 
 the people. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Saul's Final Rejection 144 
 
 The family of Saul — He gathers a chosen band of warriors— His 
 successful wars— The Amalekites— Saul ordered to destroy them 
 utterly— A trial of obedience — The Ban— Great destruction of the 
 Amalekites — Saul spares Agng and the best of the spoil — Samuel 
 warned of Saul's disobedience ; tax<s him with his sin ; pro- 
 nounces his final rejection— Slays Agag -Abandons Saul finally. 
 
CONTENTS. VII 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1>AGB 
 
 A Successor Anointed ,...••••• 158 
 Samuel sent to Bethlehem— Anoints David— Condition of Saul- 
 David summoned to soothe him with music— Philistines invade 
 Judah— Valley of Elah— Goliath challenges the Israelites— David 
 accepts the challenge ; kills the giant— Defeat and slaughter of 
 the Philistines— Saul takes David into his service — Friendship of 
 David and Jonathan. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Saul's Jealousy and Mania x68 
 
 Saul is jealous of David— Progress of his malady — Saul thn atens 
 David's life— Employs him on military expeditions— Gives nim 
 his daughter in marriage on condition of his slaying one 
 hundred'Philistines — Plots against his hfe— Relents for a while at 
 Jonathan's intercession — Soon resumes his evil purpose — Tries to 
 kill David — David saved by Michal— Flees to Samuel at Ramah 
 — Saul sends to arrest him — Naioth— The messengers pj:ophesy — 
 Saul goes himself to Ramah and prophesies. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Saul's Persecution of David 178 
 
 Saul's intention towards David tested at the Festival of the New 
 Moon ; and proved to be murderous— Jonathan informs David, 
 who flees to Nob ; is received and fed by Alnmelech — Doeg is 
 present ; informs Saul of what happened there — Massacre of the 
 priests at Nob — Saul pursues David to Ziph — Disaffection in the 
 land—Saul nearly entraps David at Maon— Is spared by David 
 at Engedi— Affected by David's forbearance, Saul professes re- 
 conciliation. 
 
 CHAPTER XHI. 
 
 The Death of Samuel 190 
 
 Samuel dies— His funeral and tomb^His services to Israel — His 
 character— His difficulties— His accomplished work. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Death of Saul 198 
 
 Saul again pursues David to Hachilah — His life spared a second 
 time by David— Saul's compunction — Philistines invade the 
 country wit-h large forces — Saul encamps at Gilboa — Can obtain 
 no Divine counsel— Consults a witch at Endor ; is answered by 
 the spirit of Samuel — Warned of his approaching defeat and 
 death — Returns to his camp — Battle of Gilboa — Defeat of Israel 
 
 — Death of Saul and his sons — Their bodies affixed to the walls 
 of Bethshan ; removed and buried by the men of Jabesh-Gilead 
 
 — News of the catastrophe brought to David — His conduct 
 thereupon — His funeral elegy— Summary of Saul's character. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 Samuel's youth. 
 
 Ramathaim-Zophim — Elkanah ; his wives ; attends annual festival — Shiloh 
 — The Judges — Eli and his sons — Hannah's vow — Nazirism — Samuel 
 born ; dedicated at the Tabernacle— Scripture canticles — Hannah's 
 Magnificat — Women of the Tabernacle — Samuel's early training — 
 Sins of Eli's sons — The prophet's warning. 
 
 Some few miles north of Jerusalem, on the borders of the terri- 
 tory of Benjamin, stood the town of Ramathaim-Zophim, better 
 known under the name of Ramah, and still more familiar in the 
 form of Arimathaea, the home of that Joseph who was deemed 
 worthy to have the privilege of laying in his own tomb the body 
 of Jesus. The exact site of the place is unknown ; but though 
 situated in Benjamin, it is said in our record to lie in Mount 
 Ephraim because the limestone ridge so called extended far 
 south, beyond the limits of the tribe whence it derived its appel- 
 lation.* Ramathaim, which means " The Two Ramahs," or 
 Heights, was so called because it was built on two hills, and the 
 word Zophim was added to distinguish it from other towns which 
 bore the same name. Where there was an upper and a lower 
 city, or where more than one village or town were combined 
 under one designation, this name was often a dual or plural 
 form. Familiar instances are Athenas, Thebae, Mycenae. The 
 addition of Zophim was derived from the original founder of the 
 place. In remote times there had been a man of some eminence 
 named Zuph, who had given his name to the whole district 
 
 » Dean Payne Smith, " Pulpit Commentary." 
 2 
 
2 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 (i Sam. ix. 5), and his descendants, the Zophim, had made 
 Ramah their chief dwelling.' The head of this family, at the 
 time when our history opens, some twelve centuries before the 
 Christian era, was one Elkanah, a Levite of the line of Kohath, 
 but who, his ancestors having originally dwelt in Ephraim, 
 (Josh. xxi. 20), was considered to belong to that tribe, and is 
 called (i Sam. i. i) an Ephrathite or Ephraimite. He was a 
 man of wealth and high position, living on his own property and 
 apparently not officiating as a Levite, and in the exercise of his 
 discretion had married two wives, Hannah and Peninnah, the 
 second wife being taken when all hope of having a son by the 
 first was abandoned. Although no one who studied the record 
 of the first institution of marriage could doubt that man was 
 intended to have but one wife, yet polygamy was not forbidden 
 in the Mosaic law, and those who practised it did not offend 
 against any formal enactment. Like slavery, it had long and 
 widely prevailed when the Sinaitic covenant was made, and the 
 legislator accepted the custom and only took care to regulate and 
 limit its practice. But infringements of the law of nature bring 
 their own punishment. We first read of this violation of the 
 primeval ordinance in the case of that descendant of Cain, the 
 rude and ruffianly Lamech^ who, in the ancient song which 
 Moses has preserved (Gen. iv. 23, 24), boasts of his corporal 
 strength, fearing neither God nor man, and trusting to his own 
 right arm for defence and attack. Elkanah's home life was 
 spoiled by the bickering and contention of his wives. His first 
 wife was probably Hannah, " Grace," whose name recalls the 
 sister of the Carthaginian Queen Dido, the old prophetess in 
 the Temple (Luke ii. 36), and the mother of the Virgin Mary. 
 She was a pious, amiable, unselfish woman, one who, in men's 
 judgment, would have been thought a fit person to have brought 
 up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; but she 
 had to endure the hard fate of barrenness. What a terrible 
 calamity this was considered by Hebrew women we may gather 
 from the passionate appeal of Rachel to her husband Jacob : 
 " Give me children, or else I die " (Gen. xxx. i). No such 
 
 ^ Blunt, in loc, translates the compound word, " The double high place 
 of the Zuphite family," and considers that Ramah itself was built on the 
 side of a hill, and that the high place was above the town, at the top of the 
 eminence, being now represented by Neby-Samwil, four miles north-west 
 of Jerusalem. 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. 3 
 
 impatience was found in Hannah. She is meek and calm even 
 under the grossest provocation. Despairing of offspring from his 
 first consort, Elkanah takes a second wife, Peninnah, " Pearl," 
 or, as we might call her, Margaret, and by her becomes the 
 father of numerous sons and daughters. Vain of her maternity, 
 despising one who was denied the blessing of children, and 
 jealous of the love with which her husband regarded her rival, 
 Peninnah lost no opportunity of deriding and revihng Hannah 
 both in public and in private. Elkanah was a religious and 
 sensible man, and did not visit his disappointment on Hannah, 
 but, rising superior to the common sentiment of his time and 
 nation, regarded his childless wife with special favour, and 
 showed her unusual tokens of regard. Far from losing her 
 husband's love, as she might naturally have feared, Hannah 
 becomes doubly dear to him ; and when he finds her weeping 
 at the insults offered by Peninnah, and unable to eat her food 
 by reason of grief at heart, he comforts her in the tenderest 
 fashion. "Hannah," he says, " why weepest thou ? andwhyeatest 
 thou not ? and why is thy heart grieved ? am not I better to thee 
 than ten sons ? " Thus was Hannah's grief consoled, and the 
 unmerited reproach under which she laboured was made easier 
 to endure. She learned to bear her burden, to acknowledge that 
 she was tried in the same manner as her great ancestresses, 
 Sarah and Rebekah, and to acquiesce in the dispensation, 
 waiting patiently for the issue. 
 
 It had been ordered originally that all male Israelites were 
 yearly to attend the three great festivals at the central place of 
 worship. They were to appear before the Lord at the feasts of 
 the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.^ But this rule had 
 never been observed, and certainly in the unsettled times which 
 succeeded the death of Joshua had fallen into desuetude, and 
 one public attendance in the year was thought sufficient even by 
 religious and scrupulous people. This, too, seems to have been 
 the rule in later times. Elkanah used to go up yearly to the 
 house of the Lord of Hosts to worship and to sacrifice. Amid the 
 laxity and corruption that existed, when men did what was right 
 in their own eyes, and neither coercive authority nor public 
 opinion enforced any close observance of Mosaic enactments, 
 yet the Law was well known, and obeyed, as far as practicable, 
 by the devout families in the land. Though women were not 
 ^ Exod. xxiii. 14-17. 
 
4 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 required to make this pilgrimage, Elkanah took his wives with 
 him on these occasions, as the Virgin Maryaccompanied Joseph 
 when he made his annual journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the 
 Passover/ Piety rejoices to do more than bare duty requires. 
 Whatparticular festival it was which was thus solemnly observed 
 we are not told ; but it was most probably the Passover, that 
 great national holy day which no pious and patriotic Hebrew 
 would willingly forego. This feast the family of the good Elkanah 
 celebrated before the ark in the place which God had chosen. 
 
 The tabernacle was now established at Shiloh, where origin- 
 ally it had been pitched by Joshua, and which during all the 
 time of the Judges had been the centre of religious worship. If, 
 as may have been the case, it was temporarily moved to some 
 other locality, as Bethel and Mizpah, it always returned to 
 Shiloh, and this place was regarded as the national sanctuary 
 unto which all Israel resorted to meet the Lord of Hosts. It 
 was, indeed, a site well fitted for this purpose, not for its beauty, 
 which in those days would have been no consideration, nor for 
 its strength, for it was by no means a naturally strong position, 
 but for its seclusion and accessibility.^ Its very name, " Place 
 of Rest," gives the clue to its suitableness for being the home of 
 the shrine of the covenant people ; and appertaining to the 
 powerful tribe of Ephraim it was as secure from danger as any 
 place in the whole country. Its position is described carefully 
 in Judges xxi. 19 as being '* on the north side of Bethel, on the 
 east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, 
 and on the south of Lebonah." These data have served to 
 identify Shiloh with the modern Seilun, a village a little to the 
 east of the main road from Bethel to Nablus, the ancient She- 
 chem, and " covering a small hill, which is separated from the 
 higher mountain on the north by a deep narrow valley, coming 
 from the east, and running down towards El-Lubban (Lebonah). 
 On the east and west of the hill are two small, though much 
 wider valleys, running down north into the former." 3 The hill 
 itself has been cut down on the north side to form a level sur- 
 face some eighty feet wide by four hundred long, and on the 
 plateau thus obtained the tabernacle was probably erected. "No 
 spot in Central Palestine," says Dr. Geikie, " could be more se- 
 cluded than this early sanctuary ; nothing more featureless than 
 
 * Luke ii. 41. "^ Stanley, "Jewish C'lnirch," i. 278. 
 
 3 Robinson, " Biblical Researches," iii. 85 ft"., ed. 1841. 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. 5 
 
 the landscape around ; so featureless, indeed, the landscape, 
 and so secluded the spot, that from the time of St. Jerome till 
 its re-discovery by Dr. Robinson in 1838, the very site was 
 forgotten and unknown." According to rabbinical tradition, 
 there was no regular edifice raised for the reception of the ark 
 or substituted for the tent of meeting ; a low stone wall surround- 
 ing a small enclosure, and covered with the tabernacle curtains, 
 was the structure which sufficed to contain the symbols of the 
 Lord's presence among His people. Round this erection a town 
 had gradually grown, the entrance to which was guarded by a 
 stone gateway, with its seats and open area, after the manner of 
 Eastern cities. But the whole community still retained some- 
 thing of a nomadic character, and was called, in familar speech, 
 the Camp of Shiloh. Here, under the vine-clad hills which rise 
 like an amphitheatre around the sacred spot, flocked the 
 maidens to celebrate with dance and song the joyous Feast of 
 Tabernacles ; here assembled the heads of tribes for solemn 
 council ; and here, too, as time went on and Israel declined 
 more and more to heathen customs, gathered the devotees of 
 shameless profligacy, who polluted the worship of Jehovah with 
 their impure practices. 
 
 The period of the Judges had been a time of anarchy and 
 confusion. With no central authority to organize the various 
 tribes into one commonwealth, with no regular government, the 
 people, acting without concert and doing what was right in their 
 own eyes, were continually endangering their own safety, com- 
 mitting great crimes, and provoking the wrath of the Lord. Then 
 when the necessity of the times called forth some hero to their 
 rescue, they willingly followed his guidance, and won for them- 
 selves a temporary peace. But these successes were only local 
 in their effects : and very commonly, while one portion of the 
 Holy Land was enjoying rest and prosperity, in another qua; ter 
 the colonists were oppressed and afflicted, crushed by the 
 enemies whom they had culpably neglected to exterminate. The 
 date of Samson's judgeship is not determined, but it probably 
 coincided with the latter days of Eli. But he, though a man of 
 wonderful personal prowess, was not fit to be a ruler and leader 
 in difficult times ; and if he gave an example to his contem- 
 poraries of successful resistance to powerful antagonists, he 
 produced no permanent effect on the condition of the country, 
 and left behind him nothing but the memory of impracticable 
 
6 SAMUEL AND SAtfL. 
 
 exploits and useless victories. There was need of one who was 
 a statesman as well as a warrior to take the lead at this crisis of 
 national affairs. The Philistines, sometimes repulsed or defeated, 
 never yet subdued, and inspired with the deadliest hatred against 
 the Hebrews, had turned all their energies to the destruction of 
 the invaders. They themselves of late years had greatly in- 
 creased in power, owing to constant immigrations from their old 
 home in Crete, whence also they obtained supplies of arms of 
 quality far superior to any procurable by the Hebrews. Thus 
 they were able to contest the possession of the country under 
 very favourable conditions, and Israel had to contend for its very 
 existence in the face of these formidable opponents. What 
 might check the downward course of the Chosen People, and 
 prevent their total subjection ? The judgeship, founded on per- 
 sonal courage, and proceeding from the people, had proved 
 incapable of effecting any permanent amelioration ; there re- 
 mained another expedient by which the threatened ruin of the 
 community might be arrested.' What if the judicial office, com- 
 bined with the sacerdotal, might prove to be the very force 
 needed to confederate the nation in a strong and efficacious 
 union, which would enable it to offer resistance to all aggression 
 and to regain lost ground ? The experiment had never yet been 
 tried. None of the judges had been of priestly descent. At 
 this time the high-priesthood was held by Eli, the head, not of 
 the elder branch of Aaron's family, that of Eleazar, but of the 
 house of Ithamar, the younger son of Aaron. The circum- 
 stances which led to this transference of the headship from the 
 one to the other are nowhere related, and various reasons have 
 been invented to account for the change.^ But the office ap- 
 pertained to the family rather than to the individual ; the right 
 of primogeniture did not necessarily obtain in this matter ; and 
 any eligible member who had raised himself to eminence might 
 well supersede the claims of supposed birthright, and take the 
 first place when a vacancy occurred. This, doubtless, was what 
 happened in the case of Eli. That it was no usurpation or un- 
 authorized intrusion on his part may be gathered from the mes- 
 sage brought to him by the man of God (i Sam. iii. 27 if.), who 
 
 * Evvald, " History of Israel," ii. 181, English translation. 
 ^ Rabbinical tradition asserts tliat the transfer took place on account ol 
 the part taken by Phinehas in the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter (Stanley, 
 'Jewish Church," i. 375). 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. 7 
 
 makes no complaint of his tenure of tlie office, but only of the 
 evil administration of it by his sons. There may have been no 
 member of the elder branch of sufficient years or ability to 
 assume the office ; or, as is very probable, Eli had in his earlier 
 days proved himself a great warrior or a competent leader, and 
 was raised to his high post by general acclamation. The posi- 
 tion of judge, to which his services had elevated him during the 
 days of Samson, naturally pointed him out as a fit person to 
 fill the office of high priest when unoccupied. Nor was this 
 dignity at that time of any special consideration. The strict 
 adherents of the traditional religion were few and of small poli- 
 tical importance, so that there was no competition for the post, 
 and any member of the Aaronic family who had made himself a 
 name would be readily acknowledged as chief. If it seems im- 
 possible to connect EH's character, as it appears in Holy Scrip- 
 ture, with any idea of heroism and energy, we must remember 
 that when he is brought before us he is already an old man. 
 He died at the age of ninety-eight, after judging Israel for forty 
 years, so that his judgeship must have commenced when he was 
 nearly sixty years old, and he may naturally have begun to show 
 the ravages of time. The zeal and activity of youth had degene- 
 rated into apathy and coldness ; the strenuous efforts which 
 youthful spirits, animated by piety and patriotism, had enabled 
 him to make, were perhaps no longer needed, and he sank into 
 a lazy, phlegmatic indifference, which led to disastrous conse- 
 quences in his family. Disabled by the infirmities of age from 
 performing all the duties of his office, he had delegated the 
 priestly functions to his sons, retaining in his own hands the 
 judicial business. These sons, Hophni and Phinehas by name, 
 by no means followed the steps of their good father, who, what- 
 ever were his shortcomings, was a righteous and religious man. 
 They were licentious, unscrupulous reprobates, who prostituted 
 their high office to the basest purposes, and introduced into the 
 sanctuary of Shiloh the most degraded practices of heathendom. 
 But their father restrained them not effectually. Lazy, indo- 
 lent, and indulgent, he satisfies his conscience by administering 
 a mild rebuke ; and though they were priests bound to set an 
 example of piety and purity, and he as judge was bound to carry 
 out the denunciation of the law against sinners, he visits their 
 grave offences with no punishment, and lets the scandal continue. 
 On one of the occasions when Elkanah and his family went 
 
8 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 up to worship at Shiloh the attention of Eli was drawn ta 
 Hannah. It was at such times that Peninnah took the oppor- 
 tunity of openly deriding her barrenness and vaunting her own 
 maternity. Elkanah indeed gave his childless wife larger por- 
 tions of the sacrificial victims than he did to Peninnah, showing 
 in every possible way his affection. But nothing could compen- 
 sate for the desired joy of motherhood ; and after the solemn 
 sacrificial meal, which she had attended, though she had little 
 appetite for banquet or pleasure in such festivity, she wended 
 her way sadly to the sanctuary to pour out her heart unto God. 
 Kneeling down in the inner court, she prayed unto the Lord and 
 wept sore, and these were the words she spake : " O Lord of 
 hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine hand- 
 maid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but 
 wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him 
 unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor 
 come upon his head." This was her vow if her request was 
 granted. The son she prayed for should be dedicated to God's 
 service, not as a mere Levite whose duties commenced from the 
 tyventy-fifth year and ceased at the fiftieth,' but all his days, 
 from boyhood to the close of life. And more than this, he 
 should be a perpetual Nazirite, his flowing hair, untouched by 
 razor, should mark him out as set apart from common life, and 
 consecrated to the Lord. 
 
 This institution of Nazirism was not a new thing.^ Although 
 we have no record of any Nazirite before Samson who made 
 himself a name in history, yet it seems evident that the obser- 
 vance was in existence before the time of Moses, and that he 
 merely gave it the sanction of law and regulated its practice.^ 
 It sprang from that religious zeal which, not content with per- 
 forming the ordinary duties of piety, seeks for stricter modes of 
 self-dedication, analogous to what is known in the Christian 
 Church as " counsels of perfection," the endeavour to execute 
 the precept of Christ, " Be ye perfect, even as your Father which 
 is in heaven is perfect." In mediaeval theology the counsels 
 took the form of a threefold vow, answering to the threefold 
 temptation arising from the world, the flesh, and the devil. 
 Chastity, poverty, and obedience, opposed the dangers that 
 threatened the soul from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
 
 • Numb. iv. 3 ; viii. 24, 25. =» Ewald, " History of Israel," ii. 168 ff. 
 3 Numb. vi. 2-21. 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. 9 
 
 eye, and the pride of life. The Nazirite vow was also threefold. 
 The devotee was bound to abstain from all intoxicating liquor, 
 to let the hair grow, and to avoid all ceremonial defilement by 
 contact with a dead body, even that of his nearest relation. 
 Such a vow undertaken by parents for a child must have had a 
 powerful influence on that child's career. Separated from 
 common life, raised above his fellows, specially dedicated to 
 God, the Nazirite deemed himself designated for some peculiar 
 work, and gave himself up to this object as his chief aim, with- 
 out distraction or disquieting interests. Thus Samson, though 
 very far from being a faultless character, pursued one great 
 design all his days. His sole purpose was to vex and harass 
 the Philistines ; his life and death were devoted to this single 
 end. Hannah in making her vow (in which, according to the 
 Mosaic precept,^ her husband must have concurred) dedicated 
 her son to a life-long service in the Tabernacle ; but God had 
 other and higher work for him than the discharge of mere 
 ritual functions. The unborn child was destined for more 
 extensive and conspicuous labours ; in him the Levite should be 
 merged in the Judge and the Prophet. 
 
 Long time did Hannah continue in prayer, prostrate before 
 the Lord. From his chair of state, placed at the entrance of 
 the court of the Tabernacle, or, as it is called (i Sam. i. 9), "the 
 palace of Jehovah," Eli marked this sorrowful woman, and, 
 reasoning doubtless from a sad experience, misjudged her 
 harshly. She was praying silently ; no words came from her 
 lips; "she spake to her heart." Such earnest, silent, devotion 
 was quite unusual. Spoken prayer was the rule then as it is 
 now among uncultured people. It needs great faith in the 
 Unseen to believe that God hears and answers the unuttered 
 aspirations of the worshipper. Men think that they shall be 
 heard for their much speaking. Eli's experience had not led 
 him to understand that prayer could be offered without speech ; 
 and painfully aware of the lax morality of his people, and the 
 disorders which often accompanied the sacrificial feast, he 
 immediately concluded that Hannah was drunken, that her 
 unusual conduct, her quivering lips from which no sound issued, 
 her streaming eyes, her flushed cheeks, were the tokens of in- 
 temperance. Coarsely he calls to her from his pontifical 
 
 * Numb. XXX. 6-15. 
 
lO SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 throne, and bids her go and sleep off the effects of her debauch, 
 and not to bring her disgracefid condition under the very eye of 
 the Lord. "How long," he cries, "how long wilt thou be 
 drunken ? Put away thy wine from thee." Hannah was ac- 
 customed to be misjudged, and had learned to be patient under 
 injury. Eli's unfeeling suspicion does not anger her. She 
 answers calmly, at once by voice and manner repelling the 
 unworthy accusation, while showing all due reverence to her 
 venerable rebuker. " No, my lord," she says, " I am a woman 
 of a heavy heart ; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, 
 but I poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine 
 handmaid for a worthless woman ; for out of the abundance of 
 my complaint and my provocation have I spoken hitherto." It 
 was the continual cruelty of Peninnah that had driven her 
 forth in sorrow of soul to commune with God in His house. 
 Eli at once perceived his mistake, and retracted the injurious 
 charge. Nay, more, he gives her gracious words, and comforts 
 her, adding his own desire and assurance that her prayer, what- 
 ever it may be, would be accepted by the most High. " Go in 
 peace, and the God of Israel grant thy petition that thou hast 
 asked of Him." Comforted by these words, to which the 
 dignity of Eli's office and the venerableness of his age gave 
 weight, and lightened of her burden by casting it down at the 
 Lord's feet in earnest prayer, Hannah rose up and went on her 
 way. She returned to the family feast, composed and cheerful, 
 no longer sad of countenance, but ready to take her part in the 
 solemn festival and to eat her portion with joy and thankfulness. 
 The celebration of the festival being now ended, Elkanah and 
 his family rose early next morning, and having paid their devo- 
 tions unto the Lord, returned to their home at Ramathaim- 
 Zophim. Hannah, though no express promise had been given to 
 her, had confidence in the general assurance of God's favour 
 and readiness to hear prayer ; she had arrived nearly at the 
 faith taught by the Lord Jesus in after time : " What things 
 soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, 
 and ye shall have them" (Mark xi. 24). So it was with her. 
 The Lord remembered and answered her prayer. She con- 
 ceived and bare a son, and in grateful memory of the Lord's 
 goodness she named him Samuel, " Heard of God." She had 
 asked for a son with earnest, persevering supplication, and he 
 should carry with him all his life the memorial of the gracious 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. II 
 
 answer which she had received.^ When the tune came round 
 for the yearly visit to Shiloh, Elkanah went up as usual to offer 
 the annual sacrifice, and to pay the vow which he had made in 
 case his beloved wife should be blessed with a child. Hannah 
 however remained at home, for she said she would not go up 
 till the boy was weaned, when she would take him with her to 
 appear before the Lord, and thenceforward to abide in His 
 presence for ever. The weaning of children was delayed till 
 the second or third year. Among the Persians boys were 
 suckled for two years and two months, girls for two years.^ In 
 2 Mace. vii. 27 the mother of the seven brethren martyred by 
 Antiochus speaks of having given her son suck for three years ; 
 and this seems to have been the usual period of lactation in 
 those days. It appears, too, that children were taken into the 
 Temple service at three years of age ; 3 and possibly the number 
 of victims offered at Samuel's dedication points to the same 
 conclusion. Thus their beloved son grew up under his pious 
 mother's care in the peaceful home at Ramah. His physical 
 needs were supplied by her watchful tenderness ; his spiritual 
 training was not neglected. In his infant soul were sown the 
 seeds of holy thoughts ; from the dawn of reason his mind was 
 turned to the Lord, whose gift he was ; the child of prayer was 
 early taught to commune with God. And his father co-operated 
 in all things with his mother. Elkanah did not merely 
 acquiesce in his wife's vow, but helped her to carry it out 
 effectually by his actions and his prayers. " Do what seemeth 
 thee good," he says to her : " tarry till thou have weaned him ; 
 only the Lord establish His word," that is the word delivered 
 by Eli, the high priest, when he had comforted Hannah with 
 the solemn address, "the God of Israel grant thee thy petition." 
 Tradition says that some direct revelation respecting the future 
 destiny of Samuel was given. Thus Rashi writes : *' The Bath- 
 kol (daughter of the voice) went forth, saying, There shall arise 
 a just one whose name shall be Samuel. Then every mother 
 who bore a son called him Samuel ; but when they saw his 
 actions, they said, ' This is not Samuel.' But when this one 
 
 * Philo {" Quod Deus Immut.", ^i 2) interprets the name to mean, 
 "appointed for God," adding, " Slie liaving received him restores him to 
 the Giver, judging nothing as a good belonging to herself wliich is not Divine 
 grace." 
 
 2 Kalisch on i Sam. i. 23. 3 See 2 Chron. xxxi. 16. 
 
13 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 was born, they said, ' This is that Samuel,' and this is what the 
 Scripture means when it says, 'The Lord confirmed his word that 
 Samuel may be that just one.' " ^ We need not accept this 
 Rabbinical gloss, and Elkanah probably refers only to what 
 had passed between Eli and Hannah, of which we have only 
 the substance in our text, omitting further details of the 
 mother's vow and the more distinct promise of its acceptance 
 and fulfilment. 
 
 And now arrived the time when the child should be openly 
 dedicated to the service of the Sanctuary. He is taken by his 
 parents to Shiloh. Once more Hannah stands before the Lord, 
 not empty-handed this time, not weeping and sorrow-stricken, 
 but rejoicing in heart, filled with a great purpose, bearing with 
 her the son for whom she had poured out her soul in prayer. 
 She comes into the presence of Eli, who with his dim sight 
 recognizes not in this inspired happy countenance the face of 
 of the tearful suppliant whom he had comforted three years 
 ago. " Oh, my lord," she cries, " as thy soul liveth, my lord, 
 I am the woman that stood by Thee here praying unto the 
 Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my 
 petition which I asked of Him ; therefore, also, I have given 
 back what was asked unto the Lord ; as long as he liveth he is 
 asked for the Lord." 
 
 Yes, indeed, she had made a humble request, but not for 
 herself; she had prayed for something which she might devote 
 to the service of Jehovah. And now she brings the long-desired 
 child, and with due offerings solemnly dedicates him. Three 
 bullocks and an ephah of fine flour and a skin of wine were then 
 presented before the Tabernacle. Two of the animals were 
 Elkanah's annual sacrifice ; the third bullock was for the special 
 burnt-offermg that accompanied the consecration of Samuel to 
 Jehovah.^ And the good father ratified the act, and himself 
 with all his household worshipped the Lord there. 
 
 » Bishop Ellicott, Comm. in loc. 
 
 * The LXX. instead of "three bullocks," read "a bullock of three years 
 old," as Gen. xv. 9. This reminds one of the consecration of the irregular 
 priesthood in the evil days of Jeroboam (2 Chron. xiii, 9). But the present 
 Hebrew text is probably correct, as an ephah of meal was about the proper 
 quantity for the meat-oft'ering that accompanied the sacrifice of three 
 bullocks, three-tenths being the ordered offering for one victim (Num. 
 xxviii. 12 ff. See also viii. 7 ff.) 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. 1 3 
 
 This VOW of Hannah, does it seem strange to us and unnatural, 
 a piece of needless self-sacrifice, the act of a bigoted and hard- 
 natured mother ? Nay, surely, very far from that. Hannah was 
 a tender, simple, guileless woman. There is nothing exaggerated, 
 nothing forced in her character.' All her impulses are con- 
 trolled by her quiet faith and genuine piety. It is natural to her 
 to testify her gratitude by the surrender of what is dearest ; she 
 cannot offer to the Lord of that which costs her nothing. The 
 comfort of her child's presence she willingly puts aside that 
 she may make a worthy offering ; she foregoes the sweet 
 endearment of his love that she may express her thankfulness 
 without a selfish thought to mar its completeness. A vow is a 
 high form of self-surrender, and has its appointed place in the 
 religious life. If it was allowed in concession to the sentiments 
 of an age of imperfect religious development, it certainly con- 
 duced to definiteness in conduct and strictness in practice. The 
 great lawgiver saw that the custom of making vows existed and 
 could not prudently be suppressed ; it appealed to a feeling in- 
 herent in human nature ; it arose from a principle which in itself 
 was praiseworthy, the offering of the best to God. It was therefore 
 to be regulated and modified, not abrogated. The present was 
 an age of vows ; not only do we read of Samson being dedicated 
 to God as a Nazirite ; there is the oath taken in the Benjamite 
 war ; there is Jephthah's vow.^ Such an undertaking gives a 
 conscious strength and tenacity to a purpose, even as Hannibal 
 was inspired to wage unceasing warfare against Rome by the 
 oath which he took at the altar in his father's presence. The 
 moral support of such a covenant or promise is very great ; and 
 in a place and time where it was practised and highly regarded, 
 God sanctioned the usage, and deigned to mould it to His own 
 ends. In the present case, Hannah's vow co-operated with 
 God's design for the reformation of Israel ; the voluntary obliga- 
 tion which she incurred helped to place in the required position 
 one who, upheld by his dedication and consecrated to a single 
 purpose, could contribute all his life and energies to executing 
 a high mission. 
 
 Hannah had marked with sorrow Israel's declension from the 
 
 » I here acknowledge with gratitude my obligation to Niemeyer's 
 " Charakteristik der Bibel" for many hints as to the character of those with 
 whom I have had to deal in these biographies. 
 
 2 Judges xi. 30 ; xxi. 5. 
 
14 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 right path ; the anarchy and confusion around her, the degra- 
 dation of the priesthood, the absence of all true religion in the 
 majority of the nation, had filled her heart with poignant regrets. 
 She saw that a great reformation was needed, if the people were 
 to retain the favour of God, and vanquish their enemies. And 
 to carry out this reformation required a leader, holy, single- 
 hearted, devoted. Such an one she hoped to see in the son so 
 earnestly desired, so wonderfully bestowed. He should be 
 dedicated to God all his life ; he should be a Nazirite very 
 different from Samson ; not such an example as the sons of Eli 
 should he set ; he should carry on the office of judge in a 
 different spirit from that which Eli displayed. According to 
 Jewish law, every first-born son belonged to the Lord, and had 
 to be redeemed by substitution. Hannah of set purpose refused 
 to redeem her boy, but returned him a living sacrifice to Jeho- 
 vah, that from his infancy upwards he might be known to be so 
 dedicated, and might conciliate men's regard and win their reve- 
 rence as one who had always and continuously served the Lord. 
 
 For the mercy and loving-kindness which the Lord had 
 showed unto her, Hannah utters her thanksgiving in a song 
 which reaches far beyond the occasion which gives it birth, and 
 rises into the region of prophecy, echoed by seers in succeeding 
 ages till it culminates in the Magnificat of the Blessed Virgin 
 Mary when she celebrates the birth of the Messiah. The 
 Christian Church early caught the prophetic element in this 
 Canticle, and employed it in public worship ; it was sung at 
 Matins in the English office. Attempts have been made to 
 assign this song to a later age, as being, except in one allusion, 
 not particularly applicable to the circumstances under which it 
 is said to have been composed, and as being more likely to have 
 been produced at the time of some great national victory, as, 
 for instance, that of David over GoHath. This criticism arises 
 from the failure to recognize the true character of such 
 utterances. They are never simply egotistical ; they always ex- 
 pand from the particular occasion into something greater, wider, 
 the love and care of God for all His creatures, the extension of 
 His kingdom, the glory of Messiah's reign. As Bishop Words- 
 worth finely says, speaking of Sacred Poetry' : " Like a pebble 
 cast into a clear and calm lake, it sends forth concentric rings 
 of waves, ever enlarging towards the margin, so that the par- 
 * Comm. on i Sam. ii. i. 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. 1 5 
 
 ticular mercy to the individual produces ever-expanding undula- 
 tions of praise." These songs of holy women begin with Sarah's 
 exultation at the birth of Isaac (Gen. xxi. 6, 7), when, in allusion 
 to the name of her son and to the joy which through his great 
 descendant should fill all the earth, she cries : *' God hath made 
 me to laugh ; every one that heareth will laugh with me." This 
 was her Magnificat. Then comes the triumphant hymn of 
 Miriam, after the passage of the Red Sea and the victory over 
 the Egyptians (Exod. xv.) This is followed by the Song of 
 Deborah (Judges v.), who in fervid poetry praises the Lord for 
 the deliverance of the people by a woman's hand. The great 
 events which these women celebrated were types and fore- 
 shadowings of the triumphs of Messiah, and as such were dimly 
 recognized by those who sung of them. Of the same character 
 were the recorded songs of Moses, David, and Hezekiah ; they 
 are prophetic and Messianic. Such is this ode of Hannah's. 
 She saw beyond the immediate present, and in the mercy dis- 
 played in her own case, she recognized the Divine economy in 
 the government of the world, and a promise of future blessing 
 not on individuals only, but on her nation also. He who took 
 care of the poor and needy, and raised up the lowly to high 
 estate, would equally protect and exalt His people now down- 
 trodden and sore oppressed. What had happened to her was a 
 pledge of God's dealing with Israel ; her own deliverance was a 
 type of the salvation wrought by God throughout the world's 
 history. In her prophetic spirit she foresaw a great change in 
 the government of the chosen people ; the theocracy administered 
 by leaders and judges was to give place to a more settled and 
 permanent form of rule. Knowing from the promises made to 
 the patriarchs, and from many expressions and stipulations in 
 the Pentateuch, that Israel was destined to be a Kingdom, she 
 sings of a King whom God would one day bestow upon His 
 people, who should unite and rule them, and to whom the Lord 
 would give strength and success. And in this monarch she foresaw 
 the Lord's Anointed, some one greater than David and Solomon, 
 even the Messiah. She expressed her confidence in the realiza- 
 tion of the promises connected with royal dominion in Israel, 
 which were now beginning to stir in the hearts of the people ; 
 Out the Spine who spoke by her signified a more glorious accom- 
 plishment than was commonly expected ; and we, by the light of 
 later history, can read in her pregnant words intimations of a 
 
l6 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 mighty future, the coming of King Messiah and the glories of His 
 kingdom. In this hght the ode was regarded by the early Chris- 
 tian Church/ The Fathers generally see in Hannah a type of 
 the Church, and in her words a prophetic announcement of the 
 victories of Christ. And Jewish expositors held the same 
 opinionj^" which is further supported by the use made of this 
 song by Zechariah and the Virgin Mary in the New Testament. 
 The former in the Benedidus and the latter in the Magnificat 
 found themselves upon Hannah's Thanksgiving, and show how it 
 was regarded by pious Israelites.3 Such songs were preserved 
 among the people, handed down by oral tradition, employed in 
 pubhc worship, committed to writing in course of time, and in- 
 serted in the sacred books by their several compilers and editors, 
 as worthy expressions of the religious life, of the hopes and 
 aspirations of the faithful in Israel. Thus then the happy 
 mother sang : — 
 
 •' I. My heart exulteth in the Lord, 
 My horn is exalted in the Lord, 
 My mouth is opened wide over mine enemies. 
 Because I rejoice in Thy salvation. 
 a. There is none holy as the Lord ; 
 For there is none beside Thee, 
 Neither is there any rock like our God. 
 
 3. Talk no more so exceedingly proudly ; 
 
 Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth ; 
 For the Lord is a God of knowledge, 
 And by Him actions are weighed. 
 
 4. The heroes of the bow are confounded. 
 
 And they that stumbled are girded with strength. 
 
 5. They that were full have hired out themselves for bread, 
 And they that were hungry are at ease ; 
 
 Yea, the barren hath borne seven, 
 
 And she that hath many children languisheth. 
 
 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive, 
 
 He bi ingeth down to the grave, and He doth bring up. 
 
 7. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, 
 He bringeth low, also He lifteth up. 
 
 8. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, 
 He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill, 
 
 » St. Aug. " De Civit." xxii. 4. S. Cypr, " De Orat. l>Dm." 140 See 
 more ap. Corn, a Lap. in loc. 
 ' See Targ. of Jonathan and Kimchi in loc, 
 3 Luke i. 46 ff. 68 ff. 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. IJ 
 
 o make them sit with princes, 
 And enjoy the throne of glory ; 
 For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, 
 And He hath set the world upon them. 
 
 9. He keepeth the feet of His holy ones, 
 
 But the wicked are put to silence in darkness ; 
 For not by strength doth man prevail. 
 10. The adversaries of the Lord are confounded ; 
 Against them in heaven doth He thunder ; 
 The Lord judgeth the ends of the earth. 
 That He may give strength unto His king, 
 And exalt the horn of His anointed." 
 
 Let us see what this song of thanksgiving means. Hannah 
 begins by expressing the holy joy that filled her heart, and the 
 strength which she felt in the consciousness that God had heard 
 her, and had changed her earthly lot. This feeling opened her 
 lips in praise, and constrained her to utter her gratitude to the 
 Lord, to whom all her blessings were owed (ver. i). He alone 
 is absolutely holy. He alone lives in Himself, unchangeable, 
 majestic, secure, the Rock, on whom she rests in perfect trust 
 (ver. 2). Then with a glance at Peninnah's insolent provoca- 
 tion, she bids the wicked tremble at His holiness, who knows 
 and judges all human actions (ver. 3). See, she says, the working 
 of this attribute of God in the vicissitudes of human events. 
 Heroes who rejoice in their strength are shattered and brought 
 to shame ; the weak and powerless are made mighty for battle 
 (ver. 4). The rich and wealthy become hirelings for a daily 
 wage ; the once famished cease from labour and keep holiday. 
 She who, like me, was barren and bare not, is blessed with 
 children in perfection, and the fruitful mother pines away because 
 she has lost her sons and hath none to comfort her in her old 
 age (ver. 5).' Death and life are from the Lord ; He brings 
 to the brink of the grave and rescues therefrom at His 
 good pleasure (ver. 6). Poverty and riches are at His disposal ; 
 He bringeth some low, He lifteth others on high (ver. 7). He 
 raiseth the poor from the very dust, and the needy from the 
 lowest degradation, to give them a seat among princes, and to 
 make them enjoy the throne of glory.^ And this He does be- 
 cause He is the Creator and Upholder of the universe (ver. 8). 
 Therefore the righteous have nothing to fear. He guards every 
 * Comp. Psa. cxiii. 2 ; Jer. xv. 9. • Comp. Psa. cxiii. 7, 8. 
 
 3 
 
16 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 Step of the earthly course of the picas, and punisties the wicked 
 in the silence of the grave, in distress and calamity ; for they 
 had but natural strength to rely upon, and no man in his own 
 power can meet the storms of life (ver. 9). All who contend with 
 the Lord are confounded and sore vexed. Jehovah seated in 
 heaven utters the sentence, the voice of His thunder ; He judges 
 the whole earth to its remotest quarters, and He will perfect the 
 kingdom which He hath founded in Israel, raising up a King in 
 His own good time. Who shall be endowed with irresistible 
 might and be the universal Saviour (ver. 10). 
 
 When the celebration of the festival was completed, Elkanah 
 and his wives returned to their home at Ramah, leaving their 
 child Samuel behind in Eli's care. The disturbmg element in 
 this pious household was now removed ; the childless wife could 
 no longer be reviled ; her reproach among women was at an 
 end. So the quiet home hfe flowed on ; and as years passed, 
 other children were born to Hannah ; the prattle of little 
 voices made music in her ears, and three sons and two daughters 
 gladdened the hearts of the faithful parents. A Jewish legend* 
 with a kind of poetical justice in view, relates how the birth of 
 each of Hannah's children was accompanied by the death of one 
 of Peninnah's ; but it would have been scant equity thus to 
 punish the father for his wife's natural exultation, ill-natured 
 though it was ; nor can we conceive that the good Hannah 
 would have felt happiness in her own maternity, if it had brought 
 such sorrow to her rival. The later life of these children has left 
 no mark on the page of history, and nothing whatever is known 
 about them. 
 
 And now see the little Samuel, a gentle child of some three 
 years old, in the holy house of Shiloh under the training of the 
 old high priest and his assistants. These were not all rough 
 men, of lax habits and doubtful piety, which unhappily was the 
 character of many of the officiants at the sanctuary. There 
 were women, too, who had regularduties to perform in connection 
 with the Tabernacle ; and to their care, doubtless, the boy was 
 entrusted.' What exactly was the service which these women ren- 
 
 * See I Sam. ii. 22: " The women that assembled at the door of the 
 Tabernacle,'' where the words ought to be rendered: "The women that 
 did service at the door," &c., as in Exod. xxxviii. 8. The expression is used 
 o< formal, military service, and would show that they had their office and 
 work duly regulated. 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. 1 9 
 
 dered is nowhere stated. It seems plain that they had been origi- 
 nally appointed by Moses, as we read of the women who did service 
 at the Tabernacle offering their mirrors for the material of the 
 great laver (Exod. xxxviii. 8) ; and the institution continued unto 
 the destruction of the Temple. Intimations of this fact occa- 
 sionally appear in Scripture. Not improbably the women who 
 publicly celebrated the victories of Hebrew heroes, as Barak 
 and David, belonged to this class. To such there may be an 
 allusion in Psa. Ixviii. ii : "The Lord giveth the word ; the 
 women that publish the tidings are a great host." It is not un- 
 likely that Anna the prophetess was one of them ; and the 
 widows and deaconesses of the early Christian Church may have 
 been the natural successors of this primitive order. That they 
 assisted in the liturgical portions of Divine service is not prob- 
 able ; their duties would be such as more especially appertained 
 to female work in a household, the cooking of the sacrificial 
 food, the cleansing of the vessels, the care of children, the spin- 
 ning, embroidering, and washing of the curtains and hangings of 
 the sanctuary. We know that in after years, when idolatry was 
 rife in the land, there was a regular order of women who wove 
 hangings for the Asherah, the image of Ashtoreth (2 Kings 
 xxiii. 7) ; this was probably a prostitution of the original class to 
 idolatrous purposes, the institution surviving the change of 
 religion, though perverted from its object. While, then, the 
 women of the tabernacle attended to the bodily wants and train- 
 ing of the child Samuel, his mental and religious culture was no 
 less carefully regarded by Eli. If we may consider his educa- 
 tion to have been conducted on the same principles as those 
 which obtained in after time, we may suppose that he was early 
 taught to read and write, was instructed in the Law, and learned 
 the facts of Jewish history, and the great deeds of his forefathers. 
 Many portions of the Pentateuch were by him committed to 
 memory, and the child was encouraged to ask the meaning of 
 the various celebrations and ordinances which he witnessed or 
 in which he took part. The utmost reverence for even the words 
 of the law was inculcated ; as Philo says : ^ " Looking on their 
 laws as oracles inspired by God, and instructed in them from 
 early childhood, the Jews carry the image of the Commandments 
 in their very souls." This was the staple of the instruction im- 
 parted, the foundation on which religion and morality were 
 ^ " De Legat. ad Caium," 31. ii. p. 577, M. 
 
20 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 reared. The soil in which this teaching was to take root had 
 been industriously prepared by Samuel's parents. Chiefly the 
 pious Hannah had sanctified the first dawnings of intellect in 
 her little son, and used those early receptive years to good 
 purpose. Who can tell the effect of a holy mother's training 
 upon even an infant's character.-^ The love that speaks in her 
 eyes and controls her actions, finds its way to the child's heart ; 
 the look and voice of the tender parent meet with responsive 
 efforts from the little one in her arms; the education for heaven 
 begins at the mother's knee. A ready pupil was the infant 
 Samuel, and made no difficulty in mastering the tasks suitable 
 to his age, while he also ministered before the Lord, performing 
 such duties as lay in his capacity. Doubtless there were many 
 children and youths under training at Shiloh, as, later, Samuel 
 gathered a school at Naioth in Ramah ; and the emulation of 
 companions, and the petty trials of a common life, helped to give 
 a steadfastness to his purposes, and promoted the growth of 
 forbearance, courage, and unselfishness. But young as he was 
 he was distinguished from his comrades by his dress. Being 
 dedicated to a life-long service in the sanctuary, he wore a linen 
 ephod like a priest or Levite, or one who took part in a religious 
 service.* The ephod consisted of two pieces of white cloth or 
 linen hanging from the neck in front and behind, joined together 
 by shoulder straps, and confined round the waist by a band. 
 Besides this dress, Hannah, when she came with her husband to 
 the annual sacrifice, brought for her boy " a little coat," a gar- 
 ment reaching to the feet, like that worn by the high priest under 
 the ephod, though of less costly material and not so elaborately 
 ornamented. It was a simple frock without sleeves and with a 
 hole for the head to pass through, woven throughout without 
 seams, as that for which the soldiers cast lots at the Crucifixion 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though surrendered to God's service 
 and separated from his parents, Samuel was still an object of 
 care to his mother, and her loving thoughts were exercised on 
 this absent child. As she plied her busy spindle in the making 
 of his "little coat," her heart went out to him in his distant 
 home ; and she hailed with joy the recurrence of the yearly festi- 
 val which for a short interval united the severed link in the 
 family chain. She marked his growth, she tested his progress 
 
 « Comp. 2 Sam. vi. 14, where David is thus clad when dancing before the 
 ark. I Chron. xv. 27. 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. 21 
 
 in learning, she watched his temper and disposition ; and she 
 could thank God that the child was preparing for his high 
 destiny, and fitting himself to be an example as well as a leader 
 to his people. And Eli had great hopes of this dedicated child ; 
 the remarkable manner in which he had become associated with 
 him pointed him out as designed for some great purpose ; and 
 the old priest took the better care of him, and attended more 
 scrupulously to his training, as he saw the evil conduct of his 
 own sons, and recognized with sorrow that he could look for no 
 worthy successor in either of them when he himself was called 
 away. The conduct of these sons, Hophni and Phinehas, was 
 indeed a scandal of the utmost magnitude. They were profane, 
 greedy, dishonest, profligate. They showed their evil character 
 in many ways. Their downward course was plain enough ; they 
 had lost all faith in God, and handling holy things with unholy 
 hands, they were given over to a reprobate mind, and without a 
 struggle gratified each wicked passion as it arose. 
 
 By the Law of Moses a certain portion of the sacrificial offer- 
 ings was due to the priests in lieu of fee, the remainder of the 
 animal being returned to the ofiferer to be consumed by himself, 
 his family, and the Levites who dwelt in the neighbourhood 
 (Deut. xii. 12). It was only fair that " they which minister about 
 sacred things should eat of the things of the temple, and they 
 which wait upon tne altar should have their portion with the 
 altar " (i Cor. ix. 13). This portion of the peace-offerings was 
 strictly defined, and might not be altered or exceeded. The 
 legal due, as we learn from Lev. vii., was the breast, or brisket, 
 and the right shoulder. These were solemnly dedicated to the 
 Lord (the former by being " waved," that is, moved repeatedly 
 in presentation to the Saviour and Preserver on earth ; the latter, 
 by being " heaved," or once lifted up, to the Intercessor in 
 heaven), and were then made over to the priests. But before this 
 was done the fat had to be burned upon the altar, which was the 
 appointed way of consecrating the whole sacrifice ; and no por- 
 tion could be lawfully appropriated till this rite was performed. 
 The fat, or suet (for the rule referred only to the pure, internal 
 fat, not to that which was mixed with the flesh), was thus offered, 
 not simply because it was the most combustible part of the car- 
 case, but because it was regarded as the best portion, the plain 
 token of a perfect and well-nourished body. And as being God's 
 share, it was never to be eaten ; upon its use the same restric- 
 
22 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 tion was laid as upon blood (Lev. iii. 17), with this difference, 
 that, whereas the eating of blood was forbidden under all cir- 
 cumstances, the interdict on the consumption of fat applied only 
 to animals sacrificed, or to such as were capable of being sacri- 
 ficed. Now the sons of Eli would not be restrained by any law 
 in the gratification of their appetites. They not only took their 
 allotted portion in an illegal manner, but they claimed more than 
 their due share. Instead of waiting until the sacrifice had been 
 solemnly dedicated by the burning of the fat upon the altar, 
 as the Law ordained, these unscrupulous ministers sent their 
 servants to seize the portions before the offering was made, thus 
 robbing God and dishonouring the symbolical ceremony. Be- 
 sides this, they plundered the offerer of what was indisputably 
 his own. When he was preparing the sacrificial feast from such 
 parts of the animal as were not otherwise appropriated, Eli's 
 sons violently took possession of portions that were being 
 cooked. Their servants came with the flesh-hooks, or tridents, 
 that were used for turning the sacrifices on the fire and for col- 
 lecting fragments, and struck them into the pot or pan in which 
 the flesh was being boiled for the repast of the offerer and his 
 friends, and all that the hook brought up they took for their 
 masters' use. Such acts of profanation and robbery could not 
 pass unnoticed. The requirements of the Law were well known 
 to the people who frequented the sanctuary ; and when they saw 
 its very guardians openly disregarding the plainest directions, 
 and setting an example of sacrilege, cupidity, and dishonesty, 
 they were wholly scandalized, their moral susceptibilities were 
 outraged, and they " abhorred the offering of the Lord." What 
 hope could there be of respect being paid to piety and justice in 
 the community, when at the very centre of the religious life of 
 the people was displayed such gross contempt of the Law ? Like 
 priest, like people. The iniquity of the leaders was reflected in 
 the conduct of those who looked to them for guidance. We see 
 the depth of degradation to which the Israelites had sunk in the 
 terrible narratives contained in the last chapters of the Book of 
 Judges. Such harrowing incidents are the natural result of the 
 impiety and immorality of the ministers of the sanctuary. To 
 their other sins these priests added shameful licentiousness. 
 They introduced into this holy place the vices of obscene heathen 
 worship ; and Sliiloh saw its glades and woods defiled with the 
 foulest exhibitions of lust and sensuality. The licensed un- 
 
Samuel's youth. ^3 
 
 chastity which commonly was associated with idol worship, and 
 which had often proved a temptation to Israel, was openly prac- 
 tised by these unworthy priests of the Lord, who scrupled not to 
 lead astray the very women who were dedicated to Divine ser- 
 vice. Their debaucheries found another opportunity for indul- 
 gence in the joyful season of the vintage, when the m.aidens 
 assembled together with singing and dancing. This happy festi- 
 val they darkened by their vices. Now these crimes were com- 
 mitted openly. There were two parties in Israel at this time. 
 The lawless, godless part of the community followed the example 
 of these irreclaimable youths, and emulated their license. But 
 there were still some who feared the Lord, and clung to the good 
 old ways of obedience and reverence. These were thoroughly 
 scandalized at the abuses which went on unchecked in the very 
 sanctuary. They come to Eli as the representative of law and 
 religion ; they narrate with righteous anger the evil conduct of 
 his sons; they demand from him the condemnation of these 
 practices and the punishment of the offenders. But their remon- 
 strances have little effect. Always cold and apathetic, Eli in his 
 old age is more than ever averse from action, and disposed to let 
 things take their course without troubling himself overmuch. He 
 satisfies himself with a few words of warning addressed to his 
 sons, but takes no steps to repress the wickedness which was 
 brought to his notice. " Why do ye such things ? " he says, and 
 his hoary head and trembling voice added emphasis to his words ; 
 " I hear of your evil deahngs from all this people. Nay, my sons ; 
 for it is no good report that I hear : ye make the Lord's people 
 to transgress and to cease from worshipping before His house." ' 
 And then he quotes an ancient proverb which might well 
 admonish them of their danger in thus profaning holy things : 
 
 " If one man sin against another, God shall judge him ; 
 But if a man sin against the Lord, who shall act as judge for him ? " 
 
 That is, in the case of wrong between man and man, God, as 
 arbitrator, settles the dispute through the regular judicial 
 authorities ; but when a man sins against God, what power can 
 interpose.? The dispute can be settled only by the verdict being 
 given against the offender, followed by his punishment at the 
 Lord's hand.^ This remonstrance, which indeed took but low 
 » I Sam. ii. 24, combining the Sept, and Syr. reading with the Hebrew. 
 The proverb is obscure, but the interpretation given as above by Keil 
 and Dean Payne Smith seems most reasonable. 
 
V 
 
 24 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 ground, and was little calculated to touch the conscience of 
 these hardened sinners, had no effect. They had reached that 
 terrible condition when the Holy Spirit is withdrawn, and the 
 sinner is left to himself, and judicially blinded. "They 
 hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord 
 would slay them." Sin works out its own punishment by the 
 will of God ; it hardens the heart, deafens the conscience, kills 
 faith, drags down ever to lower depths, makes repentance, 
 except by miracle, impossible. These are its natural con- 
 sequences ; but they are in accordance with God's eternal 
 purpose, in due subjection to His moral government of the 
 world. Eli's sons had grown up in a degenerate age, and had 
 let the evil tendencies around them influence their lives and 
 characters, while they themselves in turn gave a fresh impulse 
 to lawlessness and profligacy. It may have been, according to 
 the mysterious law of heredita?'tness^ that the character of some 
 evil ancestor was reproduced in them, and had not been modi- 
 fied by careful training. A mother's tender guidance and sym- 
 pathy had perhaps been wanting ; the father's weak good nature 
 had been unable to control these turbulent spirits ; official duties 
 may have occupied the judge's time and thoughts ; he had 
 omitted to attend duly to his domestic duties, had not watched 
 the bent of his sons' minds, nor selected their companions, nor 
 checked the first beginnings of evil. If this were so, what 
 wonder that they turned out sensual, godless, and, acting as 
 priests to a God whom they knew not, in whom they had no 
 faith, brought discredit upon religion and ensured their own 
 condemnation? It was indeed necessary that some serious 
 check should be put upon this evil state of things. There was 
 no hope of improving the material condition of Israel without 
 a corresponding improvement in religion. Reverence had died 
 out, the natural tendency to imitate the worship and belief of 
 surrounding nations was strengthened, and the power of de- 
 fending themselves against enemies was impaired. Such con- 
 sequences resulted from the example of wickedness set in 
 high places. 
 
 Eli himself had not been left without warning. A man of God, 
 a prophet, had suddenly appeared soon after Samuel's dedica- 
 tion, and before the wickedness of Hophni and Phinehas had 
 become inveterate and hopeless, and sternly denounced the 
 father's weakness, and foretold the judgment of God upon him- 
 
SAMUEL*S YOUTH. 25 
 
 self and his house. And thus this unknown visitant spake : 
 "Thus saith the Lord, Did I reveal Myself unto the house of 
 thy father, Aaron, when they were in Egypt in bondage at the 
 house of Pharaoh ? And did I choose him out of all the tribes 
 of Israel to be My priest, to go up unto My altar, to burn in- 
 cense, to wear the ephod before Me ? And did I give unto the 
 house of thy father all the offerings of the children of Israel 
 made by fire ? Wherefore kick ye at My sacrifice and at My 
 meat-offering, which I have commanded in My habitation ; and 
 honourest thy sons above Me, to fatten yourselves with the 
 chiefest of all the offerings of Israel My people ? Therefore the 
 Lord, the God of Israel, saith, I said indeed that thy house, and 
 the house of thy father, should walk before Me for ever; but now 
 the Lord saith, This be far from Me ! for them that honour Me 
 I will honour, and they that despise Me shall be lightly es- 
 teemed. Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, 
 and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old 
 man in thine house. And thou shalt behold the affliction of 
 My habitation ^ in all the wealth which God shall give Israel ; 
 and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever. Yet 
 will I not cut off every man of thine from My altar, to consume 
 thine eyes and to grieve thy heart ; ^ and the majority of thy 
 house shall die as men in the flower of their age. And this 
 shall be the sign unto thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, 
 on Hophni and Phinehas : in one day they shall die both of 
 them." Thus far the man of God had announced woe and 
 punishment to the house of Eli ; now he rises to a higher strain, 
 and foretells the rise of a faithful priest in exchange for the 
 present evil ministers. The terms of this prophecy are very 
 remarkable, and have not only an immediate, but a future and 
 final fulfilment. " I will raise Me up a faithful priest, that shall 
 do according to that which is in My heart and in My soul ; and 
 I will build him a sure house ; and he shall walk before Mine 
 Anointed for ever. And it shall come to pass that every one 
 
 * So the R.V. Dr. Payne Smith translates: "narrowness of habita- 
 tion," and explains this to mean distress, especially in domestic relations. 
 Most commentators consider that the " habitation" signifies the tabernacle, 
 the affliction of which, in the loss of the ark and the ruin of Shiloh, the 
 priest should see, amid all the blessings which the people experienced. 
 
 ' This is the marginal rendering of R. V., and is that adopted by Keil 
 and Dean Smith. It implies that there shall always be some one of Eli's 
 family serving at the altar, though in an inferior capacity. 
 
26 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 that is left in thine house shall come and bow down to him for 
 a piece of silver/ and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one 
 of the priests' offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread." The 
 primary fulfilment of this prophecy is found in the life and 
 o'^fice of Samuel ; thus early was he designated as " the faithful 
 priest." It is true that he was not of the family of Aaron, but 
 we find him continually discharging the sacerdotal office ; and, 
 as far as can be read in our Books, the regular priesthood seems 
 to have been in abeyance for some fifty years after the destruc- 
 tion of Shiloh and its inhabitants which we shall soon have to 
 narrate. There is no mention of an Aaronic priest from Eli's 
 time till we come to Ahiah, his great-grandson in the days of 
 Saul (i Sam. xiv. 3). During this interval the regular and 
 ordained ministrations were suspended, and Samuel, by special 
 commission from God, supplied their place. To this extra- 
 ordinary delegation of duty the prophet refers in the text. A 
 further, but inferior, fulfilment of the prophecy is found in the 
 substitution of the house of Zadok for that of Eli on the deposi- 
 tion of Abiathar (i Kings ii. 27, 35), when Zadok became sole 
 high-priest and transmitted the office to his descendants. For 
 he was of the house of Eleazar, not of Ithamar, as Eli was, and 
 arrived at the chief dignity both by force of character and by 
 reason of the substantial service which he rendered to the State 
 as a staunch supporter of David, and able to lead a powerful 
 contingent to his assistance (i Chron. xii. 26-28). He may 
 truly be called "a faithful priest." But who does not see that 
 a greater than Samuel or Zadok is here ? The terms used are 
 larger, the promises grander, than any earthly personage could 
 satisfy. The mere removal of the presidency from one line to 
 another more worthy, the narrowing of the everlasting priest- 
 hood promised to the first Phinehas (Num. xxv. 12, 13) to one 
 eminently faithful representative, could hardly have been ex- 
 pressed in such glowing words. We must look further, and 
 see, as the Jews themselves were meant to see, a grander future, 
 a Divine Samuel, a Priest who has superseded the Aaronic 
 dynasty, even the Messiah, who " abideth a Priest for ever." 
 
 ' Dr. Briggs (" Messianic Prophecy," p. 122) considers the words "and 
 a loaf of bread," found in the Massoretic text, an interpolation. They are 
 "not in the LXX^., disturb the rhythm, make the line too 1 »ng, and are 
 a premature statement of that which comes appropriately in the climax ol 
 the last line." 
 
SAMUEL'S YOUTH. VJ 
 
 Here again we may note that the prophet, as Hannah in 
 her Hymn, has in view the existence of the kingly power in 
 Israel. The faithful priest is to walk before the Lord's Anointed 
 for ever. If this announcement meant primarily that Samuel 
 and his successors should preside over spiritual matters in a 
 State governed by a consecrated monarch, without doubt it 
 also pointed to the Messiah in whom the regal and sacerdotal 
 offices were united. 
 
 The fulfilment of some portion of this denunciation will be 
 narrated in the next chapter. For if, as is mostly the case, 
 God's threatenings are conditioned by man's acceptance or 
 rejection of them, the warning in this case was unheeded ; Eli's 
 apathy and his sons' continued iniquity brought a sure result. 
 
 . . . "The sovereign Lord of souls 
 Stores in the dungeon of His boundless realm 
 Each bolt, that o'er the sinner vainly rolls, 
 
 With gathered wrath the reprobate to whelm." « 
 
 « Keble, •'Christian Year," Second Sunday in Lent. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FIRST REVELATION TO SAMUEL. CAPTURE AND 
 RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 
 
 Life of Samuel at Shiloh — The doom of Eli revealed to Samuel— Samuel 
 accredited as Prophet ; meaning of the term — Condition of Israel and 
 need of reformation — Oppression by the Philistines— Rebellion of 
 Israelites — Battle of Aphek — Defeat of Israelites — Capture of the Ark — 
 Death of Eli — Tabernacle removed to Nob — Shiloh destroyed — The 
 Ark taken to Ashdod — Dagon — Philistines plagued — Ark sent to Gath ; 
 to Ekron — Divination — Propitiatory offerings — Ark returned to Is- 
 raelites at Bethshemesh ; placed at Kirjath-Jearim. 
 
 While the evil priests were filling up the measure of their 
 iniquity, and the mutterings of the coming storm that was to 
 overthrow Eli and his house were heard in the distance, the child 
 Samuel ministered before the Lord. Like some sweet refrain in 
 a gloomy poem, like a soft strain in some tempestuous piece of 
 music, the notices of the early life of this holy boy break in upon 
 the narrative of vice and weakness. In sharpest contrast stand 
 forth pure devotion and unbridled licentiousness, the life of 
 holiness and the life of shame. Lower and lower in degrada- 
 tion sank the wicked ministers ; but, like the great and perfect 
 pattern of holy childhood, " the child Samuel grew on, and was 
 in favour both with the Lord, and also with men." * If he was 
 not spared the sight of vice, the care of Eli secured him from 
 contamination, and his own inward purity, fortified by the grace 
 of God, repelled all evil influences. Hophni and Phineas, in 
 their priestly robes, profaned the worship of the Lord whose 
 ministers they professed to be ; Samuel, in his little white ephod, 
 * I Sam. ii. 26 ; Luke ii. 52. 
 
FIRST REVELATION TO SAMUEL. 29 
 
 served the Lord purely and reverently. The former were blindly 
 hastening to their awful doom ; the latter was preparing himself 
 for the great career that lay before him. Familiarity with holy 
 things bred in the one contempt of religion and practical in- 
 fidelity, and in the other strengthened belief in the unseen and 
 increased true devotion. Thus, under Eli's eye, Samuel grew 
 up "before the Lord," living as in His presence, with the 
 thought never forgotten of Him that dwelt between the cheru- 
 bim, docile, obedient, gentle, feeling his dedication to the Lord, 
 and ratifying it by daily life and conduct. 
 
 So passed twelve years ; * and then, as in the life of our 
 Blessed Lord at the same age, came a change. In the general 
 degeneracy of the times the prophetic spirit had long been little 
 heard. Ehud had acted as one who had a word of God to 
 announce,' Deborah had celebrated her great victory with a 
 prophetic ode, Hannah had sung of Christ, and a man of God 
 once and again had come with a stern message of warning ; 
 but " the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was 
 no open vision." It was but rarely that the Lord spake by the 
 Prophets. The prophetic utterance which had been promised 
 as the exponent of the will of heaven ^ was restrained by the 
 unbelief and disobedience of the people, even as it is said 
 of Christ (Matt. xiii. 58) : " He did not many mighty works there 
 because of their unbelief." There was no special order of in- 
 spired men to promulgate the decrees of God ; the sins of the 
 community had contracted and impeded Divine revelation, and 
 such manifestations as had been vouchsafed to Abraham and 
 Moses and Joshua were known no longer. This long silence 
 was now to be broken ; and the recipient of the new communi- 
 cation was this pious child, the unstained Nazirite, Samuel. He 
 was good and pure and holy, and his heart and conscience 
 recognized the presence and the power of God ; but of Him as 
 a personal God, as one who reveals His will by external signs, 
 who gives commands and warnings and directions in some other 
 fashion than by secret influence on the mind, he as yet knew 
 nothing. He was a fit instrument to receive further light, and 
 to be called to a higher service. Hitherto his work had been 
 divided between the care of the sanctuary in such offices as were 
 in his power, and attention to the aged priest Eli, whose dim- 
 » Josephus, " Antiq." v. la 4. * Judg. iii. 20. 
 
 3 Deut. xviii. 15 flf. 
 
30 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 ness of sight and increasing infirmities rendered him largely 
 dependent upon others' help. He had, for instance, to close 
 and open the doors of the Tabernacle, and to light the seven- 
 branched candelabrum, which stood on the south side of the 
 Holy Place, to the left of the entrance, and opposite the table of 
 shewbread. The lamps in this candelabrum were lighted every 
 evening, and extinguished, trimmed afresh, and supplied with 
 pure olive oil every morning. The High Priest slept in a 
 chamber adjoining the Tabernacle, and Samuel had his resting- 
 place near at hand, so as to be withm call if his infirm friend 
 needed anythin.x at night. One night, as the boy lay on his 
 little bed, and the i^iorning was about to break, he was awakened 
 by a voice which called him byname. Thinking that Eli wanted 
 him, he rose immediately and went to him, eager to do him 
 service. But the voice was not Eli's, and the old man sent him 
 back to his chamber. A second time the same thing happened, 
 with the same result. But when the circumstance occurred a 
 third time, and a voice, which only Samuel heard, again cried, 
 " Samuel," Eli saw that the matter was supernatural. He had 
 not lost his faith in the Lord's providential care ; though he 
 himself was not receptive of Divine revelation, he knew that 
 others might be more largely blessed. No petty jealousy troubles 
 the good old man ; he perceives that heaven is communicating 
 with his holy foster-child ; and he bids him go and lie down 
 again in patient expectation, and, if the mysterious voice once 
 more came to his ears, to answer and say, " Speak, Lord ; for 
 Thy servant heareth." And, as the boy waited in awe for what 
 was to follow, not a voice alone was heard saying, " Samuel, 
 Samuel," but a vision, some objective, presence, offered itself ; 
 " the Lord came and stood." This was not a dream, not some- 
 thing seen as by a prophet rapt in a state of ecstasy, but a sight 
 that was presented to his waking faculties, either the Angel of 
 the Presence who had appeared to the Patriarchs, or the glory 
 of the Lord that Moses had beheld on Sinai, and which rested 
 on the mercy-seat in the Tabernacle. From out of this myste- 
 rious Something proceeded the call ; and when Samuel answered 
 humbly in the words which Eli had put into his mouth, the Lord 
 then announced the message which He willed to make known 
 through this new interpreter. What was the message ? One of 
 woe, of ruin, to that gentle and kind master whom the boy had 
 loved with a son's devotion, whom he had invested with all the 
 
FIRST REVELATION TO SAMUEL. 3 1 
 
 qualities which were required in his high office. What astonish- 
 ment and pain filled his soul as he listened to the stern denun- 
 ciation uttered by the voice Divine in the silence of that 
 memorable night ! " Behold," was the word, *' I do a thing in 
 Israel, the which whosoever heareth both his ears shall tingle. 
 In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken 
 concerning his house, from the beginning even unto the end. 
 For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever, for the 
 iniquity which he knew, because his sons did bring a curse 
 upon themselves, and he restrained them not. And therefore 
 I have sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's 
 house shall not be expiated with sacrifice nor offering for 
 ever." Here was a terrible secret confided to an inexperienced 
 child! Why was it entrusted to him? What should he do with it? 
 Doubtless the revelation was an honour and a glory, but it was 
 freighted with trouble and anxiety. The call had ended his child- 
 hood. Henceforth he was to know care, responsibility, anxious 
 forethought. And now his holy training comes to his aid. What 
 God does must be right. As he lay and pondered till the morn- 
 ing, he saw somewhat of the course that lay before him ; he had a 
 stern duty to discharge in the present, he had a mighty destiny 
 in the future. But daily offices were not be neglected, what- 
 ever might be the momentous change in feeling and circum- 
 stance. At the usual hour, wearied though he was with the 
 excitement and wonder of the vision, he rose, and opened the 
 doors of the sanctuary, and ministered to his foster-father with 
 his wonted tenderness. But he said nothing of what had 
 happened ; he feared to inflict a wound on the old man whom 
 he loved and reverenced. He was new to the prophet's office, 
 and could not at once bring himself to announce that which 
 he felt would cause pain and anguish to the hearer. But Eli's 
 conscience was uneasy. He saw that something which he 
 ought to know was being hidden from him. Certain that the 
 Lord had in some way made a revelation to Samuel, he had 
 a consciousness that the revelation concerned himself, and he 
 could not rest till it was fully communicated. " I pray thee," 
 he entreats of the young seer, " hide it not from me. God do 
 so to thee and more also, if thou hide anything from me of all 
 the things that He spake unto thee." Thus adjured, Samuel 
 told him all. And Eli listened in silence. The message that 
 had been delivered by the man of God with its definite de- 
 
32 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 tails of severest punishment had given opportunity of repent 
 ance, but it had been disregarded or used to little purpose. 
 This fresh denunciation, confirming former threats by the 
 mouth of the child-prophet, awoke no pungent regret in Eli's 
 heart, startled him not out of his apathetic resignation to the 
 inevitable. " It is the Lord," he said ; " let Him do what seemeth 
 Him good." In some men's mouths such words would imply 
 the highest faith and trust ; from Eli's lips they show indeed 
 submission to the will of God, but it is the submission of 
 one whose calm temperament takes all things easily, and is 
 greatly moved by no appeal. In spite of this twofold warning 
 he makes no determined effort to reform abuses ; though a 
 timely severity and resolute measures might avert the ruin of 
 his house, he lets matters drift on in the old groove ; he has 
 not energy sufficient to cope with the dominant evil ; and 
 with a hopeless resignation he leaves all in God's hands, pre- 
 paring to bear with patience whatever might befall. Hophni 
 and Phinehas, self-willed, obstinate, overbearing, had too 
 long remained unchecked in their evil courses, and now had 
 gained the upper hand over their weak father whose feeble 
 remonstrances were utterly ineffectual. A powerful party 
 was on their side. The idle, the dissolute, the pleasure- 
 seeking, the free-thinking were their friends and comrades. 
 The old priest had not the courage to set himself against 
 public opinion ; he masks inaction with the garb of endurance ; 
 and powerless, as he persuades himself, to cure, winks at the 
 iniquity in which he is involved. " Shall I not visit for these 
 things ? saith the Lord." But the judgment was not yet to fall ; 
 a respite was given, during which Samuel passes from youth to 
 manhood, and becomes accredited as the prophet of the 
 Lord. As the influence and reputation of Eli waned, the fame 
 of Samuel grew. " The Lord was with him." Grown men, the 
 regular ministers of the sanctuary, had proved unfaithful ; and 
 the Lord raised up a new prophet in a mere child, who had 
 shown by piety, obedience, fidelity, an aptitude for higher gifts. 
 And these were granted to him. Gradually was the knowledge 
 of Divine things unfolded to his perception ; the preparation of 
 his early life fitted him to receive further measures of grace. From 
 time to time the Lord revealed Himself to the youth, by visible 
 presence, by articulate voice, by secret inspiration, in divers 
 manners ; aiid often he was enabled to utter words of wisdom^ 
 
FIRST REVELATION TO SAMUEL. 33 
 
 rebuke, and warning. In the midst of the open corruption 
 he stood forth, pure, upright, bold, a witness, and not a silent one, 
 against the wickedness of his age. And all that he said had 
 weight, be cause all his words were fulfilled. It was not experience, 
 or foresight, or judgment, that guided his announcements, but 
 the inspiration of God. Israel could not but see that this holy 
 youth was directed by a mighty hand, and soon learned to 
 acknowledge his influence, so that from Dan to Beersheba, 
 from north to south, it was known that he was established as a 
 Prophet of the Lord. Even in the anarchical and divided 
 condition of Israel the reputation of this servant of God spread 
 abroad, and all the pious throughout the country rejoiced, as 
 one man, to hear that God had thus visited His people. 
 
 Now in calling Samuel a Prophet the sacred historian does 
 not necessarily connote predictive power in the person so 
 named. The faculty of foretelling the future was often indeed, 
 and under certain circumstances, bestowed upon the Prophet ; 
 but it was not of the essence of his office, and made but a 
 small part of his functions. The Prophet is the mouthpiece of 
 God ; he receives certain Divine revelations, and imparts them 
 to his countrymen and to those unto whom his commission ex- 
 tends. The gifts which he receives are not for his selfish exal- 
 tation or edification, but for the good of the community. His 
 call to the office is inward, depending on the Divine choice and 
 his own receptivity. The Spirit of Jehovah rests upon him, 
 gives him a message, and enables him to utter it. The counsels 
 of the Lord are so far made known to him, and he has to pub- 
 lish this mystery abroad, whether the people hearken or not. 
 The full consciousness of this inner call encourages him in the 
 execution of the commission, elevates his moral faculties, and 
 makes him a ready and eager recipient of further revelations. 
 No mere soothsayer or oracle-monger, but an apostle of righ- 
 teousness,^ he reproves, rebukes, and exhorts ; he enforces his 
 lessons by reference to the past, he warns and confirms his 
 message by foreshadowing the future. The enlightenment be- 
 stowed by the Lord enables him to take a spiritual view of 
 things present and things to come ; he sees the inner side of 
 events of which other men note only the external circumstances, 
 and he is thus empowered to offer wise counsel and to obviate 
 
 » Ladd, " Doctr. of Script.,"!. 132. 
 
 4 
 
34 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 unexpected results. But these effects are not the product of 
 human genius or prudence or experience, but the outcome of 
 communion with heaven and a word from God. Such was the 
 inspiration of Samuel. And his call to the prophetic office 
 carried other functions with it. It was this special commission 
 which authorized him in after time, amid the degeneracy of the 
 priesthood and its practical extinction, to offer sacrifice and to 
 maintain the worship of Jehovah. It was no intrusion into the 
 sacerdotal office when he performed those ministerial duties ; 
 he held an extraordinary commission from the Lord, who con- 
 tinued at intervals to appear to him in Shiloh. How far he was 
 conscious at this time of the great part he had to play, we can- 
 not tell ; doubtless, the certainty dawned upon him gradually. 
 As the revelations became more frequent and impressive, there 
 grew up in his soul the conviction that, as a thorough reforma- 
 tion was needed, so he was destined to be the reformer, and to 
 guide the important movement. A great crisis was approach- 
 ing. If Israel was to retain its possessions, and take its proper 
 position among nations, it must offer a solid front to enemies, 
 it must be one in religion, interests, policy. Of late years 
 matters had tended only to disintegration. No one tribe had 
 arrived at undisputed pre-eminence ; the most powerful cities 
 were practically independent, and isolation had become the 
 rule throughout most of the country. After the death of Joshua 
 the government of the land was not directed by any one man, 
 but was administered by the elders, being representatives from 
 all the tribes and assembling at some central spot, as Shechem. 
 Here they consulted together, and hence they sent to ask the 
 advice of the High Priest, who alone could have recourse to the 
 oracle of the Urim and Thummim. The importance of this 
 latter functionary was very great, and on his character and 
 energy the morals of the nation and the conduct of public affairs 
 greatly depended. But when the national unity was loosened, 
 and selfish independence took the place of patriotic feeling, the 
 power of the elders sank into insignificance, and the decadence 
 of religion and morality marked the fall of priestly influence. 
 In the time of the Judges there was no longer any community 
 of sentiment in the land ; the tribes were simply self-governing 
 bodies, which held their ground as best they could, either ab- 
 sorbing the native populations or repressing them with the 
 strong hand, or in turn falling themselves into subjection to the 
 
FIRST REVELATION TO SAMUEL. 35 
 
 inhabitants whom they had failed to dispossess. The mutual 
 jealousy between some of the tribes likewise tended to relax the 
 national unity. The disintegration was further increased by 
 the attachment felt by each family and collection of families to 
 their own settlements, with the private aims and interests which 
 appertained to them. Becoming an agricultural people, Israel 
 merged the national welfare in the security of its own individual 
 possessions, and thought more of saving stock, crops, and pro- 
 duce when threatened by some local incursion than of com- 
 bining to resist dangers which affected the existence of the 
 whole nation. The Judges were dictators raised up to meet 
 some great emergency in a particular district, and their influence 
 was confined to this locality. When the crisis was over, they 
 returned to their old occupations ; the troops which they had 
 commanded, and which had put themselves voluntarily under 
 their orders, went home ; and neither Judge nor people gave 
 themselves any concern about the public welfare. The Judge 
 had no governing or administrative authority, the people at- 
 tended only to their private interests. It needed some formid- 
 able combination of perilous circumstances to unite Israel into 
 one solid community. This crisis arrived in the days of Samuel, 
 though it is impossible to affix to it an exact date. In the East 
 the Ammonites held rule, and now the Philistines, for a long 
 time quiet dwellers on the sea-coast, strengthened by fresh 
 migrations from Crete, and eager for new conquests, had 
 proved their superiority and were preparing to make themselves 
 masters of the whole country. The spasmodic efforts of Sam- 
 son, whose activity synchronizes with the later days of Eli, had 
 no lasting effect, and merely checked for a time and in one 
 locality the advance of the enemy. The Philistines had won 
 the supremacy, and now the central Israelites, oppressed and 
 humiliated, resolved to rise and throw off the yoke. 
 
 It has seemed to some commentators that it was by Samuel's ad- 
 vice that this insurrection, which proved so disastrous, was made. 
 They suppose that the opening words of the fourth chapter 
 ("And the word of Samuel came to all Israel"), which imme- 
 diately precede the account of the conflict, imply that Samuel 
 counselled the expedition, and was the cause of this unsuc- 
 cessful war. Sanguine of the result, thirsting to restore the 
 nation to independence, and not recognizing that a moral refor- 
 mation must precede the appeal to arms, Samuel, it is thought, 
 
9^ 
 
 36 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 urged the leaders to undertake this movement, and with mistaken 
 zeal called them to attempt the deliverance of the people. But 
 there is no good reason for attributing this blunder to the young 
 prophet. The words at the beginning of the fourth chapter are 
 to be connected with the preceding chapter, as is done in the 
 Revised Version, and must be considered as carrying on the 
 account of God's dealings with Samuel, and as having no 
 immediate connection with what follows. 
 
 From the wording of the narrative in the Hebrew text (" Israel 
 went out against the Philistines to battle"), it is implied that the 
 Israelites were the aggressors on this occasion, and rose suddenly 
 against their oppressors. It was an ill-advised and ill-conducted 
 effort, and was unlikely to be crowned with success. We hear 
 nothing of the Lord being consulted before the rising took place, 
 nothing of prayer or sacrifice being offered as a prelude to the 
 undertaking. Exasperated by their servile condition, and seeing 
 in the prophetic spirit of Samuel a presumption that the Lord was 
 visiting them, perhaps animated by the news of one of Samson's 
 raids, and trusting entirely to the arm of the flesh, they gathered 
 their forces, and encamped near to that spot which, in memory 
 of a victory to be hereafter recorded, is called Ebenezer, 
 *' Stone of help." The Philistines were close at hand, posted 
 at a place named Aphek, " Fortress." As there were many 
 places of this name, it is difficult to fix upon the exact position 
 of this one ; but it was near Ebenezer, the site of which is care- 
 fully defined (i Sam. vii. 12) as being between Mizpah and 
 Shen. The former which, in the First Book of Maccabees (ch. 
 iii, 46) under the name of Maspha, is described as situated over 
 against Jerusalem, has been identified by Dr. Robinson ' with 
 Neby Samwil, a most conspicuous hill some five miles north of 
 Jerusalem. Shen, or Ha-Shen, is probably the modern Deir 
 Yesin, in the immediate neighbourhood. Aphek may be repre- 
 sented by the Wady Fukin, six miles west of Bethlehem ; ' but 
 this seems rather too much to the south. Of the details of the 
 battle which ensued we know nothing. Its results were mo- 
 mentous. First of all, the Israelites suffered a heavy defeat, 
 leaving four thousand men dead " in the field," that is, in the 
 open country where they had fought. This was felt to be a 
 serious blow ; and on returning to the camp the chiefs held a 
 
 « " Biblical Researches," ii. 144 ; ed. 1841. 
 ■ Henderson, " Palestine," 179. 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 37 
 
 council of war to consider the cause of the calamity and the 
 best means of remedying it. They had time for deliberation 
 and were in no immediate danger, as their encampment was 
 entrenched, and their communications were still open. Neithei 
 Samuel nor Eli's sons were with them, and the deliberation lay 
 entirely in the hands of the elders. They seem to have made 
 sure of victory, and were utterly surprised that their enemies 
 had prevailed. They feel that this could have happened only 
 because God had withdrawn His help from them. How were they 
 to secure His aid in the future ? Obviously any prophet of the 
 Lord, any pious Israelite who knew what true religion demanded, 
 would have counselled them to atone for past neglect by re- 
 pentance and confession. National apostasy should have been 
 remedied by national penitence ; but no thought of this nature 
 crossed their mind ; they never attempted to gain the favour of 
 God by this proceeding. They had lost all real piety, and in 
 its place had learned a fetishism, a superstitious regard for holy 
 things, which was alien from true religion, and had no effect on 
 heart or conscience. In place of appealing to the Lord in His 
 covenant relation, as pledged to support them when they turned 
 to Him with all their heart, and put away the evil from 
 among them, they thought only of employing the symbol of 
 Jehovah's presence as a charm or talisman. " Let us," the 
 elders say, " let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out 
 of Shiloh unto us, that // may come among us, and save us out of 
 the hand of our enemies." They remembered how the Jordan 
 had fled before the ark, and left a way for the people to pass 
 over dry-shod ; they remembered how the walls of Jericho had 
 fallen down as the ark was carried round them ; they recalled 
 many a triumph won in its face ; and they misused the history 
 of these wonders to delude themselves into the idea that the 
 Lord's presence was so inseparably united to this material 
 symbol that He would always give success to those who pos- 
 sessed it, and that by putting it in jeopardy they could compel 
 Him, as it were, to come to their rescue. But if this were so, 
 what would become of God's moral government of the world .? 
 Were they to constrain Him to side with them without regard 
 to their fitness for His favour ? Should God sanction this 
 trust in the externals of religion where there was no conformity 
 to His will, no turning from unrighteousness ? The histories to 
 which they referred were true enough, but they recognized not 
 
38 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 their real bearing, had wholly forgotten their spiritual signifi- 
 cance. From this delusion they were rudely awakened. 
 
 The people sent to Shiloh, which was not far distant, and 
 bade the ministers, whose duty it was, to bring to the camp "the 
 ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts which dwelleth between 
 the cherubim." Thus they describe the holy coffer in the 
 message, showing the reason why they fetched it, and what they 
 hoped from its presence. Here was the visible seat of the King 
 of Israel, and He would vindicate its inviolability. Now would 
 be realized the full import of the old battle-hymn which rose to 
 heaven when the ark was moved : '* Rise up, O Lord, and let 
 Thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate Thee flee 
 from Thee" (Num. x. 35). Duly, with all outward regard to 
 ordained precedent, borne by the appointed Levites, and accom- 
 panied by the two priests, Hophni and Phinehas, the holy 
 symbol was removed from the tabernacle and brought to the 
 camp near Aphek. Such a sight had never been witnessed 
 since the Israelites had occupied Canaan. The enthusiasm of 
 the people was raised to the highest pitch by its appearance ; 
 their superstitious feeling was highly excited ; the great talis- 
 man was in their midst, and they " shouted with a great shout, 
 so that the earth rang again." The Philistines heard these cries 
 of exultation, saw the general commotion in the hostile camp, 
 and sent scouts to find out what was the cause of this tumult. 
 And when they understood that the mysterious ark had been 
 brought from its sanctuary, they were struck with terror, and 
 their hearts sank within them. This was a superstition which 
 appealed forcibly to them, into which they could readily enter. 
 These Hebrews,' these strangers from. a distant land, had now 
 among them their " mighty gods " ; who could withstand them ? 
 These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with every sort of 
 plague in the wilderness. Confusing the true history, and in 
 their vague traditions mingling the judgments in Egypt and the 
 miracles in the desert, the Philistines increase their apprehen- 
 sion by the memory of the past. The heavenly powers had 
 often ere now stricken the enemies of Israel; the gods whom 
 the Israelites worshipped were mighty, and could not be 
 resisted ; where these deities were, there was victory. Of one 
 supreme almighty God of all the earth they had no conception. 
 
 « z Sam. iv. 6, 7. 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 39 
 
 They attributed to the Israelites a pluraVity of divinities 
 owning that they had proved themselves powerful to protect 
 their votaries, and fearing for the result in their own case. 
 It was, in their eyes, a conflict between the gods of the two 
 nations, and they had every reason to dread the issue. But, 
 as is often the case, their very despair inspired them with 
 courage. Whatever might be the peril, they would not yield 
 without a blow. Their rude nature, indeed, regarding as 
 terrific all that was secret and not understood, might tremble 
 lest their cherished Dagon should prove inferior in power to 
 the symbol which had wrought such wonders in former time ; 
 but with dogged courage they resolved to put the question to 
 the proof. In language, with which St. Paul has made us 
 familiar in his animating address to the Corinthian Church,' 
 they exhort one another to do valiantly : " Be strong, and 
 quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not 
 servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you ; quit 
 yourselves like men, and fight." Thus down the ages passed 
 the tradition of these words, remembered in connection with 
 the momentous events that followed. For fighting with the 
 energy of despair, the Philistines gained a complete victory ; 
 they defeated the Israelites in the field, put them to ig- 
 nominious flight, stormed their camp, and slew of them thirty 
 thousand men. In vain had the Israelites made a stand 
 round the ark, in vain had the ministers offered their lives in its 
 defence. Hophni and Phinehas themselves were slain according 
 to the saying of the man of God, and the sacred ark was taken by 
 the heathen. Never had such a calamity befallen the people 
 since they left Egypt. That holy memorial, made expressly 
 at the Lord's command by the hands of their great prophet, 
 Moses, which had led them through all their wanderings in 
 the wilderness, guided them to victory, enshrined the Presence 
 of Jehovah, was lost. What did this fact mean ? It implied 
 that God's favour was withdrawn, that the sins of priests and 
 people had separated between them and God, that they could 
 no longer look to Him for help whom they had wilfully forsaken 
 and outraged. Their glory had departed ; their political inde- 
 pendence was in jeopardy ; hopeless servitude was their future 
 destiny. 
 
 « z Cor xyi. 13. 
 
40 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 Ill news flies apace. On the very evening of the defeat 
 intelligence of the grievous calamity reached Shiloh. A fleet 
 runner, a Benjamite (whom an ancient but ungrounded tradi- 
 tion identifies with Saul), rushed into the town with his clothes 
 rent and with earth upon his head in token of unspeakable 
 grief The sight was premonitory ; the tale was soon told. A 
 cry rose up from the affrighted inhabitants, the women's shrill 
 shriek was heard throughout the streets, mingled with the noisy 
 demonstrations of the men's grief. The fatal news fell like a 
 word of death upon the whole community, and the passionate 
 sorrow found expression in tears, and cries, and groans. The 
 aged Eli sat on his throne at the entrance of the sanctuary by 
 the side of the way that led to the watch tower. Here, sur- 
 rounded by the priests and Levites,he was waiting in deep anxiety 
 for tidings. The account of these events is minute and graphic, 
 written doubtless by Samuel, who was still in attendance on 
 his aged foster-father, now completely blind, and ninety-eight 
 years old. Eli heard the noise of the tumult in the town, and 
 asked of some bystanders what it meant .'' The ark had 
 been taken from its abiding place, if not without his consent, 
 certainly against his better judgment, and without the express 
 command of God. He knew better than to put trust in the lifeless 
 symbol ; he was conscious that the sins of priests and people 
 had forfeited God's favour, and he trembled to ' ;ar the result of 
 the conflict. The messenger came up to him. The blind old 
 man could not see the rent garment and the ashes on the head, 
 the fixed stare of his sightless eyes was unaffected by light, but 
 he asked to hear the woful news. The answer gave him 
 his death-blow. " I am he," said the Benjamite, " that came 
 out of the army, and I fled to-day out of the army." And to 
 Eli's anxious question, " How went the matter ? " he replied 
 with a terse and startling climax : " Israel is fled before the 
 Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among 
 the people, and thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, 
 and the ark of God is taken." It was too much. The weak old 
 man could bear to hear of the defeat of his people ; he was 
 resigned even to his own private sorrow, the blow that deprived 
 him of the sons loved only too well : but to hear that the sacred 
 symbol of Jehovah's presence, entrusted to his special care, was 
 in the hands of heathens and lost to the chosen nation, broke 
 his heart. He was sitting on his pontifical throne, a seat with 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 4I 
 
 out a back, and when he heard of this last crushing calamity, 
 he fell backwards' in a deadly faint or fit, and his neck brake, 
 and he died. Nor was this all. Another horror marked this 
 fatal day. The news of these sad events reached the wife of 
 Phinehas, and brought on a premature delivery. But amid the 
 pains of childbirth one fact alone makes itself heard. Not the 
 fall of her husband, not the sudden death of her father-in-law, 
 absorbed her grieving soul. It was anguish to her greater than 
 her own bereavement, more intense than the labour-throes, to 
 know that the emblem of God's presence was carried away, the 
 covenant broken, the Lord's face turned from His people. By- 
 standers cheered her in her safe deliverance ; they told her of a son 
 born to comfort her in her widowhood. She finds no solace there. 
 She answered not, neither did she regard it. A mother's 
 natural joy was swallowed up in grief at the national calamity. 
 For a minute she uttered no word to the attending women; and 
 then rousing herself, as she felt that life was leaving her, she 
 spake her last command, and this referred to the naming of the 
 child and her own estimate of the awful crisis. " Call him," 
 she gasped, " call him Ichabod, No-glory, for the glory is 
 departed from Israel." No more pathetic story is told in the 
 sacred pages, the simple narrative touches the deepest chords of 
 the heart, and rouses responsive sympathy. And it has another 
 and instructive ->.pect ; it shows that amid the gross corruption 
 of the age, there were to be found in isolated instances true and 
 earnest piety, and a high appreciation of the covenant with the 
 Lord. Some still were left in Israel to mourn for the national 
 declension, and to see that the only safety was in holding fast 
 by God. The wife of this iniquitous priest, pure amid corrup- 
 tion, was a type of the little band of faithful patriots who pre- 
 served unshaken their faith in the covenant Lord and 
 endeavoured to carry out His requirements. 
 
 When the funeral obsequies of Eli and the wife of Phinehas 
 had been performed, and the consternation had somewhat sub- 
 sided, it was judged expedient to take measures for the security 
 of the Tabernacle, and the furniture and ornaments apper- 
 taining thereto. The ark, indeed, was lost ; but there were left 
 many valuable adjuncts which were endeared by consecration, 
 antiquity, and memorial use. Such were the hangings and cur- 
 tains, the great brazen altar of sacrifice which had been made 
 in the wilderness, the altar of incense, the laver, the table of 
 
42 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 shewbread, the golden candlestick. Besides these, there were 
 minor articles of great price used in the service of the sanctuary ; 
 there were priests' vestments, musical instruments, and written 
 records. It was necessary that all these things should be im- 
 mediately conveyed to a place of safety before the Philistines 
 reached Shiloh. That they would pursue their advantage 
 seemed highly probable, and it was only wise to take proper 
 precautions. What part the young Samuel, now about twenty 
 years of age, played in these proceedings we know not. Too 
 young to take the leadership, he doubtless offered his divinely- 
 guided advice, and assisted with all his energy in executing the 
 plan suggested. The Tabernacle, with all its fittings and the 
 national records which were stored up there, was removed to 
 some neighbouring spot where it would be secure from molesta- 
 tion. If danger threatened it was again taken away, and after 
 various changes it was finally settled at Nob, a spot in the im- 
 mediate vicinity of Jerusalem, by some^ identified with the 
 northern summit of Mount Olivet, by others ^ with the Mizpah 
 in Benjamin, whither, in later times, Samuel convened an 
 assembly of the people. Here it is found, many years later, in 
 the days of Saul (i Sam. xxi. i). In losing the ark it was 
 deprived of its chief glory, and was no longer regarded as the 
 only locality where sacrifice could lawfully be offered. In ab- 
 normal times strict rules are relaxed ; nor does God so bind 
 men to an exact obedience of ritual ordinances that they cannot 
 claim His promises unless they carry out impracticable direc- 
 tions. Other spots were holy ; altars were raised in Ramah, 
 Mizpah, Gilgal ; but where the Tabernacle was pitched a certain 
 portion of the priesthood made their abode, and maintained a 
 mutilated worship, shorn indeed of its chief honour, yet existing 
 as a kind of protest against profanity and forgetfulness of God. 
 Separated from that which it was intended to enshrine, it never 
 again attained to aught but a traditional sanctity, and the 
 awfulness that surrounded it was rather historical than actual. 
 
 The Tabernacle was no sooner removed, and with its ministers 
 concealed in some place of safety, than the threatened storm 
 burst. The Philistines, elated with their unexpected success, 
 and convinced that their gods were more powerful than those of 
 
 * Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," 187. 
 
 " Conder, "Memoirs," iii. 151. "Palestine Quarterly Statement,'' 18751 
 P- 37. 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 43 
 
 Israel, marched at once upon Shiloh. No defence was offered. 
 Disheartened and dispersed the Israelites attempted no resist- 
 ance. Though the sacred historian gives no particulars of the 
 onslaught, we know from incidental references that the town 
 was plundered and demolished, and the inhabitants, young and 
 old, were cruelly butchered. The terrible destruction that 
 then befell Shiloh was never forgotten, and long served 
 to point a moral. "Go ye now," cries Jeremiah (chap. vii. 
 12), "unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I caused 
 My name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for 
 the wickedness of My people Israel." And the Psalmist, 
 referring to Israel's defection and the calamities consequent 
 thereupon, says : 
 
 •• When God heard this, He was wroth, 
 And greatly abhorred Israel : 
 So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, 
 The tent which He pitched among men ; 
 And delivered His strength into captivity, 
 And His glory into the adversary's hand. 
 He gave His people over also unto the sword, 
 And was wroth with His inheritance. 
 Fire devoured their young men ; 
 
 And their maidens were not praised in the marriage song. 
 Their priests fell by the sword, 
 And their widows made no lamentation.'' * 
 
 The silence of desolation brooded over the place once vocal 
 with the praises of Jehovah and cheerful with the hum of 
 thronging multitudes. In those deserted streets the nuptial song 
 was heard no more, and the funeral wail was not uplifted. The 
 stillness of the grave was there. From its ruins it never rose 
 again to any importance, so that it was passed over by Jeroboam 
 when he was selecting his idolatrous sanctuaries. 
 
 Such was the fate of Shiloh ; what had become of the Ark ?^ 
 It was the prize of the victors ; what would they do with it .'' 
 How would they treat it ? In the eyes of these idolaters there 
 had been a trial of strength between the heavenly powers which 
 
 « Psa. Ixxviii. 59 if. 
 
 ■ According to neologian critics, who are free from reverent prejudices, 
 and are wiser than the sacred writers, the ark was a wooden box containing 
 a meteoric stone, which was supposed to be the symbol of Jehovah's 
 presence. 
 
44 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 supported either side. They had taken their gods with them 
 to battle, and the IsraeHtes had opposed to them their own 
 divinities. The result had proved the superiority of the local 
 gods, and Israel, as they believed, was deprived of heavenly 
 protection. Now, eager to secure the fruits of their victory and 
 to dispose of their plunder, they withdrew their forces, and with 
 exultation and triumph they carried the ark from the battle- 
 field of Aphek to the great city Ashdod, or Azotus, as it is 
 called in Acts viii. 40. This was one of the five chief towns of 
 their country. It lay on the sea coast in those days, though its 
 modern representative, Esdud, owing to the encroachment of 
 the sand, is now three miles from the shore, and bids fair to 
 be entirely overwhelmed in a few years' time. It is situated on 
 a low circular hill, a little south of west from Jerusalem, from 
 which it is some thirty miles distant. The strength of its posi- 
 tion is denoted by its name, which means " the mighty," and is 
 confirmed by the resistance which it offered to Psammetichus, 
 king of Egypt, B.C. 635, who besieged it unsuccessfully for 
 twenty-nine years.^ The presiding deity of this city was Dagon, 
 who was worshipped by the Philistines as the emblem of fertility, 
 or the generative power, as the Canaanites adored in Baal the 
 same force. He is represented in his images as having the head 
 and arms of a man with the body of a fish. Inscriptions, dating 
 from 2000 B.C., containing his name, have been found at Ur. 
 From Babylon his worship spread into other parts of Asia ; in 
 Assyria he was adored as the Fish-god, and the priests devoted 
 to his service wore garments made offish-skins. In one of his 
 inscriptions Nebuchadnezzar mentions that he dedicated some 
 ornaments for a temple of Dagon.^ Such a divinity may have 
 been connected with maritime enterprise, and would naturally 
 be honoured in a maritime city as Ashdod. His wife was 
 Atergatis or Derketo, who by some is identified with Astarte, 
 and who had a temple at Askelon.3 Regarding the late victory 
 as the triumph of their tutelary deity, the Philistines desired to 
 mark this great fact by some plain exhibition ; so, to show the 
 inferiority of Jehovah, and to make the God of the Hebrews 
 pay homage to their god, they placed the ark in the temple of 
 Dagon. Such a custom was not unknown among the Assyrians. 
 
 ' Herod ii. 157. ' Rodvvell, " Records of the Past," v. 117. 
 
 3 Schrader, " Keiliiisch." 85, 86 ; Vigouroux, " La Bible et les ddcouv 
 mod." iii. 427, ed. 4 ; 2 Mace. xii. 26. 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 45 
 
 Thus, Tiglath-Pileser I., who reigned about this time and ex- 
 tended his conquests from Babylon to Lebanon and the Mediter- 
 ranean, mentions in his records how he carried off as trophies 
 from Kirhi and other districts in the north twenty-five images 
 of the gods, which he placed in the temple of Sala, the wife of 
 Assur. He adds : " I have dedicated them to the gods of my 
 country, to Anu, Bir, and Istar, in my city of El-Assur."* Simi- 
 larly, on another occasion, attributing the capture of Samson to 
 the intervention of heaven, the Philistines brought the blind 
 giant into Dagon's temple at Gaza to triumph over him in their 
 idol's presence. And when Saul and his sons fell in the fatal 
 battle of Gilboa, they sent to publish the news in the house of 
 their idols, and put the dead king's armour in the temple of 
 Ashtaroth.' In the present case matters turned out in a very 
 different way from what the Philistines expected. They bad 
 indeed conquered Israel, but they had not vanquished Israel's 
 Lord ; and they were to have a practical proof of the nothing- 
 ness of their idol ; they were to suffer the greatest humiliation 
 that could be offered. In the interests of true religion it was 
 necessary that Jehovah should assert Himself, and that the 
 vauntings of heathendom and its false conclusions should 
 receive a significant check. They were to learn that Israel's 
 Lord was above all gods ; no mere local divinity, but sole 
 monarch of heaven and earth. The sacred ark, with shouts and 
 acclamations, is brought within the gloomy temple and placed 
 beside the image of their god. The priests perform the cus- 
 tomary rites, secure the doors, and leave it there for the night. 
 On opening the doors in the morning, they behold a strange 
 and horrifying sight. Prostrate before the ark, like a suppliant 
 before a king, or a captive crouching at his conqueror's feet, 
 Dagon lay. The image had fallen on its face to the earth before 
 the holy coffer. Unwilling to accept the evil omen, and deter- 
 mining to see nothing supernatural in the untoward event, they 
 endeavour to regard it as an accident. They raise Dagon from 
 the ground, restore him to his pedestal, and secure him there. 
 As Isaiah says (chap. xlvi. 7): "They bear him upon the 
 shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he 
 standeth ; from his place shall he not remove : yea, one shall 
 cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his 
 
 ' Vigouroux, iii. 426. » i Sam. xxxi. 8-10 ; Judg. xvi. 23, 24, 
 
46 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 trouble/' And still more appositely, Baruch (chap. vi. 27) ; 
 " They also that serve them [idols] are ashamed : for if they 
 fall to the ground at any time, they cannot rise up again of them- 
 selves ; neither, if one set them upright, can they move of 
 themselves ; neither, if they be bowed down, can they make 
 themselves straight." With some apprehensions which they 
 could not disguise from themselves the priests, on the following 
 morning, opened the doors of the temple, and beheld a new 
 prodigy which they could no longer reckon as a mere accident. 
 Not only was their idol again dashed to the ground before the 
 ark, but was also horribly mutilated. The head and arms of 
 the figure were severed from the body, and found lying on the 
 threshold where any profane foot might tread upon them, and 
 the only part left whole was the fish's tail with which the figure 
 ended, as though it was meant to impress on these idolaters 
 that their god had falsely assumed the human head, the emblem 
 of reason, and the human hands, the emblems of activity, and 
 now deprived of them was exhibited in his true ugliness and 
 impotence, a mis-shapen fish.^ How deep was the impression 
 made by this circumstance we learn from a custom which took 
 its rise from hence and continued to very late times. From 
 that day forward no priest or worshipper who entered Dagon's 
 temple would ever tread upon the door-sill, lest he should 
 profane with his feet the place where the fragments of the 
 god had lain.' Though constrained to acknowledge the dis- 
 comfiture of their divinity in the presence of the superior power 
 of Jehovah, the Philistines did not swerve from their allegiance. 
 Dagon was their national god, and must be worshipped all the 
 more sedulously for the misfortune that had befallen him. He, 
 in their view, was capable of very human passions, and with 
 petty mahce might resent any slight cast upon him. The 
 destruction of his image did not involve the abrogation of his 
 worship or distrust in his protecting power ; what happened to 
 his representation did not personally afTect them ; they had 
 won a great victory with his assistance ; the damage to the 
 
 ■ Dean Payne Smith on i Sam. v. 3. 
 
 » It is usual among commentators to refer to Zeph. i. 9 : "In that day I 
 will punish all those that leap over the threshold," as an evidence of the 
 permanence of the custom ; but a close consideration of the passage and its 
 context will show that it has nothing to do with the Philistines' idolatrous 
 practices. 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 47 
 
 idol could easily be repaired ; and if the God of Israel could 
 do no more for His people than overthrow this image, the> 
 might rest content and satisfy themselves with their late success. 
 Thus they reasoned in their blind and ignorant hearts. They 
 were to have a rude awakening from their false peace, and were 
 to feel God's power in their own persons and possessions. 
 They removed the ark from the temple, but it carried a malign 
 influence for them wherever it was placed. In the city the 
 hand of the Lord was heavy upon the inhabitants, and they and 
 their neighbours perished in great numbers. What was the 
 plague which smote them is not clear. The word rendered 
 " emerods " {i.e., hemorrhoids) in our version means tumours or 
 swellings, and the disease may have been ulcers or one of those 
 loathsome skin diseases for which Egypt was notorious. Aquila 
 translates, " cancerous sores ;'' Josephus, " dysentery." Herodo- 
 tus recounts (i. 105) a tradition that the Scythians, having 
 pillaged a temple of the celestial Aphrodite at Askalon, were 
 punished by the infliction of some mysterious disease, which 
 may possibly have been of the same nature as the one in ques- 
 tion. The words of the Jewish historian referring to these 
 events are these : * " Shortly afterwards divine Providence 
 visited the city of Azotus and its neighbourhood with a pesti- 
 lence. The people died of dysentery, a most painful disease, 
 and one that occasioned untold agonies before they were re- 
 lieved by death ; for their bowels rotted, and they vomited up 
 the victuals which they had eaten undigested and corrupted. 
 Besides this, swarms of mice springing, as it were, out of the 
 earth, destroyed everything that grew, sparing neither tree nor 
 produce of any kind." The plague of mice is not distinctly 
 mentioned here as attacking the fields of Ashdod, but the Sep- 
 tuagint adds the information, and the fact may be safely inferred, 
 both from the wording of chap. v. 6, which implies that the country 
 was made desolate by a diminution of the means of subsistence,'' 
 and from the expiatory offerings sent to appease the offended 
 God of Israel, among which were included "images of the mice 
 that mar the land." These were offered not simply as symbols 
 of pestilence, as they are found in hieroglyphics, and are men- 
 tioned under this character by Herodotus (ii. 141), but, like the 
 " emerods," as actually representing the plague from which the 
 
 * Josephus, " Antiq,," i. 6. i. ' Keil, in loc. 
 
48 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 people suffered. That this was a very serious infliction we 
 learn from many ancient authors ; modern writers also have 
 given striking pictures of this plague. Thus, Van Lennep 
 says : ^ " The short-tailed field-mouse, as he is called by natu- 
 ralists, abounds throughout Western Asia, and must be endowed 
 with great powers of increase, for he has many enemies. The 
 owl is after him by night, and by day the hawk, with other 
 birds of prey, flutters in the sky, and comes down with a 
 swoop, and carries him off to his nest, while the indefatigable 
 little ferret creeps into his hole, successfully encountering him, 
 and destroying his little ones; yet he seems in nowise dimin- 
 ished. You see him in all the arable lands, running across the 
 fields, industriously carrying off the grain to stow it away for 
 the winter, chirping gaily from time to time, sitting up on his 
 haunches to get a good sight of you as you approach, and then 
 suddenly diving into his hole. This animal is apt so greatly to 
 multiply as at times to cause a sensible diminution of the crops, 
 and its ravages are more generally dreaded than those of the 
 mole. A perfectly trustworthy friend has informed us that in 
 1863, being on the farm of an acquaintance in Western Asia 
 Minor, he saw about noon the depredations committed by an 
 immense number of these mice, which passed over the ground 
 like an army of young locusts. Fields of standing corn and 
 barley disappeared in an incredibly short space of time ; and as 
 for vines and mulberry trees, they were gnawed at the roots and 
 speedily prostrated. The annual produce of a farm, of one 
 hundred and fifty acres, which promised to be unusually large, 
 was then utterly consumed ; and the neighbouring farms 
 suffered equally." 
 
 Connecting the calamities that had befallen them with the 
 presence of the ark, and feeling the hand of Jehovah upon 
 them, the Ashdodites are eager to get rid of this mysterious 
 talisman, and thus to free themselves from its evil powers. 
 They are emphatic in their determination. *'The ark of the 
 God of Israel shall not abide with us," they cry ; " for His 
 hand is sore upon us and upon Dagon our god." But this 
 national trophy could not be so easily disposed of. The 
 government of Philistia was in the hands of a federal council, 
 composed of the head of each of the five confederate cities. 
 
 « " Bible Lands and Customs." 281;. 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 49 
 
 Nothing could be done without their sanction. The Ashdodites 
 lay their case before these lords, at the same time expressing 
 their decision no longer to harbour this pestiferous symbol. 
 The lords unwilling to believe what the people suggested, and 
 very loath to part with this significant token of victory, resolve 
 to temporize. Either the ark was in no way connected with 
 the present distress, or the Ashdodites were themselves for some 
 reason especially hateful to Jehovah, or the god of that locality 
 was weaker than the god of Israel. Under different circum- 
 stances, and in another place, these untoward events would not 
 happen. So they sent the ark to Gath where there was no 
 temple of Dagon. This famous city lay about twelve miles 
 south-east of Ashdod, and therefore nearer to the confines 
 of Israel. Its actual site is still undetermined. Dr. Thom- 
 son ^ places it at Beit Jibrin, which he considers to be the 
 ancient Eleutheropolis, near to which are some heaps of 
 ancient rubbish now called Khurbet Get, "ruins of Gath." Dr. 
 Porter, followed by the Palestine Exploration " Memoirs," ^ 
 identifies it with the remarkable conical hill named Tell es 
 Safi, which guards the entrance of the valley of Elah, and must 
 have been a place of importance at all times. Rising in isolated 
 grandeur from the valley, this hill forms a natural fortress, 
 which is inaccessible on the north and west, where it presents 
 a white precipice of many hundred feet in height, and is 
 capable of easy defence on the other sides. To this city the 
 ark was conveyed in the hope of breaking the spell which had 
 seemed too potent at Ashdod. But the same disasters ac- 
 companied it still. The inhabitants were immediately afflicted 
 with a loathsome disease, and perished in great numbers. 
 
 " He smote His adversaries backwards ; 
 He put them to a perpetual reproach '" (Psa. Ixxviii. 66). 
 
 Still untaught by bitter experience, the Philistines pass on 
 the ark to a third of their confederate cities, Ekron, some 
 twelve miles north-east of Ashdod, and nine from the sea. 
 This place, now called Akir (" barren "), is thus mentioned by 
 Dr. Robinson : 3 Akir Hes on the rise of land on the north- 
 
 ' "Land and Book," 564. 
 Pp. 415, 416. Dr. Geikie, " Holy Land and Bible," thinks the identi- 
 fication with Tell es Safi probable, vol. i. ii8. 
 3 " Researches," iii. 23. 
 
 5 
 
50 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 western side of the Wady Rubin, and as we drew near, the 
 path led through well-tilled gardens and fields of the richest 
 soil, all upon the low tract, covered with vegetables and fruits 
 of great variety and high perfection. . . . That city was the 
 northernmost of the five cities of the lords of the Philistines, 
 and was situated upon the northern border of Judah ; while the 
 other four cities lay within the territory of that tribe (Josh. xiii. 
 3 ; XV. 1 1, 47). Eusebius and Jerome describe it as a village of 
 Jews between Azotus and Jamnia (Yebna) towards the east ; 
 that is to say, to the eastward of a right line between those 
 places ; and such is the actual position of Akir relative to 
 Esdud and Yebna at the present day." Located at Ekron, the 
 ark was more pernicious to the inhabitants than even at Ashdod 
 and Gath. The worshippers of Baalzebub' fared worse than the 
 worshippers of Dagon ; every fresh removal brought aug- 
 mented penalties on the hapless natives. It was only natural 
 that the Ekronites should protest against the presence of this 
 fatal gift, and cry in dismay : "They have brought about the ark 
 of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people." They 
 were clamorous that it should be sent away, convinced that it 
 was connected with or the cause of their plague. So they 
 urged the lords to convene a council, and to consider how best 
 to get rid of the pest, and to remit it to its own place ; " for 
 there was deadly dismay throughout all the city ; the hand of 
 God was very heavy there. And the men that died not were 
 smitten with emerods ; and the cry of the city went up to 
 heaven." Yet in spite of these adverse circumstances, the 
 princes were very loath to lose the great trophy of their victory, 
 and thus virtually to acknowledge the supremacy of Jehovah. 
 This mysterious chest was theirs by right of conquest ; stored 
 in their temple it was a perpetual token of triumph, and com- 
 pensated for many a year of defeat and humiliation. But in 
 face of the general protest they did not dare to retain it on 
 their own responsibility, and most reluctantly they came to the 
 conclusion that it must be returned to the Israelites. The only 
 question that remained was in what manner the restoration was 
 to be made. They therefore consulted the priests and diviners 
 on this matter. It is plain that they knew very little about the 
 religion ot the Hebrews, and had conceived very false and un- 
 
 * See 2 Kings i. 2. 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 5 1 
 
 worthy notions of the God of Israel. The Jews were not a 
 proselytizing nation, aud had nothing of the missionary spirit 
 of the Christian Church. The Philistines could live in their 
 immediate neighbourhood for centuries, and yet be almost 
 wholly unacquainted with their religious tenets and worship, 
 and possess but a very inaccurate knowledge of their past 
 history. Priests and diviners always play an important part in 
 the solution of difficulties such as were perplexing the Philistine 
 lords. Thus Pharaoh, astounded at the miracles of Moses and 
 Aaron, called the wise men or sorcerers to his aid ; Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, puzzled by his mysterious dream, summoned the 
 magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to 
 reveal it to him. Three modes of divination are mentioned by 
 Ezekiel (chap. xxi. 21, 22), and these seem to have been common 
 to many Eastern nations, and in corrupt times to have been 
 adopted by the Israelites from their neighbours. The first was 
 what the Greeks called belomdntia^ divination by arrows. This 
 was effected in various ways. Sometimes an arrow was shot 
 into the air, and an omen was taken from the direction in which 
 it fell ; sometimes names were written on the arrows, which 
 were then consigned to a quiver, and one of them was drawn 
 forth by a person blindfolded. A third method is mentioned 
 as common among the Arabian tribes : Mn one vessel three 
 arrows were placed ; on one was written, "My god orders me;'' 
 on another, " My god forbids me ; " the third was left without 
 any inscription. They were shaken till one fell out ; if it was 
 the one first mentioned, the thing was to be done ; if it was the 
 second, the thing was to be avoided ; but if it was the unin- 
 scribed arrow that came forth, the three were again shaken 
 together till one of the others fell out. Another mode of 
 divination was by Teraphim, images, which were supposed to 
 give oracular responses. A third mode was the inspection of 
 the entrails and liver of sacrificed animals. There were many 
 other methods practised, by which guidance in a crisis or the 
 knowledge of the future was sought to be obtained. But these 
 need not here he described. The soothsayers, consulted on this 
 occasion, gave an answer, which, while it claims supernatural 
 authority for its commands, is careful to fall in with the popular 
 feeling. They direct that the ark is to be restored to its 
 
 « "Speaker's Commentary " on Ezek. xxi. 21. 
 
52 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 owners, and enforce this injunction by a reference to the past 
 history of the Israelites : "Wherefore do ye harden your hearts, 
 as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts ? When 
 He had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the 
 people go, and they departed ? " As if they meant to infer that 
 more plagues were in store for them, unless they took warning 
 by what had already happened. They add directions for the 
 propitiation of the offended deity, whom now for the first time 
 they recognize by His name Jehovah.^ A trespass-offering was 
 to be returned in acknowledgment of their guilt in originally 
 removing the ark, if so be (which was still open to doubt) the 
 calamities were connected therewith. The trespass-offering was 
 to consist of articles corresponding in number to the cities and 
 lords of the Philistines, viz., five golden "emerods" and five 
 golden mice, figures in precious metals of the plagues which 
 had affected their bodies and marred their fields. But the im- 
 pression made upon the inhabitants was so deep and so general 
 that they did more than was directed. Every little village sent 
 its offering, lest any backwardness in making due reparation 
 might be visited by some new chastisement, and the number of 
 golden mice far exceeded the specified amount."* The peculiar 
 nature of this offering was in some respects analogous to a custom 
 widely spread among heathen nations, and adopted in the 
 Christian Church, and practised unto this day. The custom 
 was this : to dedicate in a temple an offering which represented 
 or expressed a particular mercy received in answer to prayer. 
 Instances of the practice are numerous. Thus sailors saved from 
 shipwreck offered pictures or their garments ; 3 sufferers relieved 
 from diseases dedicated likenesses of the diseased parts ; and 
 Theodoret* mentions that Christians in the fourth century were 
 wont to offer in their churches gold or silver hands, feet, eyes, in 
 return for cures effected in these members in answer to prayer. 
 The custom obtains to this day in Eastern countries.* These 
 
 « I Sam. vi. 2 : " The ark of the Lord," i.e. Jehovah. 
 • I Sam. vi. 18. 
 
 3 Horat,, "Carm.", i. 5, 13 fF. Virg., " JEn.'\ xii. 766 f. Juven., 
 "Sat.", X. 55. Cic, " De Nat. Deor.", iii. 37, 89. 
 
 4 iv. 321, ed. Schulze. 
 
 5 Burder, "Orient. Customs," i. 223. A curious Carthaginian monu- 
 ment of a rehgious character represents two rats with an open hand between 
 them. See Vigouroux, iii. p. 434. 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 53 
 
 propitiatory presents were to be deposited in a coffer made for 
 the purpose, and placed in a new cart beside the ark. It was a 
 reverential feeling which led them to use in this service a 
 vehicle which had never been employed for other or baser pur- 
 poses. The cart itself was probably like one of the arabas, the 
 only wheeled vehicles now known in these lands. These have 
 solid wooden wheels, encircled by an iron tire, and fixed upon 
 the axle-tree which revolves under the body of the cart.* In 
 such a cart the ark and the offerings were placed, and to it two 
 milch-cows were yoked with a special intention. Doubtless, 
 like the new cart, the untrained kine were intended for a token of 
 reverence, even as such animals were chosen for sacrifice as had 
 never been put to servile uses ; but there was a further meaning 
 in the selection. By it they hoped to demonstrate whether the 
 plagues which had smitten the people were accidental or super- 
 natural. Such kine, for the first time submitted to the yoke, 
 would naturally be restive and unruly; besides this, their 
 calves were taken from them and shut up at home. It would 
 be only natural that when left to themselves the cows would 
 hurry back to their young ones. So the divines make the ex- 
 periment, expecting that the event would show that the idea of 
 the calamities being miraculous was groundless. If when let 
 go, the animals followed their maternal instinct and turned to 
 their stalls where their calves were shut up, then they would con- 
 clude that it was a chance that had happened to them ; but if, 
 on the contrary, the kine turned from their own home, and drew 
 the cart quietly and directly towards the borders of Judah, then, 
 in that very unlikely case, they must needs own that they were 
 controlled by a Divine power, and that the plagues which had 
 stricken them were sent by Jehovah. Thus they put the God 
 of Israel to the test, and gave occasion for a display of His 
 Providence. 
 
 The nearest Israelite town to Ekron was Bethshemesh, which 
 lay at a distance of fifteen miles in a south-easterly direction. 
 The name of this city means " House of the Sun," and it had 
 been a famous shrine in Canaanitish times. It is not visible from 
 Ekron, being hidden by an intervening swell near that place ; but 
 when once this is past, the road runs for miles straight to- 
 wards and in full sight of the Jud^ean town. Its ruins are in 
 
 " Van Lennep, 79, 80. 
 
54 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 the immediate vicinity of the modern village of Ain Shems, " The 
 Well of the Sun," beautifully situated on the rounded point of a 
 low ridge, having on the north the Wady Surar, and on the 
 south a smaller wady.' The Wady Surar runs between 
 Ekron and Bethshemesh, and, when Dr. Robinson visited it, 
 was bordered by " well-tilled gardens and fields of the richest 
 soil, all upon the low tract, covered with vegetables and 
 fruits of great variety and high perfection." The cart with 
 its sacred freight was brought outside the city ; the kine 
 were yoked to it, and then left to themselves to take their 
 own course. Usually the driver walks in front of his cart ; in 
 the present case there is no driver at all ; but in deference to 
 the greatness of the occasion, anAthe important issue involved, 
 the five lords follow the vehicle to mark whither it goes and 
 what is the result of the experiment. The cows never hesitated 
 for a moment ; they took the most direct course to Bethshemesh. 
 Not that they had forgotten their calves, for they lowed as they 
 went ; but by some controlling impulse they mastered their 
 natural instincts and went whither the hand of God led them. 
 Up the rough track in the fertile valley they bore their mys- 
 terious burden, the Philistine nobles following in awe, till they 
 came to the near neighbourhood of the Hebrew city. It was 
 now the month of May, and the whole population of Beth- 
 shemesh were in the fields gathering in the wheat-harvest. 
 Suddenly they lifted up their eyes and saw this strange proces- 
 sion approaching. As they realized what it meant, a great joy 
 filled their hearts, the work was stopped, and all with one accord, 
 throwing away their implements, rushed to see this wonder 
 which had come to pass ; an universal shout arose ; their lost 
 treasure was restored ; the Lord was still gracious to His land. 
 Meantime the kine went steadily forward till they came to the 
 field of one Joshua (a man who bore the name of the great leader 
 who had brought the ark into Canaan), and stopped there of 
 their own accord by a rock, which rose above the surface and 
 long marked the spot hallowed by this circumstance. Beth- 
 shemesh was a priestly city, and in it dwelt priests and Levites 
 who knew the requirements of the Law. These gladly received 
 the sacred symbol ; they took the rock for an altar, cut up the 
 cart for fire-wood, and offered the kine for a burnt-offering to 
 
 « Porter, ap. Kitto, snbvoc. Robinson, ii. i8ff. Geikie, i. 103 ff. Both 
 names of the village recall the ancient worship of the sun. 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 55 
 
 the Lord who had dealt so mercifully with them. The Ekronites 
 watched these proceedings at a distance, and then returned 
 wondering to their own borders. Not satisfied with the one 
 formal sacrifice, the Bethshemites testified their gladness by 
 further ofiferings. By the ministry of the priests, and in the pre- 
 sence of the ark, which made of the place a sanctuary, they 
 offered burnt sacrifices and thank-offerings, following up these 
 with the usual sacrificial feast. The excesses engendered by 
 this banqueting, together with the general rejoicing, led some of 
 the people to forget the reverence due to the material represen- 
 tation of the Divine Presence. The priests had not covered the 
 ark with the sacred veil, as the Law ordered (Numb. iv. 5, 19, 20), 
 and they themselves, and others, had the profaneness to open 
 the holy coffer, which even the Philistines had not dared to do, 
 and to gaze upon its contents.* The Lord who had signally 
 vindicated His honour among the heathen, would not suffer His 
 own people to commit sacrilege with impunity. Whether they 
 were led by unhallowed curiosity to raise the golden cover, and 
 look on the time-honoured tables of the commandments and 
 the other memorials of the sojourn in the wilderness, or whether 
 they desired to see whether the Philistines had respected these 
 relics — whatever the motive, it was a grievous sin thus to pro- 
 fane the symbol of Jehovah. Solemn restrictions had encom- 
 passed it from the first ; it was to be handled by the priests 
 alone ; if a stranger looked upon it, he was to be put to death ; 
 even the Levites themselves might not " see the holy things for 
 an instant, lest they died." ^ Thus was taught the awful holi- 
 ness of God. Swift retribution followed the act of irreverence 
 of which the Bethshemites had been guilty. Seventy of the 
 chief men were smitten of God and died.^ If we are to trust 
 * The words in i Sam. vi. 19, translated in A. V. : " Because they had 
 looked into the ark of tlie Lord," are also rendered : '' Because they had 
 looked at the ark." Vulg. : '' Eo quod vidissent Arcam.'' So the LXX. In 
 this case the sin consisted in a curious and irreverent scrutiny. They ought 
 to have received it with humility and penitence, not with feasting and riot, 
 dishonouring the sacred symbol which had been removed for their sins. 
 ^ Numb. i. 50, 51 ; iv. 5, 16-30. 
 
 3 The present Hebrew text has " seventy men fifty thousand men," with 
 no conjunction between the numbers. It is quite contrary to Hebrew 
 usage to place the smaller number first ; Josephus says that seventy were 
 struck by lightning ; and it is quite impossible that in a mere village fifty 
 thousand persons could have fallen. The larger number is certainly an 
 interpolation, arising from the Hebrew method of denoting numbers by letters. 
 
56 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 the Greek version, they were the sons of one Jeconiah who 
 were most conspicuous for want of sympathy and irreverence 
 towards the holy symbol — " they rejoiced not among the men 
 of Bethshemesh because they saw the ark," as it is expressed — 
 which means, probably, that they feared its presence might bring 
 a plague on them as it had on the Philistines, and were vexed 
 that the people had received it so gladly ; on them conse- 
 quently fell the destruction. Whoever they were that perishedi 
 the death of so many in a little community was felt as a very 
 serious and awful calamity. Their own sinfulness was brought 
 painfully home to them ; they were ready to cry with the widow 
 of Zarephath in the presence of her great sorrow : " What have 
 I to do with thee, O thou man of God ? Art thou come unto 
 me to call my sin into remembrance, and to slay my son ?" * Or 
 with St. Peter, astonied at Christ's miracle : " Depart from 
 me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." ' So like the Gadarenes 
 who besought Jesus to depart from their borders,^ the people of 
 Bethshemesh cast in their mind how to get rid of this terrifying 
 witness, for they said : " Who is able to stand before Jehovah, 
 this holy God ? And to whom shall He go up from us? " See- 
 ing in the ark the dwelling-place of Jehovah, they wish to pass 
 it on to others. Now some five miles south-east of Bethshemesh, 
 and standing conspicuously on its hill, some i,ooo feet higher 
 than Ain Shems, was an Israelitish city which had once been 
 a noted sanctuary of Baal before it came into Jewish hands. 
 This city was Kirjath-Jearim, the " city of woods " (as we might 
 call it Woodtown, or Wootton), not the modern Kuryet-el- 
 Enab, " city of grapes," as Dr. Robinson supposed,'* but identi- 
 fied with Khurbet Erma, "a ruin on a thickly covered ridge 
 amongst copses and thickets of lentisk and hawthorn, to which the 
 name Erma still applies, corresponding to the latest form Arim, 
 which took the place of the original Yarim or Jearim (Ezra ii. 25).5 
 
 » I Kings xvii. i8. ■ Luke v. 8. 
 
 3 Matt. viii. 34. * " Researches," ii. 335. 
 
 5 To confirm this identification it is noted that " the three principal letters 
 (ayin, resh, mem) of the name Jearim, or of the later abbreviated form Arim, 
 occur in tlie proper order in the modern Arabic Erma (spelt with the 
 guttural ain) ; the site is, moreover, surrounded and concealed by the 
 thickets of lentisk, oak, hawthorn, and other shrubs, which properly repre- 
 sent the Hebrew word ^(rr//«, from a root signifying to be 'tangled 'or 
 "confused." ' ("Survey Memoirs," iii. 4S ff-) 
 
CAPTURE AND RESTORATION OF THE ARK. 57 
 
 This ruin is distant only three miles from the great valley to- 
 wards which it looks down. It lies close to the border of the 
 lower hills and the high Judsean mountains, and it shows evi- 
 dence of having been an ancient site." ^ Since Shiloh was no 
 longer available as a refuge, the Bethshemites applied to the men 
 of Kirjath-Jearim to relieve them of the ark which had proved 
 to them so fatal a boon. The inhabitants of the latter place, 
 possibly after consultation with Samuel, willingly acceded to the 
 request ; they went and fetched the ark by the ancient road 
 still existing, which descends north of the present ruin, and leads 
 to Bethshemesh direct along the banks of the Wady Ismain. 
 The ark on its arrival was brought up to the house of one 
 Abinadab, which was on the hill or high-place. Kirjath-Jearim 
 was not a Levitical city, but Abinadab may have been a Levite. 
 There was, however, no priest in the place, and as recent ex- 
 perience had shown the danger of profane treatment of holy 
 things, Abinadab's son, Eleazar, was sanctified as keeper of the 
 ark, that is, not with a view of his performing priestly acts or 
 maintaining the sacrificial worship of Jehovah, which would have 
 been plainly unlawful, but in order to guard the sacred treasure 
 against sacrilege, and to see that due reverence was paid to it. A 
 site was prepared for it on the hill, or the old high-place was 
 utilized for the purpose. A late traveller,^ who examined the 
 spot with this identification in view, found that the rock had been 
 cut away in the same fashion as at Shiloh. After mentioning 
 " a bold spur running northwards from the southern ridge 
 characterized by a small natural turret or platform of rock rising 
 from a knoll above a group of olives, beneath which again the 
 thickets clothed the mountains," he proceeds : " But the most 
 curious feature of the site is the platform of rock, which has all 
 the appearance of an ancient high-place or central shrine. The 
 area is about fifty feet north and south, by thirty feet east and 
 west ; the surface, which appears to be artificially levelled, being 
 some ten feet above the ground outside. The scarping of the 
 sides seems mainly natural, but a foundation has been sunk on 
 three sides, in which rudely-squared blocks of stone have been 
 fitted at the base of the wall. On the east this wall consisted of 
 rock to a height of three and a half feet, with a thickness of seven 
 
 » " Twenty-one Years' Work in the Holy Land," 115. Geikie, i. 144, 145. 
 * Captain Conder, "Quarterly Statement,'' Oct. 1881, p. 265. See also 
 Geikie. 
 
58 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 feet. There is an outer platform, about ten feet wide, traceable 
 on the south and south-east ; and a flight of steps three feet 
 wide, each step being one foot high and one foot broad, leads up 
 to this lower level at the south-east angles." Thus after seven 
 months' exile among the heathen the ark again found a home 
 in its own land ; and here it remained undisturbed till many- 
 years afterwards King David removed it to Zion, about which 
 joyful event the writer of the hundred and thirty-second Psalm 
 sung, where, noting that in his journey from Zion to Kirjath- 
 Jearim the king passed Rachel's tomb, he says : 
 
 " Lo, we heard of it in Ephratah ; 
 We found it in the field of the wood." « 
 
 ' This is an usual explanation of the verse. Messrs. Jenning and Lowe 
 (following Gesenius and others) in their commentary take Ephratah to 
 represent the tribe of Ephraim, in whose territory Shiloh lay ; so that the 
 passage would mean : "We heard that the ark had rested at Shiloh, but 
 we found it eventually in the country near Kirjath-Jearim." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SAMUEL JUDGE AND PROPHET. 
 
 Samuel's efforts at reformation — Samuel recognized as judge — Assembles 
 the people at Mizpah— National repentance— Insurrection — Pliilistines 
 defeated at Ebenezer — Effects of the victory — Theocratic government 
 — Samuel's judicial circuit — He establishes " Schools of the Prophets " 
 — Chronology of his life — Samuel's sons — The people demand a 
 king — Samuel, by God's command, acquiesces in their request, but 
 warns them of the consequences — The people persist in their demand. 
 
 The destruction of the sanctuary at Shiloh marks an epoch in 
 the history of the chosen people, even as the next era was closed 
 by the overthrow of the Temple and the Holy City at the hands 
 of the Babylonians, and the third period was consummated by 
 the final devastation of Jerusalem by the legions of Rome. For 
 twenty years after the victory at Aphek, Israel lay prostrate at 
 the feet of its Philistine conquerors. These, indeed, had been 
 constrained to restore the ark to its original possessors, but they 
 retained their supremacy, and oppressed the Israelites in very 
 grievous fashion. The high-priesthood was in abeyance ; there 
 was no longer any centre to which devout people might flock for 
 the worship of the Lord ; the holy ark was severed from its con- 
 nection with the Tabernacle ; there was danger of a collapse of 
 all religion, and of despairing submission to the heathen yoke. 
 But Samuel, of whom for a time we have lost sight, was raised 
 up to meet this emergency. Samspn might casually inflict 
 crushing blows upon the enemy ; might humiliate them by 
 showing what one strong arm, fortified by an inward conscious- 
 ness of Divine aid, could effect ; but it needed something 
 different from these fitful achievements to restore to Israel its 
 
6o SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 forfeited ascendancy. Samuel saw that spasmodic efforts at re- 
 volt, breaking forth in separate localities at infrequent intervals, 
 were useless, and would result only in increased oppression. He 
 knew where the evil lay ; he knew that, in the moral govern- 
 ment of Israel, prosperity hung upon religion ; that national 
 repentance must precede national recovery ; and he turned all 
 the powers of his great mind to produce this change. Already, 
 as we have seen, his fame as a prophet had spread throughout 
 the land. Young as he was, the down-trodden Israelites were 
 well inclined to listen to his counsels. The frequency of the 
 revelations made to him was widely known, and the influence 
 thus early obtained paved the way for the universal acknow- 
 ledgment of his judgeship. The latter was the outgrowth of the 
 prophetical office, and was by it guided and directed. We do 
 not know whether he had taken any part in establishing the 
 Tabernacle at Kirjath-Jearim ; but it is plain that he hirhself 
 then, and for twenty years afterwards, made his headquarters at 
 his native place, Ramah. During this period he had married 
 and become the father of two sons, whom he named respec- 
 tively Joel and Abiah, "Jehovah is God" and "Jehovah is my 
 Father," thus indeed showing his piety by the names which he 
 gave them ; though, as we shall see, they answered but ill to the 
 holy appellations. But home ties could not keep him from his 
 purpose, Levite, Nazirite, Prophet, he possessed every quali- 
 fication for attracting respect and acting as teacher. A life of 
 holiness and self-denial, consistent in every particular, well 
 known to all Israel, carried with it an authority that could not 
 but be acknowledged by every real Israelite. As Dean Stanley 
 well says : ' " Whatever else is lost by the absence of experience 
 of evil, by the calm and even life which needs no repentance, this 
 is gained. The especial work of guiding, moderating, softening, 
 the jarring counsels of men, is for the most part the especial 
 privilege of those who have grownup into natural strength from 
 early beginnings of purity and goodness — of those who can 
 humbly and thankfully look back through middle age, and 
 youth, and childhood, with no sudden rent or breach in their 
 pure and peaceful recollections." 
 For twenty weary years,^ which carried him from youth to 
 
 ' "Jewish Church," lect. xviii. vol. i. p. 413. 
 
 = Concerning this section of the history, i Sam. vii. 2-17. Wellhausen 
 
SAMUEL JUDGE AND PROPHET. 6l 
 
 middle age, Samuel pursued his steadfast purpose. He had a 
 great work before him, and he set himself resolutely to accom- 
 plish it. The evils which had led to the present calamities were 
 impiety and idolatry. The people had forsaken the Lord, had 
 revelled in wickedness, had utterly forgotten the Law of Moses ; 
 and retribution had overtaken them as a direct consequence of 
 their sins. Throughout the Holy Land were found the images 
 of the Philistine deities, who were worshipped now instead of, 
 or in company with, Jehovah. In place of resorting to the 
 priests of the Lord and the appointed sacrifices, the people set 
 up shrines containing images of Baal and Astarte, and offered 
 there the foul worship of their heathen conquerors. A false 
 peace had fallen upon them, numbing their spiritual faculties, 
 and persuading them to fall in with the ways of their idolatrous 
 neighbours. The Philistines doubtless made it a test of submis- 
 sion that they should honour the victors' religion. The weak- 
 ness of human nature, the laxity of morals, thus, as it were, 
 sanctified by religion, the tendency to acquiesce in what seemed 
 inevitable, the fear of worse suffering if opposition was attempted 
 — all these things offered serious opposition to any change for the 
 better ; against them all Samuel had to contend. He was pre- 
 eminently a man of prayer ; his love of intercession was a 
 marked feature of his character. His communing with God 
 supported him throughout this woful period. At Ramah, where 
 his influence was greatest, he raised an altar and performed the 
 worship of Jehovah with such faithful Israelites as he could find 
 to join him. Gradually he gathered a little circle of pupils and 
 friends, and expounded to them his views and wishes and long- 
 ings. Here was formed the nucleus of that prophetic school 
 which, starting from small beginnings, continued to the end of 
 the Jewish history, and had so marked an influence on national 
 events and character. Steadily and warily he won his way into 
 the hearts of his countrymen. With unwearied zeal he went up 
 and down among them, from one end of the land to the other, 
 reproving, rebuking, exhorting. He recalled to mind their 
 ancient glory, infused into their hearts the long-forgotten ideas 
 so familiar to their forefathers — the special Providence that 
 watched over them, the favour bestowed, the guidance exer- 
 
 (" History of Israel,'' pp. 248, 249) affirms that there cannot be a word of 
 truth in the whole narrative, which is simply a fictitious insertion intended 
 to express and enforce certain ideas of much later origin. 
 
62 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 cised,the prosperity consequent upon obedience, the punishment 
 that followed the infringement of Divine commands. Often in 
 danger from the Philistines, who knew that conversion to Jeho- 
 vah meant rebellion against themselves ; repelled and opposed 
 by irreligious Israelites, who were content with their bondage, 
 and did not wish to be aroused to assert their independence, 
 Samuel continued to execute his mission ; during all these years 
 he never swerved from his purpose, endeavouring to make Israel 
 see its sinfulness, acknowledge the justice of its punishment, and 
 make itself worthy of God's renewed protection by turning to 
 Him heartily and entirely. 
 
 At length, after this long preparation, matters seemed to be 
 ripe for a general change ; the people had learned their lesson ; 
 calamity and oppression had driven them to repentance ; they 
 had discovered the source of their disasters and the only effectual 
 remedy. Then Samuel, who had long worked in secret, unto 
 whom they looked for counsel and support, suddenly appeared 
 in public as a heaven-sent leader. Israel had "lamented after 
 Jehovah," sorrowed for its past transgressions, and again sought 
 the Lord, and could now trust in the Divine help. So no longer 
 by private remonstrance or secret exhortation, but openly 
 Samuel stands forth to show the way of reformation. One con- 
 dition only he insists upon as a token of contrition ; they must 
 openly renounce idolatry, and be prepared to endure the con- 
 sequences of such proceeding. "If," he proclaims, " if ye do 
 return unto the Lord with all your heart, then put away the 
 strange gods and theAshtaroth from among you, and prepare your 
 hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only ; and He will deliver 
 you out of the hand of the Philistines." The Israelites responded 
 to the call ; the heart of the whole people was stirred ; as by a 
 general impulse they tore themselves free from the debasing 
 idolatry which had held them captive ; they demolished the 
 shrines ; they brake the idols to pieces. Such conduct was equi- 
 valent to an overt act of rebellion against their Philistine oppres- 
 sors. It shows what a wonderful power Samuel exercised, how 
 deeply his passionate appeals influenced the nation, that almost 
 unarmed and undisciplined, with no military commander to 
 inspire them with confidence and to lead them to victory, they 
 provoked a contest with a foe greatly superior in equipment and 
 force, and animated by a long series of successes. But it was no 
 vain confidence in the arm of flesh that led them to make this 
 
f 
 
 SAMUEL JUDGE AND PROPHET. 63 
 
 venture ; and to prepare them for their solemn trial Samuel 
 summons them to repentance and prayer. From this time for- 
 ward he takes the lead. Now he convenes a general assembly at 
 Mizpah to prepare for war by the exercise of religion. Mizpah, 
 which means watch-tower^ is a name given to many heights in 
 Palestine ; but the place intended here is that remarkable hill, 
 the loftiest in Central Palestine, rising some five hundred feet 
 above the surrounding country, and nearly three thousand above 
 the sea level, about five miles north of Jerusalem, and now known 
 by the name of Neby Samwil. If this is the same place as Nob, 
 it was chosen as the scene of the great assembly, not only be- 
 cause of its commanding position, which rendered it safe from 
 surprise, but because the Tabernacle was settled there. It is 
 remarkable that on the summit of this hill, as at Shiloh and 
 Kirjath-Jearim, there is a level platform some five or six feet 
 high cut out of the rock, whereon, doubtless, some kind of 
 building was erected to receive the sacred tent. " The view from 
 this place, which is usually identified with Mizpah, is extensive. 
 It includes Ivlount Gerizim, and the promontory of Carmel to the 
 north ; Jaffa, Ramleh, and a wide stretch of the maritime plain 
 to the west ; Jebel Furaydis (the so-called Frank Mountain), the 
 far-distant mountains of Jebal, the town of Kerak, Jebel Shihan 
 (the highest point in Israel), are seen to the south and south- 
 east ; the continuation of the trans-Jordanic plateau, with 
 slightly undulating outline, stretches to the east and north-east." ^ 
 In atonement for the past, and in dedication for the future, under 
 Samuel's instruction, the people performed two solemn cere- 
 monies. First, they fasted, as the Law enjoined on the great day 
 of atonement, confessing their sins, and afflicting their soul, and 
 humbling themselves before Jehovah. This general fast was 
 accompanied by another rite, not mentioned heretofore, but 
 practised by immemorial usage at the Feast of Tabernacles. 
 " They drew water," it is said, "and poured it out before the 
 Lord." In later time it was the custom on each of the seven 
 days that the feast lasted for the priests to go forth from the 
 Temple, accompanied by the Levite choir, unto the spring of 
 Siloah, and to bring thence water in a golden vessel to be 
 poured out at the altar as a libation at the time of the morning 
 sacrifice.^ Was this ceremony so long maintained, and so often 
 
 * "Quarterly Statement,'" 1872, p. 174 ; " Survey Memoirs," iii. 43 ff. 
 
 ■ Comp, IsLi. xii. 3 ; John vii. 37, 38. 
 
64 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 mentioned by Rabbinical writers, in memory of this great national 
 conversion, a commemoration of the reconciliation of the 
 estranged people ? It is probable that it was at this feast, and the 
 fast which preceded it, that Samuel assembled the people. It is 
 noteworthy,' that after the return from Babylon, this Feast of 
 Tabernacles was solemnly kept by the whole congregation (Ezra 
 iii. 4-6);and again in Nehemiah's time, when the people assem- 
 bled to hear the Law read, it was at the same feast ; so that it 
 seems that this festival was regarded as the fittest occasion for 
 making a great national demonstration or inaugurating a national 
 movement. The pouring out of water has been variously inter- 
 preted. As used in the Temple service it was a memorial of the 
 water from the smitten rock, and a type of the effusion of the 
 Holy Spirit. On the particular occasion here referred to, it has 
 been explained in connection with the accompanying fast as 
 denoting self-denial, as David refused to drink the water from 
 the well of Bethlehem, but poured it out before the Lord (2 Sam. 
 xxii. 16) ; others see in it a token of repentance, a total re- 
 nunciation of sin, the water being, as it were, a symbol of 
 tears ; or being poured on the earth it figuratively washed the 
 land from the stain of idolatry ; or it represented their abject 
 condition and helplessness, that they were as water spilt on the 
 ground, which cannot be gathered up again.^' 
 
 Samuel had collected the assembly, acting in his capacity as 
 prophet ; henceforward he was to exercise another office. The 
 people recognized his authority ; they saw in him one who was 
 well fitted to be their ruler in things temporal, and here in full 
 convention they by universal acclamation elected him as judge. 
 A worthier choice could not have been made. It is true he was 
 no warrior, no sagacious general who could lead them forth to 
 victory having the experience of many a well-fought battle to 
 guide him ; but he was strong in prayer, strong in faith ; he 
 had the prudence of calm wisdom ; he knew his countrymen 
 thoroughly, and understood exactly how far they could be 
 trusted, what they could be expected to effect. In his capacity 
 as judge, he marshalled them and reduced them to discipline 
 and order so that they might resist the attack which he foresaw. 
 The Philistines were not slow to perceive that a formidable 
 rebellion was preparing. The general demolition of their idols 
 
 ' "Speaker's Commentary,'' on i Sam. vii. 6. 
 ■ Corn, a Lap. in loc. 
 
SAMUEL JUDGE AND PROPHET. 65 
 
 and this great gathering at Mizpah were signs which they could 
 not mistake. Prompt measures were adopted. The whole Phi- 
 listine force assembled to crush the insurrection. Each city sent 
 its contingent, and an army which seemed irresistible moved 
 towards Mizpah. The Israelites were dismayed, but not dis- 
 heartened. Samuel's confidence had inspired them with trust 
 in the Divine protection ; they remembered how at Moses' 
 prayer Amalek had been defeated, how the Lord had fought for 
 Israel in their fathers' times, and they determined to abide the 
 attack, and to leave the issue to the God of armies. They fly 
 to Samuel, they bid him, the child of prayer, the man of prayer, 
 cry unto God to deliver them out of their enemies' hands. 
 And Samuel at once executed his office of intercessor. He 
 raised that piercing cry to heaven which had often been heard 
 among them ; and he took a sucking-lamb and offered it as a 
 whole burnt-offering to the Lord. This he could do, though not 
 of Aaron's family ; for he was an extraordinary priest, specially 
 commissioned to supply the place of the regular ministry in the 
 present abnormal state of affairs. God appoints certain means, 
 and men are bound to use these means in the appointed way ; 
 but He does not so inseparably restrict Himself to this ap- 
 pointment that He never works beyond and independently of it. 
 It is possible, as we saw above, that the Tabernacle was at 
 Mizpah ; in which case the sacrifice would have been offered in 
 the ordained place, though not by the regular priest ; but be 
 this as it may, the prophet was delegated to rear altars and to 
 slay victims in other spots, and to be the medium of communi- 
 cation with the Most High. As the smoke of the sacrificed 
 lamb (type of the self-dedication of the afflicted people) rose to 
 heaven, and while the loud cry of Samuel echoed through the 
 air, the Philistine host was seen approaching, and the Israelites 
 from their height advanced to meet the foe. Little would 
 their half-armed and undisciplined forces have availed against 
 the hardy warriors opposed to them. But the Lord fought for 
 Israel. The voice of God answered the voice of the Prophet. 
 The historian sees a Divine interposition in that which ensued. 
 An awful thunderstorm broke over the heathen troops, filling 
 them with dismay, and throwing them into confusion ; and 
 Samuel, like a skilful general, seizes the moment to launch his 
 followers against them. With impetuous courage they rush 
 down the steep ; they break through the adverse line ; a panic 
 
 6 
 
66 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 strikes the demoralized heathen host ; resistance is forgotten, 
 and the PhiHstines fly in abject terror before the Israelites. 
 Jewish tradition ' tells of another circumstance that added to 
 the horrors of that resistless onslaught. *' God disturbed their 
 ranks with an earthquake ; the ground trembled under their 
 feet, so that there was no place whereon to stand in safety, and 
 they either fell helpless to the earth or into some of the chasms 
 that opened beneath them." A very great slaughter ensued. 
 The Philistines fled down the deep valley now filled with a 
 torrent rushing over its rocky bed, pursued by the victorious 
 Israelites, who found themselves furnished with arms cast away 
 by the terrified enemy. The pursuit terminated at Beth-car, 
 now Ain Karim, " the well of the vineyards," a fortress of the 
 Philistines, situated in a recess half way up the eastern moun- 
 tains.'' Here the small remains of the heathen host took refuge 
 undisturbed by further attack. Long afterwards the Jews dwelt 
 with exultation on this victory, and the son of Sirach refers to 
 it in eulogistic strain : Samuel " called upon the mighty Lord, 
 when his enemies pressed upon him on every side when he 
 offered the sucking-lamb. And the Lord thundered from 
 heaven, and with a great noise made His voice to be heard. 
 And he destroyed the rulers of the Tyrians, and all the princes 
 of the Philistines." 3 In memory of this great deliverance, and in 
 view of the necessity of Divine aid in the future, Samuel set up 
 a great stone in the plain where the defeat had taken place, 
 and called it Ebenezer, " Help-stone," saying, " Hitherto hath 
 the Lord helped us." This was the same spot where twenty 
 years before the Israelites had suffered the great defeat which 
 culminated in the capture of the ark. It is defined by the 
 sacred historian as lying between Mizpah and Ha-Shen (" the 
 tooth "), a sharp-pointed rock so called. This latter is identified 
 with Deir Yesin (which preserves the name), a place three 
 miles west of Jerusalem, and one and a half miles north 
 of Beth-car.-* The public erection of this memorial shows 
 what an important reformation Samuel had effected, and what 
 was the principle which he had impressed upon his countrymen. 
 For ages afterwards every pious wayfarer might read the 
 
 « Joseplms, " Antiq.", vi. 2. 2. 
 
 » Robinson, " I^ater Researches," 158; "Palestine Quarterly," 1881, 
 p. 271. 
 
 3 Ecclus, xlvi. i6 ff, 4 HiMiderson, " Palestine," 215. 
 
v_ 
 
 SAMUEL JUDGE AND PROPHET. 67 
 
 guiding motive of his actions, and the ground of all national 
 success : " Our help is in the name of the Lord, who hath 
 made heaven and earth." 
 
 Some immediate results followed this victory. The Philis- 
 tines were for a time broken, and made no fresh attack on 
 Israel. The national spirit of the Hebrews was thoroughly 
 aroused ; they not only guarded their frontiers, but also re- 
 covered all the cities and the surrounding territories between 
 Ekron and Gath which had been seized by the enemy in the 
 time of their depression. The Amorites, too, in the neighbour- 
 hood of Joppa who had taken part with the Canaanites, found 
 it to their advantage to side with Samuel, and put themselves 
 under the protection of the Israelites.^ " It was no mere soHtary 
 victory, this success of Israel at Ebenezer, but was the sign of a 
 new spirit in Israel, which animated the nation during the life- 
 time of Samuel, and the reigns of David and Solomon and the 
 great Hebrew kings. The petty jealousies had disappeared, 
 and had given place to a great national desire for unity. In the 
 several tribal districts it was no longer the glory and prosperity 
 of Judah, Ephraim, or Benjamin, but the glory and prosperity 
 of Israel that was aimed at. The old idol worship of Canaan, 
 which corrupted and degraded every nationality which prac- 
 tised it, was in a great measure swept away from among the 
 chosen people, while the pure religion of the Eternal of Hosts 
 was no longer confided solely to the care and guardianship of 
 the tribe of Levi, which had shown itself unworthy of the 
 mighty trust. The Levites still ministered in the sanctuary, 
 and when the Temple took its place, alone officiated in its 
 sacred courts ; and the chosen race of Aaron, in the family first 
 of Ithamar, then of Eleazar, alone wore the jewels and the 
 official robe of the high priest ; but in religious matters the 
 power of the priestly tribe was never again supreme in the Land 
 of Promise. From the days of Samuel a new order — that of 
 the Prophets, whose exact functions with regard to the ritual of 
 the worship of the Eternal were undefined — was acknowledged 
 by the people as the regular medium of communication with the 
 Jewish king of Israel."^ 
 
 The blow thus struck at the superiority of the Philistines was 
 felt at the moment so severely that the sacred writer could say 
 
 * I Sam. vii. 14 ; Ewald, ii. 199. 
 
 * Bishop Ellicott's " Comtn.'" on i Sam. vii. 13. 
 
68 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 that, up to the time when he wrote, a few years after the event, 
 "the PhiHstines came no more unto the coast of Israel, and the 
 hand of the Lord was against them all the days of Samuel." * 
 
 The years of quiet left Samuel at liberty to pursue his high 
 vocation. Previous judges had been mere warriors and com- 
 manders ; they executed their office, delivered their nation, 
 and subsided into private life, neither effecting nor trying to 
 effect any permanent reforms. Samuel was no general, no 
 military leader. The occasion lately mentioned was, as far as 
 we know, the only time when he acted as a leader in war. His 
 was a higher call, to educate his nation to realize the theocratic 
 government, and to live as under the eye and under the direct 
 rule of Jehovah. He partially failed in this attempt, because he 
 could not elevate his fallen countrymen to adopt and act upon 
 so high a view ; but he laboured hard for this end, and resigned 
 it only at the express permission of God. We have to see how 
 he strove to carry out his idea, the measures he took to make 
 his influence felt, and to raise the people to a knowledge and 
 appreciation of their great privileges. The respect in which he 
 was held, the great services he had rendered, facilitated his 
 task ; and he brought his personal influence to bear on his 
 countrymen generally, at least in the southern part of the land, 
 by visiting annually some of the celebrated spots of religious 
 veneration, and there sacrificing and exercising his office of civil 
 judge. Starting from Ramah his home, he used first to go to 
 the time-honoured Bethel, where the Lord had twice appeared 
 to his great forefather Jacob, and where the encampment and 
 altar of Abraham had stood. Thence he journeyed to Gilgal in 
 the Jordan valley,^ the first station of the Israelites after they 
 
 " This seems the most obvious way of explaining the statement in 
 I Sam. vii, 13, which otherwise cannot be reconciled with the fact that the 
 Phihstines in the early days of Saul were again active oppressors of Israel. 
 Possibly Samuel himself wrote the words of the text before the Philistines 
 had recovered from their defeat or attempted to regain their lost supremacy. 
 The explanation of Dean Payne Smith, that " it is the method of the Divine 
 historians to include the ultimate results, however distant, in their account 
 of an event," though true enough in many cases, seems hardly adequate to 
 solve the difficulty here. 
 
 s That this Gilgal is the one intended in the text seems most probable, 
 as the other on the high ground to the south-west of Shiloh (2 Kings ii. i) 
 was of no religious importance at this time or previously, and Samuel's 
 circuit was confined to holy sites whither pilgrims flocked at different times 
 of the year. See Geikie, ii. 94 ff. 
 
SAMUEL JUDGE AND PROPHET. 69 
 
 had crossed the river, some three miles east of Jericho, and 
 known now by the name of Tell Jiljulieh. This had been from 
 time immemorial a consecrated locality. Its very name, mean- 
 ing "a circle," recalls the primeval stone monuments of some 
 forgotten religion, though Joshua conferred a new interpretation 
 on the appellation by making it commemorate the erection of 
 twelve stones which marked the miraculous passage of the 
 Jordan. From Gilgal Samuel visited Mizpah, and ended at 
 Ramah, where he doubtless had succeeded to some of his 
 father's property. But he did not confine his judicial visits to 
 these well-known spots ; he often betook himself to other 
 places at uncertain intervals in order to redress grievances, or 
 to punish wrong-doing, or to offer Divine worship.^ He estab- 
 lished a regular service at Shiloh, but it does not appear that he 
 removed the Tabernacle hither when he built his altar here. 
 Possibly, the priests of the family of Ithamar claimed it as their 
 own peculiar property, and, as a kind of Palladium, removed it 
 from one of their own cities to another, without Samuel's ap- 
 proval or against his will, the sacred writer with a reverent 
 reticence omitting to record these proceedings.^ It was not 
 unusual, in spite of the stringent rule of the Mosaic code which 
 ordered all sacrifices to be offered before the ark in the 
 appointed place,^ for altars to be reared in other localities, as 
 by the people at Bochim, by Gideon at Ophrah, and by Manoah 
 at Zorah.'* It is stated in the Mishna that before the Tabernacle 
 was erected high-places were lawful, but after it was erected 
 they were not allowed. After the destruction of Shiloh it 
 became temporarily lawful to sacrifice in the high- places, and 
 this permission continued till the establishment of the Taber- 
 nacle at Jerusalem. s The sacrificial acts of Samuel at Ebenezer, 
 at Ramah, and other places, were evidently sanctioned by God ; 
 the pretext of a sacrifice at Bethlehem on the occasion of the 
 anointing of David was especially suggested by the Lord 
 (i Sam. xvi. 2). Now that the tabernacle and ark were 
 divorced from one another, and there was no regularly- 
 appointed House of God, the Mosaic rule was temporarily 
 suspended, and what would have been an offence at one time 
 and after the Temple was built was at this abnormal period 
 
 * See I Sam. xvi. 2 flf, * Hummelauer, on i Sam. vii. 17. 
 
 3 Deut. xii. 5, 6, 13, 14. 4 Judges ii. 5 ; vi. 24 ; xiii. 19. 
 
 5 Quoted by Captain Conder, "Quarterly Statement," 1875, p, 36. 
 
70 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 allowed and condoned. And it was also shown by the accept- 
 ance of sacrifice at Samuel's hands that the Aaronic priesthood 
 was not of the essence of religion, and that God by special 
 delegation allowed prophets to perform priestly acts. 
 
 At Ramah Samuel gathered a company of youths, whom he 
 taught to read and write, instructed in the Law, in the music of 
 Divine worship, and in the practice of " prophecy." There is 
 some difficulty in discovering what is exactly to be understood 
 by a school of the prophets, which he is allowed to have founded. 
 The circumstances of the times plainly demanded some order 
 supplementary to the priesthood which had so greatly de- 
 generated, and was now unworthy to be the instructor of the 
 people. External acts of religion needed to be explained and 
 illustrated by oral teaching. Samuel saw this necessity, and to 
 aid his own efforts at reformation and to render his work 
 permanent, he established colleges of Prophets, which should 
 keep up the supply of teachers and of persons competent to 
 receive communications from heaven. Trained in the arts of 
 poetry, music, and sacred song, living a cenobitic life, cherishing 
 their gifts in common, these persons were often affected by the 
 spirit of inspiration unconsciously propagated from one another, 
 and uttered words of Divine force and significance. We hear 
 of these " schools " in various places, as Gibeah, Bethel, Gilgal, 
 Jericho ; and they continued down to the Captivity, doing a 
 great work, maintaining pure religion in the midst of general 
 corruption, raising a constant protest against laxity and im- 
 morality, and acting as a counterpoise to the influence of the 
 monarchy, which was so commonly found on the side of impiety 
 and idolatry. It is as teachers of morality and religion that 
 the prophets in Samuel's time are to be chiefly regarded. Other 
 functions, doubtless, they discharged ; they uttered religious 
 songs accompanied by musical instruments ; they gave audible 
 expression to the visions of the seer In some rhythmical form, 
 which at once fixed the attention and was easily retained by the 
 memory ; * they prepared psalms and music for Divine service ; 
 they composed annals of the days in which they lived ; but 
 their highest duty was to hold forth a high standard of spiritual 
 religion, and to reveal God's will to man. At the head of this 
 institution stood Samuel. But this did not complete the sum 
 
 ■ Stanley, "Jewish Church," i. 399* 
 
SAMUEL Judge and prophet. 71 
 
 of his occupations or influence. He was not like those judges 
 who held supreme authority in some perilous time, and in days 
 of peace were lightly regarded and forgotten. He had become 
 necessary to his countrymen ; he was their friend and adviser 
 in every matter ; they consulted him in little questions as well 
 as in great. In any difficulty, domestic, personal, or national, 
 they had recourse to the Seer. Some doubtless regarded him 
 superstitiously as a " wise man " or wizard, but with most he 
 was emphatically the man of God, who had communication 
 with the Most High, and was illuminated with superhuman 
 wisdom by direct inspiration from heaven. He was truly the 
 great statesman and reformer of his age. The institutions 
 which he founded and supervised trained the young in religion 
 and purity and Hterary accomplishments, fostering high education 
 and all good habits. His own unwearied attention to business, 
 his easy urbanity, his humble affability, brought his influence to 
 bear on individuals, and ensured justice to each private person ; 
 while his public measures tended to raise the spirit of piety and 
 patriotism, and to make Israel what it was intended to be, the 
 people of Jehovah. 
 
 In these labours of his judicial office Samuel passed the best 
 years of his life. The dates of his birth and death are difficult 
 to determine, as the data on which to found his chronology are 
 uncertain. From the monumental records of King Shishak we 
 gather that Solomon came to the throne B.C. 1018 ; thence we 
 conclude that David reigned from B.C. 1058. Saul's reign, 
 according to Josephus,' lasted twenty years, which would give 
 the date B.C. 1078 for his first anointing. Between Eli's death 
 and the battle of Ebenezer some twenty years elapsed ; Samuel 
 was then the recognized Judge for twelve or fifteen years, and 
 for eighteen held co-ordinate authority with the king ; and, as we 
 gather from the Biblical narrative and the particular place 
 where mention of the decease occurs,^ his death preceded that 
 of Saul only by two years, so that he died B.C. 1060. The 
 battle of Ebenezer, which put an end to the forty years of 
 Philistine oppression, was fought about B.C. 1095. At Eli's 
 
 * " Antiq.," vi. 14. 9, where kcli dKo<n (" and twenty ") is an interpolation, 
 the genuine reading being, "Saul reigned during Samuel's life eighteen 
 years, and after his death two." In another passage {" Antiq.," x. 8. 4) 
 he states expressly that Saul's reign lasted only twenty years. 
 
 ' Comp. I Sam. xxv. i ; xxvii. 7 ; xxviii. 3. 
 
72 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 death, twenty years previously, Samuel must have been about 
 twenty or twenty-five years old. This would bring his birth to 
 B.C. 1 140, and make his death to have happened in his eightieth 
 year or thereabout. Some of these dates are only probable, but 
 they are well grounded and consistent with ascertained facts 
 and the Biblical record. 
 
 As time went on, and Samuel advanced in years, and his 
 counsel was sought more extensively, he found himself unable 
 to fulfil satisfactorily the increasing duties of his combined 
 offices. Accordingly, he associated his sons with him in his 
 judgeship, and placed them as his substitutes in the extreme 
 south of Judc^a, at Beersheba, on the Philistine border. Such an 
 appointment shows the wide extent of his authority. Josephus * 
 intimates that his influence extended also northward ; for he 
 states that one of these sons was established as judge at Bethel. 
 It is difficult to see how this good man could have so little 
 knowledge of the character of his sons as to appoint them to 
 these high posts. The example of Eli might have warned him 
 against such a mistake. But probably it was the very elevation 
 that developed in the young men the seeds of evil which had 
 hitherto lain dormant. The elders had complained that 
 Samuel's increasing infirmities rendered him unable to ad- 
 minister justice effectively in all parts of the land ; the most 
 natural and ready means of remedying this defect was to 
 delegate some portion of his powers to his own sons, who had 
 grown up under his eye, and might be supposed to be capable 
 of carrying out their father's principles and to be willing to do 
 so. That they turned out very different from what he expected 
 showed indeed that they had not profited by his example, but 
 does not prove that he was wanting in prudence or judgment. 
 Their education may have been careful, their training excellent ; 
 they had in their father a model of integrity, faith, unselfishness, 
 rarely equalled ; and yet they went wrong, walked not in 
 Samuel's ways, were greedy and rapacious, perverted justice, 
 and, after that very common Eastern failing, took bribes. The 
 elders of Israel, the heads of the families, who formed a kind 
 of popular assembly, and who had learned to admire the 
 inexorable justice of Samuel's administration, felt aggrieved at 
 the state of matters which now existed ; they saw that a change 
 
 ■ "Antiq.," vi. 3. 2. 
 
SAMUEL JUDGE AND PROPHET. J^ 
 
 was absolutely required, if they were to continue faithful to the 
 Lord and hold their own against their enemies. The Philistines 
 had recovered from their defeat, and had strong garrisons in 
 the very heart of the country ; the Ammonites, who had been 
 subdued by Jephthah years ago, were threatening the region 
 on the east of Jordan ; a strong hand was needed to unite the 
 whole people at this crisis, and to lead the nation to victory. 
 If the great prophet was not able to be their general, and if his 
 sons were unworthy and unfit to command, what was their 
 resource } They saw only one alternative. They had read the 
 Book of the Law, they knew what was virtually promised 
 therein ; so confiding thoroughly in Samuel's justice and 
 patriotism, and being convinced that no thought of the private 
 interest of himself or his family would interfere with his calm 
 judgment, they come to him at Ramah, saying : " Behold, thou 
 art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways : now set a king for 
 us, to judge us like all the nations." Their words recalled and 
 were meant to recall the expressions in Deut. xvii. 14, which 
 seemed to expect this very crisis — " When thou art come unto 
 the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess 
 it, and shalt dwell therein ; and shalt say, I will set a king 
 over me, like all the nations which are round about me." This 
 was their request, and it displeased Samuel greatly, for many 
 reasons. The least of these was the slight put upon him by 
 such a demand ; the ingratitude for his vast services, the dis- 
 satisfaction with his righteous government, affected him in a 
 very inferior degree. He had more serious and wholly unselfish 
 causes for displeasure. They had come of their own motion, 
 influenced by worldly motives, without having consulted the 
 Lord or laid the matter before Him. They should not have 
 offered this bald request, '^ Make us a king," but should have 
 entreated the prophet to find out God's will in the matter. 
 They make no reference to the Almighty ; they want to be as 
 the neighbouring heathen, to have a monarch to rule them and 
 fight their battles. It was their very privilege to be different 
 from other nations, and this they lightly cast away as of no 
 account. They did not realize the grand idea of the theocracy 
 — "to be Jehovah's own subjects, ruled directly by Him, a 
 repubhc with Jehovah for its chief, and its officers speaking at 
 His command, and under His direct influence and control."^ 
 * Dean Payne Smith, ap. " Pulpit Commentary." 
 
74 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 The principle of monarchy had never been repudiated by the 
 law of Israel ; it was only that they had to submit to a 
 heavenly, not an earthly king. Their government was a 
 theocracy ; the Lord was their king. To exhibit and to 
 confirm the great truth of monotheism was the chief end of 
 all their institutions. To guard this, they were isolated from 
 the rest of the world in the Holy Land ; to teach this, they had 
 one only appointed place of general worship ; they were made 
 to feel their entire dependence upon God ; Jehovah punished 
 their transgressions ; Jehovah led them to deliverance. The 
 one, unseen God was their only head and leader. To this idea 
 they could not rise; it was too sublime for their grovelling 
 minds to grasp ; it needed stronger faith than they were 
 capable of exercising. Like their forefathers in the desert, 
 who, distrusting an invisible Deity, cried to Aaron, " Make us 
 gods to go before us," they needed some tangible ruler and 
 commander ; they forgot how God had judged them, and 
 fought for them, and upheld them when they were true to Him. 
 Though they were not wrong in believing that they were some 
 time destined to be governed by a king, as prophecy and the 
 law and Hannah's song might have told them, yet they were 
 misguided in asking for a king such as the heathen had. The 
 king they needed was not a mere soldier, but a representative 
 of Jehovah, who should act in all things under His guidance, 
 and by himself obeying God's law and enforcing obedience on 
 his subjects, retain the favour of the Lord. And for this they 
 ought to have waited God's good time, and not in a sudden 
 emergency to have fled to human means and the arm of 
 flesh, forgetting that the Lord was their king. Very natural 
 was it that Samuel should be grieved at this declension. 
 But his wounded feelings did not make him unjust or 
 unmindful of the source of comfort and wisdom. He 
 referred the matter to Him whose servant he was. He 
 prayed unto the Lord for guidance. Very tender to the 
 prophet, though stern to the erring, was the answer which he 
 received : " Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that 
 they say unto thee ; for they have not rejected thee, but they 
 have rejected Me, that I should not be king over them. Accord- 
 ing to all the works which they have done since the day that I 
 brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, in that they 
 have forsaken Me, and served other gods, so do they also 
 
SAMUEL JUDGE AND PROPHET. 75 
 
 unto thee." It had ever been so with them ; they always 
 undervalued their privileges, depreciated their own institutions, 
 desired to be as the nations around them ; and now, as they 
 would not realize their great prerogative, God granted their 
 request as a punishment for their offence. When He is asked 
 for something amiss, God shows displeasure in granting, mercy 
 in denying, the petition. So here, He gave them a king in His 
 anger.' But He bade the prophet first give them warning and 
 a time for re-consideration by pointing out the inconveniences 
 and dangers which would attend the establishment of such a 
 king as they desired. This Samuel proceeded to do calmly 
 and dispassionately. And here we must pause to note the un- 
 precedented self-abnegation of this true patriot. The ideal for 
 which he had lived and laboured was suddenly shattered and 
 overthrown ; the theocratic government which he had believed 
 in and righteously administered was repudiated ; the subjects of 
 Jehovah had revolted and spurned His allegiance ; the people 
 whom he had loved and saved mistrusted his government and 
 the power of the Master whom he served ; yet in spite of all he 
 murmured not ; he accepted the new situation ; with rare un- 
 selfishness he thought only of what was best for his nation, and 
 gave all his energy to regulate the transition, and make it con- 
 duce to religious and political amelioration. 
 
 " Samuel," says Ewald,"" " is one of the few great men in his- 
 tory who, in critical times, by sheer force of character and 
 invincible energy, terminate the previous form of a great exist- 
 ing system, at first against their own will, but afterwards, when 
 convinced of the necessity, with all the force and eagerness of 
 their nature ; and who then initiate a better form with the 
 happiest results, though amid much personal suffering and 
 persecution. No new truth, stretching beyond the Mosaic 
 first principles, impels him to action ; but those principles he 
 grasps with a reality and vividness all his own ; and it was the 
 great necessity of his time not to let such truths drop into 
 oblivion. Those truths, rising into intense vitality in his own 
 spirit, he has the strength and the self-devotion to embody 
 afresh in the life of his age, and to re-constitute the whole 
 people in conformity with them in such manner as the changed 
 conditions of the age admit. Similarly, Luther, taking his 
 
 « Hos. xiii. II. 2 "History of Israel," ii. 191 f^ (Eng. Trans., 1867). 
 
76 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 Stand only on the fundamental principles of Christianity, from 
 that recovered ground renovated and transformed his age, so 
 far as seemed possible under the overpowering weight of cir- 
 cumstance. Being rather a man of daring and unwearied 
 energy than of thought and reflection, Samuel at first throws 
 himself entirely into the established system, and avails himself 
 of all its latent powers and existing institutions, with the 
 happiest result in strengthening and renovating his people ; 
 giving, even up to his mature years, by the splendour and 
 supremacy of his spirit, the last touch of perfection to all that 
 lay within his reach. Here, against his own preconceptions 
 and wishes, the conviction suddenly forces itself upon him that 
 the whole existing system has become hopelessly unsound, and 
 that the community can be saved only by a totally new organiza- 
 tion. And at this moment, which is to decide the fate of 
 centuries, he is the hero required, who can sacrifice his previous 
 convictions and all the honours of his rule to give the age what 
 it lacks ; and will take care that this gift may indeed accomplish 
 all that can be hoped from it. Although at first a conscientious 
 opponent of the new state of things which a higher necessity 
 was forcing on his people, yet from the moment when he 
 recognizes this necessity he becomes the most devoted and 
 efficient organizer of the new age, just as Luther required to be 
 first overpowered by the great need of the Reformation before 
 he would dedicate his whole powers to its service. Thus 
 Samuel stands the spiritual hero of two very different eras, 
 equally illustrious in both, but especially happy to find the 
 second, which he not merely lived through, but, as it were, 
 created, an age not of fermentation, only, but of progress, in 
 which the good seed sown by him might grow and flourish. 
 For if David's visible deeds are greater and more dazzling than 
 Samuel's, still there can be no doubt that David's blaze of 
 glory would have been impossible without Samuel's less con- 
 spicuous, but far more influential, career, and that all the great- 
 ness of which the following century boasts goes back to him as 
 its real author." 
 
 Though the idea which he had fostered and delighted in 
 received this rude check, Samuel, in his unselfish patriotism, 
 utters no word of reproach, but simply applies himself to fulfil 
 the commands of God, and to arrange the new constitution in 
 the best possible manner. First, he tells the people unreservedly 
 
SAMUEL JUDGE AND PROPHET. 77 
 
 what the Lord had spoken to him ; then he explains what may 
 be the result of the appointment of such a king as they desired, 
 what his rights would be, and how he might exercise them. 
 Thus they could not help learning that a very grave responsi- 
 bility lay with them, and that they might live to repent that 
 they had thrown aside his own mild and just government, and 
 exchanged their republican liberty for the rule of a despot. 
 The picture which he draws embraces the usual features of the 
 government of Eastern kings. He tells them that they must 
 expect great changes ; their quiet pastoral life would be at an 
 end ; their king would establish a splendid court, to the main- 
 tenance of which they must contribute ; their sons would have 
 to attend his state chariots as drivers and escort ; war 
 would be made on a scale to which they were wholly unac- 
 customed with armies duly appointed and officered ; forced 
 labour would become the rule ; the young men would be com- 
 pelled to cultivate the royal demesnes, and to fabricate the arms 
 of the soldiers ; the young women would be taken to make 
 articles of luxury for the royal use, as ointments and perfumes, 
 and to perform servile offices in the palace. No longer would 
 each man dwell securely under his own vine and fig-tree. The 
 king would seize the choicest of their possessions to bestow 
 them upon his own favourites ; their fields, oliveyards, and 
 vineyards would no more be their own unalienable property. 
 In addition to the tithes payable to the Levites, the king would 
 exact another tenth for his own expenses, and to lavish upon 
 the ministers of his pleasures. All the people and all their 
 property, sheep, oxen, asses, would be absolutely at his service ; 
 no one and nothing would be free from the yoke ; and they 
 would learn too late that they had made a grievous mistake. 
 They should cry out in that day because of the king whom they 
 had chosen, and the Lord would not hear them. 
 
 Such a warning might well have led the people to pause in 
 their hasty decision, and to think again ere they unreservedly 
 committed themselves to this momentous alteration. The 
 chiefs did indeed deliberate after they had heard Samuel's 
 message, but their consultation only ended in a renewed 
 adherence to their former demand. They came again to 
 Samuel and repeated their request even more strongly : " We 
 will have a king over us." Remonstrance was useless, and the 
 prophet could only convey their resolution to the Lord and 
 
78 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 await His answer. This soon came, confirming again His 
 former command : " Hearken unto their voice, and make them 
 a king." Samuel announces this response, and sends them 
 away, promising to attend to the matter in due time ; and the 
 elders, quite content to leave the choice of the king and the 
 moment of his appointment to their tried and trusted chief, 
 returned to their homes, while Samuel waited for some com- 
 munication from God to guide him in the selection of the future 
 monarch. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SAUL ANOINTED KING. 
 
 Saul ; his genealogy — Is advised to consult Samuel at Raniah concerning 
 the loss of his father's asses — The high-place— Samuel warned of the 
 coming of the destined king, receives Saul with high honour — 
 Intimates his future lot — Privately anoints him king— Meaning of such 
 unction— Samuel gives Saul three signs, and a premonition as a trial of 
 faith — Saul returns home — Keeps his own counsel — Is publicly chosen 
 king at Mizpah — Divination by lot — Saul's early policy. 
 
 Some short time after the event narrated at the end of the pre- 
 ceding chapter, Samuel in some way received a communication 
 from the Lord, that on a certain day he would meet the man 
 who was destined to be the king of Israel. When he was 
 engaged in his usual occupations at his own home, whither he 
 had retired after the momentous meeting of the chiefs, the 
 Lord had suddenly whispered ^ to him, saying, " To-morrow 
 about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of 
 Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be prince over My 
 people Israel, and he shall save My people out of the hands of 
 the Philistines : for I have looked upon My people because 
 their cry is come unto Me." The man thus pointed out was 
 Saul, afterwards the first king of Israel. The manner of his 
 introduction to the prophet was what men call chance, but 
 which we know to be the working of Divine Providence, 
 
 ^ The Hebrew is : " the Lord had uncovered the ear of Samuel " (i Sam. 
 ix. 15), an expression derived from the action of pushing aside the hair or 
 head-dress in order more conveniently to whisper something in a person's 
 
8o SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 shaping and overruling the actions of men. This Saul, whose 
 name means " asked," was the firstborn son of a Benjamite 
 named Kish, who lived at Gibeah, a town on a hill, with a 
 " curiously knobbed and double top," now known as Tuleil-el- 
 Ful, and situated some six miles east of Neby Samwil."^ The 
 genealogy of Kish is very confused, owing partly to the Hebrew 
 fashion of omitting links, and partly to the enormous destruc- 
 tion of the Benjamites recounted in Judges xx., in which pro- 
 bably many of the tribal records perished. A comparison of 
 various authorities gives the following as the most probable 
 stemma : i. Benjamin; 2. Becher ; 3. Aphiah (PAbiah); 4. 
 Bechorath ; 5. Zeror (Zur) ; 6. Abiel, or Jehiel ; 7. Ner ; 8. 
 Kish (brother of Abner) ; 9. Saul. Even here some links are 
 omitted ; for in i Sam. x. 21, we hear of the family of Matri, 
 or the Matrites, as being that to which Saul belonged, but the 
 name does not occur in the existing genealogy. This Kish was 
 a man of opulence, and his son Saul was remarkable for his 
 stature and beauty, being now some thirty-five years old.' It 
 chanced one day that the she-asses of Kish, kept for breeding 
 purposes, and of considerable value in that primitive com- 
 munity, had strayed, and Saul, with one of his father's servants, 
 was sent to seek for them. In an unenclosed and thinly 
 populated country it was no easy task to track the wandering 
 animals, even for these two experienced men. The servant, so 
 called, was no slave, but a trusty and favoured dependant. If 
 tradition is right in considering him to be Doeg, the Edomite, 
 afterwards the ruthless executioner of Saul's cruel command 
 concerning the slaughter of the priests of Nob, 3 he was well 
 acquainted with the habits of cattle, and might be trusted with 
 much confidence to find the straying asses. Leaving Gibeah, 
 Saul and his servant first passed over the range of the mountains 
 of Ephraim, which ran into the territory of Benjamin, then to 
 " the land of Shalisha," or Baalshalisha, " three land," situate 
 some fifteen miles north of Lydda, and so named because three 
 valleys there converge in the Wady Karawa ; thence they pro- 
 ceeded to the wild country round Tayibeh, known as Shalim, 
 
 * Robinson, " Palestine, ii. 118; " Further Researches," 286. Stanley, 
 " Sinai and Palestine," 213 f. This identification, however, is not certain. 
 
 = This is deduced from the fact that J onathan, his son, is mentioned as 
 grown up some two years later. 
 
 3 I Sam. xxiL x8. 
 
SAUL ANOINTED KING. 8l 
 
 '* the haunt of jackals ; " thence to the '* land of Zuph," in which 
 lay Ramah, the home of Samuel. But in all this long and weary 
 journey, they had not found the lost asses. It was now the 
 third day since they had started, and Saul, who had strong 
 affections, whatever faults in his character afterwards developed 
 themselves, began to think of his father's feelings at their long 
 absence, and desirous of sparing him anxiety, proposed to the 
 servant to return at once, though their expedition had been 
 fruitless, " lest," as he said, " my father leave caring for the 
 asses, and take thought for us." The servant, however, con- 
 sidered that there was still one chance left of recovering the lost 
 animals. They might consult a wise man and ask his advice 
 Just before them rose the hill of Ramathaim-Zophim, and the 
 attendant opportunely remembered that in that city dwelt a man 
 of God, highly honoured and respected, and one whose state- 
 ments always proved true ; he suggested that they should have 
 recourse to him before giving up the quest as hopeless. He 
 does not speak as if he had known Samuel by name, and Saul 
 seems to be equally ignorant. One calls him the "man of 
 God," and the other " the seer." The fact, if fact it were, 
 would be most perplexing. Gibeah was not very far distant from 
 Ramah ; and that Samuel, the eminent prophet and the chief 
 ruler of Israel, should have been unknown by name to Saul 
 and his domestic, is quite incredible. That they had never met 
 before is plain from what happened subsequently, when Saul 
 speaks to him as to a stranger, and inquires the way to the 
 seer's house (i Sam. ix. i8) ; but how are we to account for this 
 apparent ignorance ? Probably, the personal name was almost 
 forgotten in the office, and it was by this title he was generally 
 known, the people near Ramah calling him " the seer," the 
 Benjamites referring to him as the " man of God." Another 
 alternative is, that the dialogue between Saul and his servant is 
 imaginary, founded upon the facts that came afterwards into 
 prominence, and not to be taken as literally occurring. We 
 have a gloss in verse 9 to account for the use of the word 
 roeh, "seer," as applied to Samuel, instead of the time- 
 honoured term nabiy " prophet." Roeh^ which at a later 
 period came to include not only inspired persons, but 
 pretenders to occult science, was used in the highest 
 sense in Samuel's days ; but as it had degenerated in 
 meaning at the time when the editor of this book wrote, 
 
 7 
 
82 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 he is careful, while retaining it in the text, to explain 
 its true meaning. The narrative exhibits the simplicity 
 which characterizes such primaeval stories. The subsequent 
 conduct of Saul and his servant shows ignorance of Samuel 
 and his circumstances, and the conversation attributed to them 
 prepares the reader for what follows. It is, as a wise man, that 
 the attendant wishes to consult Samuel, as one, who by his 
 more than human knowledge, might direct them in their 
 perplexity. If he and his master knew whom they were to see, 
 and were aware of the important offices which he held, it speaks 
 well for the kindness and affability of the great Judge, that they 
 should have confidence to approach him, and ask advice in so 
 trivial a matter. It would appear that it was no new thing to 
 resort to seers for consultation in private affairs, and that it was 
 customary to offer a present on such occasions. Whether the 
 practice led to chicanery, and whether there was at this time a 
 class of pretended soothsayers, cannot be decided. Saul could 
 hardly have placed Samuel in any such category, though he is 
 willing to appeal to him on a business which any mere sooth- 
 sayer might have decided. The present case, at any rate, was 
 divinely ordered, and the answer of the seer betrays inspira- 
 tion. Having decided to consult the seer, Saul suddenly 
 remembers that he has nothing to offer, no money with 
 him, not even a loaf of bread. To approach a great 
 man in the East without a present is an unheard-of pro- 
 ceeding ; and we know from Ezekiel's contemptuous allu- 
 sion to " handfuls of barley and pieces of bread," ' that false 
 prophets were rewarded by the deluded people for their lying 
 oracles. The messengers who sought Balaam took the rewards 
 of divination in their hand ; the wife of Jeroboam who went to 
 consult the prophet Ahijah concerning the sickness of her son, 
 took with her a present of bread and honey. We need not 
 suppose that Samuel received payment for his counsel like a 
 heathen soothsayer ; rather it was in satisfaction of the usual 
 etiquette that Saul was anxious to make some offering to one 
 in his exalted position. The difficulty about the present is 
 solved by the servant, who suddenly remembers that he has 
 the fourth part of a shekel of silver, and this he will gladly offer 
 
 * Ezek. xiii. 19. Comp. Gen. xliii. 11 ; Numb. xxii. 7, 17 ; i Kings 
 xiv. 3 ; Isa. Ivii. 9. 
 
SAUL ANOINTED KING. 83 
 
 for the desired information. What the exact sum was according 
 to modern calculation, it is not possible to determine. Van 
 Lennep considers the shekel to have been worth seventy-five 
 cents or 2s. 7}4d^ But silver was scarce in those days, and the 
 value of money was considerably higher, nor was the weight 
 arranged upon any settled system. Commentators, reasoning 
 rather upon the statement in the text than upon any satisfactory 
 grounds, have supposed that the coined shekel was divided into 
 four quarters by a cross, and actually broken when needed. 
 The piece thus separated would be somewhat larger than our 
 sixpence, and would have been deemed a considerable fee at 
 that time. Whatever may have been its value, the servant is 
 ready to part with it as bakshish to the seer. So, relieved in 
 mind, they went unto the city, where the man of God dwelt. 
 The name of this city is not given, but we have good reason to 
 suppose it to be Samuel's native-place, Ramah. There are 
 difficulties in the identification, but these are not insurmount- 
 able. For instance, it is said that Saul, on his return home, 
 passed Rachel's tomb, which in Gen. xxxv. 19 is placed near 
 Bethlehem. If Gibeah were the modern Jeba, a village eight 
 miles south-west of Bethlehem, the route would be obvious; 
 but, identified as Gibeah of Saul is with Tuleil-el-Ful, the 
 travellers must have made a most unnecessary circuit to return 
 home by Jerusalem and Rachel's sepulchre. There may have 
 been reasons that made the longer journey desirable, and now 
 that his father's mind was set at rest concerning the lost asses, 
 Saul may have thought a little further delay was of no con- 
 sequence. There is also some doubt as to the position of 
 Rachel's sepulchre. In Jeremiah xxxi. 15, it is spoken of in 
 connection with Ramah : " A voice is heard in Ramah, lamen- 
 tation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children." 
 ■yhs^ passage is quoted to the same effect by the evangelist, 
 Mav^ ii. 18. Other difficulties have been found in the expres- 
 sions used in the text, where it is not said that Samuel lived in 
 the j;^'iace, but only that he was there, accidentally as it might be."" 
 But the fact is, that there is no verb at all in the Hebrew, and we 
 may supply equally well " dwells " or " is." That it was a dwell- 
 ing-place of Samuel, that it was situated on a hill, that there was 
 an altar there, and that it was well known as the home of the 
 
 » P. 35. » I Sam. ix. 6, 10. 
 
84 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 man of God, all these facts point to Ramah as being the un- 
 named city. 
 
 As they approached Ramah, Saul and his servant were met 
 by maidens coming to draw water from the spring at the foot 
 of the hill on which the city was built, and inquired of them if 
 the seer was there at this time. So busy a man, one so 
 occupied with affairs of consequence, might naturally be absent 
 from home at times, and Saul was much relieved to hear 
 from the maidens, who, in girlish fashion, were eager to impart 
 information to the strangers, that on that very day he had 
 returned home, and was even now about to go up to the high- 
 place yonder to offer sacrifice, and preside at the festival. 
 They added that if Saul made haste, he would catch him in 
 his own house within the city, before he ascended the hill to 
 perform his public function. This ceremony was a feast 
 connected with a sacrifice ; it was celebrated on the Bamah, a 
 high-place situated on the top of the hill where Samuel had 
 erected an altar. It was Samuel's custom to say a prayer of 
 thanksgiving, and to bless the meal before the invited guests sat 
 down in the large room near the altar whereon the peace-offer- 
 ings were offered. Grace before meat is a custom of hoar an- 
 tiquity, inherited by Christians directly from Judaism. A 
 natural instinct of gratitude led even heathens to make a 
 libation of the wine which they were about to drink. Now 
 Samuel had had Divine intimation, in answer to his continued 
 prayers, that he should this day meet the man designed by God 
 to be king of Israel. Accordingly he made all needful prepara- 
 tion for this momentous occasion. He arranged the sacrifice 
 and the consequent feast, and invited thirty of the chief men 
 of the place to assemble there, and even had a certain choice 
 piece of meat set aside for the distinguished stranger. At the 
 time appointed the prophet left his house in the city and walked 
 toward the gate to ascend the hill to the high-place. Sudd><l ''/ 
 he sees before him a man of commanding presence and remaiK- 
 able beauty ; he doubts within himself whether or not tijs is 
 the destined monarch. His hesitation is soon solved ; the 
 voice of the Lord whispers in his heart : "Behold the man of 
 whom I spake to thee ! this same shall have authority over My 
 people." At this moment Saul comes up, and, ignorant of the 
 person whom he is addressing, asks Samuel if he can tell him 
 where is the seer's house. " I am he," answers Samuel : "go 
 
SAUL ANOINTED KING. §5 
 
 up before me unto the high-place, for ye shall eat with me to- 
 day : and in the morning I will let thee go, and will tell thee 
 all that is in thine heart." Thus he prepares the wondering 
 stranger for the great announcement which he has to make ; 
 and to show Saul that he might trust to his prophetic powers 
 by which his secret thoughts were known, he adds : '' And as 
 for thy asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on 
 them ; for they are found." A mysterious intimation followed 
 that some great change was about to happen to him. The in- 
 formation was conveyed with much obscurity, but it evidently 
 meant to announce that the possession of great power was 
 destined to be his. The prophet's language, rightly paraphrased 
 and understood, is this: " Why troublest thou thyself about a 
 drove of she-asses or the concerns of a petty farm in Mount 
 Ephraim ? Something much higher should fill thy thoughts ; 
 for to whom does all that is desirable in Israel belong? Is it 
 not to thee and to all thy father's house ? " Here was indeed a 
 hard saying, but coming from the lips of one so revered and 
 high in dignity, and of unquestioned veracity, it carried with it 
 an air of reality which awed while it amazed the listener. Such 
 a future, thus dimly revealed, had never entered Saul's imagina- 
 tion ; no such dream had ever disturbed the even tenour of his 
 uneventful life ; and he can scarcely credit the import of the 
 prophet's words, or deem them more than the hyperbolical 
 compliment of a courteous chieftain. Modestly he replies : 
 " Am not I a Benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel ? 
 and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Ben- 
 jamin? Wherefore then speakest thou to me after this manner?" 
 The tribe of Benjamin had not yet recovered from the cruel 
 destruction inflicted upon it some years before,' and the family 
 of Kish, though rich in rustic possessions, was of no great 
 account ; how should a member of such a clan be singled out 
 to be the recipient of those great promises ? Samuel gave no 
 answer to the stranger's question. He had awakened high 
 thoughts, he had put grand aspirations into his mind, and he 
 desired to let these work before he unfolded more of the Divine 
 purpose. Meantime he conducted Saul and his servant (for the 
 latter was thus honoured as well as his master) to the chamber 
 where the feast was prepared and the guests were assembled. 
 
 * Judges XX. and xxi. 
 
86 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 There Saul was placed in the seat of honour, not merely as 
 being a stranger (which would not have involved any such 
 arrangement), but on account of the eminence which his desig- 
 nation gave him in the seer's eyes. His servant, too, shared 
 in this elevation as being attendant on so important a personage. 
 The portion reserved for him, which Josephus calls " the royal 
 portion,"' was then placed before him. It was the shoulder 
 with all the fat which was not burned upon the altar. If this 
 was the right shoulder, it was that portion which appertained 
 to the priest, and could only have been given to a layman by 
 the prophet's authority overruling the usual ritual observance. 
 As such it would have been a mark of the highest distinction. 
 The cook who brought it in speaks confidentially about the cir- 
 cumstance ; ' *' Behold," he says, '* that which hath been re- 
 served is set before thee ! eat ; for it hath been kept for thee 
 unto the appointed time of which Samuel spoke, saying, I have 
 invited the people." When the feast was over and the com- 
 pany dismissed, Samuel brought Saul back with him to his 
 house in the city, having induced him to delay taking his home- 
 ward journey till the following day, and then, for an oppor- 
 tunity of quiet conversation, he conducted the traveller to the 
 flat roof of his house. These flat roofs were a favourite place 
 of resort, not so much for privacy (for as the enjoined battle- 
 ments 3 were not very high, persons assembled there were readily 
 conspicuous), but as secure against eavesdropping and un- 
 desired companionship. Here the two communed together in 
 peace. The prophet did not unfold his purpose fully, leaving 
 the more complete announcement for the morrow ; but he could 
 explain to the future king his view of the state of the people and 
 the country, and tell of his own long struggle to amend matters ; 
 he could speak sadly of the religious and political degradation, of 
 the inability to offer any effectual resistance to enemies, of the 
 need of a vigorous leader, obedient to the commands of the 
 Lord and devoted to His service. He could endeavour to fill 
 
 ' " Antiq. " vi. 4,1. 
 
 " The Authorized Version of i Sam. ix. 24, in agreement with the Sept. 
 and Vulg., inserts the word Samuel : "And Samuel said, Behold," etc. 
 There is no "Samuel" in the Hebrew, and it is plain that the Syriac and 
 Chaldee are correct in making the cook the speaker. So " Speak. Comm." 
 in loc. 
 
 3 Deut. xxii. 8. 
 
SAUL ANOINTED ICING. 87 
 
 the soul of his auditor with a holy ambition to be instrumental 
 in aiding the great work that had to be done ; he could set 
 before him the great principles of the Theocracy lately over- 
 looked or neglected ; he could define the remedies which alone 
 could meet the exigencies of the present crisis. Hitherto Saul 
 had taken no interest in public affairs ; occupied solely in the 
 trivial matters of his father's farm, and in his own domestic 
 concerns, he had thought little about his country's fortunes. In 
 his retired life he knew nothing of the religious or political 
 movements that had taken place, and he needed awakening to 
 higher aspirations and nobler hopes, that the fuller development 
 of his destiny might not find him altogether unprepared. After 
 this momentous conversation Saul had a couch prepared for his 
 guest on the roof, and left him, full of thought and wonder, to 
 repose. ** During a large part of the year," says Dr. Thomson/ 
 *' the roof is the most agreeable place about the establishment, 
 especially in the morning and evening. There multitudes sleep 
 during the summer, in all places where malaria does not render 
 it dangerous. This custom is very ancient. Saul, young, 
 vigorous, but weary with his long search, would desire no better 
 place to sleep than on the roof." Very early in the following 
 morning he was awakened by the old man, who bade him pre- 
 pare for his journey, and himself accompanied him out of the 
 city. This was an honour that still more astonished Saul, 
 already discomposed by the distinguished reception which he 
 had encountered, and the obscure hints of a great future opened 
 before him. As soon as they emerged from the town and were 
 now alone in the open country, Samuel desired Siul to send on 
 his servant, that he might commit to Saul's own ear the word of 
 the Lord which he was commissioned to impart. It was a solemn 
 moment, unto which all the previous events and actions had 
 led. What a chain of so-called accidents conducted to this con- 
 summation ! The casual straying of some asses, the sending of 
 Saul to track them, the servant's suggestion to consult the seer, 
 the presence of Samuel in the city, the meeting of Saul and the 
 
 ' " Land and Book," p. 39. Instead of "he communed with Saul up- 
 on the housetop," the LXX. read : " they spread a couch for Saul on the 
 housetop, and he lay down" (i Sam. ix. 25). In the following verse the 
 rendering of the Authorized Version is not correct, " Samuel called Saul to 
 the top of the house." This should be : " Samuel called to Saul upon the 
 housetop." 
 
88 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 prophet, the banquet to which the stranger was invited — all 
 these occurrences, seemingly trivial and accidental, were or- 
 dained or overruled by God to effect His intended design. 
 Without further explanation, the old prophet suddenly halted, 
 and called on his companion to stand still before him. Then 
 he took from his bosom a vial, one of those long, narrow- necked 
 vessels from which the contents flowed slowly in drops. This 
 was filled with the holy oil which was used in the inauguration 
 of the high priest, and the prophet poured it upon Saul's head 
 in token that he was consecrated to the service of God and 
 represented His power and authority, and thus became the 
 Lord's anointed. The Jews were accustomed to the idea of 
 anointing a king even before this time, as we may gather from 
 Jotham's parable (Judg. ix. 8), in which the trees are made to 
 go forth to anoint a king over them. Afterwards it became 
 customary to perform this ceremony at the introduction of a new 
 dynasty, or where the succession was disputed. Thus we read of 
 the anointing of David, Absalom, Solomon, Joash, Jehoahaz,and 
 Jehu ; but ordinarily sovereigns were not thus honoured, the 
 unction of their regular predecessor being considered sufficient 
 dedication, and the term " the Lord's anointed " applied to all 
 legitimate monarchs, whether formally anointed with the conse- 
 crated oil or not. The ceremony was of great significance. It im- 
 ported that the highest offices were centred in the person thus 
 treated ; it was his consecration and characteristic ; it conferred 
 upon him a majesty and a sanctity such as no one else in the 
 community possessed, and which made his person inviolable, 
 and crimes against him treason to the Lord whose vicegerent he 
 was. Having thus designated Saul for the throne, Samuel 
 kissed him in token of homage and allegiance, even as it is said 
 in the Psalm (ii. 12), " Kiss the Son, lest He be angry." At 
 the royal unction and the kiss of fealty from this venerated 
 judge and prophet, Saul's amazement could not be restrained. 
 His looks, if not his tongue, asked what it all meant. And 
 Samuel answers, putting his reply in the form of a question : 
 " Is it not that the Lord hath anointed thee to be prince over 
 His inheritance?" "And," as the LXX. add, "thou shalt deliver 
 His people from the hands of their enemies that are round 
 about." Israel was the peculiar inheritance of the Lord, being 
 especially so named in the Law and in Moses' song,' and there- 
 
 « Deut. ix. 26, 29 ; xxxii. 8 f. 
 
SAUL ANOINTED KING. 89 
 
 fore no one could legitimately reign over it who was not directly 
 called. We may well remark the unselfish obedience of Samuel 
 to the Divine voice, and the humility which led him to pay 
 these marks of respect to one so insignificant and unknown, 
 and who was about to supersede him in his office. And now, 
 as Saul cannot believe in his great destiny, and still looks in- 
 credulous, in order to assure him of the reality of all that hap- 
 pened, that the unction had been bestowed by Divine authority, 
 and that his grand future was no dream, Samuel gives him 
 three signs which no one uninspired could have known, which 
 should surely come to pass directly, and which should afford 
 to him hints for future guidance. Thus were faith and duty to 
 be supported. The first sign was this : he should find two 
 men " by Rachel's tomb in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah," 
 who should tell him that the lost asses were found, and that 
 Kish was rendered very anxious at the long absence of his son, 
 and was sorrowing for him. The position of Rachel's tomb 
 was well known, and is traditionally shown one mile north of 
 Bethlehem, though if in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin it 
 could scarcely have been in the immediate vicinity of Bethlehem, 
 as the words of Gen. xxxv. 19 would lead one to suppose. It 
 seems scarcely probable that so well-known a site should be 
 defined by naming Zelzah, a place nowhere else mentioned, and 
 the identification of which has baffled all travellers. Wilson,* 
 indeed, fixes it at Beit-jala, west of Bethlehem, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the traditionary Kabbet Rahil, or tomb of Rachel ; 
 but the identification is quite arbitrary and rests on no solid 
 grounds. One would have expected not a proper name here, 
 but an appellation ; as in the case of the other signs, Samuel 
 indicates not only the locality generally, but the very spot 
 intended, by adding some notable object as a closer definition ; 
 thus he speaks of "the oak of Tabor," and "the monument of 
 the Philistines." So in the present case we should expect to 
 find mentioned not a town, but some object, as a rock or tree, 
 to obviate all mistake about the place intended. The reading 
 in the text is most uncertain. The LXX. give "leaping violently," 
 i.e., probably, taking part in some religious ceremony of which 
 dancing was an accompaniment, or, as Ewald would explain 
 the words, " in great haste," referring to the messengers bring- 
 
 » "Lands of the Bible,'' i. 141, quoted by Dean Payne Smith cm Sam. x. 2. 
 
90 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 ing the news of the recovery of the asses. Klostermann would 
 read: ''from Gibeah of Benjamin," arguing that the men must 
 have come from that place, to be able to bring the news which 
 they reported. The Vulgate has, "in the south," or, "at mid- 
 day." We may therefore regard the words " at Zelzah " as an 
 erroneous reading, though we are unable to supply the original 
 expression. This first sign, which duly came to pass, confirmed 
 the information which the prophet had previously given, and 
 led Saul to believe in the high destiny to which the prophet's 
 words and actions had called him. Henceforward he was a 
 new man, filled with new hopes and aims, rising to meet the 
 lot that awaited him ; as it is said very forcibly in the Hebrew 
 text : ^ "it was so that when he had turned his back to go from 
 Samuel, God turned to him another heart," i.e.^ changed him 
 and gave him another heart. He was the careless herdsman, 
 the petty, self-interested farmer, no longer ; he had become a 
 patriot, a statesman, a hero. Such was the first sign. Its 
 object was to free him from the cares incident to his former 
 humble life, and thus to leave his mind open to more important 
 interests. The second was as follows : near the oak or tere- 
 binth of Tabor (a spot now wholly unknown),^ he should meet 
 three men going on a pilgrimage to the ancient shrine of Bethel, 
 hallowed by the worship of Abraham and Jacob and all their 
 forefathers. These men would be carrying, as offerings, to the 
 holy place, three kids, three loaves, and a bottle of wine ; they 
 would salute him, giving him tht^ " Peace be with you " of the 
 friendly traveller, and, stranger as he was, would present him 
 with two loaves, intimating that he was worthy of all respect, 
 even to the extent of sharing in the offerings destined for God's 
 service. And he should accept these at their hands ; nothing 
 doubting that he, who had duly received the unction hitherto 
 appropriated to the priests, was taking only his due when he 
 admitted the homage thus paid to the Lord's anointed. Here, 
 too, was a token that the Lord Himself would sustain him if he 
 continued in His way. This sign also happened according to 
 Samuel's word. 
 
 * I Sam. X. 9. 
 
 = Ewald and others maintain that " Tabor " is another form of Deborah, 
 or sliould be so altered, and that this terebinth is the Allon-bachuth 
 under which Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, was buried (Gen. xxxv. 8). Keil 
 has given good reasons for doubting this identification, though doubtless it 
 is a very attractive idea. 
 
SAUL ANOINTED KING. 91 
 
 The third sign was to befall him close to his own home 
 at Gibeah/ near a famous monument ^ of the Philistines, 
 erected either in memory of some past victory (as Sesostris 
 raised pillars in conquered countries),^ or in honour of some 
 dead hero. At this spot he should be met by a company of 
 prophets engaged in their religious exercises, and should feel 
 himself constrained to take part in their services. All so 
 occurred. As he approached the place, a number of pupils from 
 the School of the Prophets which Samuel had established there 
 were even then coming down from the high place above the 
 city, following a band of musicians, and chanting a psalm or 
 hymn as they went. The musical instruments used are par- 
 ticularly mentioned. There was the psaltery {jiebel), a harp 
 without a third side, of ten strings, played by the hand, and of 
 very deep tone : the tabret [toph), a tambourine ; the pipe 
 {chain), a flute or a reed instrument like the clarinet ; and the 
 harp {kinnor) of eight or nine strings, played by a plectrum, a 
 small piece of bone or ivory used instead of the tips of fingers. 
 These four instruments were often employed on festive occasions, 
 as we find them mentioned in the account of the feasts of 
 dissolute Israelites.'* Now when Saul met this company, and 
 saw their enthusiasm, and heard their stirring music, his heart 
 was strangely moved, the Spirit of God came upon him, and 
 he, untrained as he was, joined with all his powers in the 
 ecstatic songs and praises which issued from the prophets' lips. 
 
 « "The hill of God," i Sam. x. 5, ought to be rendered "The Gibeah 
 of God," Saul's own Gibeah being thus named on account of the well- 
 known high place near the town. 
 
 ^ The Authorized and Revised Versions give : " where was the garrison 
 of the Philistines." So the Vulgate, "statio." The LXX. translate the 
 word, "height," or "erection," thus also the Syriac ; the Chaldee gives 
 "leader"; the Arabic, "column." It seems improbable that the Philis- 
 tines should have had a military post in Gibeah itself ; and if they had, it 
 would have been superfluous to announce the fact to Saul in order to 
 indicate the spot where he was to meet the prophets. That indication 
 could only be given by pointing to some definite object, e.g., a pillar, a 
 stone, a tree. The same word, netsib, is used. Gen. xix. 26, for "the 
 pillar" of salt into which Lot's wife was turned. See Hummelauer on 
 I Sam. X. 5. The word for "garrison " throughout chapters xiii. and xiv 
 is different. 
 
 3 Herod, ii. 102. 4 Isa, v. 12. 
 
92 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 This was indeed a new thing in the life of Saul, and astonished 
 his fellow-townsmen and those who had known him all his life. 
 " What is this ? " they cried, " that hath happened to the son of 
 Kish ? Is Saul also among the prophets ? " They were utterly 
 amazed that one of no cultivation, a rustic with a mind hitherto 
 occupied only in petty concerns, should vie with these highly 
 educated youths, and take a ready part in their exercises. 
 They did not recognize the Divine influence which had effected 
 this sudden change. But one inhabitant, wiser than the rest, 
 saw deeper into the matter. " Ye are surprised," said he, 
 " that the son of Kish should be thus endowed. But what has 
 parentage to do with prophetic gifts ? Who is the father of the 
 other scholars .'* Is prophecy an hereditary gift ? If they 
 received their ability from God, why may it not be so also with 
 Saul?" Thus the spiritual transformation which the Holy 
 Spirit was making in Saul's heart was manifested openly to all 
 the world. This remarkable change was long remembered, 
 and in connection with a similar experience in very different 
 circumstances, occasioned the use of the common proverb, " Is 
 Saul also among the prophets ?" 
 
 When the transitory enthusiasm had passed away, it left a 
 certain fervour behind which could not be satisfied without 
 further communing with God. New powers were working 
 within him, new feelings and aspirations were excited ; he 
 wanted to be alone for quiet meditation and prayer. So before 
 he returned to his own home, he went up to the high place, now 
 deserted by the prophetic band, and stayed there for a time 
 in calm retirement. Some think that a festival was being 
 celebrated at the sanctuary, and that Saul Avent thither for the 
 purpose of attending it, and there met his uncle and had the 
 conversation with him reported below. But it is more probable 
 that he ascended to the Bamah for a religious purpose ; and we 
 should have expected that the prophets would have been them- 
 selves going thither, rather than returning from it, if a public 
 feast was taking place. On once more reaching his home, Saul 
 was received with great joy by his father, who was a man of 
 placid, sluggish temperament, and too well pleased to have his 
 beloved son back in safety to make any very particular inquiries 
 concerning the details of his journey. Not so, however, with 
 another relation, who is here called his uncle, and who must 
 have been either Ner, his father's brother, or his cousin, the 
 
SAUL ANOINTED KING. 93 
 
 subsequently celebrated Abner, most likely the latter.^ Having 
 heard of Saul's interview with Samuel, and the honour then 
 paid him in the face of the assembled guests, and having also 
 marked Saul's altered demeanour and habits, he was much 
 more inquisitive. But Saul did not gratify his curiosity. He 
 said no word concerning the promised kingdom. He probably 
 knew enough of Abner's character to see that this kinsman 
 would at once begin to scheme and plot to bring about the fulfil- 
 ment of this fine promise ; and this was quite contrary to the 
 prophet's injunction, and opposed to his own modesty and 
 humility. So he kept his own counsel, and imparted his great 
 secret to no one. Before Samuel dismissed him after the 
 solemn anointing, the seer had given him certain directions for 
 his guidance, adding that in other matters he was to be 
 governed by circumstances, and act as the spirit within prompted 
 him. " Let it be," said Samuel, " when these signs are come 
 unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee ; for God is with 
 thee." The further premonition given on this occasion referred 
 to the time when the kingdom should have been confirmed in 
 his hand, and he should be preparing to put in execution the 
 purpose for which he was appointed, the deliverance of Israel 
 from the power of the Philistines. He would naturally 
 assemble the people at Gilgal for the commencement of the 
 war of independence, but he was to remember that he was 
 the servant of Jehovah, holding his authority from Him and 
 fighting under His direction, and that therefore he must ask 
 God's blessing on the enterprise, and inaugurate it with solemn 
 religious services. For this purpose he was to wait seven days 
 for Samuel's arrival, who after that interval would come to offer 
 burnt sacrifices and peace-offerings. This was of the utmost 
 importance, and to be a trial of his faith.^ We shall see here- 
 after how he behaved under it. 
 
 » Comp. I Sam. xiv. 50, 51, and i Chron. viii. 33. 
 
 * The above seems the best explanation of the difficult passage, 1 Sam. 
 X. 8 : " And thou shall go down before me to Gilgal ; and, behold, I will 
 come down unto thee, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of 
 peace-offerings ; seven days shalt thou tarry, till I come unto thee, and 
 shew thee what thou shalt do." It is plain that Samuel was not directing 
 Saul to go at once to Gilgal, for the sequence of events was quite 
 different ; nor could he have been referring to the first m.eeting at Gilgal 
 (i Sam. xii. 14 ff.) for the renewal of the monarchy, for he himself went 
 
94 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 And now the time was come for the public election of the 
 future king. The private designation, and the secret unction, 
 were to be supplemented by proceedings enacted in the sight of 
 Israel. In a great national assembly the monarch was to be 
 chosen by lot, which was the mode taken for ascertaining the 
 will of the Most High, and by which assurance would be given 
 that no private partiality had swayed Samuel in his dealings 
 with Saul. So Samuel, as the chief authority in the country, 
 convened all the people to Mizpah, the place where he himself 
 had erected an altar in commemoration of his victory over the 
 Philistines many years ago, and which was not only thus 
 hallowed by religious observance, but revered as the spot where 
 the erring people had been brought to repentance. Hither, to give 
 solemnity to the occasion, and for the purpose of consultation, 
 had been brought the mysterious Urim and Thummim, either 
 by the High Priest himself, or, if that office was still vacant, by 
 the priest who temporarily replaced him.* When all were 
 assembled, Samuel stood forth and addressed them. He 
 reminded them of all that the Lord had done for them in old 
 time, how that He had saved them out of the hand of enemies 
 and of all that oppressed them ; but deliverance was always 
 conditioned by their obedience to His requirements and 
 acknowledgment of dependence upon Him. And now they 
 wished to have a king who would lead and deliver them without 
 any such condition ; they were bent on trying a worldly policy ; 
 they would have a monarch and a military organization like the 
 nations around them, and be free from any religious restriction. 
 Thus they proved themselves unworthy of the blessings of the 
 pure Theocracy : " ye have this day," he says with sorrowful 
 indignation, " rejected your God, Who Himself saveth you out 
 of all your calamities and your distresses ; and ye have said 
 unto Him, Nay, but set a king over us." They had had time 
 to reconsider their former decision, and opportunity was offered 
 
 thither with the people, and Saul had no occasion to wait for his arrival. 
 The second gathering is the one intended by the Prophet's words. After 
 executing certain previous enterprises, e.g., the attack on the Ammonites, 
 Saul was to go to Gilgal, and there wait for Samuel's directions before 
 commencing his great work of liberating his country from the yoke of the 
 Philistines. 
 
 » This is the explanation of the expression "unto the Lord" (i Sam. 
 X. 17) given by Dean Payne Smith and Canon Spence in loc. 
 
' SAUL ANOINTED KING. 95 
 
 of repenting of their self-willed conduct, and of returning to 
 the old order, but they never thought of availing themselves of 
 it. They were bent on innovation, on remodelling the constitu- 
 tion, and establishing a monarchy. As this was their desire, 
 God was willing to grant it, but the selection of the king must 
 be left in His hands. The use of lots in order to obtain a 
 Divine decision was very common among the Jews, as in other 
 nations. It was conducted in this way : the names in question, 
 written on tablets or some other substance, were placed in a 
 basin or urn, which was shaken until all but one fell out ; the 
 one left in was considered as declaring the Divine choice. By 
 this means the scapegoat was chosen, the land of Canaan was 
 distributed, the sin of Achan was detected, and, very remark- 
 ably, in after time Matthias was elected apostle. The solemn 
 estimation in which this mode of divination was held may be 
 gathered from such passages in Scripture as Prov. xvi. 33 : " The 
 lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the 
 Lord." On this occasion the people were arranged in their 
 tribes and their families or thousands ; the lot was cast, and 
 the tribe of Benjamin was taken. Then the heads of the 
 families of this tribe came near and drew lots, and the family 
 of Matri or Bikri ^ was taken ; this again came up by house- 
 holds, and the household of Kish was taken ; and on the lot 
 being cast man by man, Saul was selected. He had foreseen 
 the result of the trial, and had concealed himself ; and when 
 search was made, he could not be found. We see here the 
 humility and modesty of a great mind, filled with no mean 
 ambition, and shrinking from weighty responsibilities which he 
 felt unequal to sustain. It is true that he had become " another 
 man," but the consciousness of unfitness for the high position 
 to which he was called still haunted his footsteps, and led him 
 to postpone the formidable moment as long as possible. Nor 
 can we doubt that this was a genuine feeling. It was no 
 affectation of reluctance which only needed a certain amount 
 of pressure to give way. Like Athanasius, who timed his 
 absence that he might avoid the perilous dignity of Bishop of 
 Alexandria ; like Ambrose, who fled more than once to escape 
 
 ^ As Matri does not appear elsewhere in the genealogies, and it is ex- 
 tremely unlikely that one of the heads of a chief sub-division should be 
 omitted, Ewakl has suggested that Matri is a corruption of Pikri, a 
 descendant of Becher (i Chron. vii. 6, 8 ; 2 Sam. xx. i) 
 
96 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 an office alien from his former manner of life ; Saul thought 
 himself unsuitable for the proffered dignity, and was slow to 
 undertake its duties. In this dilemma recourse was had to 
 Divine direction, and the High Priest was requested to inquire 
 by means of the Urim and Thummim whether the man had 
 yet come hither. The answer was that he had come, and was 
 now hidden among the baggage. Such a vast assembly as 
 was here gathered together in the immediate vicinity of 
 their implacable enemies had doubtless brought with them 
 wagons and arms and stores, and arranged the camp in military 
 fashion, so as to be able to repel any sudden assault. Drawn 
 at length from his hiding-place and escorted into the midst of 
 the concourse, Saul stood forth conspicuous for his towering 
 stature, his goodly proportions, and his manly beauty. He 
 was taller than any of the people from the shoulders upward ; 
 ** there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than 
 he." So in classic times the heroes of old story are pre-eminent 
 in stature : Ajax is fair and huge, and overtops the Argives by 
 his head and broad shoulders ; Turnus is higher by the head 
 than all his compeers.' Samuel leads forth his protege and 
 presents him to the people. " See," says he in evident allusion to 
 the direction in Deut. xvii. 15, "See ye him whom the Lord 
 hath chosen " ; and tTiFpopuTace, led as always by the eye, and 
 attributing all the faculties required in a ruler to one whose 
 bodily superiority was so evident, shouted with loud acclaim, 
 " Let the king live," or, according to our English phrase, " God 
 save the king," meaning to express the wish that he might pass 
 a prosperous and blessed life. Samuel had already spoken of 
 the way in which monarchs abused their powers and intrenched 
 on the rights of their subjects, when he first heard of their 
 demand for a king ; he now communicates to the people the 
 right and law of the kingdom which were to regulate the 
 monarch's action under the Theocracy. He was no irrespon- 
 sible tyrant who might act as caprice or self-interest guided, 
 but a constitutional sovereign, whose conduct was set forth in 
 the Mosaic Law, and checked and directed by the influence of 
 the prophets who were the mouthpiece of Jehovah. And this 
 was the constitution then established in due accordance with 
 the ancient enactment (Deut. xvii. 14 ff.) : "Thou shalt in any 
 
 « Homer, " n."iii. 227. Virgil, "^n." vii. 784. 
 
SAUL ANOINTED KING. 97 
 
 wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall 
 choose," etc. These and similar words, which formed the Law 
 of the kingdom, Samuel solemnly rehearsed in the ears of 
 the people, and then, when time allowed, probably in the 
 retirement of his own house at Ramah, drew up a formal 
 document, containing not only the above principles and 
 regulations, but also all the details of the election of the first 
 king. This roll was placed among the national archives in 
 the sanctuary, by the side of the Mosaic Law which was kept 
 there,^ as a guide for future sovereigns, and that future ages 
 might know how it came about that Saul the Benjamite was 
 appointed. Having accomplished this great work, Samuel 
 dismissed the assembly and returned to Ramah. 
 
 Saul did not at once commence to exercise his new office ; 
 he displayed no undue haste to seize the reins of government, 
 but quickly returned home to Gibeah, and resumed his usual 
 habits, awaiting a favourable moment for showing himself 
 worthy of his advancement. He returned, however, not alone. 
 The best and most valiant of those who had been present 
 accompanied him, escorting him with all honour, and bringing 
 him presents according to the Eastern custom. These men's 
 hearts God had touched, and they gathered round the new king 
 to prepare for the coming struggle and to consult for the nation's 
 good. But if all were conscious of the necessity of this radical 
 change in the constitution, all were not equally willing to under- 
 take the duties and burdens necessary for its establishment and 
 maintenance ; and some were ready enough to scoff at and de- 
 preciate it if it did not at once fulfil their expectations. And 
 further, as is generally the case where a person is suddenly 
 elevated from the ranks to h igh office, there were not wanting 
 envious people, " sons of Belial," worthless creatures, who 
 spoke of Saul disparagingly. Perhaps they belonged to the 
 great tribes of Judah and Ephraim, and were disgusted at the 
 king being chosen from the meanest of all the tribes, Benjamin ; 
 they despised him, and asked sneeringly : " How shall this \ 
 man save us .? " But although such language and the refusal to 
 bring presents were equivalent to rebellion, Saul with rare self- 
 restraint paid no regard to the malcontents, and acted as though 
 he knew nothing of the disaffection. This was consummate 
 
 * Deut. xxxi. 26. Josephus, " Antiq." vi. 4. 6* 
 
 8 
 
98 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 prudence. Had he shown that he heard these murmurs, and 
 yet took no notice of them, he would at once have been accused 
 of pusillanimity ; on the other hand, if he had punished the 
 disaffected, he would have been considered cruel and vindic- 
 tive, and would have aroused a civil war the results of which 
 must have been most disastrous. Yet these unfriendly chief- 
 tains had no reason to doubt the warlike propensities of a Ben- 
 jamite. Benjamin had always been the most martial tribe in 
 Israel, and it retained this character to a late period.' It had 
 shown its courage and endurance under the crushing treatment 
 that befell it in the time of the Judges. We read later of its 
 warriors being beyond all others skilled in the use of the sling 
 ind the bow ; we read of many of them being as efficient with 
 ihe left hand as with the right, a dexterity which must have 
 nade them formidable enemies in close encounter.^ It was 
 therefore mere envy and jealousy which dictated the opposition 
 ,)f these malcontents. An occasion soon arose for proving how 
 .nistaken they were in their estimation of Saul's abilities, giving 
 him an opening for action undertaken cheerfully and success- 
 "ully for the welfare of the state, and winning for him that 
 leference and confidence without which it would have been 
 ain to attempt to govern. 
 
 » Ewald, ii. S4« ' Judg. iii. 15 ; xx; is f. ; i Chron. xiL a. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 Saul's first victory. 
 
 The Ammonites ; they attack Jabesh-Gilead ; offer ignominious terms to 
 the inhabitants— Saul hears of the distress ; summons all Israel ; 
 makes a forced march and relieves Jabesh-Gilead— His wise forbear- 
 ance and magnanimity. 
 
 Some portion of the country east of the Jordan was occupied 
 by the Ammonites, a savage, marauding nation, descended from 
 Lot and closely allied to the Moabites, though not partaking of 
 their civilization and refinement. A hundred years before this 
 time Jephthah had inflicted a severe defeat upon them, which 
 had insured tranquillity in that quarter for a lengthened period ; 
 but Israel had not properly used the advantages which she 
 possessed ; she had not availed herself of her privileges to 
 complete her conquests and to improve her moral and political 
 strength, and the Ammonites (like other of her enemies) pro- 
 fited by her backsliding and supineness. They had now re- 
 covered their powers, and had attacked the trans-Jordanic 
 tribes, treating them with barbaric cruelty. If we believe 
 Josephus,' they had reduced many cities to slavery, and so dis- 
 tressed and weakened the inhabitants that they had no heart to 
 revolt from the yoke which galled them. Such indeed as 
 resisted and were subdued in battle were spared only on con- 
 dition of losing their right eyes, the design being to render them 
 incapable of engaging in war, the other eye, the left, being 
 hidden by the shield which in fighting they held before them. 
 The Ammonites were notorious for revolting cruelty and un- 
 
 « •• Antiq." vi. $. i. 
 
100 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 bridled rapacity. The prophet Amos many years later witnesses 
 to their atrocious character. " For three transgressions of the 
 children of Ammon," he says in his oracle (chap. i. 13), **yea, 
 for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof : because 
 they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they 
 might enlarge their border." The king of the Ammonites at 
 this time was Nahash, the father, probably, of the monarch of 
 the same name of whom we hear later in David's time. He 
 had now turned his arms against the Gileadites and attacked 
 their chief city Jabesh -Gilead, deeming the moment a fit oppor- 
 tunity for revenging the ancient defeat, now that the judge 
 Samuel was stricken in years, and as far as he knew there was 
 no one to take his place. Jabesh, a city appertaining then to 
 Manasseh, stands on the side of the Wady el Yabis, a ravine 
 which winds down the side of Mount Gilead, about six miles 
 south of Pella. Its site is marked by some ruins known by 
 the name of Ed-Deir, " the convent," a convenient appellation 
 often given by the Arabs to ruins of which they have no tradi- 
 tional explanation.' It had been depopulated and destroyed 
 some years before for having neglected to join in the war 
 against the Benjamites,^ but by this time had recovered itself, 
 and was again a city of some importance. It occupied a 
 strong position, and could not be taken by sudden assault, but 
 the inhabitants had no hope of resisting the invaders effectually 
 for any lengthened period ; they had no trust in God, and 
 only wished to make the best possible terms before surrendering 
 themselves to their opponent. Their isolated situation, and 
 the lack of unity in the nation, rendered them incapable of any 
 combined movement of defence ; and this petty despot might 
 work his will upon them. His claim to the country, a claim 
 which had been already made by his predecessors (Judges 
 xi. 13), they had no courage to dispute; and they came forth 
 from their city as suppliants, humbly praying him to settle the 
 conditions on which they should serve him. Nahash, scorn- 
 ing this abject people, and wishing to revenge on Israel the 
 humiliation which his nation had previously suffered, offered 
 the terms mentioned above : " On this condition," he says, " I 
 will make a covenant with you, that all your right eyes be put 
 out." A horrible alternative indeed, but one to which their 
 
 « Robinson, "Later Researches," 319. ■ Judg. xxi. 8 fF. 
 
SAUL'S FIRST VICTORY. lOl 
 
 impotence and pusillanimity were ready to submit ; only they 
 stipulated that they should have seven days' respite, during 
 which they might send messengers throughout Israel to see if 
 there were any able and willing to rescue them. This condition 
 Nahash granted, not from any chivalrous feeling such as we 
 might expect in a generous warrior of the Middle Ages, but 
 because he saw little hope of reducing the city in the interval, 
 and, knowing nothing of the recent events that had transpired 
 across Jordan, he thought himself quite safe from any vigorous 
 attack at the hands of the Western Israelites. He was the 
 more willing to grant the request, as the message thus sent 
 abroad would publish his triumph and display his contempt for 
 his enemies. It was only a month ' since the election of Saul, 
 and tidings of the new state of things had not reached the 
 Gileadites ; so in sending envoys to ask for aid, they made no 
 application to the king, but appealed to " all the borders of 
 Israel." First, as was natural, they had recourse to Benjamin, 
 the tribe with which they were closely connected and for whose 
 sake they had suffered severely in past time. As they alone 
 had refused to join in the remorseless destruction of the Ben- 
 jamites, and had given them their maidens in marriage when 
 they were in danger of utter extinction, so now they look to 
 their gratitude to aid them in this terrible crisis. Travelling 
 with the utmost speed, the envoys arrive at Gibeah, and in their 
 ignorance of the new constitution lay their business before the 
 people generally. These listened to the sad tale with sympathy 
 and concern. But what could they do ? They were not yet 
 used to the notion of having a king and leader to whom they 
 might have recourse in all emergencies ; they had so long been 
 in a state of disorganization and disunion, that they had not 
 even a suggestion to offer in order to meet the crisis ; but, 
 powerless to aid, failing to realize their position as a God- 
 defended people and already possessing a centre of unity and 
 organization, they could only lift up their voice and weep. 
 
 Saul had shown no undue haste to assume the authority and 
 responsibilities of his new position. Republican Israel at pre- 
 sent little understood the duties, powers, and privileges of a 
 king ; it was only politic, especially in the face of a disaffected 
 party, for Saul to wait for a favourable opportunity for setting 
 
 s So Sept and Vulg. Compare i Sam. xii. 12. 
 
I02 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 himself prominently before the eyes of the people as their ap- 
 pointed ruler. Guided doubtless by Samuel's counsel, he con- 
 tinued to occupy only a private station, and with a wise modesty 
 employed himself in those agricultural pursuits which had 
 hitherto fully occupied his thoughts and time. He had col- 
 lected no standing army ; even the men of valour who had 
 associated themselves with him at first had now returned home, 
 ready to rejoin him when the voluntary recognition of his 
 authority or other circumstances should render their services 
 desirable. There was no hasty self-seeking in the new monarch ; 
 patiently he waited till the moment of action arrived. And the 
 opportunity had now arisen. We are all familiar with the 
 Roman story concerning L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, how the 
 envoys, whom the Senate sent to summon him to save his 
 country by assuming the office of Dictator, found him ploughing 
 his modest farm, and how, when he had accomplished the 
 great work which had drawn him from obscurity, he returned 
 to his agricultural employments.* Saul was driving his weary 
 oxen home from a hard day's work in the field, when he was 
 met with a sound of lamentation and weeping, such as even now 
 Eastern peoples raise in times of calamity, the silent suffering 
 of more externally apathetic nations being unknown in those 
 sunny chmes. On hearing the cause of this general mourning, 
 and being informed of the indignity offered to all Israel, Saul 
 was fired with a righteous indignation. The Spirit of the Lord 
 came mightily upon him ; as Samuel had prophesied, God was 
 with him (chap. x. 7), filling him with power and energy, as He 
 had inspired the Judges in other days. Anger at the intended 
 insult was a just and Divinely-sent feeling, animating Saul to 
 do and dare anything to repel and punish it. Here was a 
 burning zeal for the honour of God, which awoke new powers 
 in the young king's mind, drew out the high qualities which 
 were latent in him, and enabled him to adopt such measures as 
 would prove efficacious. A hero and a king, he steps forth, 
 takes his proper post at the head of affairs, and issues his com- 
 mands with promptness and authority, as one who had the 
 right to be obeyed. Mindful perhaps of the action of the 
 Levite who hewed his abused concubine into twelve pieces and 
 sent them into all the coasts of Israel Saul slays the yoke of 
 
 « Livy, iii. 26 flf. Pliny, " Hist. Nat." xvlii. i. Dion., x. 24. 
 
 » Judg. xix. 29. 
 
SAUL'S FIRST VICTORY. id), 
 
 6xeh with which he had been ploughing, cuts them into pieces, 
 hands over the strips of bleeding flesh to messengers, directing 
 them to carry them throughout the land with the stern threat, 
 " Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so 
 shall it be done unto his oxen." He places himself first as the 
 man to whom was committed the chief authority, and he adds 
 the honoured name of Samuel to show that he was acting under 
 Divine direction, and to influence those who slighted or were 
 ignorant of the king's position, as if he had said : " Let those 
 follow Samuel who feel no call to follow Saul. If ye came 
 forth as one man to punish the crime of Benjamin, now arm 
 ye, one and all, to avenge this atrocious insult offered to all 
 Israel by your ancient enemies." The mention, too, of Samuel 
 in this connection proves that he continued to exercise a high 
 office, not only as prophet, but as a chief conjointly with the 
 king, the monarchy being limited by the theocretic principle. 
 The threat that those who disobeyed the summons should have 
 their oxen destroyed seems a light and moderate one, suited 
 perhaps to the limited powers of the new-made king, who could 
 not yet presume to dispose of the lives of subjects at his own 
 mere word. But the loss of his oxen would be ruin to a labour- 
 ing man, and the fear of such a catastrophe might well have 
 aided to swell the levy of the people. Such a war-signal as the 
 above is not unknown in other countries. Ewald refers to the 
 custom in Norway of sending the war- arrow from tribe to tribe 
 to arouse the nation to arms. Walter Scott has made us 
 familiar with the Scottish token of the fire-brand : 
 
 " While clamorous war-pipes yelled the gathering sound, 
 And while the Fiery Cross glanced, like a meteor, round." « 
 
 The poet, in a note, explains the symbol thus : " When a 
 chieftain designed to summon his clan upon any emergency, he 
 slew a goat, and making a cross of any light wood, seared its 
 extremities in the fire, and extinguished them in the blood of the 
 animal. This was called the Fiery Cross, and also the Cross of 
 Shame ^ because disobedience to the symbol inferred infamy. 
 It was passed with incredible celerity through all the district 
 which owed allegiance to the chief, and also among his allies 
 and neighbours, if the danger was common to them ; and at 
 
 * " Lady of the Lake," iii. i. 
 
\ 
 
 104 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 sight of the Fiery Cross every man, from sixteen years old to 
 sixty, was obhged instantly to repair, in his best arms and 
 accoutrements, to the place of rendezvous. He who failed to 
 appear suffered the extremities of fire and sword, which were 
 emblematically denounced by the bloody and burned marks 
 upon this warlike signal." 
 
 The terrible message carried throughout Israel made a deep 
 impression. A dread inspired by the Lord fell on all the people 
 alike ; they shrank from disobeying the imperious summons ; 
 they recognized the hand of God in Saul's energetic action ; 
 they zealously answered the appeal, and came forth as one man. 
 For the first time united under its king, the whole nation took 
 the field to rescue one of its members from injury and disgrace. 
 There was one spirit in all the land. In threatening Gilead, 
 Nahash menaced the independence of Israel. A common 
 danger united the isolated tribes. They thought of their duty 
 regarding these Ammonites ; it was their mission to extirpate 
 idolatry, and they had special instructions regarding this 
 nation and their evil allies, the Moabites. "An Ammonite 
 or a Moabite," it was commanded,^ shall not enter into the 
 assembly of the Lord ; even to the tenth generation shall none 
 belonging to them enter into the assembly of the Lord for 
 ever. Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all 
 thy days for ever." So the Israelites of the surrounding districts 
 mustered in large numbers at the appointed rendezvous. This 
 was Bezek, a place in the tribe of Manasseh, situated, accord- 
 ing to the Onomasticon, about seventeen miles north of 
 Nablous, on the road to Bethshean. It is now probably 
 identified with Ibzik, which lies on the edge of the hills just 
 opposite to Jabesh, fourteen miles north-east of Nablous. 
 There was another town or district of the same name, the 
 capital of Adoni-Bezek, which is represented by the modern 
 Bezkah, six miles south-east of Lydda ;^ but this is too remote 
 from the scene of action to be regarded as the place intended 
 in our text. Here at a certain high place, as the LXX. notify, 
 the people flocked together from all quarters. The number of 
 men assembled is represented to have been 330,000, of whom 
 300,000 belonged to Israel, and 30,000 to Judah. If there is no 
 mistake in the figures (and such errors are common enough), 
 
 " Deut. xxiii. 3ff. • Judg. i. 4, 5. 
 
SAUL'S FIRST VICTORY. I05 
 
 we must regard this assemblage as a levy in mass, a landstunn, 
 as the Germans call it, which would include every one capable of 
 bearing arms. The Septuagint gives 600,000 men to Israel, and 
 70,000 to Judah ; Josephus, retaining the same number as the 
 Greek version for Judah, assigns 700,000 to Israel. The 
 separate mention of Israel and Judah has led some critics to 
 consider the clause as the addition of some late reviser who 
 lived after the separation of the kingdom, and was inclined to 
 favour the northern division at the expense of the southern. 
 But the suggestion is gratuitous. The feud between the northern 
 and southern tribes existed long before the days of David and 
 Rehoboam, and was popularly represented by the separation of 
 the whole nation into Israel and Judah. The final disruption 
 was only the culmination of previous disunion, traces of which 
 are discernible in much earlier times. The small number of 
 Judaeans who mustered at Bezek is traceable to the same 
 cause. Certainly they may have had something to occupy 
 their attention and to employ their forces in making head 
 against the Philistines in their own territories ; but, as Dean 
 Payne Smith remarks, " Judah always stood apart until there 
 was a king who belonged to itself. Then, in David's time it 
 first took an active interest in the national welfare, and it was 
 its vast powers and number which made him so powerful." In 
 those days, too, Benjamin was included in the term Judah, while 
 at the present time it is enumerated in Israel, Asa could boast 
 of 300,000 warriors belonging to his own tribe, and 280,000 
 appertaining to Benjamin ; and even in the most prosperous 
 times of the northern kingdom Israel never more than doubled 
 Judah.* It was one thing, and comparatively easy, to assemble 
 this multitude, called forth by a common enthusiasm to meet a 
 common danger and to punish an insult levelled against the 
 whole nation ; it was another and harder task to organize this 
 tumultuous host into some similitude of a regular army. Of 
 arms, probably, they had no great supply. The Philistines had 
 taken care to remove these as soon as ever they had the 
 power. In the present case " furor arma ministrat " ; they 
 could only take as weapons what came first to hand of the 
 agricultural implements which they used, scythes, ox goads, 
 stakes. Many victories have been won by such inadequate 
 
 « 2 Chron. xiii. 3 ; xiv. 8 ; xxv. 5, 6. 
 
ro6 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 means. Saul's untried powers were developed by the great 
 occasion. When it is said that he "numbered" the people, 
 this implies that he arranged them by hundreds and fifties, 
 companies and battalions, set captains over them, and acted 
 himself as commander-in-chief. When this was done, keeping 
 some of the Gileadite messengers with him to guide him by the 
 shortest route, he dismissed the others with a cheerful message 
 to their fellow-townsmen. The preparations had occupied nearly 
 a week, but everything being now ready, he could send word 
 by the envoys : " To-morrow by the time the sun is hot, ye shall 
 have deliverance." Confident in the support of Divine assistance ' 
 and in the justice of his cause, Saul assumes the certainty of 
 victory for his arms ; and the messengers, seeing his assurance, 
 and encouraged by the great muster at Bezek, on their return 
 to Jabesh inspire the inhabitants with the same courage. They 
 had to pass through the Ammonites' camp in order to reach 
 their own city, using the liberty of transit which had been con- 
 temptuously given them. But they carefully kept their own 
 counsel, and let no suspicion of what they had witnessed reach 
 the Ammonites ; and still farther to throw their enemies off 
 their guard, and expose them to surprise at the hands of Saul, 
 the inhabitants sent a crafty message to the besiegers as, if they 
 had given up all hope of rescue, and were content to submit to 
 the hard condition offered by Nahash on the expiration of the 
 time of reprieve. " To-morrow," said they to him, " we will 
 come out unto you ; and ye shall do with us all that seemeth 
 good unto you." The words were really ambiguous, and like 
 an ancient oracle, capable of two interpretations. While the 
 Ammonites took them in the sense of an-intention to surrender, 
 the Gileadites in their own hearts thought, *' We will come out 
 indeed, but in hostile guise, and ye shall do what ye can, not 
 what ye desire." 
 
 The distance from Bezek to Jabesh by the most direct route 
 was about eighteen miles. As the undisciplined host, had it 
 tried to march in one body, would have been thrown into con- 
 fusion owing to its immense numbers, Saul wisely divided it 
 into three bands, that it might arrive by different roads at its 
 destination, and make its attack in three different directions. 
 Setting out that same evening by a forced march he reached 
 the neighbourhood of Jabesh while it was still dark, the enemy 
 being entirely unaware of his proceedings, and despising the 
 
SAUL'S FIRST VICTORY. 107 
 
 Israelites too much to take any unusual precautions for the 
 safety of their camp. Having halted a short time to refresh 
 his men, Saul, imitating the tactics of the great judge, Gideon 
 (Judg. vii. 16 ff.), arranged the threefold attack. It was now 
 the rnorning watch, the last of the three watches into which the 
 Jews divided the night, and probably about five or six o'clock, 
 when the hostile enemy was buried in slumber. The king 
 launched his overwhelming host on the sleeping enemy ; the 
 men of Jabesh " came out," and aided their friends ; and a fearful 
 slaughter ensued. Surprised, panic-stricken, disorganized, the 
 Ammonites fled in all directions, so that not two of them were 
 left together, and their king himself fell in the contest.' Till 
 midday the carnage and the pursuit were continued, and the 
 victors only ceased their bloody work, when, overpowered by 
 fatigue, their wearied limbs refused to carry them further. 
 
 It was a great and timely victory which at once placed Saul 
 in his rightful position as the head and leader of the nation. 
 Enthusiastic in their recognition of his ability, and aggrieved 
 that any should have been found to dispute his authority and 
 sneer at his pretensions, the people crowd around Samuel, who 
 had accompanied the expedition and aided the king with all his 
 influence, and demand the punishment of those who had asked 
 in derision, " Shall Saul reign over us ?" With tumultuous vio- 
 lence they clamour for their immediate execution. But Saul, 
 not even waiting for Samuel's answer to the demand, takes 
 upon himself to reply with generosity and wisdom : "There 
 shall not a man be put to death this day ; for to-day the Lord 
 hath wrought deliverance in Israel." It was a politic and pious 
 answer. Had Saul acceded to the popular demand, and given 
 way to the natural feeling of revenge, disastrous consequences 
 would have ensued. The jealousy between the rival tribes 
 would have been augmented and confirmed ; feuds and heart- 
 burnings would have arisen and been perpetuated, and it would 
 always have been cast against him as a reproach that he had 
 commenced his reign with domestic broils and bloodshed. By 
 his prudent moderation he saved his country from such calami- 
 ties, as by skilful generalship he delivered it from menacing en- 
 emies. But there is more than this in his answer. He shows 
 here at his best. He gratefully acknowledges God's hand in 
 
 « Josephus, " Antiq." vi. 5. 3. 
 
Io8 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 the late events, and ascribes the victory to its true source. 
 Under the inspiration of success and the confidence begotten 
 by the consciousness of Divine support, he rises to a high level 
 of magnanimity and piety. Unhappily these virtues are only 
 impulsive and transient, and have no firm basis in his heart and 
 character. In time of temptation he falls away. But now he 
 shows himself a wise ruler and a good man. 
 
 Thus successfully and piously did Saul inaugurate his rule. 
 He had gained a great victory over national enemies ; he had 
 gained a greater over himself, mastering the natural desire of 
 revenge by the consideration of God's clemency to sinning Israel, 
 and unwilling to mar the universal thanksgiving by any act of 
 violence. Samuel saw that this was a favourable moment for 
 confirming the kingdom in the hand of Saul, and relinquishing 
 his own judgeship in favour of the new king. He therefore 
 summoned all the people to meet him at Gilgal, the famous 
 Benjamite sanctuary in the Jordan valley, and the place in his 
 circuit nearest to Jabesh-Gilead. What a host of memories 
 clustered round this spot ! How it would remind the people of 
 their forefathers' entrance into the Promised Land, and of the 
 miracles that accompanied and facilitated that entrance ! Here 
 the wanderers had passed their first night after crossing the 
 river Jordan ; here were set up the twelve stones, still dis- 
 tinguishable in Jerome's ^ time, to commemorate the marvellous 
 passage ; here was the rite of circumcision, for forty years 
 disused, performed on those who had been born in the wilder- 
 ness, and thus the reproach of uncircumcision was "rolled away"; 
 and here was celebrated the first Passover in the Promised 
 Land. As they assembled here round the altar and the high 
 place, and looked on the venerable mementoes of past events, 
 the Israelites could not help feeling their dependence upon 
 supernatural aid and the very present help of Jehovah. There 
 had been some who murmured at the first election of Saul at 
 Mizpah and refused to own his authority ; Samuel now pro- 
 posed to " renew the kingdom," that is, to proclaim the monarch 
 by the universal voice of the nation amid prayer and sacrifice 
 and general rejoicing. 
 
 « "Ep. Paxdss," § iz. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SAMUEL ABDICATES. 
 
 Renewal of the monarchy — Samuel abrogates the office of Judge ; defends 
 
 his past career ; shows that nothing in it excused the demand for a 
 king — His words confirmed by a portent ; endorsed by acclamation — 
 He promises to intercede for the people. 
 
 " And all the people went to Gilgal ; and there they made Saul 
 king before the Lord in Gilgal." It is somewhat difficult to 
 understand the bearing of these worfls or what was the cere- 
 mony to which they refer. The LXX., not interpreting the 
 Hebrew, but introducing their own view of the matter, render : 
 "And Samuel there anointed Saul to be king." ^ And some 
 critics acquiesce in this view, appealing to the example of 
 David, who, after he had been originally anointed by Samuel, 
 received the unction on two other occasions, once when ap- 
 pointed king of Judah, and again when accepted as ruler of all 
 Israel.' But this precedent is not decisive ; rather it tells 
 against the idea ; for such a ceremony, had it really taken place, 
 would not here have escaped mention ; it would have been 
 noted with the same precision which is displayed in the case of 
 David. We may observe, too, that the verb translated "made" 
 does not mean consecrated ; and the action is attributed, in the 
 Hebrew text, not to Samuel, but to the whole people. The 
 renewal of the monarchy consisted in the unanimous confirmation 
 of the previous election ; it was equivalent to the public coro- 
 nation of a sovereign in modern times ; the people acknowledged 
 
 « So Josephus, " Antiq." vi. 5. 4. 
 
 » I Sam. xvi. 12, X3 ; 2 Sam. ii. 4 ; v. 3. 
 
/ 
 
 no SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 the sovereignty, and undertook to defend and obey it ; the king 
 ^as no longer to lead a private life, but to assume the state and 
 duties of a sovereign. Doubtless, Samuel again rehearsed the 
 laws of the kingdom, and king and people swore to obey them. 
 All this was done " before the Lord," which may mean in the pre- 
 sence of the Ark, and the High Priest with his mystic Urim and 
 Thummim ; or simply, in due and solemn fashion, accompanied 
 with religious services. And then, rejoicing in their new king 
 and animated by the thought how well and quickly he had 
 proved himself worthy of his elevation, they showed their 
 gratitude by presenting peace-offerings and feasting together 
 in happy fellowship. 
 
 Now that this great work was accomplished and the importu- 
 nate desire of the nation was fulfilled, Samuel is ready to 
 resign his office of Judge, and to act only as counsellor and 
 medium of heavenly communication. But first he thinks 
 good to defend his past career, and once more to show the 
 people the error which they had committed in insisting on 
 changing the form of government, and the great truth 
 that their prosperity depended upon the behaviour of prince 
 and subjects before the Lord. It is customary with German 
 critics to regard this noble discourse of Samuel as the pro- 
 duction of a much later age, and as embodying the writer's 
 conception of the crisis obtained by a retrospective consideration 
 of the entire history of Israel.* When it was composed, they 
 say, the subject of the monarchy had been long examined in all 
 its bearings, and the monarchy itself had shown its operation 
 for good and ill. But this is mere conjecture supported on no 
 solid basis. Rather, we may naturally suppose that the account 
 of so vastly important an assembly would be accurately preserved, 
 and the very words of the old prophet would be carefully 
 treasured up, as a guide and a warning for future generations. 
 Theaccountisnatural and unvarnished; it is not simply an address 
 put into Samuel's mouth, but a narration of a dialogue between 
 him and the people, and of the circumstances attending it. That 
 he should show prescience of the future, and be fully alive to the 
 dangers that threatened the monarchy, and strongly express his 
 opinion of the only hope of safety, is just what we should expect 
 both from his sagacity and the inspiration which opened his sight, 
 
 ' See, e.g,f Ewald, ii. 26. 
 
SAMUEL ABDICATES. Hi 
 
 and from the unselfish patriotism which regarded above al! 
 consideration the good of his beloved country. And now, as he 
 is no longer charged with the chief government of the nation, 
 he stands forth with the king by his side, and casts a glance 
 upon his past administration, which he truly vindicates from 
 adverse criticism, and shows had not been such as to create the 
 demand for a ruler of a different character and position. And 
 he speaks in the integrity of his heart : " Behold, I have 
 hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have 
 made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walketh 
 before you ; he is here to govern and lead you in peace and 
 war ; and I am old and grayheaded, and shall soon have to 
 render an account of my stewardship to God ; and, behold, my 
 sons are with you ; they are deprived of their judicial functions 
 and reduced to the rank of private citizens ; you have not to 
 examine their conduct, but to pass your judgment on my 
 administration. And you know my whole life ; I have walked 
 before you from my youth unto this day. Here I am ; witness 
 against me before the Lord ; " and the old man, as he spake, 
 reverently lifted up his eyes to heaven, and, turning to Saul 
 who stood by his side, added, *' and before the king. His 
 anointed. Whose ox have I taken ? or whose ass have I taken ? 
 or whom have I defrauded ? Whom have I oppressed ? or of 
 whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind mine eyes therewith 
 and to let the guilty escape unpunished ? * And I will restore 
 it you." Such is his challenge. Was there any point in all his 
 long administration which the people could attack or which 
 justified them in demanding a new ruler? And the people with 
 one accord testified to his perfect justice and integrity. To 
 further confirm their testimony to his uprightness, Samuel again 
 solemnly appeals to Jehovah and the king : " the Lord," he 
 says, "is witness against you, and His anointed is witness this 
 day, that ye have not found aught in my hand." In bearing 
 this full testimony to Samuel's integrity the people condemned 
 
 * The LXX. have : " or of whose hand have I received any propitiation, 
 even a sandal?" So the Syriac. The reading is confirmed by Ecclus. xlvi. 
 19 : " Before his long sleep he made protestations in the sight of the Lord 
 and His anointed, I have not taken any man's goods, so much as a shoe." 
 Comp. Amos ii. 6. The Vulgate renders the last part of the verse thus : 
 " et contemnam illud hodie, restituamque vobis.'' " I will despise it {i.g., 
 the bribe) to-day, and restore it to you.'' 
 
112 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 themselves ; they had no ground of dissatisfaction with his 
 government, and yet they had been impatient and eager for 
 change. Samuel's object in defending himself from any charge 
 of malversation was not simply a personal matter ; he desired 
 to vindicate the justice of God's government, and to demonstrate 
 the unreasonableness of the people's demand. "Yes," he says, 
 " Jehovah is witness against you, even that Lord who has done 
 such mighty works in your behalf in old time." And then he 
 recalls to mind some prominent facts in their history. It was 
 Jehovah who made Moses and Aaron what they were, advanced 
 them to their high offices, and, acting as Israel's king, inaugurated 
 their national life by leading them out of Egypt. He shows 
 how often, when for their sins they were punished by oppression 
 at the hands of powerful enemies, the Lord had listened to 
 their repentant cry and raised up heroes to deliver them from 
 calamity ; never had He failed to protect and govern them ; 
 never had He given them occasion to want any other ruler ; He 
 had always been true to His promise, as their records proved. 
 The series of these "righteous acts " began with the great proof 
 of love in the Exodus from Egypt and the settlement in Canaan. 
 And when they were settled in the Promised Land, and for their 
 sin of idolatry, which was rebellion against the invisible King, 
 were given over to their foes, always on their repentance did 
 the Lord interpose in their behalf. At one time they were 
 grievously oppressed by the Canaanites under Sisera, captain of 
 the army of Hazor ; but when they turned unto the Lord, He 
 sent Barak ' to deliver them, and Sisera perished miserably 
 by a woman's hand. At another time Eglon, king of Moab, fought 
 against them ; at another, the Philistines had them in subjection. 
 All this happened to punish them for serving other gods, worship- 
 ping the Baals and Astartes which were reckoned tutelar deities 
 by the neighbouring heathens. But when, learning obedience by 
 the things which they suffered, they renounced idolatry and 
 turned to their own King, Jehovah, He had mercy upon them, 
 
 ^ Instead of " Barak'' the present Hebrew text gives " Bedan," a name 
 which occurs only in i Chron. vii. 17, where the person so called is utterly 
 unknown to history. The LXX., the Syriac and Arabic Versions have Barak. 
 In the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap. xi. 32), Gideon, Barak, Samson 
 and Jephthah are mentioned together. The present word is prob- 
 ably a mi^rgading, as Barak and Bedan in Hebrew might be easily 
 roistakep, 
 
SAMUEL ABDICATES. II3 
 
 and raised up deliverers — Gideon, Jephthah, and Samuel.' Yes, 
 they must have forgotten that under Samuel himself they had 
 gained a great victory over the Philistines, and deliverance from 
 their long tyranny ; and then when they were threatened by 
 Nahash the Ammonite, they did not turn to the judge whom 
 they had among them, but clamoured for a change ; and 
 though the Lord was their King, their ungrateful word was : 
 " Nay, but a king, an earthly king, shall reign over us." Well, 
 they had insisted on having a king ; and now their desire was 
 fulfilled. Jehovah had Himself chosen a monarch for them, to 
 be His representative. Henceforward their future welfare de- 
 pended wholly upon their piety and obedience ; they were still 
 under moral government ; because they had chosen an earthly 
 \ ruler, they were not released from the duty of fealty to their 
 'jheavenly King. Samuel here makes a solemn appeal, ending 
 in an aposiopesis (which is more expressive than any verbal 
 apodosis), like that of Moses (Exod. xxxii. 32) : "Yet now, if 
 Thou wilt forgive their sin — if not," &c. Then he con- 
 tinues : " If ye will fear the Lord, and serve Him, and hearken 
 unto His voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the 
 Lord, and if both ye and also the king that reigneth over you 
 follow after the Lord your God" (it shall be well) ; "but if ye 
 will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord, but rebel against 
 the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord 
 be against you as it was against your fathers." "" They had in 
 some vague way connected past troubles with the form of 
 government under which they had lived, and had thought that in 
 the presence of their king all evils would vanish, all calamities 
 I would be repelled ; the Prophet gives them a wiser lesson, and 
 warns them that their prosperity is still, as heretofore, con- 
 ditioned by their conduct. Their restlessness and discontent 
 had arisen from distrust of God's care ; they cried aloud for 
 change of constitution, when they ought to have given diligence 
 to improve their life and actions ; no external arrangement of 
 
 » The Syriac Version reads " Samson " here, the alteration being made 
 doubtless to obviate the difficulty of the speaker introducing his own name. 
 One Greek Version, of no great authority, also reads Samson ; but there is no 
 sufficient ground lor changing the reading of the Hebrew and all the versions. 
 
 ^ The Hebrew runs : *' against you and your fathers " ; but the conjunc- 
 tion is used in a comparative sense, and the English rendering is conect. 
 The LXX. read : " against you and against your king." 
 
 9 
 
114 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 government could secure prosperity without conformity to the 
 will and law of God. Do they need proof of the truth of what 
 he has said unto them, and that his words were authorized by 
 God Himself? let them come near and range themselves in 
 solemn order, and see how the Lord would confirm His ser- 
 vant's warning. It was now the time of wheat-harvest, lasting 
 from the middle of May till the middle of June, when rain is 
 almost unknown in Palestine. But now, to show the people their 
 sin in doubting the overruling providence of God, and to teach 
 that His judgments were always ready to fall upon the ungodly, 
 Samuel stands and calls upon the Lord, and the Lord hearkens 
 to his invocation, and a heavy storm of thunder and rain en- 
 sues. The Israelites were ever prone to see signs and omens 
 in such untimely occurrences. In the present case they 
 had good cause for terror. For this unusual storm had 
 happened in answer to Samuel's prayer, and their conscience 
 assured them that they deserved God's wrath. A whole- 
 some fear filled their breasts, and trembling at the voice of 
 heaven, and fearing for their life as well as their property, they 
 came suppliant to Samuel, acknowledged their great fault in 
 demanding a king, and prayed him to execute his intercessory 
 office in their behalf. " Pray for thy servants," they cry, as the 
 loud thunder peals, and the floods of rain descend, " Pray for 
 thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not." They 
 speak of "//zy God" as though conscious that they had vir- 
 tually rejected Jehovah, and were no longer worthy to be called 
 His peculiar people. It was a true confession, a sincere acknow- 
 ledgment of guilt, and was accepted as such. Softened by their 
 appeal, the stern Prophet relents. " Fear not," he says ; " ye 
 have indeed done all this evil ; yet despair not ; press on now 
 and henceforward in the right way; turn not aside from follow- 
 ing the Lord, but serve Him with all your heart. Yea, turn not 
 aside to vain idols ^ which cannot profit or deliver ; and the 
 Lord will defend you." The seer's confidence in this last state- 
 ment is based on the assurance of the election of Israel. 
 Although the weal or woe of individuals depended upon their 
 
 * The Angl. Version, " For then should ye go after vain things," is 
 probably incorrect (i Sam. xii. 21), The particle "for" is oiiiiittd in all 
 the versions, and seems to have accidentally slipped into the Hebrew text. 
 The LXX. read, "And turn not aside after those thai are nothing." The 
 " vain things " are idols. Comp. Isa. xliv. q ; i Cor. viii. 4. 
 
SAMUEL ABDICATES. iI5 
 
 conduct, and the nation might bring upon itself severe calami- 
 ties by disobedience and rebellion, yet, as it had been choseit 
 to be God's inheritance not for any merit of its own, but to 
 carry forward His purpose for the redemption of mankind, so it 
 must continue to act its part in this Divine plan, and would not 
 be finally rejected, so as to make God's promises of none effect. 
 This stupendous truth, inscrutable by human reason, was firmly 
 impressed on Samuel's mind ; and he could rest calmly on the 
 covenant whereon it was based, and from it preach a lesson of 
 confidence and hope. In answer to the people's request that 
 he would intercede for them, he expressed his firm determina- 
 tion to do this in spite of their backsliding and ingratitude. 
 " God forbid," he says, "that I should sin against the Lord in 
 ceasing to pray for you." He had abrogated his office as judge ; 
 his services in that capacity were no more required ; but two 
 modes of benefiting his people were left ; two duties remained 
 for the aged man to perform. The first of these was interces- 
 sion. He held it to be a grievous sin to neglect this impera- 
 tive duty. Here was a weapon which he could ply as long as 
 life should last, whose force he well knew, of whose efficacy he 
 had had sure experience from his earliest days. For this 
 special practice he was celebrated among the saints of Jewish 
 history. Thus in the ninety-ninth Psalm we read ; 
 
 *' Moses and Aaron among His priests, 
 And Samuel among them that call upon His name— 
 These called upon the Lord, and He answered them." 
 
 And in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (chap. xv. i) Moses 
 and Samuel are named as having wonderful influence with the 
 Almighty because they prayed for enemies. This duty he exer- 
 cised with all the earnestness of desire for Israel's welfare and 
 faith in God. The other way in which he could continue to act 
 as the benefactor of his countrymen was by teaching them "the 
 good and the right way." Though he was ruler no longer, he 
 was still prophet, the inspired instructor and guide of king and 
 subjects. The prophetic function he never surrendered. In 
 the change to an earthly monarchy the theocracy was not lost, 
 but the earthly m.onarch was controlled and instructed by the 
 counsel of the prophet, who was the mouthpiece of Jehovah. 
 This office he not only discharged himself with unfailing devo- 
 tion and disinterestedness, but, as we have seen above, made 
 
Il6 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 provision for a due supply of such counsellors and teachers by 
 establishing the schools of the prophets. " Only a Samuel/' 
 says Ewald," summing up the effect of these proceedings at 
 Gilgal, " could thus quit office, proudly challenging all to con- 
 vict him of one single injustice in his past career, and by the 
 act of resignation gaining, not losing, greatness. No longer 
 Judge and Ruler, but simply Prophet, he is able now to discourse 
 with the greater freedom of the monarchy about to be intro- 
 duced ; and he seizes the moment to cast a more distant glance 
 into all the past and future of the community. That the recent 
 conduct of the nation had displayed ingratitude towards Jahveh, 
 its true King, could not be denied ; and only by more faithful 
 service of Jahveh in future, on the part alike of king and people, 
 can the ruin they have deserved be averted." He concludes his 
 grave address by appealing not only to the wonder just wrought 
 in the tempest that came at his prayer (a miracle which no vain 
 idolater could work),^ but also to the mighty acts of Jehovah 
 done of old in their behalf ; and he leaves them with the dread 
 rt^arning ringing in their ears : " If ye shall still do wickedly, ye 
 shall be consumed, both ye and your king." 
 
 « " Hist.," ii. 28. • Comp. Jer. xiv. aa. 
 
CHAPTER VIL 
 
 SAUL'S FIRST REJECTION. 
 
 Chronology of Saul's reign — Saul chooses a body-guard — Michmash — ^Jona- 
 than destroys the column at Geba — Philistines prepare for war with 
 overwhelming force — Saul retreats to Gilgal — Israelites disheartened — 
 Trial of Saul's faith— His failure and disobedience — His sin explained 
 — He is punished by rejection — A successor is announced — Samuel 
 leaves Saul. 
 
 The history of the reign of Saul commences with the solemn 
 ceremony at Gilgal narrated in the last chapter. The age of 
 Saul at this time is a disputed point. One would naturally have 
 expected that the writer of these annals would have here given 
 the age of the king at his accession and the number of the years 
 of his reign, as is usual in such documents.^ But the numbers 
 have been altered in, or have fallen out of, the present Hebrew 
 text,^ which can only be translated : " Saul was the son of a 
 year (/.<?., a year old), when he began co reign ; and he reigned 
 two years over Israel." The Chaldee Paraphrast explains: " Saul 
 was innocent as a one year-old child when he began to reign." 
 The Latin Vulgate translates the Hebrew literally as above ; 
 the Septuagint omits the verse altogether, though there is a gloss 
 in the Hexapla which makes him thirty years old at this time. 
 The authorised version, which partly agrees with the Syriac, 
 implies that he had reigned one year when the inauguration at 
 Gilgal took place, and that when he had reigned two years he 
 
 * Comp, 2 Sam. ii. lo ; v. 4; i Kings xiv. 21 ; xxii. 42 ; 2 Kings viii. 17 
 26 ; xi. 21, &c. 
 ' I Sam. xiii. i. 
 
Il8 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 did what is next recorded. This interpretation was unknown 
 to Joseph us, and cannot be deduced from our existing text, 
 where the error has arisen, doubtless, from the practice of de- 
 noting numbers by letters. The gaps or omissions in the present 
 text are best expressed, as in the "Speaker's Commentary," 
 and Klostermann's edition, thus : " Saul was . . . years old 
 when he began to reign, and he reigned . . . and two years 
 over Israel." It is possible that the writer originally left spaces 
 in his manuscript, intending to insert the numbers after an 
 inspection of records, and that this was never done. The first 
 gap might be filled up by replacing "thirty-five," or, "forty ; " 
 for as immediately afterwards Jonathan, his son, is spoken of 
 as commanding a portion of the army, Saul must have been 
 about that age at his accession, and Jonathan could not have 
 been less than twenty when occupying that responsible position. 
 His son, Mephibosheth, was five years old at his father's death 
 (2 Sam. iv. 4). The length of Saul's reign cannot be determined 
 with absolute certainty. St. Paul in his sermon at Antioch 
 gives the traditionary view that he reigned forty years.* 
 This is supposed to be supported by the statement (2 Sam. 
 ii. 10) that Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when 
 he succeeded his father ; for as he is not mentioned among 
 Saul's children in the list given in i Sam.xiv. 49, it is argued 
 that he must have been born after his father's accession. 
 But this is most uncertain ; the Ishui of that list being 
 perhaps identical with Eshbaal of 2 Chron. viii. 34, and the 
 same as Ishbosheth, and therefore we can found no argument 
 on the connection of his birth with the length of Saul's reign. 
 There is really nothing to rest upon but the statement of St. 
 Paul, which is not necessarily, and is not designed to be, 
 definite and historical, and is probably determined by the 
 desire to make the duration of the first monarch's reign equal 
 to those of David and Solomon. Josephus, in one place, 
 calculates the forty years by assigning eighteen years to him 
 during Samuel's life, and twenty-two after the prophet's death. 
 But, as we have seen above (p. 71), the " twenty " is probably an 
 interpolation, and the correct reading is " two." Others have 
 considered that the traditional view includes the time during 
 which Samuel was judge with him and before him ; and that 
 
 « Acts xiii. 21 ; Josephus, " Antiq." vi. 14. 9. 
 
Saul's first rejection. 119 
 
 Samuel judged Israel for twenty-two years by himself, and six- 
 teen in conjunction with Saul as king, and that Saul survived 
 Samuel two years/ We are justified, from considerations 
 already mentioned, in attributing twenty years to his occupancy 
 of the throne. 
 
 It was in the early part of his reign that Saul began to form 
 the nucleus of a standing army. There had been at this time 
 a cessation of hostilities between Israel and the Philistines ; and 
 while the latter occupied many posts in Jewish territory, they 
 did not actively molest their opponents. Saul saw that his 
 untrained countrymen could not at once hope to attack with 
 success a powerful enemy. He was fully determined, and the 
 counsels of Samuel had urged him, to free the nation from the 
 heathen yoke ; but, like a wise general, he proceeded with due 
 precaution. Profiting by the great assembling of the tribes at 
 Gilgal, and their unanimous acceptance of him as king, he 
 proceeded to select a band of valiant and skilful warriors, who 
 might not only act as a body-guard to himself, now that he 
 had assumed kingly state, but might form the framework of a 
 military system, and train the whole nation to arms. At this 
 moment, dismissing the rest of the people, he contented himself 
 with oganizing a picked body of three thousand men, keeping 
 two thousand under his own eye, and placing one thousand 
 under the command of his son Jonathan. This is the first 
 mention of that gallant and ill-fated prince, the friendship be- 
 tween whom and David is one of the most touching circum- 
 stances in Scripture history. Comely in person, brave to rash- 
 ness, expert in the use of weapons of war, swift of foot as the 
 gazelle,^ upright, faithful, affectionate, Jonathan has well been 
 called the perfect type of a Jewish warrior. The trust reposed 
 in him by givingthis, his first command, was abundantly satisfied, 
 and he handled his little army very skilfully, with happy daring 
 seconding his father's plans. The position chosen for the two 
 companies showed no mean knowledge of strategy. A briei 
 description of the locality will best explain Saul's tactics.^ 
 
 « So Wordsworth. 
 
 * See marginal rendering in 2 Sam. i. 17, R. V. 
 
 3 The description in the text is derived mainly from Lieutenant Conder's 
 ♦' Tent Work " (ii. iioff.), and the •* Memoirs " of the Palestine Explora- 
 
I20 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 A great valley, some twelve miles in length, has its head 
 west of Ai (the modern Haiyan, a ruin close to the village of 
 Deir Diwan and still showing the huge cairn raised over it by 
 Joshua), and curving round eastward it runs down to Jericho. 
 The road is wonderfully smooth considering the mountainous 
 district which it traverses, passing over a kind of undulating 
 plateau, and falling more than 2,000 feet ere it debouches on 
 the Dead Sea, A similar plateau leads eastward to Bethel. 
 The valley is now called the Wady Suweinit, i.e.^ the " Valley 
 of the Little Thorn Tree" (which recalls the name of the crag 
 Seneh, " thorn," mentioned below), and was in old times the 
 main road from the East to the hill country of central Palestine. 
 About two miles from its head the valley becomes a narrow 
 gorge, with vertical precipices some eight hundred feet high. 
 Approached from the south this great fissure is at first quite 
 invisible ; but following the path down the steep slopes you 
 come to a sort of promontory, from whence you see, what it had 
 previously shut out from view, the true pass looking very grand 
 with precipitous rock on either side. On the south side of this 
 chasm stands Geba of Benjamin on a rocky knoll, with caverns 
 beneath the houses and arable land on the east. Looking 
 across the valley, the stony hills and white chalky slopes pre- 
 sent a desolate appearance ; and on the opposite, or north side, 
 considerably lower than Geba, is the little village of Michmasb 
 (Muckhmas), situated on a sort of saddle, backed by an open 
 and fertile corn-valley. About a mile to the west of the village 
 the crag is crowned by a sort of plateau sloping backwards into 
 a round-topped hill. Bethel lies four miles to the north, and 
 the interval is filled up by a range of hills which is called in 
 our narrative " Mount Bethel " (i Sam. xii. 2). In Michmash, 
 which is situated less than a mile due north from where the 
 valley begins to contract, and on some other heights in the 
 neighbourhood, Saul posted his two thousand choice warriors, 
 with the object of watching the movements of the PhiHstines 
 should they venture to push southwards. Jonathan with his 
 troops was stationed at Gibeah, the old home of his father, 
 
 lion Fund, I have also, by the kindness of Mr. W. Robertson Smith, the 
 courteous Librarian of the Cambridge University Library, been permitted 
 to use some extracts from his Diary made on the spot during his travels in 
 1879. Dr. Geikie's *' The Holy Land and the Bible " has also greatly helped 
 
SAUL'S FIRST REJECTION. 121 
 
 where he would have the support of his family and friends, and, 
 possibly, the assistance of an able counsellor and leader, Abner, 
 his near kinsman. Thus, for some time, the two parties stood 
 closely observing each other, but abstaining from active opera- 
 tions. At length the impetuous Jonathan, tired of inaction, and 
 inwardly vexed at the daily sight of the great Philistine pillar 
 which reared itself on the hill-side as a token of the heathen 
 supremacy, could not restrain the impulse to do an act which 
 would at once animate his countrymen and show the enemy 
 that the Israelites were capable of asserting their independence. 
 With his father's full connivance, he suddenly demolished the 
 monument ^ whatever it was, and prepared to abide the con- 
 sequences. These were serious, though not altogether unex- 
 pected. The Philistines heard of what had happened, and saw 
 that the proceeding meant revolt. Saul, too, had thrown down 
 the gauntlet, and followed up the action by rousing his people 
 to immediate preparation. The trumpet of alarm was sounded 
 throughout the country, and the exploit of Jonathan was pro- 
 claimed everywhere by a formal announcement commencing 
 with the old formula : " Let the Hebrews hear." Thus with 
 the blast of the trumpet Ehud had summoned the Ephraimites, 
 and Gideon the men of Abiezer, even as in earlier days the 
 assembhng and the movements of the host in the wilderness 
 were regulated by the sound of the silver trumpets.^ 
 
 The news of this event roused the Philistines to fury. They 
 had viewed with grave suspicion the election of an Israelite 
 king ; the subsequent victory over the Ammonites, and the 
 fame thereby acquired by Saul, warned them of danger, which 
 was rendered more imminent by the fact that he had gathered 
 around him a body of trained soldiers. So they made imme- 
 diate and extensive preparations for war ; and Saul, lest he 
 
 » The Authorized Version (i Sam. xiii. 3) is, "Jonathan smote the garrison 
 of the Pliihstines that was in Geba." For this, we should translate : "de- 
 stroyed the pillar that was on the hill." We have seen above that the word 
 netsib is to be rendered " monument " not "garrison ; " and it is most 
 unlikely that if the Philistines occupied Geba, thus threatening Benjamin 
 and Judah, Saul should have posted himself on their north and thus left 
 his own territory undefended, Ewald considers that the word should be 
 rendered " officer," and that the person meant was placed by the Philistines 
 in Gibeah for the collection of tribute remaining due after former levies 
 (" Hist, of Israel," iii. 30). This is an assumption incapable of proof. 
 
 * Judges iii. 27 ; vi. 14 ; Numb. x. 2 ff. 
 
122 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 should be overwhelmed by the numbers opposed to him, with- 
 drew down the Wady Suweinit, which, as we have seen, opened 
 a ready road to the plain of the Jordan. He posted himself at 
 Gilgal, the old headquarters of Joshua's army, and the most 
 sacred spot in all the land, and summoned the people to join 
 him there. His call was not quickly or zealously responded to. 
 Either from pusillanimity, or from some unexplained want of 
 confidence in their leader, they did not flock in large numbers 
 to his standard. And long before he had collected any 
 adequate force, the Philistines had taken the field with an 
 immense army which he was entirely unable to resist. It is 
 true that the numbers given in our present text are quite untrust- 
 worthy ; but with every deduction, they are such as to show 
 that Israel was no match for her enemies at this conjuncture. 
 The Philistines are said to have had "30,000 chariots and 6,000 
 horsemen," and, as the writer adds, quoting the exaggerated 
 account which the frightened messengers gave, "people as the 
 sand which is on the seashore in multitude." Evidently they 
 had made a great effort, had enlisted foreign support,^ and 
 marched forth, determined at one blow to crush the rebellion 
 and exterminate these interlopers. But the numbers are palpably 
 erroneous. The proportion between the chariots and horsemen 
 is absurd. In all the rolls of armies which have reached us, the 
 number of the former is always very much smaller than that of 
 the latter ; and such an amount of war-chariots is unheard of. 
 Jabin had only 900 ; Pharaoh pursued the Israelites with 600 ; 
 and Solomon at the height of his power possessed only 1,400." 
 Three hundred ^ would have been sufficient for all purposes, 
 and even these would have been of little efficacy in the rocky 
 country where they were used. But the cavalry and infantry 
 were indeed formidable. As Saul retired from Michmash and 
 Bethel, the Philistines occupied these posts, and holding the 
 passes, prevented reinforcements from reaching the king from 
 that side. The northern portion of the district, which would 
 
 » Josephus, " Antiq.," vi. 6. 2. 
 
 =* Exod. xiv. 7 ; Judges iv. 351 Kings x. 26. Comp. i Chron. xviii. 4 ; 
 2 Chron. xii. 3 ; 2 Mace. xiii. 2. 
 
 3 As Dean Payne Smith notes, the Hebrew letter shin, the numeral for 
 300, has been read with two dots, which makes its value 3000. 
 
SAUL'S FIRST REJECTION. 1 23 
 
 comprise the territory of Ephraim, was completely overrun by 
 them without opposition. The Israelites were so thoroughly 
 disheartened that many hid themselves in the caves with which 
 the limestone hills abounded, and in the dry tanks wherein 
 during the rainy season water was stored ; some retreated to the 
 fastnesses in the mountains where they could not be easily 
 followed ; and some took refuge beyond Jordan in the country 
 of Gilead, now after the late defeat of the Ammonites rendered 
 a secure asylum. Even those who had collected round Saul at 
 Gilgal were far from being confident ; they " followed him 
 trembling.'* They were in despair as they compared their own 
 puny force with the mighty host arrayed against them ; a 
 cowardly terror replaced their late patriotic ardour ; they had 
 no heart for the contest which awaited them, and fell away from 
 their king's side at the moment of peril. 
 
 A few years before this time, when Saul was first consecrated 
 to his office, Samuel had solemnly warned the young king that 
 a great crisis in his life was to happen at Gilgal There the 
 war of freedom was to commence, and to be inaugurated with 
 sacrifices and offerings, which the prophet himself was to 
 offer ; and there he was to receive Samuel's final directions, "^s. 
 and, remembering that he was the servant of Jehovah, to act 
 en the counsel communicated to him by the Lord's minister. 
 From the time that he arrived at Gilgal, he was ordered to 
 wait seven days for the prophet's appearance, and to undertake 
 nothing till the religious service was celebrated, and the 
 seer had explained to him how he should act. The 
 command was plain and emphatic. Doubtless, during the 
 time that had elapsed since the order was first delivered, 
 Samuel had reminded the king of his duty, and enjoined 
 strict obedience. Now the time of trial had arrived. Here 
 he was at Gilgal ; a momentous crisis was before him ; he 
 had but to trust in Jehovah and calmly obey His servant, 
 and all would be well. And Saul failed utterly. He 
 waited with increasing impatience for Samuel's promised 
 arrival. Day by day his position at Gilgal appeared more 
 untenable ; his camp on the open plain could not resist an 
 attack ; at any time his retreat to the mountains might be cut 
 off; continually news was brought of the progress of the 
 Philistines ; continually the weak-hearted people slunk away ; 
 even the greater part of his own choice soldiers left him in this 
 
124 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 emergency. Perplexed and distracted by what seemed to be 
 opposing duties, Saul knew not what to do. Should he wait in 
 inaction in obedience to Samuel's unreasonable command, and 
 see his troops fall away, and his hope of engaging the enemy 
 successfully ruined ; or should he think only of his business as 
 king and general, and do that which became a prudent com- 
 mander? He left the decision to the last moment ; but when 
 the seventh day dawned, and still the prophet came not, his 
 determination was taken ; he hesitated no longer ; he saw that 
 the people would not fight unless God's favour had first been 
 secured by the offering of sacrifice ; so he called for the burnt- 
 offering and peace-offerings which had been prepared for Samuel's 
 ministration, and by the hand of Ahiah, the priest who was 
 present at Gilgal,^ he offered the burnt-offering. Scarcely was 
 the first part of the ceremony ended ; the smoke from the altar 
 still was rising to the heaven, and the peace-offerings had not 
 yet been presented, when Samuel came on the scene. Either 
 he had been delayed by the difficulty of making his way through 
 the enemies' lines, or he had been divinely directed thus to try 
 the faith and patience of Saul. It was towards the close of the 
 seventh day that he suddenly appeared in the sight of the im- 
 patient king. Always filled with reverence for the great prophet 
 to whom he owed so much, and eager to do him public honour, 
 Saul goes forth to meet him with humble salutation. Samuel 
 looks around, sees the smoking altar and the remains of the 
 victims, and asks in stern displeasure : *' What hast thou done ? " 
 Saul does not simply own his fault and plead for forgiveness ; 
 he tries to excuse his action. ** Because I saw," he says, urging 
 three pleas, " that the people were scattered from me, and that 
 thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philis- 
 tines assembled themselves together at Michmash ; therefore 
 said I, Now will the Philistines come down upon me to Gilgal, 
 and I have not entreated the favour of the Lord : I forced my- 
 self, therefore, and offered the burnt-offering." What was the 
 reply of Samuel ? Was the excuse valid in his eyes ! Nay, it 
 but aggravated the guilt, showed that the culprit knew what he 
 was doing and sinned wilfully. " Thou hast done foolishly " — as 
 there is no folly greater than disobedience — " thou hast not 
 kept the commandment of the Lord thy God which He com- 
 
 ' See I Sam. xiv. 3. 
 
SAUL'S FIRST REJECTION. I25 
 
 manded thee." It has often been asked, what special command 
 Saul had broken ? and what was the sin which brought upon 
 him the punishment denounced ? Many have thought that his 
 error consisted in the usurpation of the priest's office, in offering 
 with his own hand the oblations which appertained to the 
 sacerdotal function. But there is no reason to suppose that he 
 did this. We find that he has a priest with him immediately 
 after this transaction, and kings are often said to offer sacrifice 
 when we know that they did so by the hands of the lawful 
 minister.' Neither does Samuel accuse him of intrusion into 
 the priest's office. In the present abeyance of discipline, and 
 the severance of the ark and the tabernacle, it is doubtful 
 whether the offering of a sacrifice by an anointed king would 
 have been considered a crime such as that of Uzziah 
 in later days and under different circumstances.^ At any rate 
 there is no mention of any such charge in Saul's case. The 
 command which he broke was that given three years before, viz., 
 to wait for the prophet's blessing and the prophet's directions 
 before taking any steps in deliverance of his people from heathen 
 thraldom. This command included much. It was really a test 
 whereby should be proved whether the king was a theocratic 
 ruler or a self-willed despot, whether he would take his directions / 
 from the co-ordinate authority of the inspired prophet, or be guided 
 solely by his own will and caprice. The working of the two 
 independent powers, the regal and the prophetic, was tried by the 
 order in question. It had been virtually repeated at the renewal 
 of the kingdom at Gilgal, when the seer had bidden him to fear 
 the Lord and to serve Him in truth with all the heart, and had 
 added the warning that, if he did wickedly, he and his people 
 should be consumed. ^ This command, confirmed originally b 
 the exact fulfilment of the three appointed signs, and enjoi n«='r 
 in many other words since then, Saul deliberately broke. 
 fihal fear and dependence which were required, he r^jc^ 
 Whereas his appointment and continuance in office were con- 
 ditioned by unquestioning obedience, he had failed on the first ^ 
 great occasion of its being called into exercise. Doubtless he had' 
 ere now shown symptoms of the same independence and self-will, 
 but the present is recorded by the historian as a typical instance, 
 
 ' 2 Sam. xxiy. 25 ; x Kings iii. 4 ; viii. 63. ■ 2 Chron. xxvi. 16. 
 3 I Sam. xii. 2d. ff. 
 
126 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 and as that which led to serious and lasting consequences. At the 
 bottom of all his error lay distrust in Divine help, and over- 
 weening confidence in human prudence and sagacity. True, he 
 offered sacrifice in imprecation of the favour of Jehovah ; but 
 this he did not from any really devout feeling, but chiefly for 
 the effect which it might have upon the people. It was rather 
 in satisfaction of popular prejudice, than with any desire ot 
 pleasing God, that he called for the arranged sacrifice. The 
 externals of religion were all that he cared for ; he had fallen 
 into that spirit, so often and so strongly denounced by the later 
 prophets, the spirit which regarded the outward act as every- 
 thing, and which deemed that ceremonial observances would be 
 accepted where reverence, faith, and moral obedience were 
 wanting. What did such a man think of the stories which told 
 of deliverances granted in earlier times, of the victories of Joshua, 
 of battles gained against overwhelming odds, when the Lord 
 fought for His people .-* Did he think that the Lord's arm was 
 shortened, that nothing of the kind was to be expected now-a- 
 days, that the earthly king had no dependence upon the heavenly 
 King whose vicegerent he was, and needed no supernatural 
 assistance ? If so — and his action proved that this was the case 
 — he had altogether misconceived the position of Israel and its 
 ruler. The prosperity and existence of the people depended 
 wholly upon obedience to theocratic government ; with the help 
 and favour of their invisible King they were strong and suc- 
 cessful, without them they were powerless and humiliated. How 
 could one who despised or ignored this primary principle be fit 
 to govern Israel ? Could the government be rightly entrusted 
 to one who showed such a dangerous disposition ? This open 
 violation of the first condition of national life could not be passed 
 -ver unnoticed. The king's example might lead to a general 
 diation of dependence upon Jehovah, terminating in apostasy 
 ..a mfidelity ; the childhke faith which, while simply obeying, 
 waits for deliverance in God's good time, which is content to 
 stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, would have 
 received a severe check ; and men would have been tempted to 
 trust to national sagacity and the arm of flesh rather than to the 
 commands of God and the counsels of His ministers. And as 
 Saul was, so would his posterity be. Therefore to continue the 
 monarchy in his line would only perpetuate the evil. The pro- 
 
SAUL'S FIRST REJECTION. 1 27 
 
 longation -of the succession in the same family was a boon desired 
 by all occupants of a throne. The prayer, " Grant the king a 
 long life, may his years be as many generations," ^ was the 
 natural outpouring of the wish for the preservation of a dynasty. 
 But this duration was to be refused to Saul. It had indeed never 
 been promised ; but he had now shown himself unworthy of it 
 And then the prophet pronounces his doom, not his final rejec- 
 tion (for he might by repentance have regained the Lord's 
 favour), but a punishment which should affect his posterity. 
 Had he proved himself a humble and obedient servant of Jeho- 
 vah, his kingdom would have been "established upon Israel for 
 ever," in his family. " But now," the prophet announces, " thy 
 kingdom shall not continue." He was to remain king himself; 
 nothing is as yet said of his personal rejection ; that was to follow 
 on the occasion of another and more aggravated disobedience. 
 It is the kingdom, not the king, that is here denounced. No 
 son should succeed to his honours ; a successor had already in 
 God's counsels been provided. " The Lord hath sought Him a 
 man after His own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to 
 be prince over His people." It was many years afterwards that 
 David, the future king, was appointed ; as he was only thirty 
 years old at the time of Saul's death, =" he must have been at 
 this moment in his early youth. But with God the future is 
 present; in His foreknowledge things to come are accomplished 
 facts, and His purposes are completed deeds. So the prophet 
 speaks of the choice as already made, and the selected person 
 as of a certain high character, though for fear of awakening 
 Saul's jealousy he does not mention his name and family, if he 
 knew them as yet. This new monarch was not to supersede 
 Saul, or to reign while Saul lived, but to take that place which 
 the family of the present king would have assumed had he been 
 found worthy. And now for a time the old prophet sorrowfully 
 leaves the wilful king, not without hope that he may yet see his 
 error, and by timely repentance avert the threatened doom. 
 For Samuel well knew that God's judgments, as well as His 
 promises, are conditional, not over-riding man's free will, but 
 depending for their fulfilment on human conduct. So, sadly, he 
 turns homeward to his house at Ramah, stopping for awhile on 
 his way at Gibeah to encourage the people and the little band 
 
 » Psa. Ixi. 6. » a Sam.v. 4. 
 
128 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 of soldiers there, and to convey the king's injunctions to his son 
 Jonathan. These orders were to take the earliest opportunity 
 of uniting his forces with his father's, that together they might 
 make a stand against the invaders.' Meantime, Saul's troops 
 had dwindled away ; he had gained nothing by his disobedience ; 
 the very object of his self-willed sacrifice had not been fulfilled ; 
 the dispersion of the people had not been prevented, and when, 
 before moving from Gilgal, he numbered his troops, he found 
 that only six hundred remained with him. 
 
 * The Septuagint, with the intention of filling a supposed gap between 
 the two portions of i Sam. xiii. 15, has introduced a gloss which is somewhat 
 unintelligible : " and Samuel arose and went from Gilgal (on his way, Alex.) ; 
 and the rest of the people went up after Israel to meet the people of war. 
 And when they had come from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin, then Saul 
 inspected the people," &c. One wants to know whence came these 
 "people of war," and how, in spite of these reinforcements, Saul could 
 muster only 600 men. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BATTLE OF MICHMASH. 
 
 Saul at Geba— The Philistines devastate the land— Jonathan and his 
 armour-bearer attack their garrison— The Philistines, panic-stricken, fly 
 — Sauljoinsin the pursuit— Great slaughter of the Philistines— Saulsrash 
 vow ; broken unwittingly by Jonathan — The violater discovered by lot 
 — Jonathan rescued from death by the people. 
 
 Marching from Gilgal with his diminished force, Saul posted 
 himself in a strong position at Geba/ a village, as we have 
 seen, on the south side of the Wady Suweinit, about two miles 
 east of Ramah, whence he could observe the tactics of the enemy 
 opposite to him at Michmash, and check, or at any rate harass, 
 their troops if they attempted to enter further into the territory 
 of Benjamin. Here he was joined by Jonathan with his small 
 company of picked warriors.' It was a prudent movement, and 
 showed the skill of an intelligent commander. We do not know 
 why the Philistines had not crushed his little army on the plain 
 of Jordan, where their cavalry and chariots would have had free 
 scope for their operations, and the Israelites could have offered 
 no opposition. Why again they permitted their enemies to 
 retreat unmolested to the fastness of Geba and intrench them- 
 selves there, is equally unintelligible to a military view. Pro- 
 bably, conscious of their own immense superiority, the Philistines 
 utterly despised their antagonists, and feeling able to overwhelm 
 
 * The Authorized Version reads (i Sam. xiii. i6) wrongly: " Gibeah of 
 Benjamin " ; the Revised gives " Geba." 
 
 2 The LXX. to the clause (i Sam. xiii. i6) : "abode in Gibeah of 
 Benjamin," add: "and wept,'' which reminds one of Chap, xi. 4, but is 
 not very suitable to the character of Saul and Jonathan. 
 
 10 
 
130 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 them at any moment, did not take the trouble to interfere with 
 their movements till the time came for striking a final blow. 
 Meanwhile they turned their attention to devastating the land 
 that lay open to their troops. Retaining the camp at Michmash 
 as their central station, they despatched companies of marauders 
 in various directions. No opposition could be offered, and 
 terrible suffering ensued. The historian carefully notes the 
 course of these plundering expeditions. The south alone was 
 barred by the presence of Saul's forces ; the rest of the 
 country was at their mercy. So one company of these 
 light-armed forayers turned northward to Ophrah, ' a town 
 near Ai, five miles north-east of Bethel, thirteen from Jeru- 
 salem, and now represented by the village of Tayibeh, which 
 stands on a conspicuous eminence. From it a wady, afterwards 
 occupied by a Roman road, runs down to the Jordan valley. 
 A second company turned westward towards Beth-Horon, now 
 Beit Ur, the place renowned for Joshua's victory over the 
 Amorite king (Josh, x.), and situated on the main approach from 
 Philistia to the interior of the country. A third band extended 
 its ravages to the Jordan valley on the south-east, which is 
 here called the "Valley of Zeboim." In such raids a considerable 
 time was spent. Probably we have here the summary of events 
 that occupied a year or two. By the end of that time the 
 condition of the Israelites was sufficiently miserable. It had 
 always been the policy of the Philistines to deprive the conquered 
 of their arms. It is noted that the Judge Shamgar, who is said 
 to have delivered Israel, slew the Philistines with an ox goad ; ' 
 and in the history of Samson's achievements there is no mention 
 of sword or spear being used by him or those around him. The 
 Israelites had indeed obtained a supply of arms from their 
 enemies after the successful battle of Ebenezer, but of these they 
 had been deprived directly the Philistines recovered their 
 supremacy. The same fate had befallen the spoil won from the 
 defeated Ammonites. It seems to have been the custom of the 
 Philistines at stated times to make a visitation of the conquered 
 territories, levying tribute, collecting arms, plundering villages, 
 and erecting trophies of their successes in various places. At 
 
 * This is described (ch. xiii. 17) as being in ** the land of Shual," i.e., 
 "of jnclcals," a local name, not identified, but perhaps the same as "Shalim" 
 jch.ix. 4). 
 
 ''Judges iii. 31. 
 
BATTLE OF MICHMASH. 131 
 
 the present time they had not only deprived the Israelites of all 
 means of offence, but carried off all the smiths and armourers 
 from the district, so that the writer, speaking of his own days, 
 and of the territories of Benjamin and Judah with which he was 
 most familiar, could truthfully say : "There was no smith found 
 throughout all the land of Israel ; for the Philistines said. Lest 
 the Hebrews make them swords or spears." ^ Even to sharpen 
 their agricultural implements, their ploughshares, sickles, axes, 
 and mattocks, they had to apply to the nearest Philistine settle- 
 ment, and this was found to be so troublesome and degrading 
 that many let their tools rust and become useless, rather than 
 submit to the terms imposed.* Very few of the Israelites there- 
 fore were efficiently armed, being quite unable to meet on equal 
 terms their enemies, who were clad in defensive mail and fully 
 equipped with sword and spear. It is most probable that the 
 Hebrews were possessed of bows and arrows, to the use of which 
 they were well trained ; and the skill of the Benjamites with the 
 sling was notorious. But their " artillery "^ was of httle avail 
 against soldiers protected by breast-plate, helmet, and shield 
 of metal ; so that they had little hope of successfully attacking 
 their opponents, and were compelled to stand on the defensive 
 only, and to see their homesteads plundered and their land 
 desolated without making any attempt at rescue. 
 
 The Philistines now pushed forward a post from their camp 
 at Michmash to an eminence somewhat nearer to Geba, that 
 they might be more ready to intercept the Israelites, should they 
 attempt any onward movement. The camp of the Philistines is 
 described by Josephus,'* who must have been familiar with the 
 
 * I Sam. xiii. 19. See Hummel, in loc. 
 
 ■ The Hebrew here (ch. xiii. 20, 21) is very confused, and is variously 
 translated. The explanation given above is adapted from Bunsen. The 
 word translated "file" is now considered to mean " bluntness," and the 
 whole passage is thus rendered by Dean Payne Smith : " But all the Israelites 
 went down to the Philistines to sharpen his sickle, and his plough-share, 
 and his axe, and his mattock, whenever the edges of the mattocks, and the 
 plough-shares, and the forks, and the axes were blunt, and also to set the 
 goads." The LXX. represent ver. 21 by the following : " Now the harvest 
 was ready to reap. And the tools were (sliarpened) at three shekels for a 
 tooth [i.e. for each tool), and for the axe and the sickle there was the same 
 rate." 
 
 3 I Sam. XX. 4a Comp. xvii, 5 f. 
 
 ♦ "Antiq." vi. 6.2. 
 
132 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 locality, as being situated on a very steep hill with three tops, 
 ending in a long, sharp tongue, and protected by cliffs which 
 almost surrounded the tents. " Exactly such a natural fortress," 
 says Lieutenant Conder/ "is found east of Michmash, and it 
 is still called 'the Fort ' by the peasantry." It is described as " a 
 ridge rising in three rounded knolls above a perpendicular crag, 
 ending in a narrow tongue to the east with cliffs below, and 
 having an open valley behind it, and a saddle towards the west 
 on which Michmash itself is situate. Opposite this fortress, on 
 the south, there is a crag of equal height and seemingly impas- 
 sable ; " as the sacred writer says (i Sam. xiv. 4), "there is a 
 sharp rock on one side, and a sharp rock on the other." The 
 southern cliff is called Seneh, the northern Bozez, " shining." 
 The valley, of which Lieutenant Conder gives a drawing, runs 
 nearly due east, and thus the south side is almost entirely in 
 shade during the day. " The contrast is surprising and pictu- 
 resque between the dark cool colour of the south side and the 
 ruddy or tawny tints of the northern cliff, crowned with the 
 gleaming white of the upper chalky strata." 
 
 While such was the position of the Philistine camp, Saul 
 occupied the northern extremity of the hill of Geba,^ having 
 set up his spear, the emblem of command, under a pomegranate 
 tree,3 facing Migron, " the precipice."* Here he watched and 
 
 * "Tent Work,'* ii. 112 ff. 
 
 = I have no doubt that the Gibeah of Ch. xiv. 2 is not Sanl's city, but 
 Geba. There is continual confusion between the Gibeah of Benjamin, 
 Gibeah of Saul, and Geba. The LXX. in the present passage translate : 
 "at the extremity of the hill/' taking the word as an appellative. They 
 evidently have no thought of Saul's own city being meant. It is not at all 
 likely that the king should have left Jonathan, where we find him, at Geba, 
 while he himself with the bulk of his forces withdrew to Gibeah ; nor is 
 Michmash visible from the latter place, while it is separated from Geba only 
 by the width of the valley, and everything done there could be plainly seen 
 from the Israelites' position. The distance from Gibeah to Michmash 
 which places are separated by many little rugged valleys) is too great 
 for Saul to have been able to arrive in time to give any effective help to 
 Jonathan in his rash enterprise. 
 
 3 The Hebrew word for "pomegranate" is rimmon, and many have 
 thought that the Rimmon of Judges xx. 45, where the defeated Benjamites 
 took refuge, is here meant. But this is a mistake. 
 
 4 See Isa. x. 28, describing Sennacherib's march, and Cheyne's note 
 there in the last edition of his commentary. 
 
BATTLE OF MICHMASH. 1 33 
 
 waited, fretting at inaction, yet too weak to make any offensive 
 movement. But there was one fiery spirit in his army who bore 
 this quiescence with an impatience which increased every day. 
 Jonathan could ill brook the sight of the insolent enemy close 
 before him and exulting in his superiority ; and inspired by a 
 Divine impulse, like that which seized on Gideon, and Othniel, 
 and Samson, he determined to strike one desperate blow or 
 perish in the attempt. He told not his father of his intention ; 
 he asked no counsel of the High Priest Ahiah, the great-grand- 
 son of Eli, who was present there with the Urim and Thummim, 
 but trusting to the help of the Most High and his own strength 
 and courage, he undertook one of the strangest enterprises 
 which any hero of old time ever attempted. Looking upon the 
 Israelites as an undisciplined, unarmed rabble from whom no 
 danger was to be expected, the Philistines kept but slight watch, 
 and were ill prepared to resist any sudden attack, Jonathan 
 saw this from the higher ground at Geba, and determined to 
 take advantage of it. He communicated his intention to his 
 armour-bearer, a youth animated with the same courage and 
 inspired by the same faith in Divine protection as himself. He 
 makes no great matter of the proposition. "Come," he says, 
 *' let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised ; it may 
 be that the Lord will work for us ; for there is no restraint to the 
 Lord to save by many or by few." ' The armour-bearer readily 
 agreed to accompany him, and to share the danger whatever it 
 might be. Before, however, actually setting out, Jonathan, 
 according to the custom of his age and country, wished to 
 ascertain whether he might look for God's blessing on his 
 enterprise against these enemies of the Lord, his hatred of whom 
 is expressed by the term of contempt applied to them, " these 
 uncircumcised." Like Abraham's servant, Eliezer of Damascus, 
 when sent on his mission to Rebekah (Gen. xxiv.), or like Gideon, 
 wishing to be certified that God would save Israel by his hand 
 (Judg. vi.), Jonathan, in his full trust in Providence, wished for 
 some sign to determine his purpose. This was not done in blind 
 superstition, nor was it an irreligious tempting of God. It 
 sprung from a strong persuasion that Israel was the Lord's 
 people, and that endeavouring to fight the Lord's battles a 
 devout man might rightly look for some token from heaven to 
 
 « Comp. 2 Chron. xiv. 11. i Mace. iii. 18 ; iv. 30. 
 
134 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 guide his actions. The sign which he chose was this : he and 
 his companion were to pass over to the Philistine side of the 
 valley, and when discovered were to observe the first words 
 spoken to them. If the enemy said, " Tarry till we come to 
 you," they were to give up the enterprise ; but if they were in- 
 vited to come on, they were to consider this as a token that their 
 undertaking would be successful, and that the Lord had delivered 
 the foe into their hands. So like a gallant knight and squire of 
 mediaeval time, Jonathan and his armour-bearer set forth on 
 their perilous enterprise. The situation has already been 
 described. Passing down the long slippery ledges of the cliff 
 Seneh, they arrived in the valley, and crossing this began to 
 make towards the opposite crag Bozez. And now the sign was 
 to be tested. It was well chosen. If the Philistines bade them 
 wait till they came, it would show that they were cautious and 
 on the alert and might not be attacked with impunity ; but if 
 they asked them to come up to their camp, it would be a proof 
 that they were careless and despised the Hebrews too much 
 to take any precaution against surprise. It was early morning, 
 and the Philistines at length discovered these two solitary 
 figures who had crossed the ravine and were directing their way 
 towards the outpost. Probably they had already gotten some 
 distance up the precipice, which is some sixty feet high, before 
 they were discovered. "Ho," cried the Philistines, " Hebrews 
 are coming forth out of the holes where they had hidden them- 
 selves." And they called to them, " Come up to us and we will 
 shew you a thing." They spoke in raillery, deriding the 
 adventurous approach of these two youths, and perhaps thinking 
 that they could never make their way up the face of the 
 ptecipice. But in the words Jonathan saw the sign which he 
 desired. " Come up after me," he cried with exultation to his 
 comrade ; " for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of 
 Israel.' The Philistines might easily have hurled them to the 
 bottom by rolling stones upon them from above; but they treated 
 them only with good-humoured contempt and let them do as they 
 liked. So the two rapidly clambered up the rock on hands and 
 feet, and suddenly appeared at the parapet with their deadly 
 bows bent. According to the account of Josephus,^ as soon as 
 he received the answer of the enemy Jonathan and his friend 
 
 • " Antiq." vi. 6. 3. 
 
BATTLE OF MICHMASH. 1 35 
 
 crept out of sight and got round to the side of the rock vvhicli 
 was left unguarded. Clambering up this, they entered the camp 
 on the further side, and surprised the Philistines sleeping in 
 fancied security. However this may be, no sooner had they 
 surmounted the difficulties of the ascent than they commenced 
 the attack, as the Septuagint says, with darts and slings and 
 stones of the field. The armour-bearer ably seconded his 
 master; the Philistines surprised at the suddenness of the assault 
 made but little resistance, and in a few minutes twenty corpses 
 attested the vigour of the attack and the prowess of the Israelites.' 
 A panic seized the unbelievers ; they could not believe that two 
 men would dare to attack the garrison ; they thought that those 
 whom they saw were only the precursors of a large stormingparty, 
 and offering no further resistance they fled in confusion towards 
 the main camp, spreading terror as they ran. The panic was 
 even communicated to the parties of marauders whom they 
 met in their flight. The confusion was augmented by the ad- 
 mixture of foreigners in the Philistines' army ; for in the sudden 
 supernatural terror that seized them they ceased to distinguish 
 friend from foe, and fell in numbers by mutual slaughter.^ 
 The watchmen of Saul at Geba could plainly see what was going 
 on at Michmash, and in that clear air even hear the cries of the 
 combatants across the valley. With the utmost surprise they 
 beheld the signs of combat in the camps of the enemy, the gleam 
 of arms, the rushing of excited multitudes hither and thither ; 
 and they hurried to tell Saul of the astonishing occurrence. At 
 once suspecting that some of his own warriors were concerned in 
 the matter, the king ordered the muster roll of his troops to be 
 called, and the absence of Jonathan and his armour-bearer was 
 
 * There is some difficulty in explaining the last clause of i Sam. xiv. 14. 
 The R.V. gives : " within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land 
 (marg. : half an acre of land). " Ewald interprets thus : " at the very beginning 
 he thus strikes down twenty men at once, 'as if a yoke of land were in 
 course of being ploughed,' which must beware of offering opposition to the 
 sharp ploughshare in the middle of its work." Klosteimann gives : "half 
 in the camp and half in the open field." One might have expected some 
 measure of time instead of space. 
 
 » " And the earth quaked ; so there was an exceeding great trembling '• 
 (ch. xiv. 15). This has been taken to imply that there was an earthquake 
 at this moment ; but the Hebrew does not necessarily denote such an event ; 
 and it is well not to introduce supernatural interpositions into texts which 
 do not plainly express them. 
 
136 SAMUEL AND SAUL, 
 
 quickly discovered. The crisis called for some action on his 
 part. Having, therefore, Ahiah at Geba with the sacred gar- 
 ment containing the Urim and Thummim/ Saul desires the 
 High Priest to ask counsel of God. Our present Hebrew text 
 makes Saul say : " Bring hither the ark of God " ; adding : 
 " for the ark of God was there at that time with the children of 
 Israel." But the ark was last heard of at Kirjath-jearim (ch. 
 vii. 2), where it was found in David's time, nor is it at all likely 
 to have been moved in these troublous days to Geba. The 
 term rendered "bring hither " is never used for the ark, but only 
 for the ephod;- nor was the ark ever employed in any way to 
 obtain an oracular reply. The Greek version has doubtless 
 then preserved the true rendering : " Bring hither the ephod ; 
 for he bore the ephod in that day before Israel." While Saul 
 was speaking to Ahiah, the uproar in the enemies' camp in- 
 creased tenfold, and it was evident that now was the time to 
 strike a decisive blow. Saul can wait no longer ; his instinct 
 as a commander told him that delay might be fatal. This was 
 the time for action, not for prayer. He saw what was to be 
 done and needed no Divine counsel. *' Withdraw thy hand," 
 he cries to the priest. Impatient at one moment for the heavenly 
 oracle, he is at the next too impatient to wait for it. As in all 
 his conduct, he set too little store by Divine guidance. Had he 
 listened to the word of God, he would have escaped the errors 
 which marred the completeness of his victory. Now filled with 
 ardour he called upon his men to follow him, and they, raising 
 the familiar battle-cry, put themselves under his guidance, and 
 hurried down the hill eagerly to the battle. There was but 
 little fighting to be done. When they arrived upon the scene 
 they found the enemy doing their work for them. Every 
 man's sword was against his neighbour ; Philistines and their 
 alien confederates were involved in inextricable confusion, 
 fighting one with the other ; and the Israelites coming fresh in 
 the field with their compact, well-trained little troop, had 
 merely to slay and to glut their vengeance on their once scornful 
 foes. Aid, too, appeared from unexpected quarters. Probably 
 some of the auxiliaries who were serving unwillingly took this 
 opportunity of turning their arms against their employers ; and 
 it is certain that the Hebrews, who had been taken from con- 
 
 * I Sam. xiv. 18. » Conip. i Sam. xxiii. 9 , xxx. 7. 
 
BATTLE OF MICHMASH. I37 
 
 quered districts and compelled to act as servants and camp- 
 followers for the Philistines, openly sided with their countrymen, 
 and seizing the first weapons that came to hand, added greatly 
 to the confusion and the slaughter. The flight became general. 
 Tidings of the event flew quickly around. The villagers who 
 had deserted their homes on the approach of the Philistines and 
 betaken themselves for refuge to the caves and hills of that 
 wild country, came forth from their hiding-places and fastnesses, 
 and joined in the pursuit. In headlong course the heathen fled 
 down the valley past Bethaven, the bleak desert on the east of 
 Bethel ; they made no stand there, but turned westward first to 
 Upper Bethhoron, then down the steep descent to Lower Beth- 
 horon, in order to gain their own country by the valley of Aijalon. 
 This is a broad and beautiful valley running west -by-north 
 through the tract of hills and then bending south-west through 
 the great western plain, Aijalon itself, now represented by the 
 village of Yalo, stands on the side of a long hill which skirts 
 the valley on the south. By this wady, the remnant of the 
 Philistines, utterly broken in spirit, wounded, and wearied with 
 a flight over some twenty miles of rugged ground, reached their 
 own territories with the loss of arms and treasure and equip- 
 ments. Thus as the Lord delivered Israel at the Red Sea, so 
 He this day saved them from the hands of their enemies, and 
 gave them a great victory, sixty thousand of the Philistines 
 having perished.^ But circumstances had occurred to make 
 the victory less complete than it might have been. The troops 
 of the Israehties had increased by the influx of the country- 
 people and of the Hebrews in the Philistine camp to ten 
 thousand men ; and Saul, wishing to take advantage of this 
 powerful force, and desiring that nothing might hinder the 
 pursuit, had foohshly made the people swear to eat no food 
 until the evening. So intent was he upon the one object of 
 avenging the long insults offered to him and his royal power, 
 that he forgot humanity to his soldiers and the limits of human 
 endurance, and made them agree to devote to death any one 
 who as long as daylight lasted should cease from the work of 
 slaughter in order to take rest or refreshment. The conse- 
 quences of this inconsiderate vow showed themselves in the 
 faintness and lassitude of his followers, who from sheer exhaus- 
 
 * Josephus, " Antiq." vi. 6. 6. 
 
138 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 lion were unable to continue the pursuit with the necessary 
 persistence. Their course led them through a wood where 
 honey lay in abundance on the ground ; for the wild bees build 
 their nests in rocks and hollow trees, and oftentimes the combs 
 bursting with the weight or liquefying under the influence of 
 the heat let the honey ooze out and fall to the earth. Canaan, 
 we know, was a land flowing with milk and honey, and travellers 
 tell of the vast quantity of bees found therein to this day.' The 
 Jews were naturally very fond of honey, and used it largely for 
 food ; but on this occasion no man dared taste any for fear of 
 the oath which they had taken. Jonathan, however, had not 
 been present when his father had exacted the vow, and had 
 heard nothing about it ; so when he came to this wood and saw 
 means of refreshment at his very feet, he picked up a piece of 
 honeycomb with the point of the staff which he carried and 
 conveyed it to his mouth. The effect even of this slight nourish- 
 ment on his exhausted frame was notable. The dimness of sight 
 caused by extreme fatigue and hunger passed away ; " his eyes 
 were enlightened," and he was able to continue the pursuit with 
 renewed vigour. One of his comrades, seeing what he had 
 done, and shocked at what he thought to be an infringement of 
 a grave obligation, repeated to him the oath which Saul had 
 made the soldiers take, adding, what was indeed the fact, that 
 for want of food the people were faint and worn out. Jonathan 
 inveighed strongly and perhaps somewhat disrespectfully against 
 the impolitic measure, which had rendered the splendid victory 
 incomplete. *' My father," he says in high displeasure, "hath 
 troubled the land : see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been 
 enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey. How much 
 more, if haply the people had eaten freely to-day of the spoil 
 of their enemies which they found. For had there not been now 
 I much greater slaughter among the Philistines .'* " 
 
 The pursuit had now continued the whole day, passing from 
 ( ity to city, and, as we have seen, had reached the valley of 
 Aijalon many miles from Michmash. Latterly indeed the 
 weariness of the troops had prevented them from overtaking the 
 flying Philistines, but the latter had cast away everything that 
 could impede their flight, and had left behind them stores of 
 provisions and cattle. And as the sun sunk in the west and the 
 
 « ThusTristnm, ' X.itiiral ni-,t..i\ ..f tl,.> P.ihl.\' 
 
BATTLE OF MICH MASH. 1 39 
 
 continuance of the vow was no longer of obligation, the people, 
 faint with hunger, flew greedily upon the spoil, the sheep and 
 oxen and calves, and without attending to the requirements of 
 the Law, ravenously satisfied their appetites with animal food 
 not duly prepared. The blood being regarded as the life and 
 mysteriously connected with atonement, the Law gave very 
 strict directions concerning the slaughtering of animals for food. 
 Every such animal was regarded as a kind of Peace-offering, and 
 the taking its life was a solemn sacrificial act. It was to be 
 slain as expeditiously as possible by cutting the throat with a 
 sharp knife without tearing the flesh ; the blood was by no means 
 to be eaten, but to be let flow on the ground and then covered 
 with earth,' In their ravenous hunger the people sinned in 
 more ways than one. They did not wait for the carcase to be 
 entirely drained of blood before eating it ; and they let the 
 slaughtered animal lie in its blood on the ground, and used the 
 flesh thus soaked in blood. Whereas the Law said : " Whoso- 
 ever it be that eateth any blood, that soul shall be cut off" from 
 his people." Some have thought that they did not wait even to 
 cook the meat, but ate it raw. At any rate they violated an- 
 other very remarkable enactment, intended to foster tenderness 
 of feeling and to teach the sacredness of the relation of parent 
 and offspring. In contradiction of the rule which forbade the 
 dam and her young one to be killed on the same day (Lev. xxii. 
 28), they slaughtered the calves with the cows in their pitiless 
 voracity. These infringements of the Law could not pass un- 
 noticed. Some of the Levites who had accompanied the 
 expedition came and told Saul what was being done, and he, 
 though he had himself occasioned the transgression by the pro- 
 hibition which he had issued, is quick to acknowledge the 
 people's sin ; and though himself ready to reject the counsel of 
 God's ministers, he is at the same time determined that the 
 letter of the Law should be obeyed. " Ye have dealt treacher- 
 ously," he cries ; " ye have not kept the covenant between 
 yourselves and Jehovah." And he ordered a great stone to be 
 brought to him, and setting it firmly in its place, he bade all the 
 people to bring their beasts there and kill them upon it, that the 
 blood might be properly drained away from the carcasses and 
 that this important law might not again be violated. With the 
 
 « Lev. iii, 17 ; vii, 26 ; xvii. 10 ff. Deut. xii. 16, 23. 
 
I40 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 same unquestioning obedience which they had always showed 
 the soldiers submitted to this new command, and it was far in the 
 night ere the slaughter ceased and their appetites were satisfied. 
 While this was going on, Saul built an altar as a thank-offering 
 to God for his victory, and had sacrifices offered thereon. This 
 was the first public acknowledgment made by him of his ob- 
 ligations to the God of the armies of Israel. Other victories he 
 had won, but he had not thought of attributing his success to 
 heavenly powers. In his gratitude for the present unexpected 
 blessing he commences that practice, which monarchs followed 
 in after time, of raising altars to Jehovah in memory of great 
 national successes.' 
 
 And now to make the most of his victory he proposes to com- 
 plete the work by attacking the conquered enemy at once on 
 this very night. He was conscious that his own inconsiderate 
 vow had greatly mterfered with the execution of his purpose, 
 and he now wished to repair his error by making a new and 
 unexpected onslaught. The people refreshed by their rough 
 repast, and ready to follow wherever he should lead them, 
 willingly agreed to the proposal. They rose from the ground 
 whereon they lay around the glowing camp fires, took up their 
 weapons, and prepared to resume the weary march. But the 
 High Priest interposed. He was not carried away by the king's 
 unreflecting impetuosity, and with the courage that comes from 
 the consciousness of a righteous cause, he urges him not to 
 take a new enterprise in hand without first ascertaining God's 
 pleasure. " Let us draw near hither," he says, " unto the altar 
 just built and ask the Lord's will." Saul could not deny the 
 reasonableness of this proposal, and proceeded, through the 
 priest's means by the Urim and Thummim, to propound two 
 questions : Shall I go down after the Philistines ? and, Wilt 
 Thou deliver them into the hand of Israel ? No answer was 
 given ; the oracle was dumb ; Ahiah was not directed by any 
 Divine impulse to resolve the king's doubt. Then he explained 
 
 * See 2 Sam. xxiv. 25. The literal translation of the passage on which 
 our account is formed (i Sam. xiv. 35) is : " the same he began to build as 
 an altar unto Jehovah." From this some have thought that Saul began to 
 build with characteristic impetuosity, and left off before the erection was 
 completed. But the Sept. and Vulg. confirm the rendering of the Authorized 
 and Revised Versions, which is also quite in accordance with the idiom of 
 the Hebrew language. 
 
BATTLE OF MICHMASH. I4I 
 
 to Saul that the failure to obtain a reply was occasioned by some 
 offence committed in the army and as yet unatoned. God's 
 name had^een invoked in the oath which Saul had made the 
 army take, and therefore its observation became a matter of 
 religious obligation. The violation of this vow involved Israel 
 in guilt, and until this was expiated, God regarded not theirappli- 
 cation. Where the guilt lay, was another question, whether on 
 him who unwittingly transgressed, or on him who without 
 authority from God issued the command which led to the trans- 
 gression. Atonement had to be made for the profanation of 
 the Divine name, and this duty was pointed out by the inability 
 of the High Priest to obtain the required answer. Incensed at 
 this untimely delay, the king summoned around him the officers 
 and leaders, "the corner stones" ^ of Israel, and bade them 
 help him to discover where the transgression lay ; " for," he cries 
 with a profane oath, " as the Lord liveth, who saveth Israel, 
 though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die." He spoke 
 thus not as having any idea that Jonathan was the guilty person, 
 but desiring to impress upon his hearers that no favour should 
 be shown, but that the offender, be he who he may, should pay 
 the penalty of death. Thus without inquiring what the crime 
 was, with no premeditation, a second time in this one day he 
 takes a rash oath, and despotically dooms to death an unknown 
 and unconvicted criminal. Horror-stricken, and cowed by the 
 king's violence, the people answered him never a word, though 
 many of them knew at whom his menace pointed. God had 
 refused to answer his former question, so Saul determined to 
 discover the culprit by casting lots. The fault must be either in 
 himself and his son, or in some soldier of the army. Satisfied 
 of his own and Jonathan's innocence, he made the people stand 
 on one side, while he and his son took up a position on the other. 
 When their freedom from guilt was established he would be free 
 to make an example of the offender. Then he prayed to the 
 Lord, the God of Israel, and said : " Shew the right." ' This 
 
 ' So called in the Hebrew, i Sam. xiv. 38. 
 
 ' The Authorized Version has : " Give a perfect lof," supplying the word 
 "lot " which is not in the Hebrew. The expression is really equivalent to 
 " Shew the truth." The LXX., with whom the Vulgate partly agrees, have 
 a long paraphrase here : " And Saul said, O Lord God of Israel, Why is it 
 that thou didst not answer Thy servant to-day? Is the iniquity in me or in 
 Jonathanmy son? O Lord God of Israel,give light (Urim) : andif he shall 
 
142 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 was not by the means of Urim and Thummim, through which no 
 answer was now to be obtained, but by lot. The lot was cast ; 
 Saul and his son were designated, but the people escaped. One 
 more trial was made, and Jonathan at length was pointed out as 
 the offender. Sternly does Saul inquire what sin he has com- 
 mitted that God has turned His face away. Jonathan, who 
 meantime had learned the connection between his breach of the 
 vow and the silence of the Divine oracle, confesses what he has 
 done. " I did certainly taste a little honey with the end of the 
 rod that was in mine hand ; and lo, I must die." The Syriac 
 puts the last words in an interrogative form : " must I die for 
 this?" as though Jonathan complained of his hard fate. But 
 the phrase really implies resignation to his lot. Though his 
 fault was originally one of ignorance, he never dreams of escaping 
 the penalty. He is quite convinced that his father's vow, how- 
 ever rash and disastrous, must be kept. Josephus, who always 
 tries to exalt his heroes in the eyes of his Roman friends, puts a 
 speech into Jonathan's mouth which expresses entire resignation : 
 " I ask thee not to spare me, O my father. Sweet it is to me to 
 suffer death to satisfy thy oath and after so glorious a victory. 
 For it is my greatest comfort to know that I leave the Hebrews 
 conquerors of the Philistines." ' Saul gives him no hope of 
 escape. However grieved at the consequences of his hasty vow, 
 and however bitterly he must have felt the loss of such a son, 
 Saul is influenced more by formalism and pride, than by piety 
 and natural affection, and adheres immoveably to his decision. 
 Though Jonathan's error, being committed in ignorance, might 
 have been sufficiently expiated by a trespass offering, Saul, like 
 Jephthah, considered himself irretrievably bound by his vow. 
 "God do so and more also," he says austerely ; " for thou shalt 
 surely die, Jonathan." But it was not so to be; that young and 
 
 say this, give to Thy people Israel, give hoHness (? Thummim) ; and 
 Jonatlian is chosen, and Saul and the people went forth. And Saul said, 
 Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son ; whomsoever the Lord shall 
 choose, let him die. And the people said to Saul, This is not thy word. 
 And Saul prevailed over the people, and they cast lots between him and 
 Jonathan his son, and Jonathan is chosen." For the obscure clause in the 
 above version Wellhausen and others read : "if the iniquity be in me or 
 in Jonathan my son, O Lord God of Israel, give Urim ; and if it be in Thy 
 people Israel, give, I pray Thee, Thummim." 
 * " Antiq." vi. 6. 5. 
 
BATTLE OF MICHMASH. I43 
 
 glorious life was not to be thus prematurely cut off. God had 
 other work for him to do, before the sad end came. The people 
 hitherto had acquiesced with sullen silence in Saul's despotic pro- 
 ceedings ; but their complaisance had its limits ; they could not 
 unmoved permit this last outrage. As one man they raised an 
 indignant protest against the threatened doom of their idolized 
 hero. What, should he who had wrought this great salvation in 
 Israel be mercilessly put to death ? Far be it ! The Lord had 
 shown that He had inspired and aided Jonathan in his heroic 
 deed, and should they condemn one whom He had approved ? 
 " As the Lord liveth," they firmly exclaim, '• there shall not one 
 hair of his head fall to the ground ; for he hath wrought with 
 God this day." Saul, not unwillingly perhaps, was constrained 
 to forego his purpose, and Jonathan was saved from the penal 
 consequences of his error. The king recognized that the fault 
 was really his own ; he acquiesced in Ahiah's counsel, and dis- 
 continued his pursuit of the Philistines, returning to his head- 
 quarters at Gibeah, and leaving the enemy discomfited indeed, 
 and for the time disheartened, but by no means broken or anni- 
 hilated. Thus did self-will and impatience mar the complete- 
 ness of a great triumph. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SAUL'S FINAL REJECTION. 
 
 The family of Saul — He gathers a chosen band of warriors — His successful 
 wars — The Amalekites — Saul ordered to destroy them utterly-^A trial 
 of obedience— The Ban— Great destruction of the Amalekites — Saul 
 spares Agag and the best of the spoil — Samuel warned of Saul's dis- 
 obedience ; taxes him with his sin ; pronounces his final rejection — Slays 
 Agag— Abandons Saul finally. 
 
 We may here fitly introduce a few words concerning Saul's 
 family. He was, as we have seen, the son of Kish. The father 
 of Kish, Abiel, had also another son named Ner, who was the 
 father of the masterly general and high-principled man, Abner, 
 Thus this latter was Saul's first cousin, and it was doubtless 
 owing to his energy and military skill that the many wars of this 
 reign were conducted with such great success. Saul was not so 
 uxorious as David, and he appears to have had only one wife 
 and one concubine. His wife's name was Ahinoam, the daughter 
 of one Ahimaaz. David had a wife of the same name, who 
 is distinguished as "the Jezreelitess." * The word means 
 "brother of grace," and from the predilection for names be- 
 ginning with Ah shown by Eli's family, it has been argued that 
 she was of that lineage. But the question cannot be decided, 
 and is indeed of no importance. The concubine was Rizpah, 
 the daughter of Aiah, famous afterwards for her devoted love 
 to her unfortunate children doomed to death for their father's 
 fault (2 Sam. xxi. 8 ff.). The sons of Saul by Ahinoam whose 
 names have reached us were four in number, viz., Jonathan, 
 
 * z Sam. XXV. 43. 
 
SAUL'S FINAL REJECTION. I45 
 
 Ishui or Abinadab,* and Melchishua, all three of whom perished 
 with their father in the battle of Gilboa, and a fourth who sur- 
 vived him, Ethbaal or Ishbosheth.^ The daughters were 
 Merab and Michal, who are heard of again in connection with 
 David. 
 
 The reign of Saul was wholly occupied with wars. As soon 
 as the defeat of the Philistines and their retreat to their own 
 territories left him king of his own dominions, and the people 
 emerging from their hiding-places flocked around him or 
 reoccupied their abandoned homes, he at once began to estab- 
 lish a regular army, and to turn all his attention to the safety 
 and consolidation of his government. In those days when per- 
 sonal courage and dexterity in the use of arms were the chief 
 elements of success in military engagements, and tactics and 
 strategy were of the most elementary character, it became of 
 supreme importance to have around the king a body of practical 
 warriors whom he could trust to carry out his plans with energy 
 and skill. For such men Saul was always seeking ; and when- 
 ever he met with any one of merit, either from bodily superiority 
 or approved valour, or unusual adroitness with spear and bow, 
 he enrolled him in his service. By this means he gathered the 
 nucleus of a strong army, and laid the foundation of that military 
 power which enabled Israel not only to hold her own, but in 
 later days, like one of the great Eastern empires, to extend her 
 conquests far beyond her own borders. 
 
 The position of Saul at this time was one of considerable 
 difficulty. Enemies were on every side. Feeling that the new 
 monarch was an able general, and likely, if unchecked, to make 
 his people into a powerful nation, the neighbouring tribes at- 
 tacked him, and used their utmost endeavours to overthrow or 
 weaken his government. By the late victory the Philistines 
 were only checked and dispirited for a time. Their strength 
 was still very formidable, and they were only one out of nume- 
 
 * Ishui is not mentioned elsewhere among the sons of Saul. His place 
 is occupied by Abinadab in i Sam. xxxi. 2, and i Chron. viii. 33 ; ix. 39 ; 
 and doubtless the two names belong to the same person. 
 
 * The compound with Baal was altered into besheth or bosheth, " shame- 
 ful," which rather concealed the allusion, or cast discredit upon it. Thus 
 Jonathan's son Meribbaal (i Chron. viii. 34) is called Mephibosheth, and 
 Jerubbaal becomes Jerubbeslieth in 2 Sam. xi. 21. Compare the names 
 Beelzeboul and Beelzebub. 
 
 II 
 
146 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 rous foes against whom he had to contend. That " wherever 
 he turned he conquered " was owing to his prudence and energy 
 and skill. The narrator has given no details of many of those 
 wars which occupied his whole public life. From the brief 
 summary which he does afford, we see that Saul was engaged 
 with all the countries that bordered the Holy Land. The 
 Moabites and Ammonites vexed him on the east ; the 
 Edomites, always the implacable enemies of Israel, on the 
 south ; in that quarter, too, the Amalekites were found, the war 
 with whom is recorded in fuller detail for the grave conse- 
 quences involved therein. The west now as ever was 
 threatened and harassed by the Philistines ; and at the north- 
 east the kings of Zobah, a country extending from Damascus 
 towards the Euphrates, endeavoured to push their conquests 
 into the northern parts of Palestine. All these opponents were 
 successfully resisted ; the freedom once gained was never lost ; 
 Israel crouched no more beneath a heathen yoke, and, secure 
 in its allotted territories, had time and opportunity for internal 
 development under Samuel and the schools of the prophets. 
 
 The historian turns ftom this prosperous time to a darker 
 scene ; he leaves the detailed account of wars and battles to 
 secular writers, and concerns himself with incidents which 
 reveal character and have a moral importance. So consigning 
 to oblivion Saul's heroic feats of arms and the great doings of 
 his mighty men, he narrates at some length only the wars with 
 Amalek and the Philistines. The former led to the final rejec- 
 tion of the king and the irremediable rupture between him and 
 Samuel ; it is therefore of great and melancholy importance. 
 
 The Amalekites occupied the Negeb, or country south of 
 Palestine, roaming through the wilderness of Sinai and pas- 
 turing their flocks and herds in the green wadys of the Penin- 
 sula. We hear of them disputing with the Israelites the 
 entrance into this region immediately after the Exodus, and 
 being defeated with great slaughter.' For this conduct they 
 had been threatened by God with extermination. When the 
 battle was ended, we are told,= Moses built an altar to com- 
 memorate the victory, and called its name Jehovah-nissi, "The 
 Lord is my banner"; adding, "The Lord hath sworn, the 
 
 * See Prof. Rawlinson, " Moses : his Life and Times," pp. 136 If. 
 = Exod. xvii. 15 f. ; Deut. xxv. 19. 
 
SAUL'S FINAL REJECTION. I47 
 
 Lord will liave war with Amalek from generation to generation." 
 And it had been expressly ordered that, when the Israelites 
 were securely established in the Promised Land, they should 
 not forget to "blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under 
 heaven." The time for exacting this long delayed vengeance 
 was now come. They deserved their chastisement. They 
 were a fierce nomad race, continually making inroads on their 
 neighbours ; and lately, seeing the Israelites fully engaged in 
 war with the Philistines, they had, under the leadership of their 
 relentless king, who appears under the generic name of Agag, 
 made destructive and sanguinary raids on the southern districts 
 of Canaan. A considerable time had elapsed since the events 
 narrated in the last chapter, and Saul's resources had so largely 
 increased, and his military power was so firmly established, 
 that he was c^uite capable of executing a perilous enterprise, and 
 carrying it to a prosperous issue. Now he is ordered to smite 
 Amalek with utter destruction. Will he do the Lord's bidding ? 
 He had failed once in the earlier part of his reign, and had 
 been punished by the exclusion of his posterity from the throne. 
 A second trial is now vouchsafed. His character has developed 
 itself, he has had experience of God's directing hand, he knows 
 his own power and weakness ; will he now unhesitatingly and 
 thoroughly obey the Divine command, and prove his fitness to 
 be a theocratic king ? Samuel comes to him, and prefacing his 
 message by reminding Saul that he was not self-appointed, but 
 had been anointed by Jehovah to be the king of the Lord's people, 
 and had therefore special duties towards Him and towards them, 
 he bids him give good heed to the order which he was commis- 
 sioned to announce. The precept was conceived in these un- 
 compromising terms : " Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly 
 destroy all that they have, and spare them not ; but slay both 
 man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and 
 ass." The word translated " utterly destroy " is that expression 
 of terrible import which means " to put under the ban," " to 
 devote to God or destruction." It is used continually in the 
 Book of Joshua to denote his treatment of the heathen cities 
 which he conquered. Any thing thus devoted might not be 
 redeemed ; it must be destroyed ; and when a country was thus 
 denounced, it was regarded as accursed, no spoil could be taken 
 save of the precious metals, all living creatures were to be slain, 
 all other things were to be burned. It was an awful sentence. 
 
148 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 If modern humanity revolts from such wholesale slaughter and 
 devastation, the people of that age regarded it in quite a dif- 
 ferent light, and needed this formidable lesson. The Amale- 
 kites themselves were hopelessly and utterly corrupt ; their 
 prolonged existence as a nation would only have worked further 
 mischief ; they deserved demolition. And the Israelites were 
 God's instruments in inflicting chastisement. Like the pesti- 
 lence or the famine or the storm, they did God's bidding. In 
 executing His mandate they had to lay aside all tenderness and 
 pity, and regarding themselves as the executors of the Divine 
 sentence, they imbrued their hands in blood without repugnance 
 or remorse. The age, too, was not as careful of human life as 
 men are novv-a-days ; people then were not scrupulous about 
 shedding their own or other's blood in a proper cause ; and 
 when the command came from the invisible King of Israel, 
 there was no squeamishness felt in executing it, even in its most 
 cruel and sanguinary details. Thus were they taught God's hatred 
 of sin. In a moral government enforced by temporal rewards and 
 punishments such severe lessons that all could observe were 
 needed ; and more especially would such be felt, when the 
 people themselves who were to profit by them were made with 
 their own hands to inflict the ordained vengeance. Nor was 
 this general destruction of a tribe or a nation an atrocity un- 
 heard of : it was common enough ; the mind was accustomed to 
 the notion, and felt no special repugnance to the proceeding. 
 As an earthly king in ordering such a measure would be acting* 
 only in the usual way, so Israel's King when He enjoined the 
 annihilation of the Amalekites was only vindicating His righ- 
 teousness as it behoved Him to do. The age was rough, and re- 
 quired a rough lesson, accommodated to its existing moral 
 state. More delicate measures would have failed in producing 
 the intended effect. Saul was not loath to obey the Divine 
 behest thus conveyed to him. He had long been harassed by 
 these roving pillagers ; he was not unacquainted with the male- 
 diction pronounced upon them in the days of his forefathers, 
 and he was glad to take an opportunity of checking once and 
 for ever their further advances. It was, however, no easy 
 matter to destroy a nomad people who would be little likely to 
 offer a chance of a pitched battle, and whose movements were 
 more rapid and unexpected than those of regular armies. Saul 
 made large preparations for the expedition. He summoned all 
 
SAUL'S FINAL REJECTION. 149 
 
 his forces to meet at Telaim, a place called Telein in Josh. xv. 
 24, situated on the south-eastern border of Judah and possibly 
 identified with Dhullam, the headquarters of the Dhullaim 
 Arabs.' The numbers that responded to his call were ten 
 thousand men of Judah, which was the tribe chiefly threatened 
 by the marauders, and two hundred thousand from the rest of 
 Israel. The separate mustering of the two bodies repeats the 
 hint of the jealousy between the northern and southern tribes 
 of which we have had previous intimation. The army, great 
 even in modern estimation, was none too large for the work 
 which it had to perform. The Amalekites were not builders of 
 towns ; it was rare for them to have any settled abode, and their 
 architecture never rose above fortifying a camp with a circular 
 wall. Remains of this nature are still found in the districts 
 where they are known to have lived.^ Saul, we are told, came 
 in the course of his march to the city of Amalek, perhaps 
 named Ir-Amalek, as we have Ar-Moab, Ir-Shemesh, Ir- 
 Nahash.3 Here he laid an ambush in a dry wady, and finding 
 that some Kenites were settled there, he warned them to depart 
 lest they should share the doom destined for the Amalekites. 
 The Kenites, who were descended from Abraham and con 
 nected with Moses through his wife Zipporah, had always been 
 friendly to the Hebrews. They were a peaceful, pastoral 
 people, and gladly hearkening to the warning, removed for a 
 time to some other spot secure from the encounter of hostile 
 armies. The account gives no details of the war, but the suc- 
 cess of the expedition was perfect. Victory everywhere attended 
 the arms of the Israelites ; the enemy fled before them, and left 
 enormous spoils to the conquerors. They were smitten " from 
 Havilah to Shur," an expression which denotes the wide extent 
 of the raid. It is used in Gen. xxv. 18 to denote the limits of 
 the Israelites' territories. Havilah was some place, not yet 
 identified, on the south of Judsea in the wilderness, and Shur, 
 which means " wall," is either the wall which was built by the 
 
 « Tristram. It is evidently a place that is meant, and not some open 
 spot where lambs {ielaim) where collected, which would have been too 
 vague for a rendezvous. Comp, xi. 8. The LXX. and Josephus (" Antiq.'* 
 vi. 7. 2) make the place of meeting to be Gilgal, and the numbers respec- 
 tively 400,000 and 30,000. 
 
 * "Our Work in Palestine," 276. 
 
 3 Num. xxi. 28. Josh. xix. 41. i Chron. iv. X2, 
 
150 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 Egyptians to defend their north-east frontier from the incur- 
 sions of the desert tribes, and which ran from PeUisium past 
 Migdol to HeroopoHs, or else that wall-hke cliff of limestone 
 which extends southward from Suez, called by the Arabs from 
 its remarkable appearance Jebel er Rahah (" mountain of the 
 palm of the hand "). Thus the devastations of the Israelite army 
 extended from the south border of Judah to the close vicinity of 
 Egypt, including the seizure of numerous stationary camps and 
 the collection of an immense quantity of booty and captives. 
 Now according to the terms of the ban, universal destruction 
 was to be dealt to all that was taken from this accursed nation. 
 This penalty Saul inflicted without reserve on all the Amalekites 
 that fell into his hands, and on the less valuable of the cattle. 
 Doubtless of these hardy dwellers in the wilderness a large 
 number escaped, both owing to the difficulty of overtaking them, 
 and because the pursuit flagged when the Israelites laid their 
 hands on the cattle. But the awful interdict was not carried 
 out in all its strictness. Saul himself spared the Amalekite 
 king, either in the hope of receiving a rich ransom for him, or 
 to grace his triumph by the exhibition of so illustrious a captive. 
 The king is called Agag, but this is probably only the official or 
 generic name of the Amalekite monarch, as Pharaoh was that 
 of the Egyptian rulers, since Balaam in his prophecy (Num. 
 xxiv. 7), speaking of Israel, says : 
 
 t ** His king shall be higher than Agag, 
 
 And his kingdom shall be exalted." 
 
 In other particulars the stem command was infringed. The 
 soldiers in their covetousness could not endure to part with so 
 rich a prize as that which had fallen into their hands. To a 
 pastoral people the temptation to appropriate the cattle which 
 they had seized was irresistible ; so with Saul's connivance they 
 spared the best of the sheep, oxen and fatlings, and the lambs, 
 silencing any scruples with the idea that the ban was sufficiently 
 executed by the destruction of the human creatures and of all 
 that was worthless among the flocks and herds. They were 
 soon undeceived. To save aught of that which was devoted to 
 destruction was to fail in a sacred duty, and to rob God of His 
 due. The backsliding of Saul was revealed to Samuel in his 
 house at Ramah. The word of God reaches his inward ear in 
 the dead of night, telling that Saul had turned back from follow- 
 
SAUL'S FINAL REJECTION. ISI 
 
 ing the Lord, that he wished to be independent of Divine 
 control, and had acted and intended to act as absolute master 
 of Israel. And God says, " It repenteth Me that I have set up 
 Saul to be king." This was a very bitter announcement to the 
 old prophet. He was not only grieved at this failure on the part 
 of one whom he dearly loved, he was indignant * that his un- 
 selfish promotion of the people's desire, and his willing self- 
 abnegation should have this lamentable issue. Here was one 
 who had been elected under his auspices, solemnly and publicly 
 anointed by him acting on God's behalf, who might be said to be 
 the choice of the Lord, deliberately breaking a plain and positive 
 command, and showing himself neither religious nor obedient 
 as he had hoped that he would prove. Was there not fear that 
 hereby occasion would be given to the enemies of the Lord to 
 blaspheme? Would not dishonour be done to the name of God, 
 when His vicegerent thus insulted Him and received the punish- 
 ment which he deserved ? Well might the prophet be angered 
 at this poor result of all his labours and the seeming frustration 
 of Jehovah's purpose. But this feeling did not lead the man of 
 intercession to forget his duty. All night long till morning 
 dawned he cried unto the Lord for the erring king, praying for 
 his repentance and the restoration of the favour which he had 
 wilfully cast away. In vain. There was no thought of re- 
 pentance in Saul's breast ; prosperity and power had hardened 
 his heart and augmented his proud independence ; so for him 
 there was no forgiveness ; his final doom was imparted to 
 Samuel, and he was ordered to deliver it. Saul had by this 
 time returned from the expedition, bringing his booty with him. 
 On inquiry, Samuel found that he had come to Carmel (now 
 Kurtnul), a place on a rich plateau about seven miles south of 
 Hebron, had there erected a trophy of victory, and was now 
 gone on to Gilgal in the Jordan valley, to offer sacrifices and 
 thank-offerings at that holy place. The monument of victory is 
 called in Hebrew Yad, "a hand.'* The same term is used in a 
 similar way on two other occasions. Thus Absalom, having no 
 sons, raised a pillar near Jerusalem to perpetuate his memory, 
 which was known by the name of " Absalom's hand " (2 Sam. 
 xviii. 18). And Isaiah (ch. Ivi. 5) says : " Unto them will I 
 
 « This is the meaning of the word translated "grieved" in i Sam. 
 XV. II. (Comp. Num. xi. xa) 
 
152 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 give in mine house and within my walls a hand and a name." 
 The monument doubtless was a pillar, either shaped like a 
 hand or with an open hand engraved upon it, containing the 
 record of the victory over the Amalekites."^ The kind of 
 memorial then set up has been familiarized to our minds by 
 the discovery of the famous Moabite stone, erected at Dibon 
 by Mesha, king of Moab, in memory of his successful revolt 
 against Israel.^ Similar memorials are found in Egypt. Samuel 
 immediately followed Saul to Gilgal, which was some fifteen 
 miles from Ramah ; and on his coming being notified to the king, 
 the latter went to meet him, saluting him in the usual respectful 
 way : " Blessed be thou of the Lord ! " Then, either to pre- 
 clude objections to his late breach of the command, or so blinded 
 by self-will as not to see his fault, he continues complacently, 
 and as though he expected congratulations on the prophet's 
 part, " I have performed the commandment of the Lord." This 
 was true in part, but only in part. He had obeyed just so far 
 as was agreeable to himself, and had failed to carry out the 
 order thoroughly and to the letter. To his assertion the voices 
 of the animals preserved in spite of the ban gives the lie. With 
 a sad irony the prophet asks : " If thou hast performed the 
 Lord's commandment, what meaneth this bleating of the sheep 
 in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear ? " Saul 
 cannot escape this dilemma ; the animals were brought from 
 the Amalekites, and formed part of the spoil devoted to destruc- 
 tion ; he must allow this, but he throws the blame upon the 
 people. It was they who insisted upon sparing the finest of 
 the sheep and oxen ; but they did this with the best of motives, 
 to sacrifice to that Lord (" the Lord. thy God ") whom Samuel 
 so fervently adored, and who, he hints, is too exacting in His 
 requirements. He had done all that could reasonably be de- 
 manded : " the rest," he says, " we have utterly destroyed." In 
 all this the hypocrisy and low tone of morality were very evi- 
 dent. Such a defence marked a sad declension in the Lord's 
 anointed. The people had always obeyed him unresistingly. 
 How easily might he have exerted his authority to repress their 
 wish to evade the stern command ! To throw the blame of his 
 
 » Vigouroux, " La Bible," &c., iii. 447 fF. 
 
 ' A popular account of this important monument, with an engraving of 
 the stone, will be found in Professor Sayce's " Fresh Light from the 
 Monuments," pp. 76 fF. 
 
SAUL'S FINAL REJECTION. 153 
 
 own covetousness and disobedience on his subjects was an 
 action unworthy of a king, mean and mendacious. Samuel will 
 listen no longer. He has a sentence to deliver ; that sentence 
 which he had prayed all night long might be withheld ; and 
 these feigned excuses show him painfully how necessary the 
 severe verdict had become. " Stay," he cries, as Saul would 
 fain have said more, or, perhaps, was turning away desiring to 
 end the interview ; " stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord 
 hath said to me this night." He begins by reminding Saul 
 how from low estate God had exalted him to be king of His 
 people Israel ; there was a time when he had thought himself 
 utterly unworthy of so high a position ; but in spite of this the 
 Lord had specially chosen him, and by the solemn unction had 
 engaged him to obey his Divine head. And God had sent him 
 on a mission to destroy the sinners the Amalekites, whose 
 iniquity was now filled up. " Wherefore then," continues the 
 prophet, " didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but, in 
 thy greed and self-will, didst fly upon the spoil, and do that 
 which was evil in the sight of the Lord ? " But even now Saul 
 will not admit his fault ; either he knew little about the details 
 of the law which he had violated, or he wished to intimate that 
 as king he had no superior, and would carry on his affairs 
 without dictation. He reiterates his former excuses, evidently 
 caring nothing for the verdict which the Reader of men's hearts 
 might pass on his conduct, and desiring only to justify himself 
 before Samuel. " I have obeyed the voice of the Lord," he 
 repeats. " It is true that the people spared the chief of the 
 devoted things.* But why ? To pay public honour to the Lord 
 whose prophet you profess to be, ihey selected the very best of 
 the spoil which would otherwise have been wasted. And in 
 proof of my victory and of the extermination of the Amalekites, 
 see, I have saved none of them but their king, who stands here 
 before you." Samuel will listen no longer. He stops this justi- 
 fication of the infringement of a plain command on a pretence 
 of religion by enunciating that grand principle which later 
 prophets so constantly taught and enforced, and which our 
 Blessed Lord Himself endorsed,' viz., that external ceremonies 
 
 » The Authorized Version (i Sam. xv. 2i) gives a wrong impression by 
 rendering : "the chief of the things which should have been utterly de- 
 stroyed." This reads rather like an ironical parenthesis (Payne Smith). 
 ■ Ps. 1. 8. Isa. i. ; ii. Jer. vi. 20. Hos. vi. 6. Mic. vi. 6ft. Matt. ix. 13. 
 
154 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 and ritual conformity are nothing worth without the obedience 
 of the heart. Then the seer in rhythmical measure, as uttering 
 a Divine oracle for all ages to remember and to profit by, pro- 
 ceeds to pronounce the awful sentence with which he is 
 charged : 
 
 •• Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices 
 As in obeying the voice of the Lord ? 
 Behold, to obey is better tlian sacrifice. 
 And to hearlcen than the fat of rams. 
 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, 
 And stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim." 
 Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, 
 He hath also rejected thee from being king." 
 
 The solemn sentence struck Saul with terror. What, should 
 he be ranked with idolaters and dealers in witchcraft ? Had 
 he to whom such offences were really abominable laid himself 
 open to such a charge ? And was the authority to which he 
 had learned to cling with such satisfaction to be torn from his 
 grasp ? Sunk as he was, he cannot contemplate the sentence 
 unshrinking. He trembles at the prophet's word. " I have 
 sinned," he cries ; *' for I have transgressed the commandment 
 of the Lord, and thy word." There was repentance in the lan- 
 guage ; there was no real repentance in the heart. He was 
 vexed at the turn things had taken, annoyed that the only 
 authority to which he felt inclined to bow should view his con- 
 duct so harshly ; and even while acknowledging his fault he 
 endeavours to minimize it by insinuating that he was not a free 
 agent, and by ascribing it to a laudable desire to gratify his 
 subjects' wishes. The excuse only exhibited more clearly his 
 unfitness for his position. He should have used his power to 
 check these unlawful desires ; he should have set forth before 
 the people the Law of God, and his intention to uphold it at all 
 costs. How was he suited for the post of theocratic king who 
 set popularity above duty ? He still felt no sorrow for the sin 
 itself ; he grieved only for its consequences, present and future- 
 He saw that this public rupture between himself and the great 
 and honoured prophet would diminish his authority and do him 
 
 » The teraphim were the household gods of the Israelites, like the Lares 
 of the Romans. They were probably images of ancestors, and if not actually 
 worshipped, were used in unlawful magical rites. 
 
SAUL'S FINAL REJECTION. 1 55 
 
 irreparable mischief; so he begged Samuel not to desert him 
 at this crisis. Seeming to fear the minister of Jehovah more 
 than Jehovah Himself, he made another appeal : " I pray thee," 
 he says to Samuel, " pardon my sin, and turn again with me, 
 that I may worship the Lord." Samuel at first was deaf to the 
 entreaty, and repeated the message of doom : " I will not return 
 with thee ; for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the 
 Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel." But as 
 Samuel turned to leave him, the king, in despair, seized the 
 border of his upper-robe, holding him by its collar in order to 
 detain him. With such violence did he do this that it tore under 
 his grasp. The prophet takes this as an omen of the future. 
 "The Lord," he announces, "hath rent the kingdom of Israel 
 from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, 
 that is better than thou." Saul had already deprived his pos- 
 terity of any share in the kingdom, and now he has ruined his 
 own prospects. Samuel does not yet know who is the person 
 intended by his prophetic announcement, and therefore he uses 
 the vague term " neighbour," which may mean any man ; but 
 he will be one who will be more obedient than Saul. And he 
 confirms his words by adding, " He who is the changeless glory 
 of Israel will not lie nor repent ; for He is not a man that He 
 should repent." God's purpose stands immutable. Saul's elec- 
 tion to and continuance in the kingdom had been conditional ; 
 his rejection is absolute and final. Yet certain as this now was, 
 Samuel at length yielded to Saul's renewed entreaty, and con- 
 sented to hide the^ rupture from the people's eyes by assisting 
 at the public sacrifices and worship now about to be offered. 
 It was no part of Samuel's mission to create anarchy and con- 
 fusion by withdrawing all countenance from the \i\\\g de facto 
 before a successor was appointed. In his cooler moments he 
 saw that to decline Saul's request and to slight the monarch in 
 this open manner might give a new impulse to any disaffection 
 that existed, opponents supporting their antagonism by the 
 authority of the prophet's great name. So he turned and joined 
 Saul in his religious acts. But he had one more duty to per- 
 form ere he left the assembly. He must show that he did not 
 sanction the violation of the Divine command, and do this 
 by an act which would prove that he was terribly in earnest. 
 Agag, the wicked king of a wicked nation, had been devoted to 
 death. Saul, by an ill-advised clemency, had saved him alive ; 
 
156 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 but he could not be permitted to live ; the ban must be carried 
 out. Samuel had heard of his preservation, and now orders 
 him to be brought forward. Agag comes, fettered hand and 
 foot ; ^ and when he is in the presence of the king and the 
 austere prophet, though he knows that at such a great national 
 festival held in honour of victory it was only natural that his 
 life should be sacrificed, he will not abandon all hope of escape, 
 and says, with an implied doubt amid the seeming confidence 
 of his words : " Surely the bitterness of death is past."' Samuel 
 immediately disabuses him of the notion that he will escape 
 death. Sternly he pronounces the doom : " As thy sword hath 
 made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among 
 women." And with his own hand he executes the sentence. 
 There before the altar of Jehovah, as a righteous act of retribu- 
 tion done for the glory of God, he hews Agag in pieces. This 
 act seems so repugnant to modern ideas and to a superficial 
 estimate of the prophet's duty and character, that many assume 
 that Samuel merely gave the order for the execution, and left 
 it to be carried out by others. Certainly there is nothing in 
 the language of the narrative to confirm this notion ; and we 
 have no right to introduce into the sacred record interpreta- 
 tions solely suggested by our idea of the fitness of things. From 
 what is written we gather that Samuel, roused to high excite- 
 ment by the present circumstances, and for the moment gifted 
 with unusual vigour, did in his official capacity slay the devoted 
 Agag. Thus he carried out the ban, did that which the king 
 had failed to do, and removed from the nation the guilt of a 
 broken oath. Thus he gave an example needed in, and suited 
 to, that rough age, of uncompromising pbedience to God's com- 
 mands, and left to all time the lesson that God's work must be 
 
 ' This is the rendering adopted by Dean Payne Smith and Klostermann. 
 I'he Authorized Version gives "delicately": the LXX. " trembhng " ; 
 Vulg., "very fat and trembling " ; Aquila, " with daintiness " ; Symmachus, 
 " delicate." The Syriac omits it altogether. Most modern commentators 
 take the word to mean " cheerfully "; but Agag's observation next recorded 
 scarcely bears out this interpretation. The word occurs in Job. xxxviii. 31, 
 where it is rightly rendered " bands." 
 
 2 Ewald's idea that Agag's words imply a cheerful acquiescence in the 
 sentence pronounced upon him, is surely most unreasonable. What could 
 lead this cruel, luxurious heathen to come to his death not " unwilling and 
 struggling, but rather, as if suddenly transformed by a loftier impulse, with 
 delight and joy " ? ("Hist, of Israel." iii. -y^). 
 
SAUL'S FINAL REJECTION. 1 57 
 
 done thoroughly, no thought of self being allowed to influence 
 the due execution of His directions. 
 
 Having thus vindicated the rights of Jehovah, Samuel parted 
 from Saul and returned to his home at Ramah, leaving affairs 
 of state, and devoting himself to the training of younger 
 prophets and citizens, thus laying the foundations of national 
 welfare on safer grounds than popular favour or royal caprice." 
 The old relations between himself and the monarch were en- 
 tirely broken off. Saul was no longer the theocratic king to 
 whom the prophet communicated the word of the Lord, and 
 who went in and out under his guidance. He was de facto 
 king ; but his kingdom was altogether of this world : he had 
 sunk away from God by little and little, and now communion 
 with God was his no longer. Samuel's reproachful words at 
 Gilgal had been very unwelcome to him ; he had never cordially 
 sought his counsel from that time ; he engaged at Michmash 
 without asking his advice ; he had not invited his presence at 
 the solemn thanksgiving for victory over the Amalekites. But 
 Samuel hitherto had clung to the king in spite of manifold dis- 
 couragements. Now at length he is forced to give him up. 
 Never more did he come to see him as long as he lived. Once 
 indeed, they met at one of the schools of the prophets, but this 
 was inadvertently, and nothing passed between them. Yet 
 Samuel could not forget Saul. He had loved him for his early 
 promise, for his high and noble qualities, for his brave services ; 
 and he mourned his fall, as a father sorrows over a beloved 
 son's degradation and ruin. Perhaps, too, he saw in his sus- 
 piciousness and unrestrained self-will signs of that terrible 
 malady which darkened the later years of Saul's life ; and the 
 good old prophet grieved, not only for the king who had thrown 
 away his great opportunities, but also for the man whose future 
 was clouded with a dreadful apprehension. 
 
 « Ewald, iii. 47. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A SUCCESSOR ANOINTED. 
 
 Samuel sent to Bethlehem— Anoints David— Condition of Saul— David 
 summoned to soothe him with music — Philistines invade Judah — Valley 
 of Elah — Goliath challenges the Israelites — David accepts the 
 challenge ; kills the giant — Defeat and slaughter of the Philistines — 
 Saul takes David into his service— Friendship of David and Jonathan. 
 
 Samuel was unable all at once to reconcile himself to the 
 repudiation of Saul. He mourned for the wreck of the high 
 hopes which he had entertained, and for the seeming frustration 
 of the purpose of God in allowing the election of a king. He 
 knew not as yet how the vacancy in the theocratic throne was 
 to be filled up, and he feared that the rejection of the present 
 king might lead to the loosening of all authority in the state and 
 a return to that disunion and political weakness from which 
 Saul had raised the nation. And the cry of intercession ceased 
 not to rise from the hill of Ramah ; it may be that in answer to 
 that mighty supphcation immediate vengeance was suspended. 
 The voice of God roused the old seer from his sorrowful 
 inaction, and bade him go and anoint a successor to the 
 rejected Saul. He was to take a vessel filled with the sacred 
 oil kept with the ark, and to go to Bethlehem, and there anoint 
 one of the sons of Jesse, a well-known inhabitant of that village. 
 David,' the one to be selected, is not specially named at this 
 stage of the transaction. Samuel will be guided in his choice 
 
 » The history of David is very briefly handled in the present work, as it 
 is fully narrated in another book of this series, " David : his Life and 
 Times." 
 
A SUCCESSOR ANOINTED. 1 59 
 
 in such a manner that all may see that the election is of God, 
 and that no private feeling interferes to control its freedom. 
 Bethlehem, which was some twelve miles south of Ramah, was 
 not one of the places visited by Samuel in his judicial circuit, 
 and the families who dwelt there were probably unknown to 
 him. Certainly he had no acquaintance with David when this 
 intimation reached him. The mission was a perilous one. 
 Samuel was not one to show fear or hesitation when a duty 
 was set before him, yet even he is in dread. " How can I go ? " 
 he asks. " If Saul hear it, he will kill me." That jealousy and 
 suspicion which dominated Saul's later life had already begun to 
 display themselves, and since his rejection had made rapid pro- 
 gress. Besides, being still actually king, he would naturally 
 consider the anointing of another in his stead as an act of 
 treason, which, in his view, might justly be punished by death ; 
 and though probably he had too much respect for the old 
 prophet to deal with him thus violently, still he might have 
 restricted his liberty, or banished him from the land, or taken 
 a bloody revenge upon Jesse and his household. This fear, 
 therefore, was not unreasonable, and Samuel is instructed how 
 he may escape the danger and yet perform his mission success- 
 fully. He had long been accustomed to visit various localities 
 for the purpose of offering sacrifice, which, in the abnormal 
 condition of religious matters, when the ark was separated from 
 the tabernacle, it was lawful for him to do as the commissioned 
 prophet of the Lord. He is now directed to use this custom in 
 order to cloak his design from the jealous eye of Saul. He was 
 to take a heifer and to go to Bethlehem, and to announce that he 
 was come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. He was further to invite 
 Jesse and his sons to the sacrificial feast that followed, and then 
 God would show him how to act in the matter of the unction. The 
 object of Samuel's visit to Bethlehem was, as fjir as his public 
 actions were concerned, to offer accustomed sacrifices. If he 
 had a further purpose, in which the people generally were not in- 
 terested, he was under no moral obligation to disclose it. Samuel, 
 guarding well the secret commission, went, as he was directed, 
 to Bethlehem. It was an unusual visit. Never before had he 
 come to this place, and the elders were alarmed at the solemn 
 entry of the dreaded prophet with the heifer and the long horn 
 of sacred oil in his hand. Had he come to hold an inquisition 
 on them for some dereliction of duty .'* or was this unexpected 
 
l6o SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 arrival connected with the breach between him and the king of 
 which they had lately heard? Why was their secluded little 
 village thus singled out ? Samuel quickly reassured them, and 
 announcing that he came to sacrifice, bade them sanctify them- 
 selves and get ready to attend the ceremony and the banquet 
 that followed. The invitation was especially offered to Jesse, 
 the chief or sheikh of the town, and his sons. When the 
 sacrifice was offered, before the invited guests sat down to the 
 feast, which would not take place for some hours, Samuel went 
 to Jesse's house, and had his sons presented to him, waiting for 
 the Lord to point out the one whom he was to anoint. He 
 seems to have told Jesse little or nothing of the design of this 
 ceremony, and to have acted throughout in a mysterious man- 
 ner, calculated rather to court than to satisfy inquiry. When 
 he beheld Eliab, the eldest son, a stately man, with a fine and 
 noble countenance, he said to himself that this must be the 
 Lord's anointed, but was taught that he was mistaken in think- 
 ing that physical advantages necessarily imply high moral 
 qualities. Six other sons passed in review before him, but 
 none of them were selected, though all were gallant, strong, and 
 beautiful. Perplexed and uncertain how to act in this dilemma, 
 Samuel asks Jesse if these seven are all the sons he has, and is 
 informed that there is one more, the youngest, who was in the 
 fields keeping sheep. He is sent for, and comes before the old 
 prophet, very different in appearance from his dark stalwart 
 brothers, fair in complexion, with reddish hair and beautiful 
 eyes, and withal of small and delicate frame. As Samuel gazes 
 on this youth, the voice Divine bids him arise and anoint him, 
 for this was the chosen son. Samuel took the oil, and without 
 further words or explanation anointed David in the midst of 
 his brethren. What the spectators thought of the transaction 
 we are not told. Certainly neither David nor they saw in it 
 any immediate delegation to the kingdom ; the high destiny to 
 which this youth was called was not mentioned, and he returned 
 to his usual occupations afterwards as if nothing uncommon 
 had happened. The anointing seemed to the brethren to be 
 merely a mode of designating the boy as assistant at the 
 sacrificial ceremony, or enrolling him as pupil in the prophetic 
 school. But it had an inward effect on David himself ; " the 
 spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him ; " his character 
 developed itself in many ways, and the Divine influence 
 
A SUCCESSOR ANOINTED. l6l 
 
 was shown in the high and noble qualities which he ex- 
 hibited. 
 
 His mission completed, Samuel returned to Ramah. How 
 fared it with the rejected, though not deposed, Saul ? His state 
 is described in awful words : *' the spirit of the Lord had 
 departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrified 
 him." Whether Saul's was a case of demoniacal possession, 
 or merely of morbid mental disease, cannot be determined. An 
 unscientific age ascribed madness, epilepsy, and some other 
 diseases, to the direct action of the devil ; and doubtless such 
 inflictions were sometimes rightly so designated, God allowing 
 the evil spirit to exercise a certain influence on the bodies and 
 minds of wicked men. Saul's state was regarded as a Divine 
 judgment upon him. Reasoning from all the circumstances 
 known to us, we may come to the following conclusion : the de- 
 nunciations of Samuel, the withdrawal of the kingdom from him- 
 self and his descendants, a feeling of being ill-treated, a proud 
 self-will which would not submit to rebuke, and an uneasy 
 expectation of the sudden appearance of some competitor to the 
 throne, rendered him gloomy, suspicious, irascible. To these 
 feelings he gave himself over ; fits of despondency became more 
 frequent as he less and less resisted them ; discontented with 
 himself, he made no effort at reformation ; every year, every 
 day, increased the evil, till his mind gave way, and he became 
 to some extent actually insane. 
 
 As these fits of frenzy grew more violent, Saul's attendants 
 became alarmed, and considered how best to alleviate them. 
 The influence of music in such cases was well established. 
 iEsculapius used it in the treatment of insane patients, and 
 throughout the East it was regarded as one of the best agents 
 for allaying troubled spirits. So they recommended Saul to 
 seek for some cunning player on the harp who might sootlie his 
 mind by his sweet strains, and restore to him peace and com- 
 fort. According to one historian, this suggestion led to David's 
 introduction to the king ; according to another and more 
 reliable tradition, the combat with Goliath first brought him to 
 Saul's notice, and his attendance at the court as minstrel com- 
 menced subsequently to that event. Our present Hebrew text 
 does not give the accounts of these matters in strict chronolo- 
 gical order, as they are derived from different authorities, and 
 inserted with no attempt at reconciliation. The writer of the 
 
 12 
 
1 62 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 history of Saul finishes his record (i Sam. xvi.) by telling 
 generally how David was anointed and made known to the 
 public. In chap. xvii. the history of David is commenced from 
 the beginning, some details already mentioned being given, and 
 many new ones added. If we adopt the commonly received 
 (but, as I think, erroneous) sequence of events, the story will 
 run as follows. Saul consenting to try the proposed remedy for 
 his malady, one of his attendants, himself probably trained in 
 the school at Naioth and familiar with those who had enjoyed 
 the same education, mentioned David as just the person to suit 
 his requirements. "I have seen," he said, " a son of Jesse the 
 Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty man of 
 valour, and a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a comely 
 person, and the Lord is with him." From this description of 
 David we gather that from the time of his unction he had ex- 
 hibited wonderful energy and courage, his natural gifts, his 
 qualities both of body and soul, were enhanced by Divine in- 
 fluence ; he had taken part in resisting some inroad of the Philis- 
 tines, and was well known as a good soldier and a brave de- 
 fender of his father's flocks against human marauders and 
 against wild beasts. If this conversation is, as I believe, to be 
 referred to a later period, the allusion to David's valour will 
 naturally be explained of his combat with the giant, after which 
 he had returned to his homely calling till summoned to court 
 in order to use his musical skill in Saul's service. He must 
 have been now about eighteen years old. The king was greatly 
 pleased with what he heard. He was always looking out for 
 any promising youth who might make an useful soldier, and it 
 gratified him to think that in David he might find one who was 
 not only a skilful musician, but might in a very short time be 
 added to his roll of mighty men. So Saul dispatched an im- 
 perative message to Jesse at Bethlehem bidding him to send 
 David at once to court. Jesse could not disobey this order ; 
 and as a great man was not to be approached without a present, 
 and compliance with a superior's commands was usually thus 
 accompanied, Jesse sent with his son an ass laden with some 
 produce of his farm as an offering to the king. The present 
 was simple enough, and suited to an unsophisticated state of 
 society ; it consisted of bread, a leathern bottle of wine, and a 
 fine kid. Thus introduced, the youthful shepherd stood before 
 tiie monarch, and, when the latter suffered from an attack of his 
 
A SUCCESSOR ANOINTED. I63 
 
 malady, played upon his harp and soothed the frenzied patient 
 into calmness. These fits of insanity were at present of in- 
 frequent occurrence ; and as David's presence was required only 
 at intervals, he returned continually to his home, and resumed 
 his pastoral occupations or received instruction at the mouth of 
 Samuel. It is very possible that Saul in his sane moments saw 
 but little of the young musician, and when some time elapsed 
 without his services being called in requisition, he almost forgot 
 his person, and thought no more about him. A year or two 
 later, after Saul had reigned some twelve years, his attention 
 was fixed on David by a very remarkable circumstance which 
 the sacred historian relates at some length.^ 
 
 The restless Philistines at this time again endeavoured to 
 reduce the Israelites under their yoke. We are ignorant of the 
 circumstances which inspired them to undertake this new attack, 
 but it was made with a large force and displayed considerable 
 skill. They had entered the territory of Judah, and massed 
 their forces between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes - dammim. 
 These places have been satisfactorily identified. Socoh, now 
 Shuweikeh, lies on a kind of natural terrace about half a mile 
 above the valley of Elah, "the Terebinth,'' in the hill country 
 some sixteen miles south-west of Jerusalem. Azekah, now Deir 
 el Aspek, is in the more open country below the Wady Surar, 
 eight miles north of Socoh, on the main road from the valley of 
 Elah. About a mile to the south occurs Beit Eased, " House of 
 
 * The Vaticcan MS. of the Septuagint, after verse 11 of chapter xvii. 
 (*' When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were 
 dismayed, and greatly afraid ") goes at once to ver. 32 : " And David said to 
 Saul, Let no man's heart fail," &c. , thus omitting the unnecessary recapitu- 
 lation, ver. 12, " Now David was the son of that Ephrathite," &c., and 
 the episode of David's brethren. The Greek narrates the flight, and the 
 death of the giant, but omits from ver. 55 of this chapter to ver. 5 of chap, 
 xviii.; that is, after saying that David put the giant's armour in his tent, it 
 proceeds with the account of the women meeting the returning army with 
 songs, &c. We thus get rid of the difficulty of Saul's question to Abner. 
 It is perhaps hardly justifiable to correct the Hebrew text from the Greek 
 version, but it is plain that our present text is put together unskilfully, and 
 that attempts were early made to eUminate supposed discrepancies. The 
 Alexandrian MS. translates the Hebrew text as we now have it, but it is evi- 
 dently the work of a different hand from that which rendered the rest of 
 the passage. Josephus seems to have had in his copy xvii. 12-31, but not 
 xvii. 55 to xviii. 5, and he always uses the Septuagint version in his histories. 
 
164 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 bleeding," which represents the site of the Philistine encamp- 
 ment, that place of ill-omened name, Ephes-dammim, "the 
 boundary of blood," so called from the frequent and sanguinary- 
 encounters of which it was the scene. Saul took up his position 
 on the side of the valley of Elah, the Wady Sunt, on one of the 
 low rocky hills, covered with lentisk bushes, which there 
 abound. Between the two hosts lay the broad open valley, rich 
 and fertile, but divided lengthwise in its midst by a remarkable 
 ravine, the presence of which sufficiently accounts for the 
 opposing armies being unable to bring matters to a decisive 
 issue by engaging in a pitched battle. Captain Conder* de- 
 scribes it as a deep trench, formed by a mountain torrent 
 which runs with great violence in the winter, though dry in 
 summer. This gai, or channel, is some twenty feet wide, with 
 steep vertical sides, ten or twelve feet deep, and quite impassable 
 except in certain places. The sides of this trench are strewn 
 with rounded, water-worn pebbles, each fitted for use in the 
 sling. 
 
 While the two armies thus lay facing one another, the Philis- 
 tines sent forth a well-known champion of theirs, Goliath of 
 Gath, the city of the Anakim (Josh. xi. 22), to challenge any of 
 the Israelites to single combat, and to leave the issue of the war 
 to be decided by this encounter. He was a very formidable foe. 
 The account of his size and equipment is such as to make one 
 marvel. His height is said to have been " six cubits and a 
 span," some eight feet and a half at the lowest estimate ; 
 others give him almost an additional foot. The arms of 
 this monster were suited to his dimensions. The mediaeval 
 knights in their thick plate armour were useless when dis- 
 mounted or overthrown ; and Goliath must have been 
 thoroughly unwieldly and slow in movement under the excessive 
 weight of his armour and weapons. An active adversary would 
 have had every advantage against him in spite of his size and 
 strength. But his appearance was what he and his friends 
 relied upon to inspire the foe with terror. They put him forth 
 in the vacant space between the two armies to insult the Israel- 
 ites, and to offer a challenge which they presumed would never 
 be accepted. Like Homer's heroes, he stands and boasts of his 
 prowess and laughs to scorn his puny opponents. *' Choose you 
 
 «" Tent Work," ii. 160. " Quarterly Statement," 1875, 1876. 
 
A SUCCESSOR ANOINTED. lC$ 
 
 a man for you," he cries, " and let him come down to me. If 
 he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your 
 servants ; but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye 
 be our servants, and serve us. I defy the armies of Israel this 
 day." Thus standing on his own side of the ravine, the giant 
 flung his challenge at Israel. Saul and his followers looked on 
 and listened in dismay, but no one dared accept the offered 
 combat. The issues were too momentous to be entrusted to 
 common hands, and yet there was no one of sufficient courage 
 and skill among the chiefs to uphold the cause of God's people. 
 The king himself was withheld by his dignity from answering 
 the challenge ; Jonathan's life was considered too valuable to 
 be endangered in such an unequal fight. In this dilemma they 
 asked no counsel of God or His priest, but for forty days en- 
 dured these grievous taunts, not knowing how to repress them. 
 Saul, it is true, had made lavish offers to any one who should 
 slay the insolent Philistine, promising to enrich him with untold 
 wealth, to give him his daughter in marringe, and to bestow 
 privileges and immunities upon all his family ; but no one 
 came forward to compete for these prizes at the price of what 
 seemed certain death. Among the warriors in Saul's army 
 were the three eldest sons of Jesse ; and it was the custom of 
 their father to send David to them with provisions during the 
 campaign. One of these occasions happened at the end of the 
 forty days just mentioned. David, who had not before heard 
 of the huge champion and his insolent challenge, arrived at the 
 waggon rampart of the camp just as Goliath stalked forward 
 and uttered his daily boast. He was utterly amazed to see that 
 this uncircumcised PhiHstine was thus allowed to insult the army 
 of Jehovah ; and having heard of the king's terms, he was 
 moved by the spirit within him to offer himself as the champion 
 of Israel. Brought before Saul he expressed his desire to 
 accept the giant's challenge, and declining the offer of Saul's 
 armour, declared that he would go as he was to the combat, 
 and had no doubt at all concerning the issue. His ready con- 
 fidence inspired Saul and Abner with like trust, and they let 
 him have his way. But Saul's interest was keenly aroused ; 
 and wishing to know more of one who might some day become 
 his son-in-law, he inquired of Abner whose son the stripling 
 was ; but Abner could give him no information. Meantime 
 David, in his simple shepherd's dress, and unarmed save for 
 
-l66 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 his shepherd's staff and the goat's-hair sling, in the use of which 
 the pastoral Israelites were well skilled, left the camp, and 
 crossing the plain, approached the gully that had so long proved 
 an impassable barrier to the operations of the hostile armies. 
 Sliding down the bank into the dry watercourse, he chose out 
 five smooth pebbles from those that lay at his feet, put them 
 into his wallet, and climbing up the other side, stood in the 
 presence of his gigantic adversary. Goliath despised his youth- 
 ful opponent, and vaunted his certain victory, cursing David by 
 his God and defying Jehovah to save him from death. The 
 young champion retorted by expressing his sure trust in the 
 God of Israel, and his confidence that He was with him, and 
 would give victory into his hand. Then ere the giant could come 
 to close combat, he slung one stone with so true an aim, that it 
 struck the Philistine on the forehead beneath the helmet, there 
 being no visor to protect the face, and he fell stunned, if not 
 dead, prone on the ground. To make all sure, David, on seeing 
 his enemy fall, ran up with all speed, and taking the giant's 
 sword, slew him therewith, and cut off his head. The combat 
 had been watched with the keenest interest by the two armies, 
 and when the champion was overthrown dire consternation 
 filled the breasts of the Philistines, while the Israelites were 
 animated with the wildest exultation. They rushed down the 
 hill into the valley, crossed the ravine without opposition, and 
 formed on the other side unchecked. The Philistines, utterly 
 demoralized by the unexpected death of their great warrior, 
 turned and fled without striking a blow. It was not a battle, 
 but a pursuit and a slaughter, that ensued. The fugitives fled 
 down the valley of Elah in wild disorder till they came to its 
 mouth, where they separated, some taking refuge in Gath, a 
 frontier fortress standing on its lofty chalk cliff above the road that 
 led to the highlands, others turned north to Ekron, and hardly 
 made their escape good, being followed to the very gates by 
 their pursuers.* The camp fell into the hands of the Israelites, 
 and enriched them with great spoils and a goodly supply of 
 
 * " By the way to Shaaraim," in the English and Latin versions ; but " in 
 the way of the gates " in the Sept. ; and this seems most correct. There 
 was a town of this name belonging to Judah (Josh. xv. 36) in the 
 Shephelah, identified with Sakariya, three miles north-west of Socoh, and 
 five miles south-east of Azekah. 
 
A SUCCESSOR ANOINTED. 167 
 
 arms. The carnage was very great ; according to Josephus,' 
 thirty thousand Philistines were slain, and twice that number 
 wounded. We are not to suppose that all this was the work ot 
 one day, as the wording of the account seems to suggest ; rather 
 it probably occupied some months, and was followed by many 
 other expeditions, the final results being such as the history 
 states. On returning from the fight, David was brought before 
 Saul, carrying in his hand the gory head of Goliath, the grim 
 trophy of his victory. And the king, naturally anxious to know 
 more about the young hero, and of what family was the man 
 to whom he had virtually promised his daughter in marriage, 
 asked him whose son he was. David told him that his father 
 was Jesse the Bethlehemite. Saul was favourably struck with 
 the young hero ; his beauty of countenance, his gallant bearing, 
 greatly affected the impressionable monarch ; he felt kindly 
 towards him, and engaged his services from that day forward, 
 appointing him an armour-bearer or aide-de-camp. The spoils 
 of the slain giant were at David's disposal. The arms he took 
 to his own home at Bethlehem, afterwards depositing them as 
 trophies in the tabernacle at Nob, where we hear of the sword 
 at a later crisis. The head he reserved till he could place it 
 where it might be a permanent memorial of the power of faith 
 in Jehovah. Such an asylum was found for it in Jerusalem 
 when the citadel was taken, and the tabernacle erected there.^ 
 At this interview between Saul and David there was one 
 present who was fully capable of appreciating the noble 
 character of the young warrior, and rejoicing in his success. 
 This was Jonathan, the brave, generous, steadfast son of Saul. 
 As David answered the king's questions, and displayed his 
 modesty, courage, sublime faith, and wisdom, a feeling of intense 
 affection for this youth arose in Jonathan's breast ; as the sacred 
 writer expresses it, "the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul 
 of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." The 
 friendship then begun never wavered, was never darkened for a 
 moment ; it continued unimpaired by envy or jealousy till the last. 
 
 « *' Antiq. '* vi. 9. 5. 
 
 • I Sam. xvii. 54 is proleptical, the writer desiring to complete the 
 history of the giant's spoils before proceeding to other matters. Some 
 commentators think that the head was deposited with the sword at Nob, 
 which is loosely called "Jerusalem " as being in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 SAUL'S JEALOUSY AND MANIA. 
 
 Saul is jealous of David— Progress of his malady— Saul threatens David's 
 life — Employs him on military expeditions —Gives him his daughter in 
 marriage on condition of his slaying one hundred Philistines— Plots 
 against his life — Relents for a while at Jonathan's intercession — Soon 
 resumes his evil purpose — Tries to kill David — David saved by Michal 
 — Flees to Samuel at Ramah — Saul sends to arrest him — Naioth — The 
 messengers prophesy — Saul goes himself to Ramah and prophesies. 
 
 The war with the Philistines was not ended by the defeat that 
 followed the death of Goliath. Military operations were con- 
 tinued for some months, during all which time David waxed 
 higher and higher in favour with Saul and the people ; so wisely 
 and successfully did he treat all matters committed to his care, 
 that Saul gave him a position of trust as one of the com- 
 manders of his army. But a circumstance soon occurred to 
 rouse the king's jealousy, which was never afterwards set at 
 rest, but was always ready to burst out into open violence, 
 especially when he was suffering from attacks of his malady. 
 At the conclusion of the campaign, Saul with David and the 
 army returned home in triumph, having for the time quite 
 restored the supremacy of Israel. To this unparalleled success 
 David had chiefly contributed by his military skill and personal 
 prowess proved on many different occasions. The people were 
 not slow to recognize this. It was not alone as the conqueror 
 of the giant Goliath that they received him.* He had won 
 
 * Our version of i Sam. xviii. 6 gives : " when David returned from 
 the slaughter of the Philistine" ; but we should read " Philistines," or take 
 the singular in a generic sense ; as it is clear from the sequence of events 
 
SAUL'S JEALOUSY AND MANIA. 1 69 
 
 highest praise in many an engagement since then, and his 
 reputation had risen rapidly as time went on, so that he soon 
 bade fair to edipse the fame of the king himself. On the final 
 return of the expedition, the women came forth from the cities 
 to meet them with singing and dancing, and other signs of 
 rejoicing. They bore cymbals and triangles, and as they per- 
 formed the usual solemn dance, they sang antiphonally a song 
 of victory, of which the refrain was : 
 
 •• Saul hath slain his thousands, 
 And David his ten thousands." 
 
 Saul could not listen to this unmoved. He had not forgotten his 
 deposition from the kingdom announced by the mouth of Samuel, 
 and the substitution in his place of one worthier than he. He 
 had often thought over this prospect with gloomy discontent, 
 and looked out for signs that might announce his supplanter or 
 successor. The years that had passed since that fatal intima- 
 tion was given had not lessened his dread of the future, This 
 foreboded dethronement preyed heavily upon his mind, and 
 increased his distemper. What if this shepherd hero were the 
 king destined by Jehovah to take the place which he had for- 
 feited? This darling of the people might well be the rival 
 who was to eject him and his race from the throne. This David 
 had stood forth as champion for Israel when all the mighty men 
 of the army crouched in terror ; this stripling had prospered in 
 every fight, and won the hearts of all with whom he served ; 
 so exalted was his fame in the country, that the people in their 
 ode of victory reckoned him at ten times the worth of his king 
 and superior. *' And," asked Saul in jealous indignation, " what 
 can he have more but the kingdom?" Henceforward he re- 
 garded David with mixed feelings of hatred and love. The old 
 magnanimity which he had showed towards enemies in his 
 early days had been ruined by years of brooding and discon- 
 tent, and the evil temper to which he had given way at times 
 utterly displaced the old affection for the gallant friend and 
 soothing minstrel, and left nothing in its place but a feeling of 
 rancorous envy and jealousy. As the writer impressively says, 
 
 that the fall of Goliath is not intended, but the great success that had 
 attended David's military expeditions against the Philistines while occu- 
 pying a chief position in the army of Saul. 
 
170 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 alluding to the supposed elTect of. an evil eye, " Saul eyed David 
 from that day and forward." Giving himself up to this wicked 
 passion, when he saw himself, as he thought, put in slighting 
 comparison with his servant, he is said to have been mightily 
 troubled with an evil spirit from the Lord. This was a 
 messenger of God, allowed to hold sway over him and execute 
 the Divine judgment upon his soul. He was left to his own 
 wilfulness, and evil had undisputed control in his diseased 
 mind. His intellect gave way under the working of this 
 ) morbid passion, and a new phase of frenzy developed itself. 
 / No longer merely brooding, moody, melancholy, he has become 
 »^ violent and murderous; his thoughts were of homicidal tend- 
 ency ; his utterances incoherent. Acting like a man possessed 
 by an influence stronger than his own will, " he prophesied " ; 
 inspired, as it were, but by no good spirit, he spake words of 
 which he knew not the meaning, and which seemed to the by- 
 standers the ravings of a maniac. Hurriedly they called for 
 David that he might, as aforetimes, soothe the king's troubled 
 spirit. And David played with his accustomed skill, but not 
 with the usual effect. The evil spirit in Saul was too potent, 
 had been too freely welcomed, to be exorcised by such gentle 
 means. Music had lost its power, but the minstrel would not 
 easily desert his post, while there was hope of benefiting the 
 raving monarch. Frenzied beyond control, Saul brandished his 
 javelin, which he carried as a symbol of his regal authority, 
 threatening to hurl it at David, as he struck his harp. Twice 
 he aimed the deadly weapon at the musician, and twice he 
 withheld his murderous hand, or David escaped in time from 
 his presence, or the attendants restrained the furious king. But 
 this impunity, added to the high repute of David, only aug- 
 mented the king's malady. He saw in all this the Lord's hand ; 
 but this conviction, instead of leading him to acquiesce in the 
 present circumstances, and to recognize the inexpediency of 
 attempting to remove the youth who had served him so well and 
 faithfully, only made him hate him more, and even fear him 
 greatly. David did not withdraw himself from the court; he 
 counted the animosity exhibited as a sign of the king's diseased 
 slate of mind, and did not resent it. Saul, however, even in his 
 saner moments could not endure the continual presence of one 
 whom he considered a rival, and whom he felt himself powerless 
 to injure, while he CDiild not but acknowledge the high qualities 
 
SAUL'S JEALOUSY AND MANIA. 171 
 
 which had gained the affection of the whole army ; he there- 
 fore freed himself from this constant source of irritation by 
 giving David a command of a thousand men, and employing 
 him on military expeditions. In this capacity the latter con- 
 ducted himself so well that everything prospered in his hands ; 
 Israel and Judah, the northern and southern tribes alike, gladly 
 put themselves under his leadership, and loved him universally. 
 His promotion could not be prevented, but it was gall and worm- 
 wood to Saul to consent to his advancement. What he was 
 forced to do he did ungraciously, slighting David's claims as far 
 as he dared. The king had promised to give his daughter in 
 marriage to the warrior who should overcome the Philistine 
 champion Goliath ; he felt constrained to acknowledge this 
 obligation, hoping thereby to find some means of destroying 
 him by using his zeal against the enemies of his country. So 
 he now offered David his eldest daughter Merab, on condition 
 that he fought valiantly in the wars of Jehovah, thinking all 
 the time that he might thus be emboldened to enter upon rash 
 adventures at the risk of his life. But Saul did not keep his 
 promise. Either he hoped that David would have fallen a 
 victim to his warlike zeal before the nuptials could be com- 
 pleted, or with the inconstancy of a tyrant simply changed his 
 mind ; at any rate he gave Merab in marriage, not to David, 
 but to Adriel, of Abel-Meholah, who perhaps had offered a large 
 dower in return for the honour. The five sons who were the 
 offspring of this marriage were given over to the vengeance of 
 the Gibeonites in requital of Saul's unrighteous attack upon 
 them.* Merab had never loved David ; but Michal, the second 
 daughter, conceived a violent affection for him, and showed her 
 preference plainly. Saul was pleased when he heard of this. 
 It offered a means of keeping his promise and of atoning for 
 his mean conduct in the former case, while the condition 
 which he thought of imposing afforded good hope of ridding 
 himself of his enemy. But he was not at all sure that David 
 would now accept the position offered. The latter had ex- 
 perienced the king's fickleness and duplicity, and might not be 
 willing to fall into the snare the second time. Saul saw at 
 once a way to secure his evil purpose. He told his servants 
 to let David know that he required no dower at his hands, but 
 
 « 2 Sam. xxi. 8, where the name Michal instead of Merab has crept into 
 the text. 
 
172 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 only proof that he had slain a hundred of his enemies, the 
 Philistines. This condition fell in well with David's warlike 
 spirit. He never stopped to consider what might be Saul's in- 
 sidious purpose in this demand, but at once proceeded to 
 execute it. There may have been war going on at this moment 
 with the Philistines ; but in that age no excuse was needed for 
 sudden attacks upon enemies. Power and opportunity were 
 the only factors considered ; the cruelty and injustice of such 
 an action were never regarded. David set out with his men, 
 made a sudden incursion into the Philistine territories, and ere 
 the time fixed for the delivery of the dowry had expired he 
 returned victorious, bringing with him proofs of the slaughter 
 of more than the stipulated number, which " they gave in full 
 tale to the king."* Saul, the condition being satisfied, and his 
 malicious intention having failed, could no longer delay the 
 marriage with Michal, and David became his son-in-law. But 
 this new tie between them only increased Saul's unreasonable 
 hatred. He could not doubt that the Lord was with David, 
 and protected him in all dangers ; or, if he recognized not God's 
 hand in his deliverance, he looked on David as one of those 
 lucky persons who were always successful, and against whom 
 it was useless to plot. The close relationship with the king 
 had added to David's influence, and made it impossible to 
 punish him openly. Besides this, the consciousness that 
 Michal loved her husband, and would use every exertion to 
 screen him from her father's machinations, embittered his feel- 
 ings and turned his home affection into poison. How different 
 might events have turned out if the unhappy king had only ac- 
 cepted the situation and recognized the hand of Providence in 
 the guidance of affairs 1 Here was the man destined to occupy 
 his place admitted to his family ; the change of dynasty was 
 nothing ; his daughter's husband might naturally be chosen 
 as his successor ; thus he would conciliate the good will of 
 the people, satisfy the affection of his son and daughter, and 
 bind David to himself by the ties of gratitude and love. But 
 no, he persisted in his rancorous animosity, and David's con- 
 tinued success added fuel to the flame that consumed him. 
 Saul was now completely mastered by passion. His jealous 
 
 * Vulg. : *'Et percussit ex Philistiim ducentos viros, et attulit eorum 
 praeputia, et annumeravit ea regi." Josephus (" Antiq." vi. la 3) makes 
 David return with six hundred heads of Philistines. 
 
SAUL'S JEALOUSY AND MANIA. 173 
 
 hatred burst all control ; he even dared openly to speak to 
 Jonathan and his attendants of his intention to kill David at 
 the first favourable opportunity.* He expatiated on the pre- 
 sumption of this young man, on his dangerous popularity with 
 the army, on his traitorous intention of setting up a claim to the 
 throne, and supplanting the present dynasty. He tried to 
 deceive himself and his hearers by showing that his death 
 was an absolute necessity, a measure of precaution which, how- 
 ever painful, must be taken for state reasons. He had silenced 
 all better feelings, overridden misgivings, familiarized himself 
 with the thought of crime, so that nothing could any longer 
 check his murderous impulse. But David had a friend at court 
 who saw his danger and warned him of it. Jonathan, the 
 gallant, the upright son of a perverse father, knew that there 
 was many an unscrupulous courtier, who, after such an avowal 
 on their sovereign's part, would be only too ready to help him 
 get rid of this obnoxious subject. Jonathan, animated not 
 only by love of his friend, but by true patriotism, warned David 
 of his danger, bidding him hide himself awhile until he had 
 sounded his father, and tried to turn him from his evil purpose. 
 Then he talked calmly with the morbid tyrant, reminded him 
 of David's services, and of the great relief which he had him- 
 self felt at the youth's success, and implored him not to be 
 guilty of shedding innocent blood. Saul, ever fickle, and still 
 capable of generous emotions, relents at this intercession, and 
 swears an oath that David's life should be spared : " As the 
 Lord liveth, he shall not be slain." Nothing could be more 
 solemn than such an asseveration. Jonathan was thoroughly 
 reassured, and gladly communicating to David his father's more 
 favourable disposition, brought his friend once more to the 
 king, and he returned to his old footing at court. This re- 
 conciliation lasted some time, and David had resumed the 
 terms of intimacy to which he had risen before the last out- 
 break, when a new cause awoke the king's slumbering jealousy 
 to still greater fury. A fresh inroad of the Philistines was re- 
 pelled by David with his accustomed vigour and success. This 
 raised Saul's envy to the highest pitch. He made no attempt 
 
 « The translation of i Sam. xix. i in A.V. is erroneous: "spake to 
 
 Jonathan . . . that they should kill David." It ought to be, "about 
 
 killing David," i.e., that he intended to kill him. So the Greek and Syriac 
 versions. 
 
174 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 to resist the evil temper ; he encouraged and nurtured his 
 malicious feelings, and was given over to the dominion of his 
 own passions ; so that it is again said : " an evil spirit from 
 the Lord was upon him." This terrible fit of insanity was a 
 judicial punishment of his impenitence and hardness of heart. 
 While he was suffering under this mania, David came into his 
 presence to soothe, if it might be, his mad excitement. But the 
 time for such influerice had passed away for ever. Here was 
 his enemy unarmed, in his power ; should he not avail himself 
 of the opportunity and crush him at a blow ? He seized his 
 regal spear, and giving way to the murderous impulse, hurled 
 it at the musician, aiming to slay him as he stood. David, 
 keen, watchful, active, saw in good time the king's intent, 
 avoided the threatening blow, and the weapon savagely sped 
 was fixed harmlessly in the wall. But Saul, now inflexible in 
 purpose, was not going to let the victim escape. David fled to 
 his own home, thinking that the king was suffering from one 
 of his usual paroxysms, and that when this was over he would 
 be in no danger. Saul, however, was steadfastly bent on his 
 destruction ; he had his house carefully watched by armed 
 emissaries, ordering them to fall upon him and slay him when- 
 ever he might come abroad. Josephus * deems that Saul meant 
 to seize him and bring him to trial as a traitor, his condemnation 
 being provided for ; but, lost to all self-respect as the unhappy 
 monarch now was, and having given the reins to his murderous 
 jealousy, he was not likely to attend to any forms of law, but 
 was sure to carry the matter with high-handed tyranny. By 
 some means, perhaps through Jonathan's information, Michal 
 became aware of the design against her husband's life ; and as 
 the doors were carefully watched, she let him down with cords 
 from a window, as St. Paul was delivered at Damascus, and he 
 escaped the ambush. That he might have time to get away 
 safely, Michal exerted her woman's wit to delay the pursuit. 
 She sent word that he had been very ill in the past night, and 
 was still lying in his room sick and unable to move, making good 
 her story by dressing an image in a bed to represent her absent 
 husband. The deceit was soon discovered, but not before it 
 ^ad answered its purpose. 
 
 Meantime the fugitive, seeing that the court was no longer a 
 
 ■ "Antiq." vi. ii. 4. 
 
SAUL'S JEALOUSY AND MANIA. I75 
 
 home for him, made his way to his old friend and counsellor 
 Samuel at Ramah. The prophet, though retired from active 
 life, still retained much of his former influence, and could not 
 only give David advice in this emergency, but also offer a refuge, 
 where in peace and prayer he might calm his troubled spirit and 
 find strength for future trials. In the neighbourhood of his 
 home Samuel had erected some dwellings (called Naioth in our 
 text) for the use of the students whose education he superin- 
 tended. Here they lived a ccenobitical life, and learned the 
 literary, religious, and political lessons which would fit them to 
 play their own part in the world and to guide others aright. 
 Received into this communion, David was for a time secure. 
 But not for long. Saul was soon informed where David had 
 found refuge, and regardless of the sacredness of his asylum, 
 sent messengers to arrest him. But a stronger power than that 
 of the tyrant interposed to prevent the execution of the design. 
 The messengers arrived at " Naioth." ; there was no attempt to 
 hinder their approach ; all was solemn, peaceful, religious. They 
 enter the public hall, and what do they see "i A company of 
 reverent students ; an ample, organized choir ; a band of trained 
 prophets, mature in age, devout in aspect ; and presiding as 
 leader the venerable Samuel himself, far advanced in years, but 
 hale and efificient still— all engaged in chanting the praises of 
 God, and in their enthusiastic worship utterly fearless of the 
 presence of these armed intruders. Awe-struck for a minute 
 the messengers stood, and then as the scene and its surround- 
 ings filled their imagination, as they listened to the noble melody 
 that rose from the lips of these servants of God, and received 
 into their souls the import of the words that were sung, a like 
 enthusiasm fired their breasts ; they cast aside their murderous 
 purpose, and joined in the service with heart and voice. News 
 of this proceeding was carried to Saul, and he sent other 
 messengers to execute his will. The same thing occurred a 
 second and a third time. The Spirit of the Lord came upon 
 these emissaries ; they took part in the religious exercise which 
 they found going on, whether it were singing, or music, or danc- 
 ing, or recitation, and, forgetting the hostile purpose with which 
 they had set out, acted in all respects like persons who were 
 themselves "sons of the prophets." At this frustration of his 
 plans Saul was greatly enraged.^ He had long done despite to 
 * So Sept., I Sam. xix. §2. 
 
176 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 his conscience ; nothing can now restrain him ; he will violate 
 the sanctity of the prophet's dwelling, break into the hallowed 
 asylum, and himself lay hands on the offender. He immediately 
 set forth for Ramah from his home at Gibeah. Arriving at a 
 place which tradition still pointed out when the account was 
 written, but which is not accurately identified — the great cistern 
 in Sechu^ — he inquired of the neighbouring inhabitants where 
 Samuel and David were to be found. He was told that they 
 were now in Naioth of Ramah, and proceeded thither. And now 
 a wonderful thing happened. The spirit of prophecy suddenly 
 fell upon Saul himself, as it had fallen on his messengers, and he 
 went on his way reciting and singing in a state of the wildest 
 excitement. As soon as he came to the school, he stripped him- 
 self of his ornaments, flung aside his royal robe, and attired 
 only in his inner tunic, rushed into Samuel's presence, chanting^ 
 gesticulating, dancing, a victim to religious ecstasy. What was 
 the meaning of this illapse of the spirit upon such a man at 
 such a time .'* What brought about this change in the moody 
 king ? Even if we regard the effect as nothing supernatural, we 
 find in it something very remarkable. The excitement under 
 which he had long been labouring had culminated in conduct 
 which we could scarcely have anticipated. The thought of 
 meeting with his own estranged friend and guide, Samuel, was 
 one element in his excitement ; the feeling of vengeance soon to 
 be gratified was another. Then the sight of Samuel at the head 
 of the school of prophets, the sound of the strains once familiar 
 to his ear, recalled that earlier scene when he was once before 
 similarly affected ; he seemed to be back in the old days and 
 open again to holy influence : the remembrance overpowered 
 him ; mastered by uncontrollable emotion, he threw himself into 
 the present circumstances like an Eastern fanatic, till exhausted 
 by his feelings and bodily actions he lay like one dead upon the 
 earth. Did this extraordinary ecstasy mark his reprobation, as 
 the former had accompanied the inauguration of his reign ? Or 
 was it a last merciful pleading of the Holy Spirit in his heart, a 
 powerful working of that better thing within him to lead him to 
 repentance and amendment before it was too late ? The out- 
 ward effects were visible to all men, and occasioned a repetition 
 
 ' It is supposed to be Kurbet Suweikeh, one and a half miles south of 
 Beeroth^ "Survey Memoirs," iii. pp. 52, 126. 
 
SAULS JEALOUSY AND MANIA. 1 77 
 
 and confirmation of the proverb already noticed : " Is Saul also 
 among the prophets ? " If it was formerly a marvel that one so 
 unlearned and untrained as Saul should be found among the 
 prophetic band, much more wonderful was it now that one who 
 had been vexed by an evil spirit, who had come with hostile 
 intent to Ramah, bringing his profane wrath and murderous 
 purpose into the very sanctuary, should experience the Divine 
 afflatus and prophesy. And what lessons could he and his fol- 
 lowers learn from this occurrence but these.'* — that God holds in 
 His hands the hearts of men and turns them as He wills ; that the 
 Lord did not allow the destruction of David, and that in endea- 
 vouring to compass it they were fighting against God. The 
 transient emotion past, Saul forgot the lesson ; the warning took 
 no hold of his fickle will, and, being disregarded, added to the 
 hardness of his hearU 
 
 X3 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SAUL'S PERSECUTION OF DAVID. 
 
 Saul's intention towards David tested at the Festival of the New Moon ; 
 proved to be murderous— Jonathan informs David, who flees to Nob ; 
 is received and fed by Ahimelech — Doeg is present ; informs Saul of 
 what happened there — Massacre of the priests at Nob— Saul pursues 
 David to Ziph— Disaffection in the land — Saul nearly entraps David at 
 Maon — Is spared by David at Engedi — Affected by David's forbearance 
 Saul professes reconciliation. 
 
 The occurrence at Ramah, together with Saul's trance which 
 lasted a day and night, gave David time to escape his relentless 
 enemy. He hastened to his friend Jonathan, and consulted with 
 him as to the course which he should take under present circum- 
 stances. A partial reconciliation had, as it seems, been made, 
 probably by the intervention of Samuel, and David found himself 
 expected to resume his attendance at court ; but he had no 
 guarantee for the future, and his life hung on the caprice of a 
 fickle tyrant. Jonathan, indeed, endeavoured to believe, and to 
 persuade his friend, that his father's late acts were to be attri- 
 buted to an access of his malady, and that when he came to 
 himself no such danger was to be feared. David was not con- 
 vinced of this. Saul had had no personal communication with 
 him, had not assured him of any change of sentiment, and David 
 naturally feared to trust himself in his presence after the late 
 attempts on his life. A test of the king's intentions might be 
 easily applied. It was plain that, knowing Jonathan's love for 
 David, Saul would not impart to his son his design against 
 David's li.e ; but his feeling mi^iht be discovered in another way. 
 
SAUL'S PERSECUTION OF DAVID. 1^9 
 
 At the beginning of every month, the day of the new moon ' 
 was observed as a rehgious festival by all good Israelites, and by 
 Saul as a great civil festival also, on which he gave a banquet, 
 attended by his family and the chief men of the State. David, 
 the king's son-in-law and a commander in his army, would be 
 expected to be present on this occasion. If he absented him- 
 self, and Saul took it in good part, no danger need be feared ; if, 
 on the contrary, the king was violently incensed at his absence, 
 then it was certain that recent events had not altered his feelings, 
 and that he was still resolved on extreme measures. In this 
 manner the question was to be settled. 
 
 Saul returned from Ramah cured of his frenzy and composed 
 in mind. The monthly festival came round, ushered in by the 
 blast of trumpets, and celebrated with the customary offerings 
 and sacrifices. The royal feast took place and lasted two days. 
 All the great officers were there arranged in due order. The 
 king was in the seat of honour next the wall and farthest from 
 the door ; opposite to him was Jonathan, and at his side sat 
 Abner. Saul immediately observed that David's place at the 
 table was vacant, but he made no remark at the moment, think- 
 ing that there was a reasonable cause for his absence. But 
 when David did not appear on the second day, he became 
 suspicious that there was some special reason which kept him 
 away. He turned to Jonathan, as most likely to know David's 
 movements, and asked him why this "son of Jesse," as he called 
 him in derision of his lowly birth, had not taken his place for 
 these two days. Jonathan answered, as he and his friend had pre- 
 viously concerted, that David had been summoned by his eldest 
 brother, acting as head of the family, to a public sacrifice at 
 Bethlehem, and had asked permission to attend it. Such 
 an excuse, whether true or not in this instance, was in itself 
 entirely credible. But to Saul's suspicious temper the excuse 
 suggested premeditation, and it incensed him because it 
 deprived him of an opportunity of which he had intended 
 to avail himself. At this feast, surrounded by his friends, 
 and supported by a body of courtiers who had slandered 
 the absent hero and hoped to reap benefit by his deposition 
 and death, the king had fully intended to carry out his mur- 
 derous design. Was he to be frustrated in this way, and that 
 
 « Numb. X. lo : xxviii. ii ff. 
 
l8o SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 with the privity or at the instigation of his own son ? He fell 
 into violent anger when he heard Jonathan's answer. " Thou 
 perverse rebel,"' he cried, "do not I know that thou hast chosen 
 the son of Jesse to thine own shame, and to the confusion of 
 the mother that bore thee ? For as long as the son of Jesse 
 liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established nor thy 
 kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for," 
 he adds, casting aside all disguise, "he shall surely die." 
 Jonathan, thinking a soft answer turneth away wrath, pleaded 
 mildly for his friend, asking what he had done that he should 
 be thus condemned. Saul, seized with fury, has no patience 
 to explain. He felt that David was plotting against him, 
 endeavouring to supplant the friend who was interceding for 
 him, was a double-dyed traitor ; and he was incensed beyond 
 measure at his son's partizanship. In ungovernable anger he 
 brandished his javelin in Jonathan's face, threatening to smite 
 him where he sat. Such an insult in the sight of the assembled 
 guests, and such injurious aspersions cast upon his innocent 
 comrade, Jonathan could not endure. With a fierce and 
 righteous indignation blazing in his generous heart, he rose 
 quickly from the table, left the chamber, and appeared no more 
 at that fatal feast. Nothing remained but to acquaint David 
 with the unhappy result of the concerted experiment. This he 
 proceeded to do in the morning, and, as David's only safety lay 
 in immediate flight, the two friends, with many tears and 
 poignant regret, took leave of one another, and Jonathan re- 
 turned to the city, while David betook himself to Nob. Here 
 he was received by Ahimelech, the high priest, who fed him and 
 his followers with the hallowed shew-bread, which was removed 
 from the table on that day, and gave him the famous sword of 
 Goliath which was laid up as a trophy in the tabernacle. Un- 
 
 » The Authorized Version is: "Thou son of a perverse rebellious 
 woman," and the translation is supported by the consideration that in the 
 East it is tlie greatest possible insult to a man to abuse liis mother. But 
 we do not see tlie probability that Saul would speak in this way when the 
 reflection would fall upon his own wife ; nor could he, as in the latter part 
 of the verse, have vowed that even Jonathan's mother would be ashamed 
 of him for his treachery, if he had begun by calling her perverse and 
 rebellious. The expression is general, and has notliing to do with family 
 relations, being literally, "sou of perversity of rebellion." i.e., perverse, 
 rebeUious man. 
 
SAUL'S PERSECUTION OF DAVID. l8l 
 
 fortunately, one of Saul's most trusted and unscrupulous servants, 
 Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the royal herdsmen, was present 
 at this meeting. It is strange to find this foreigner employed 
 in the service of the king of Israel and highly trusted by him, 
 and it is the first instance of such a thing in the whole history. 
 He, we are told, was "detained before the Lord" at Nob, an 
 expression capable of many interpretations. He may have been 
 a proselyte who desired to be admitted into the community of 
 Israel, and was then receiving religious instruction ; or he may 
 have been paying some vow, or engaged in some ceremonial 
 purification. Some have thought that he was being examined 
 for the cure of leprosy, others that he had committed some 
 trespass, and was kept in close seclusion till he had offered the 
 appointed sacrifice. Whatever was the cause that brought him 
 there, David scented danger in his presence, knew that he was a 
 creature of Saul's, and would be sure to report to his master 
 what he had seen ; so he made no stay there, but fled for refuge 
 to some safer spot. 
 
 Meantime Saul's whole energies were now directed to the 
 capture and destruction of his hated son-in-law, and he waited 
 anxiously for news about his movements. He heard of him as 
 taking refuge among the Philistines at Gath, where he could 
 not follow him, then as having secured an asylum for his father 
 and mother in Moab, whence his ancestress Ruth had come, and 
 finally that he had been joined by a number of disaffected people, 
 and was now somewhere in Jud;^a at the head of a disciplined 
 band of several hundred men. At length information reached 
 him that David and his men were encamped among the thickets 
 of Hareth, a place now known as Kharas, that lay on the edge 
 of the mountain-chain of Hebron, some three miles east of 
 Keilah, on the road between Adullam and Hebron, from which 
 it is ten miles distant in a N.N.W. direction. As soon as Saul 
 heard this, he convened an assembly of his officers and ad- 
 herents, men chiefly of his own tribe and attached to him by 
 benefits received and expected, and, seated under a wide- 
 spreading tamarisk tree, made a warm appeal to their feelings 
 as loyal and grateful subjects. See him posted on the height 
 above his own royal city, Gibeah, leaning on his spear, the 
 symbol of his dignity, the valiant company arrayed in order 
 around him, and over his head, and forming a beautiful canopy, 
 the feathery branches of the tamarisk, not as in our climate, 
 
I §2 SAMtJEL AND SAUt. 
 
 a mere shrub that is planted in maritime places because in its 
 stunted growth it can endure the keen wind and salt spray of 
 the ocean, but a tree as large as an oak, a most grateful shelter 
 in a hot climate. " Hear now, ye Benjamites," he cries, " will 
 the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he 
 make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds ; 
 that all of you have conspired against me, and there was none 
 that disclosed to me when my son made a league with the son 
 of Jesse?" And he adds, with a pathos which is truly affecting: 
 " There is none that is sorry for me, or discloseth unto me that 
 my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as 
 at this day." What could the officers reply to this appeal ? 
 The openly avowed favouritism which had secured all high 
 posts for the king's tribesmen had not answered. Such par- 
 tiality had begun to alienate the rest of Israel, and compara- 
 tively few followed his lead during the latter part of his reign. 
 If he could bring himself to believe such things of his noble son 
 and his gallant, trusty son-in-law, upon whom next might his 
 suspicion fall ? Who might be the next victim of the moody 
 tyrant .'* While all were silent, the unscrupulous Doeg, who 
 was present at the meeting and who took pleasure in ministering 
 to his lord's vindictive passions, spoke and said : " I saw the 
 son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, 
 and he inquired of the Lord for him, and give him victuals, and 
 gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine." By this malignant 
 statement Doeg turned suspicion from the courtiers to the 
 priests. Saul was quite ready to believe that they were in 
 league with David, and, as though he had already determined 
 on a general massacre, he sent to summon Ahimelech and all 
 the priests at Nob to his presence. This Ahimelech was the 
 great-grandson of Eli, and had succeeded his brother Ahiah in 
 the pontificate, or had divided the office with him, one of them 
 accompanying Saul to the camp, the other remaining with the 
 ark or tabernacle. It was no great distance from Gibeah to 
 Nob, and the sacerdotal family, to the number of eighty-five, 
 were soon in Saul's presence. The angry monarch reproached 
 Ahimelech with treachery and with conniving with David in his 
 evil designs, recapitulating Doeg's three charges, that he had 
 used the sacred oracle in his behalf, which was never employed 
 but at the king's demand, that he had fed the fugitive and his 
 followers, and that he had given him the giant's sword. Ahi- 
 
Saul's persecution of david. 183 
 
 melech did not deny the charge. He had done indeed as the 
 king accused him, but he had acted in the innocence of his 
 heart, with no malign intent, and quite unaware that he was 
 thereby incurring Saul's displeasure. David, he said, the king's 
 own son-in-law, the most faithful of all his servants, one who 
 had the privilege of admission to the royal presence at any 
 time, had come to him at Nob, representing that he was engaged 
 in some secret service for the king, and seeking his advice and 
 assistance. " Had I not then good cause," asked the priest 
 ingenuously, " to inquire of God for him, as at thy own request 
 I had done before ? ^ As for conspiring against thee, God forbid 
 the thought ! I have done all in perfect good faith. Of all 
 that thou hast charged me with I know nothing little or great." 
 The innocence of Ahimelech and the other priests was palpable ; 
 his exculpation was complete. Not so, however, in Saul's pre- 
 judiced eyes. He and his were all traitors together, and should 
 meet the traitor's doom. His only answer to the high priest's 
 defence is : " Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all 
 thy father's house." He regards them as dangerous rebels, 
 because, as he chose to believe, they sided with David, and had 
 not informed the king of his movements ; and far from being 
 deterred from vengeance by their sacred character, he is the 
 more induced to deal summarily with them as giving example 
 of contumacy in high place, and rendering his position even 
 more insecure than he had deemed. Among their attendants, 
 Eastern potentates are wont to have some who run by their side 
 when they go abroad, and act as an escort. Such "runners" 
 Saul had obtained for himself, as Samuel had foretold (chap, 
 viii. 11), and they were among the most faithful of his followers 
 and formed his body-guard. Having decreed the death of the 
 innocent priests, the king ordered these " footmen " to slay 
 them. But this ferocious, cold-blooded murder was something 
 which revolted even these unscrupulous adherents. The king's 
 atrocious conduct had weakened discipline, and even his 
 authority could not enforce the execution of this bloody ven- 
 geance on the ministers of a religion which all professed to 
 observe. They stood mute at the command. No one came 
 forward to obey this barbarous order. The high priest and his 
 servitors were in their eyes the representatives of Jehovah, and 
 
 * This seems to be the meaning of the mucli disputed phrase : " Have I 
 to-day begun to inquire of God for him ? " 
 
l84 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 not even loyalty to the sovereign or the strong feeling of 
 deference to the head of their clan, could induce them to violate 
 their conscience and incur the guilt of sacrilege. No such 
 scruples affected Doeg, the Edomite. He had no sympathy 
 with the religious aspect of the matter. To keep well with the 
 king, to pander to his passions, to maintain his own position, 
 and to enrich himself — this was his ambition ; and when Saul, 
 enraged at the disobedience of his body-guard, ordered him to 
 execute the cruel command, he and his servants, foreigners, 
 probably, like himself, at once fell upon the priests, undeterred 
 by the sight of their sacerdotal vestments, and murdered them 
 all to a man. Not content with this unparalleled atrocity, 
 worthy of a Nero or Domitian, Saul extended his vengeance 
 to the city of Nob. Treating it like a city of idolaters and 
 accursed, he sent Doeg, who smote it with the edge of the 
 sword, slaying therein men and women, children and sucklings, 
 oxen, asses, and sheep, leaving nothing alive of all that dwelt 
 there, save Abiathar, a son of Ahimelech, who by some means 
 escaped from the general slaughter, and fled for refuge to 
 David. Thus unconsciously Saul executed the judgment of 
 God against the house of Eli. It was an inhuman and most 
 impolitic deed. All good Israelites were horrified at the crime. 
 An act so black alienated the affection of his most devoted 
 adherents. Insanity does not account for it; there was 
 method in it. Reasoning from his own nature, Saul could not 
 reaHze David's innocence or the non-complicity of the priests. 
 Though he cared little for the restraints of religion, and never 
 guided his heart by holy motives, he liked to be thought to 
 observe the externals of devotion ; and when the spiritualty 
 turned against him he was furious, and at once made a terrible 
 example of those who, as he fancied, took his enemy's side. 
 He had set himself to oppose God ; he refused to acquiesce in 
 the selection of his successor ; and now he could not retrace 
 his steps ; he must sink daily from bad to worse ; the deteriora- 
 tion of his character went on continuously ; the melancholy, 
 morbid king became a ferocious, despairing tyrant, without 
 pity, justice, or remorse. Henceforward his one object is to 
 capture David, whom he fully believed was only prevented by 
 weakness from seizing the kingdom from him. He had emis- 
 saries always on the watch to give him the earliest intelligence 
 of David's movements, that he might entrap him in some dif- 
 
SAUL'S PERSECUTION OF DAVID. 1 85 
 
 ficult situation or overwhelm him by superior numbers in more 
 open country. 
 
 David was heard of at Keilah, a town on the hills of Judah, 
 overlooking the valley of Elah, about six and a half miles east 
 of Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis), whither he had gone to deliver 
 it from the hands of a marauding band of Philistines. Saul 
 rejoiced to hear that David was shut up in a town, where he had 
 friends who were quite ready to turn against their deliverer, 
 and made sure of his capture. But before he could take 
 measures to secure him, David left the place and roamed whither 
 Saul could not successfully follow him. The evil king had 
 deluded himself with the idea that Providence was on his side 
 and had deserted his rival. "God," he cries, "hath delivered 
 him into mine hand." But he reckoned foolishly. In driving 
 Abiathar to David's side, he had given him the means of 
 inquiring at the Divine oracle ; and by the information thus 
 given, David was saved on this and many other occasions. 
 
 After the retreat from Keilah, David is next found in the 
 wilderness of Ziph, some four miles south of Hebron ; and here 
 at Horesh (Khoreisa)' he had his last interview with his gallant 
 friend Jonathan, who, with his father, was encamped in the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Saul possessed some thorough partisans among the Ziphites, 
 and they were always ready to send him information concerning 
 David's proceedings. Why they were so hostile to David we 
 know not. There may have been some ancient feud between 
 them and the family of Jesse ; or more probably, regarding 
 Saul as the legitimate monarch and disinclined to discuss 
 David's claims, they simply acted as loyal subjects and dis- 
 countenanced one who was in their eyes a rebel and an outlaw. 
 They now send intelligence to the king, who was in his house 
 at Gibeah, that David was concealed in the hill of Hachilah 
 (El-Kolah), a ridge six miles east of Ziph, from which it is 
 plainly visible, and eight miles south-east of Hebron, running 
 towards the desert that extends to the Dead Sea. It is a 
 dreary, desolate region of chalky ridges, scored by winter 
 
 * The English versions give "in a wood." But the soil of that district, 
 says Conder ("Tent Work," ii. 89), could never have supported a growth of 
 trees ; and the word, Horesh, is doubtless the name of a town, recovered by 
 Conder in Khoreisa, about two miles south of Ziph. 
 
1 86 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 torrents, intersected by broad valleys, without a tree in all the 
 prospect or a spring of water. In this pathless wilderness 
 David and his six hundred men had taken refuge ; and the 
 Ziphites, who knew the country well, offered to guide Saul's 
 troops in the pursuit of the outlaw. The king was well pleased 
 to be thus seconded in his design. In his melancholy condition 
 he grasps at any help, at any thing that may show him that he 
 has sympathizers and that he is not left alone in his struggle 
 against his enemy. " Blessed be ye of the Lord," he says to 
 them ; "for ye have had compassion upon me." But knowing 
 David's warlike skill and prudence, how he would be sure to 
 conceal his movements, to guard against surprise, and to leave 
 an avenue of escape wherever he might be, Saul would not 
 commit himself to the pursuit till he had the most certain 
 intelligence. This soon reached him, and he at once followed 
 his guides to the wilderness of Maon, where the fugitive was 
 now posted. This place, now called Main, only about six miles 
 from Ziph, lay on the edge of the Arabah, that singular depres- 
 sion which extends from the Lake of Gennesareth to the Dead 
 Sea and beyond. Here, hard pressed and outnumbered by 
 Saul's forces, David was in imminent danger of capture. The 
 situation has been accurately examined and described by Con- 
 der,'' who writes: ''Between the ridge of El Kolah (Hachilah) 
 and the neighbourhood of Maon there is a great gorge called 
 * the Valley of the Rocks,' a narrow but deep chasm, impas- 
 sable except by a detour of many miles, so that Saul might have 
 stood within sight of David, yet quite unable to overtake his 
 enemy ; and to this ' cliff of division ' {scla-havimahlekoth) 
 the name Malaky now applies, a word closely approaching the 
 Hebrew MaJilekoth. The neighbourhood is seamed with many 
 torrent beds, but there is no other place near Maon where cliffs 
 such as are to be inferred from the word sela are to be found." 
 Seeing David before him, Saul divided his forces so as to 
 intercept the foe and cut off all hope of escape. Thus, although 
 Saul would have had to make a detour of some miles in order 
 to get round the gorge at either end, David's final escape was 
 very problematical. But at this moment, when the fate of the 
 future king of Israel seemed decided, occurred one of those 
 interpositions which men call chance, but which really are the 
 effect of the wise ordering of Providence which makes the 
 
 ' "Tent Work," ii, 91. quoted by Dean Payne Smith. 
 
SAUL'S PERSECUTION OF DAVID. 187 
 
 passions ana plans of men work out its determined counsels. 
 A messenger suddenly arrived in Saul's presence bringing the 
 news that the Philistines had made a raid into the neighbouring 
 territory, and urging him to hasten with all his forces to repel 
 the invasion. This information could not be neglected. Private 
 rancour must give way to public necessity. Saul let David 
 escape this time, and withdrew his troops to combat with the 
 hereditary enemy. 
 
 No sooner had Saul returned successfully from this expedition 
 against the Philistines than he again set forth in pursuit of 
 David. The latter had been tracked by the Ziphites to the 
 vicinity of Engedi, " Fountain of the Goat," a warm spring, 
 situated about the centre of the western shore of the Dead Sea, 
 and some five hundred feet above its level. This fountain 
 bursts forth in a copious stream from a narrow platform of bare 
 limestone, and, rushing down the cliffs, scatters vegetation 
 around, so as to form an oasis which is one of the most striking 
 features of that otherwise desolate region. The cliffs surmounting 
 the spring, which rise to the height of two thousand feet above the 
 sea, as well as those that lead down to the shore, are seamed 
 with ravines which are full of caves, even now used as sheep- 
 cotes as they were in David's time. Taking with him three 
 thousand picked soldiers, Saul followed his rival into this wild, 
 rocky country. Here the advantage was on David's side, and 
 had the monarch had a more unscrupulous foe to deal with, he 
 wouldhavehere ended his career andatoned bydeathforhis cruel 
 persecution of the guiltless outlaw. It happened that while 
 following the fugitive, Saul on one occasion, for privacy's sake, 
 entered one of these caves, the gloom and coolness of which 
 offered a refreshing contrast to the glare and heat of the bare 
 rock outside. In this very cave David and a part of his 
 followers were concealed. Looking from inside, they could see 
 perfectly all that passed at the entrance, while to those outside 
 the interior of the cavern was enveloped in impenetrable 
 darkness. Saul thought that the place was empty, or if he 
 heard any whispering or movement fancied that some of the 
 shepherds by whom it was usually occupied were still lurking 
 there, and took no further notice. With the utmost astonish- 
 ment the outlaws beheld this arrival. He was immediately 
 recognized, and a whispered intimation of the fact was made to 
 David, and he was urged to take advantage of the opportunity, 
 
l88 SAMUET- AND SAUL. 
 
 to rid himself by one blow of his tyrannical pursuer, and thus 
 secure the kingdom for himself as it had been promised. If 
 for one moment the wronged youth was inclined to revenge his 
 many injuries, he did not succumb to the temptation. Though 
 he held in his hand the sword of Goliath, and his followers 
 were eager to fall upon Saul, he restrained them and himself. 
 However cruelly Saul had behaved to him, he was still the 
 Lord's anointed, his person was sacred. With a generosity 
 unexampled in those barbarous days, he spared his great rival's 
 life ; at the same time he wished to show that that life had been 
 in his power, thus proving his own innocence of any intention 
 of injuring his person, and refuting the slanders of the courtiers 
 who, by misrepresentation of his motives, fanned the embers of 
 the king's animosity. On entering the cave Saul had laid aside 
 his meily the costly robe which he wore, and David, approaching 
 silently in the gloom, cut ofif a corner of it unseen. Saul took 
 up the injured mantle and left the cavern. David's companions 
 were loud in complaint against their leader's ill-timed leniency ; 
 but far from feeling with them, his conscience reproached him 
 for having failed in the respect due to the king's majesty, and 
 for having even entertained a thought of injuring him. Watch- 
 ing the departure of the Ibraelite soldiers, and seeing Saul now 
 almost alone in their rear, David came forth from the cave and 
 called after him : " My lord the king." At the familiar voice 
 Saul stopped and turned. He sees David on the rocky platform, 
 bowing with his face to the ground, doing lowly obeisance, 
 showing himself no rebel against lawful authority, but one who 
 recognized in the monarch the personage whom he was bound 
 to obey and reverence. And then he addresses Saul in touching 
 words, asking why he listens to the calumnious insinuations of 
 his enemies. To-day Providence had put the king into his 
 power ; he might have slain him with the greatest ease : see, 
 here was a piece of the king's robe which he had cut off in the 
 cave ; the sword that had marred his mantle might have drunk 
 his blood. Why should the monarch of Israel pursue with this 
 unrelenting hatred one so insignificant and powerless as he? 
 let the king learn from this day's adventure that he was utterly 
 mistaken in attributing to him guile and treason. " The Lord 
 be judge," he concludes, " and give sentence between me and 
 thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thine 
 hand." Saul could not hear this appeal unmoved. David's 
 
SAUL'S PERSECUTION OF DAVID. 189 
 
 forbearance and his own surprising escape affected him keenly. 
 In spite of his insanity and cruelty, he had human feehngs 
 which at times mastered his evil passions. And now he was 
 quite overcome by mixed emotions, and he Hfted up his voice 
 and wept. Some of the old affection returned ; he calls him, 
 " My son, David," and overpowered by the generosity which 
 had returned good for evil, prays God to reward him for the 
 kindness which he had shown. Knowing that he himself had 
 forfeited the throne, and strongly convinced that David was 
 that neighbour better than he whom Samuel had announced as 
 his successor, he makes a request, to which knowledge of the 
 usual proceedings in the case of usurpers gives a painful signifi- 
 cance.^ *' I know," he says, " that tl^.ou shalt surely be king, 
 and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine 
 hand. Swear now therefore unto me by the Lord, that thou 
 wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy 
 my name out of my father's house." The generous David at 
 once gave the required promise, and they parted. Saul, for a 
 time elevated to a better mind, returned to Gibeah and ceased 
 from persecution; while David, unable to trust the lickle tyrant, 
 continued to haunt the hill country where he had before found 
 refuge. 
 
 * See 1 Kings xv. 29 ; xvi. 11.^ 2 Kings x. 7, ir. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE DEATH OF SAMUEL. 
 
 Samuel dies — His funeral and tomb— His services to Israel — His character — 
 His difficulties — His accomplished work. 
 
 It was soon after the events narrated in the last chapter that 
 Samuel, of whose later years we have no account, was called 
 away. One verse tells us of his death and burial, the reticence 
 of Scripture in such cases being noted. Here is the sole record : 
 " Samuel died ; and all Israel gathered themselves together, 
 and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah" 
 (i Sam. XXV. i). He had arrived at a good old age ; his work 
 was done ; the time for his reward had arrived. " So He giveth 
 His beloved sleep." Though of late he had hved in retirement 
 and had taken no part in public affairs, yet his death was felt 
 as a public calamity, and all Israel, forgetting its rivalries and 
 contentions, remembering only the mighty benefits he had con- 
 ferred upon the nation, his unblemished life, his personal piety, 
 assembled as one man to do him honour. " His moral excel- 
 lence," says Josephus,^ " and the esteem with which he was 
 regarded, are proved by the continued mourning that was made 
 for him, and the concern that was universally shown to conduct 
 the funeral rites with becon n ; splendour and solemnity. He 
 was buried in his own native place, and they wept for him very 
 many days, not regarding it as the death of another man or a 
 stranger, but as that in which each individual was concerned. 
 He was a righteous man, and of a kindly nature, and, on that 
 
 * " Antiq." vi. 13. 5. 
 
THE DEATH OF SAMUEL. I9I 
 
 account, very dear to God." Such a public ceremony could 
 hardly have taken place without the concurrence of Saul ; 
 probably he was foremost in doing honour to the prophet when 
 dead, whose counsel he had so grievously neglected while living.* 
 Some have thought that in a tardy burst of zeal, and feeling how 
 much he had lost in the decease of his early friend, he tried to 
 recover the favour of Jehovah by taking severe measures against 
 offenders. Hence they refer to this time the overthrow of 
 idolatry throughout the land, the destruction of wizards and 
 necromancers, and the slaughter of the Gibeonites as enemies 
 of the religion of Israel. Samuel was buried in the court or 
 garden of his house at Ramah ; not, of course, in the house 
 itself, as that would have occasioned the place to be ceremo- 
 nially unclean. Moslem tradition places the prophet's tomb on 
 the conspicuous ridge of Neby Samwil, where is a mosque built 
 on the foundations of an old Christian church. Jerome ^ asserts 
 that his remains were transported A.D. 406 to Chalcedon (Kadi- 
 Keni), at the entrance of the Bosphorus, and from thence, ac- 
 cording to Callistus,3 were transferred to Constantinople, and 
 deposited in a church with great pomp. There was nothing un- 
 usual in the original place of his burial. Where there were no 
 regular cemeteries, any suitable spot might be selected for a 
 grave. King Manasseh is said to have been buried in the 
 garden of his house ; so Joab was interred, and our blessed 
 Lord's sepulchre was in a garden."* 
 
 Well may the whole nation have mourned the loss of their 
 great judge and prophet. Think what he was in himself, what 
 he had done for them. Conspicuous in a rough, uncultured 
 age, he stands forth as a witness for God and religion and edu- 
 cation. Since Moses, none so eminent had arisen. The child 
 of prayer, he is especially the man of prayer. A stainless boy- 
 hood passed in the tabernacle of God, and amid the solemnities 
 of holy worship, prepared him for reception of heavenly inspira- 
 tions. Severed from the outward world, parted even from the 
 influence of domestic affections, he gives himself wholly to God 
 and his country. He communes with the unseen, seeks no guide 
 
 » Hummelauer on i Sam. xxviii. 3. 
 
 • " Cont. Vigil." ii. 243 (Migne). 
 
 3 '< Hist. Eccl." xiv. 10. Gibbon, " Decline and Fall," ch. xxviii. 
 
 * 2 Kings xxi. 18 ; 2 ChrQU^ y.x.xii,i. 20 ; ^ Kings ii. 34 ; John xix. 41. 
 
192 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 but the will of God, has no law but the law of the Most High. 
 He is absorbed in his intercourse with heaven, and outward cir- 
 cumstances affect him but little. He began well, and he con- 
 tinued in the same path unto the end ; he had set one great end 
 before him and pursued it unflinchingly, undeterred by diffi- 
 culties, and entirely uninfluenced by personal motives. His 
 great strength was prayer ; here was his refuge, his weapon, his 
 support. Not only did he flee unto God in all great emer- 
 gencies, before the face of powerful enemies, at the defection of 
 Saul, but regularly at all times he practised the habit of devo- 
 tion, and found calmness, comfort, and vigour in this communion 
 with God. As it is said : " Moses and Aaron among His priests, 
 and Samuel among them that call upon His name ; they called 
 upon the Lord, and He answered them." But there was no 
 dreaminess, no unreality in his devotion. All was thorough, 
 earnest, practical, "one equable progression from beginning 
 to end." ^ If he failed somewhat in sympathy, if he was hard 
 and unbending in upholding the right, this apparent insensi- 
 bility sprang from the unworldliness of his character and the 
 intense appreciation of the utter importance of justice, truth, and 
 piety. And if, as seems to have been the case, he was not skilful 
 in reading character, and was apt to be deceived by outward 
 appearances, it was his continued gaze upon God that turned 
 him from the study of mankind, and made him no close investi- 
 gator of men's mental and moral attributes. But this heavenly 
 life taught him to shrink from anything mean, impure, unholy ; 
 it led him to be inflexibly just, upright in all his dealings, obser- 
 vant of every duty, so that during his long administration no 
 one had ever complained of his decisions, not a voice among all 
 the people could impeach his impartiality and conscientious- 
 ness ; so that he could say without contradiction : " I am old and 
 gray-headed, and I have walked before you from my childhood 
 to this day. Behold, here I am; witness against me before the 
 Lord, and before His anointed." This made him patient under 
 much discouragement, labouring long and unrepiningly with 
 little outward success. This made him take such infinite pains 
 to raise the tone of his countrymen, and to educate them for a 
 higher life than they had been accustomed to lead. In his 
 heavenward inspirations he has no room for thought of self. 
 
 ' Wilberforce, " Heroes of Hebrew History." 
 
THE DEATH OF SAMUEL. 193 
 
 What will bring men nearer to God ? What will win the Divine 
 blessing ? What is the will of Providence ? — these are his sole 
 considerations. That his own position may be altered by a new 
 state of thincjs, that he may sink into an inferior grade, that some 
 of his cherished designs must be frustrated — in all this he cheer- 
 fully acquiesces as soon as he ascertains that such is the Lord's 
 purpose. A more unselfish man has never existed. His heart 
 was filled with love for the Lord and His people ; and what was 
 best for them, that was his good pleasure also. That great 
 heart, thus occupied, had no room for petty feelings. If a king 
 could best head the people at this crisis of their history, let one 
 be found ; if he could be to them what Samuel himself had 
 hoped to be, God speed him ! All is cheerful, voluntary, digni- 
 fied ; there is no show of compelled submission ; he sees what 
 is best, and, without any consciousness of being slighted or 
 superseded, he freely gives his friendship to the elect monarch, 
 and by lovin;; counsel, by stern rebuke, by solemn warning, by 
 continued intercession, proves his interest in the new king, and 
 his unselfish desire to make his reign a success. Good men can 
 claim no immunity from trouble, but they have the secret of 
 knowing how to meet it. He suffered many sorrows, he had to 
 make many sacrifices, he saw the ruin of what he had loved, he 
 lost his best and earliest friend, he was unhappy in his children, 
 disappointed in the chosen king, disappointed in his fellow- 
 countrymen ; but in and through all these afflictions he bore a 
 brave heart, staying himself on God, rising higher in the religious 
 life as the waves beat against him, finding new occasion for 
 prayer and devotion as every fresh distress fell upon his head. 
 
 But, while he prayed, he laboured. He had a great work 
 before him, and he set himself diligently to do it. Practical 
 religion had greatly declined during the time of the Judges ; the 
 high ideal which Moses had set forth was miserably defaced ; 
 priests and Levites exercised no authority, did nothing to elevate 
 or unite the people. The principle of unity was lost, and the 
 nation was degenerating into a collection of tribes, self-seeking, 
 cruel, rapacious, forgetful of its destiny, ready to cast off its 
 allegiance to Jehovah, and to sink in religion and habits to the 
 level of surrounding heathens. Together with this degeneracy, 
 and in punislin.ent of its faithlessness, Israel fell under a foreign 
 yoke. The raw, undisciplined, ill-armed levies of Israel were 
 litt e able to withstand the mail-clad warriors of Philistia, who, 
 
 14 
 
194 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 through the culpable negligence of the Jews, were in possession 
 of the seaboard, and could import arms and armour from Greece- 
 It was the aim of Samuel's life to enable the people to reconquer 
 their independence ; but he saw that the first step towards gain* 
 I ing this end was a great religious reformation. This was the 
 ' necessary preliminary to any national struggle for freedom. His 
 mind was filled with the idea of the theocracy. The king of 
 Israel was Jehovah, whose will was made known to His subjects 
 by the intervention of priests and prophets ; and he looked for- 
 ward to the time when this great ideal should be thoroughly 
 believed, and become the foundation of all public action. It was 
 an arduous undertaking that lay before him. The degeneracy 
 of the priesthood, of which from his boyhood he had been 
 witness, the general low moral tone among the people, the 
 apathy of the natural leaders, and the universal misery that was 
 occasioned by the oppression of heathen invaders — these things 
 might have driven one less faithful to despair. Samuel saw in 
 these circumstances a power to raise his nation from their low 
 estate. Thus they were taught that they were nothing without 
 God. What had their long disaffection brought but sorrow and 
 loss ? Must they not learn that there was only one way to re- 
 pair the mischief— the path of repentance ? Thus terrible defeat 
 at Aphek, and the destruction of Shiloh, a fatal blow which the 
 annalists would fain have blotted out from the national records, 
 caused the stricken people to turn to Samuel as the hope of the 
 country, and to recognize in this young seer a worthy teacher 
 and leader. Samuel used this confidence for their good. Year 
 by year, patiently, quietly, hopefully, he went among them, pre- 
 
 I Sparing them for a great uprising by showing where their strength 
 lay, teaching true, heart-felt religion, inspiring them to trust in 
 the covenant Lord, who would never forsake His own inherit- 
 ance. Then, when in confidence the whole nation turned to 
 him as Judge and Intercessor, he led them to victory. Having 
 thus secured a time of comparative peace, he thought to utilize 
 this opportunity by establishing firmly the principle of theocratic 
 government. His hopes were shattered by the demand for a 
 king. How did he meet this request ? At first confounded, 
 dismayed, indignant, he sought to turn the people from their 
 purpose ; but laying the matter before the Lord, and finding 
 what His Will was, he acquiesced in the demand, and only 
 cared to fence the king's power with proper restrictions, and to 
 
THE DEATH OF SAMUEL. 19$ 
 
 choose a fit person for the new office. Here is magnanimity 
 almost unparalleled. Disappointed in his highest hopes, made 
 conscious that his people were unworthy of the great destiny 
 offered them, displaced from his position as supreme guide of 
 the nation, he accepts the situation with alacrity, and becomes 
 the close friend of the man who supplants him. Without fiery 
 enthusiasm, but firm and consistent, he never swerves from the 
 most devoted patriotism. And when he is forced to own that 
 the chosen king has forfeited his crown by flagrant acts of dis- 
 obedience ; when, in the highest interests of religion and govern- 
 ment, he breaks off connection with the rebellious prince, he 
 ceases not to pray for him ; he loves the sinner still, and takes 
 no overt action against him, upholding his authority and striv- 
 ing to repair any evil he might effect. He had found that the 
 establishment of the kingdom was become a necessity, that the 
 unity of the nation and its orderly development could only thus 
 be secured, and he threw his whole energies into the prosecu- 
 tion of this idea. If the first monarch had proved a failure, he 
 might train another who would more worthily carry out the 
 Basileo-theocratic conception. In David he found one whom 
 he could mould into the ideal king. If we look closely into the 
 hints conveyed by the accounts of the period, and read them by 
 the light of subsequent history, we find that Samuel founded a 
 constitutional monarchy, restrained from falling into despotism 
 by the checks of law and obedience to the revealed will of 
 Jehovah. The rule which governed the life of the people, 
 social, political, religious, was the Mosaic legislation ; the king 
 had to observe the same rule, and could never, while doing 
 this, become an independent tyrant. It was Samuel's great 
 business to guide the nation from the isolation, anarchy, and 
 barbarism of the Judges, to consolidation and culture under a 
 theocratic monarch, who would rule by law, be submissive to 
 the voice of God, and aid the people to work out their sublime 
 destiny. But the people had to be educated in order to profit 
 by this constitution or to make it even feasible. Religion had 
 to be restored and rendered real and practical ; morality must 
 be learned ; youth must be instructed and trained. For this 
 purpose Samuel founded the schools of the prophets, wherein 
 not only were the young taught the rudiments of secular know- 
 ledge, how to take their part in religious exercises, how to serve 
 God in Church and State ; but a class of men were there 
 
196 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 brought up to exercise the office of prophet, to preach pure 
 morality and the heart-felt worship of Jehovah, and to act along 
 and co-ordinately with the priesthood and monarchy in guiding^ 
 the state aright and checking all attempts at illegality and 
 tyranny. 
 
 For one man to have inaugurated and methodized these two 
 great innovations, constitutional monarchy and national educa- 
 tion, and to have given them stability and permanence, is an 
 unique proceeding which confers upon its author everlasting 
 fame ; and, looking to the subsequent effects of these institu- 
 tions, impels us to pronounce Samuel one of the great bene- 
 factors of the human race. 
 
 Of the books which bear his name, only a very small portion 
 can with any probability be attributed to his composition. The 
 two Books of Samuel originally formed one work called " The 
 Book of Samuel." In the Septuagint and Latin Vulgate they 
 are connected with the two following works, and are named 
 respectively the First and Second Book of Kings. The materials 
 from which the two Books were composed are distinctly 
 enumerated in i Chron. xxix. 29 : " Now the acts of David the 
 king, first and last, behold, they are written in (upon) the history 
 of Samuel the seer, and in the history of Nathan the prophet, 
 and in the history of Gad the seer." This seems to imply that 
 Samuel himself wrote certain records of his time which were 
 used in subsequent compilations. How far these annals were 
 introduced into our two Books, or who was their compiler, we 
 cannot accurately determine, nor need the matter be here 
 discussed. That the work is collected from various authorities, 
 not always very skilfully combined, is plain enough ; but the 
 editor evidently believed in the authenticity of all the accounts 
 which he used, and made one supplement the other, sometimes 
 even repeating the same story with some slight variation or 
 addition. It was long an opinion commonly held that Samuel 
 was the author of the first twenty-four chapters of the first Book, 
 the remainder of that Book and the whole of the second being 
 written by Gad and Nathan. German critics have discovered 
 four or five different authors, and as many dates, for various 
 parts of the Books, considering them as founded more or less 
 on contemporary documents, but disfigured by legends, and 
 
THE DEATH OF SAMUEL. 197 
 
 compiled at dififerent periods of Jewish history, some probably 
 after the exile. The questions here introduced we cannot dis- 
 cuss. Thus much we may say as properly bdonging to our 
 subject. The First Book of Samuel, with which alone we are 
 concerned, maybe conveniently divided into three parts: I., 
 the history of Samuel (chaps, i.-vii.) ; II., the history of Saul 
 (viii.-xvi.) ; III., the history of David as exile (xvii.-xxxi.).^ The 
 first seven chapters are probably the work of Samuel himself. 
 There is a unity in them and a symmetrical arrangement which 
 argue a single author, and that one who knows intimately what 
 he describes, is reticent in his own praises, feels deeply the 
 degradation of the sacerdotal order, and dwells largely on those 
 matters which specially appertained to the interests and occu- 
 pations of his life. Some facts, too, are stated which were only 
 true at the time when the words were written ; ^.^, chap.vii. 13 : 
 "The Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into 
 the coast of Israel " ; whereas a very different condition of 
 things obtained a few years later (comp. xiii. 19). Again, 
 Samuel is said to have judged Israel all the days of his life, 
 though he abdicated the office on Saul's assumption of the 
 kingdom (chap. xii.). We can only suppose that the compiler 
 inserted these chapters in Samuel's own words without making 
 any change. The second Part, containing the history of Saul, 
 seems to have been written partly by Samuel and partly by 
 Gad. Some of its facts, as the anointing of Saul, were known 
 to no one but the two actors. There is a tenderness in recount- 
 ing Saul's errors, and a desire to display the noble parts of his 
 character, which testify the regard of the narrator for the erring 
 king. Gad was probably trained in one of the schools of the 
 prophets, and must have been intimately acquainted with the 
 events here narrated. He accompanied David in his wanderings, 
 and is justly considered the author of the third part, which con- 
 tains the account of Samuel's death and burial. 
 
 « Thus Humraelauer, p. 9. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE DEATH OF SAUL. 
 
 Saul again pursues David to Hachilah — His life spared a second time by 
 David — Saul's compunction — Philistines invade the country with large 
 forces — Saul encamps at Gilboa — Can obtain no Divine counsel — Con- 
 sults a witch at Endor — Is answered by the spirit of Samuel — Warned 
 of his approaching defeat and death — Returns to his camp — Battle of 
 Gilboa — Defeat of Israel — Death of Saul and his sons — Their bodies 
 affixed to the walls of Bethshan ; removed and buried by the men of 
 Jabesh-Gilead — News of the catastrophe brought to David — His con- 
 duct thereupon— His funeral elegy — Summary of Saul's character. 
 
 Only once again did Saul and David meet ; and this meeting 
 was so similar in some respects to the last interview, that many 
 critics have considered the two accounts to be varying traditions 
 of one and the same event. But there are many circumstances 
 in the latter transaction which distinguish it from the former ; 
 nor is it in itself improbable either that in so small an area as 
 the desert of Judah the same scenes should be repeated, or that 
 Saul should have forgotten his temporary gratitude, and under 
 the influence of a fresh attack of his monomania, and aided by 
 the opportunity which was offered, should have again attempted 
 David's life, giving the latter another occasion for displaying his 
 remarkable magnanimity. 
 
 Relying somewhat on the reconciliation effected ^t Engedi, 
 David had returned to his old quarters at Hachilah, in the ex- 
 pectation that he would now be left in peace. But the Ziphites, 
 who well knew the king's feeling towards his powerful subject, 
 and were ready enough to gratify it, sent information of his 
 position to Saul, and urged him to set out at once and seize 
 
THE DEATH OF SAUL. 1 99 
 
 him. Saul could not resist the opportunity. He had for many 
 years kept with him a body of picked troops, which were called 
 "the three thousand," whether in fact their numbers were more 
 or less ; ' these were always prepared to undertake any minor 
 expedition, and with them he immediately marched to seek 
 David. Arriving in the neighbourhood of Ziph, he pitched his 
 camp about six miles east of the town, on the ridge of Hachilah 
 (El Kolah), by the side of the track which traversed the hill 
 leading down to the south. David, who seems now to have 
 been sufficiently powerful to feel no great apprehension at the 
 proximity of his enemy, was kept well informed of Saul's 
 movements, and having taken his post on higher ground, was 
 able to watch all that went on below. Unwilling to believe that 
 after all his protestations Saul himself had come out against 
 him, he proposed to two of his most trusty followers, Ahimelech 
 the Hittite, and Abishai his nephew, to make a closer recon- 
 noisance of the Israelite camp. Ahimelech declined the 
 hazardous enterprise ; but Abishai agreeing to go, he and David 
 at nightfall crept down the hill and approached the sleeping 
 host. These had round them, as usual, the rampart of waggons, 
 but no sentinels posted to watch their slumbers. The two 
 adventurers easily penetrated even to the centre of the enclosure, 
 and found Saul himself fast asleep, with the spear, the symbol 
 of his kingly authority, fixed in the ground at his head. Urged 
 by his companion to let him smite the king as he lay uncon- 
 scious of danger, David, as before, refused to lift his hand 
 against the Lord's anointed. But to show the king that he had 
 again spared his life, he took his spear and the cruse of water 
 that stood near at hand, and carried them away with him. 
 Passing unheard and unperceived through the sleeping soldiers 
 (** because a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them "), 
 David got back safely to the hill whence he had first reconnoitred 
 Saul's camp, a gorge probably dividing the two positions. 
 Having thus put a sufficient space between himself and the 
 enemy, he called with a loud voice on Abner, the general of 
 the army, and sarcastically upbraided him for not keeping 
 better watch. Abner and his men deserved death for their 
 carelessness in allowing their master to be in such jeopardy ; 
 
 « Thus the famous cohort of the Persians was called "The ten thousand." 
 Herod, vii. 55, 83. 
 
200 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 for he might easily have been murdered by any one without the 
 guards' knowledge. " Look for the king's spear and water 
 cruse," he shouted. Saul, awakened by the cry, could see 
 nothing amid the darkness, but recognized a well-known voice, 
 and becoming conscious of the loss he had sustained, and 
 remembering the outlaw's former generosity, he called aloud, 
 "Is this thy voice, my son David?" And then David once 
 more, as at Engedi, remonstrates with the king for his con- 
 tinued persecution of one so humble and insignificant, and 
 withal so innocent of wrong as himself, adding with emphatic 
 earnestness : " If it be the Lord that hath stirred thee up 
 against me by permitting thine anger to get the mastery over 
 thy better nature, He will accept an offering at thy hands and 
 restore to thee thy right mind ; but if men have calumniated 
 me to thee, cursed be they before the Lord ; for their slanderous 
 tongues will force me to leave my native land, and to dwell 
 among strangers and heathen." Touched with compunction, 
 Saul cries : " I have sinned ; return, my son David ; for I will 
 no more do thee harm, because my life was precious in thine 
 eyes this day." And then, vexed with himself for having again 
 run his head into danger, and being again indebted for safety to 
 the magnanimity of the son-in-law whom he had so wrongly 
 judged and cruelly outraged, he adds : " Behold, I have played 
 the fool, and have erred exceedingly." David bade him send 
 an attendant to receive the spear and cruse which he had 
 taken ; and after reminding the king of the retribution which 
 God dispenses to all, and silently rejecting overtures the 
 insincerity of which he had now often experienced, he turned 
 from the spot with the last words which he would ever hear 
 from Saul sounding in his ears — words expressive rather of 
 reluctant conviction than of willing appreciation : " Blessed 
 shalt thou be, my son David ; thou shalt both do mightily, and 
 shalt surely prevail." Saul returned to Gibeah, while David, 
 despairing of safety in the land of Judah, sought a home 
 beyond its borders, where the malice of his persecutor could 
 not reach him. 
 
 And now we approach to the closing scenes in the life of the 
 miserable Saul. Samuel, by whose perpetual intercession ruin 
 had been averted from the royal house, had died two years ago. 
 There was no prophet to take his place in the counsels of Saul ; 
 the priests had been ruthlessly slain, and the only survivor had 
 
THE DEATH OF SAUL. 20I 
 
 carried the sacred Urim with him when he fled for refuge to 
 David. The tabernacle was removed from Nob, and possibly a 
 fresh ephod with its Urim was constructed ; but the Divine 
 oracle, when consulted, was silent. On the death of Samuel 
 the people began to despair of the fortunes of Saul, and 
 deserted his cause in great numbers. Many of his most 
 valiant soldiers joined themselves to David, who had taken 
 service with Achish, king of Gath. And now the Philistines 
 had invaded the country with a large force, levied from all their 
 cities and allies. No such combined movement had ever before 
 been made. This was no mere border warfare, no mere raid 
 organized by a band of marauders who might easily be defeated, 
 •but a most formidable expedition directed against the very 
 centre of the territory of Israel. Marching northwards along 
 the sea-coast, and gathering forces in their progress, they 
 turned to the east and entered the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon, 
 the famous valley which runs from the Jordan in a north- 
 westerly direction to the Bay of Acre. Crossing the plain, 
 they encamped on the slope of the Little Hermon or Jebel 
 Duhy range, which bounds it on the east, at a place called 
 Shunem (Sulem), about 2j miles north of Jezreel, celebrated in 
 after time as the abode of the good woman who hospitably 
 entertained the prophet Elisha.* To meet this invasion Saul 
 gathered together what forces he could collect, and advancing 
 from the south, where he had remained unmolested, pitched his 
 camp on Mount Gilboa, the range which bounds the great 
 plain on the south, bending out like a sickle from the hills of 
 Samaria. Here, at a point where the valley is some four 
 miles in width, he took up a position opposite to the Philistine 
 encampment, and where from his greater elevation he conald 
 watch all the movements of the enemy. But his situation was 
 extremely perilous ; he was in imminent danger of being 
 surrounded, for the Philistine general had marched a strong 
 body of troops to Aphek, in the rear of Saul's army, and thus 
 cut off all retreat to the south. Looking on the host opposed 
 to him, and contrasting it with his own weak and dispirited 
 army, Saul " was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled." Here 
 was an enemy superior in numbers, in arms, and equipment, 
 furnished with cavalry and chariots, with which he could not 
 
 * 2 Kings iv, 8. 
 
202 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 contend on equal terms ; with this host, as he thought, the 
 much wronged David was present, eager to avenge himself on 
 his tyrannous oppressor ; his own army was thinned by the 
 desertion of many of his most able warriors.^ All these were 
 very serious considerations. He was mistaken indeed about 
 David, whom the jealousy of the Philistines had not permitted 
 to take part in the expedition, but the other disadvantages were 
 very real and formidable. Add to this, he felt himself aban- 
 doned by the Lord. The tabernacle had been set up at 
 Gibeon, where Zadok, of the family of Eleazar, was acting as 
 high priest, a new ephod having probably been made, though it 
 is doubtful whether it was used in the present case.'* Saul, in 
 the extremity of his distress, endeavoured to obtain direction 
 from the Lord by all known means, but in vain. The priests 
 consulted gave no answer ; no inspired dreams intimated the 
 future ; no prophet offered heavenly counsel. Impatient in his 
 desire of supernatural information, not accepting his own 
 iniquity which rendered him unworthy of such revelation, and 
 falling a victim to the wildest and grossest superstition, he 
 orders his servants to find him a woman possessed of a 
 familiar spirit, that he may inquire of the future from her. 
 Such pretenders to occult arts have been known in every age 
 and country, and among them, as in modern days, women have 
 been the chief professors or media. Saul himself, in an access 
 of religious zeal, and probably immediately after the death of 
 Samuel, had carried out the stern law of Moses,^ and purged 
 the land of wizards and necromancers. Now, in his despera- 
 tion, he has recourse to one of these impostors to reveal to him 
 what is about to happen. Who can tell the struggle in the 
 proud king's soul before he could bring himself to ask the. 
 aid of a professor of those diabolical arts, so solemnly 
 denounced by the law of God and sternly proscribed by his 
 own re-enactments 1 To what a depth of moral degradation 
 must he have sunk to think thus to extort from hell the know- 
 ledge which heaven had refused ! Well may it be said : " Lo, 
 
 * I Chron. xii. i ff, 22. 
 
 » Compare i Sam. xxviii. 6 with ver. 15. Urim is not mentioned in the 
 latter passage, and very probably is named in the former as denoting one 
 of the customary methods of obtaining Divine direction. 
 
 3 Lev. xix. 31 ; xx. 6. Deut. xviii. 10 ff. 
 
THE DEATH OF SAUL. 203 
 
 this is a man that took not God for his strength," and was left 
 by God to himself. There was at Endor, a town which lay at 
 the foot of the northern face of the hills, about two miles from 
 Shunem, where the Philistines were posted, a celebrated woman 
 who possessed an ob^ or familiar spirit, as it was termed, i.e.^ 
 who had the power of ventriloquism. Jewish tradition has 
 represented this person as Abner's mother, which would 
 account for her being spared at the time when the witches were 
 exterminated ; but we know no grounds for such an improbable 
 story. Endor was one of those places whence Manasseh had 
 failed to expel the old tenants, and it was still inhabited by a 
 mixed population, comprising many Canaanites, who retained 
 their old superstitions, and were imitated by their Jewish 
 fellow-citizens. Hence therein were to be found sorcerers and 
 professors of the black art. The popular opinion about these 
 necromancers is given by Josephus : ^ " Ventriloquists of this 
 kind bring up the souls of the dead, and by their means foretell 
 the future to those who inquire of them." Determined to 
 seek forbidden knowledge in this unlawful way, Saul adopted 
 every precaution to prevent his visit being discovered ; and 
 taking with him only two trusty followers, whom again tradition 
 asserts to have been Abner and Amasa, and disguising himself 
 in mean attire, he set forth on his perilous journey in the early 
 hours of the night. The distance betAveen Gilboa and Endor 
 was nearly seven miles, and as the camp of the Philistines lay 
 between the two places, he had to make a detour round the 
 eastern shoulder of the little Hermon, and avail himself of 
 every inequality in the ground to escape the observation of the 
 enemy's picquets. He, with his two companions, arrived safely 
 at the witch's dwelling, and coming into her presence, at once 
 requested her to use her magic powers of prognostication, and 
 to bring up from Sheol, the abode of the dead, the soul of him 
 whom he should name unto her. The woman, who knew not 
 who her visitor was, and could never have supposed that the 
 king would thus defy the law of God and infringe his own 
 special ordinance, answered him, as she was wont to reply to 
 all applicants, by remhiding him of the penalty laid upon the 
 practice of these secret arts, and the danger she would incur by 
 assenting to his demand. This was said before she acknow- 
 
 « *' Antiq." xiv. 6. 3. 
 
204 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 ledged the possession of illicit powers, that she might extract 
 from the inquirer an oath of secrecy, and thus be held safe 
 from any evil consequences. Saul, now lost to all sense of 
 religion and dignity, at once gives the desired promise: "As 
 the Lord liveth," he swears, "there shall no punishment happen 
 unto thee for this thing." Assured by this promise, the witch 
 asks who it is whose presence Saul desires, much as the 
 modern spirit-rapping impostors offer to put their dupes en 
 rapport with departed spirits. Her question takes this form : 
 "Whom shall I bring up for thee?" because the souls of the 
 dead were popularly supposed to be located in some place 
 beneath the surface of the earth. " Bring me up Samuel," 
 answered Saul. In his hopeless despair the miserable man 
 turns again to the guide and friend of his youth ; he recognizes 
 his pity and affection through all his sternness in condemna- 
 tion ; he would fain, even by means the most degrading, once 
 more behold, once more converse with this tried and revered 
 counsellor, and from his lips hear his doom. *' Bring me 
 up Samuel," he cries, fully believing that he would be 
 visited by the prophet's spirit. The witch, removing her- 
 self to a distance, probably began her incantations with 
 heaping incense on a brazier and causing a dense 
 smoke to shroud her operations in the darkened chamber. 
 Hardly had she commenced her spells when she uttered a 
 fearful shriek. Something had appeared which she had not 
 expected, something so awful and supernatural that even her 
 hardened nature was appalled. She had intended to practise 
 on the inquirer's credulity, and by her ventriloquial powers to 
 make it appear that she held communication with a spirit. Or 
 she may have been a clever clairvoyante, able to throw herself 
 into an ecstatic state, and in this condition to answer questions 
 propounded to her. Certainly the apparition which she beheld 
 was wholly unexpected. She at once recognized Samuel in the 
 figure that was visible to her ; at the same time she perceived 
 who her visitor was, Josephus says that Samuel informed her 
 of Saul's presence ; but this is unlikely. More probably the 
 sight of his majestic stature and regal bearing, the fact that he 
 had demanded the evocation of Samuel's spirit, and that the 
 prophet had obeyed the summons, intimated the identity of the 
 stranger ; or in her state of clairvoyance she knew more than 
 in her natural condition, and at once penetrated his disguise. 
 
THE DEATH OF SAUL. 205 
 
 Perhaps, too, in the excitement of the moment the king dropped 
 the robe in which he had muffled his face, and the witch saw 
 who he was. This renewed her terror. She had exercised for- 
 bidden arts in the very presence of the monarch who had piti- 
 lessly put to death all who practised them. " Why hast thou 
 deceived me ? " she exclaims ; " for thou art Saul." The king re- 
 assures her, bidding her fear not. He himself had seen nothing ; 
 he had heard the fearful shriek of the sorceress, but no vision 
 had crossed his sight. With a thrill of horror he asked her 
 what she had seen. That another person in the same room 
 should behold a presence invisible to himself was a terrifying 
 thought ; and the woman's mysterious words increased the 
 terror. " I saw," she answered, " a god-like form ^ ascending 
 out of the earth." And on Saul asking, "What was his 
 aspect ? " she replied : " An old man cometh up, and he is 
 covered with a mantle." The word for " mantle," vieil^ is not 
 appropriated to any special prophetic dress, but is used of a 
 garment that had no official signification. Samuel in life seems 
 always to have worn this ; and now Saul, in his anxiety to con- 
 verse with the prophet, and hearing that the apparition is that 
 of an aged man, at once concludes that Samuel is present, and 
 bends to the ground as in reverence of a superior being. In the 
 conversation that ensued it has been questioned whether Saul 
 himself heard Samuel's voice, or whether he was dependent 
 upon the sorceress for his knowledge of what the shade uttered. 
 Nothing is said of the woman's intervention, and it may be 
 believed that as the spirit was present by Divine permission, so 
 Saul was enabled to understand the message then delivered, 
 whether it reached his outward ear or was subjectively received. 
 The former is most likely, as the account in the text is probably 
 derived from the information of the king's two companions, who 
 also heard the words spoken. It is also not improbable that 
 from this moment the form of Samuel became dimly visible. 
 This awful interview between the fated king and the evoked 
 spirit thus begins : " Why hast thou disquieted me," asks the 
 Prophet, " to bring me up ? " He speaks in accommodation 
 to the popular idea of the abode of the dead, and complains 
 that Saul's sin and his resort to wicked arts have bitterly grieved 
 
 « The Hebrew is Elolmn, "gods," which is the phiral of majesty, and 
 does not denote a plurahty of appearances. 
 
2o6 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 his mind, disturbed his rest in the other world, and brought him 
 up to deliver his woeful message. Saul's answer to his question 
 is very pitiful and pathetic even in its inconsequence, as if for- 
 bidden arts could extort an answer refused by the regularly 
 ordained media of communication. *' I am sore distressed," he 
 despairingly replies, " for the Philistines make war against me, 
 and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, 
 neither by prophets nor by dreams." He does not mention the 
 Urim, either from shame at the memory of the atrocious murder 
 of the priests at Nob, or else for brevity's sake. *' Therefore," 
 he proceeds, *' I have had thee called, that thou mayest make 
 known unto me what I shall do." Samuel reproaches him foi 
 the inconsistency of this proceeding. With the stern straight- 
 forwardness which he had shown in life, he asks indignantly : 
 ** Why dost thou inquire of me, seeing that the Lord is departed 
 from thee, and is become thine enemy ? I am His prophet on 
 earth or in Hades. And the Lord hath done to thee,^ as He 
 spake by me ; for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of 
 thine hand, and hath given it to thy neighbour, even to David, 
 because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst 
 His fierce wrath upon Amalek." Here for the first time is 
 David named by the Prophet's mouth as the person designated 
 to supersede Saul. Though the latter had long known this, it 
 was a cruel blow to hear the announcement under present cir- 
 cumstances. But there was more to follow. Not only was the 
 king himself to be punished for his rebellion, which, as he was 
 told at the time, was as heinous a sin as witchcraft (the crime 
 he was now guilty of), but his people should be involved in his 
 ruin. "Jehovah will deliver Israel also with thee into the hand 
 of the Phihstines, and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be 
 with me ; the Lord shall also deliver the camp of Israel into the 
 hands of the Philistines." Thus the ruin would be complete* 
 the army routed, the king and his sons slaughtered, the camp 
 taken and sacked. It was a fearful doom. Heard in the dark- 
 ness of that mysterious chamber, spoken by a visitant from 
 another world, received under the influence of keen mental 
 agitation and exhaustion consequent upon fatigue and want of 
 food, it powerfully affected the miserable king. He fell at full 
 length fainting on the floor. His condition roused the pity of 
 
 « So Sept. The Heb. is "for Himself." 
 
THE DEATH OF SAUL. 20? 
 
 the sorceress. She came to him, and as having a certain claim 
 upon him for her attention to his wishes, entreated him to 
 hearken to her and to take some food. This he at first refused 
 to do, but urged by his two companions he at length rose from 
 the ground, and sat wearily down on the divan that was set 
 against the walls of the chamber, while the woman hastened to 
 prepare a meal. She was the more willing to do this, not only 
 because she saw his prostration and doubted if he could even 
 return to his camp unless previously refreshed by food, but also 
 from motives of policy, trusting that he who had eaten her bread 
 and salt would not betray or punish her. An Eastern meal does 
 not take long to prepare. A calf was killed and cooked, fresh 
 bread baked, and all things were quickly made ready, as Saul 
 sat resting in gloomy meditation, taking no heed of time. 
 Having hastily partaken of the meal, Saul and his comrades 
 retraced their steps, and arrived safely at the camp of 
 Gilboa.* 
 
 Of Saul's feelings at this momentous crisis we can judge 
 only by his recorded actions. He showed no repentance, no 
 softening of the heart at the predicted ruin of all his hopes ; 
 certain of death, he shrank not from the contest ; " in stolid 
 desperation he went to meet his doom." 
 
 A day or two passed,' and some slight changes had taken 
 
 ■ I have given that view of the transaction at Endor which appears to 
 me most reasonable. I cannot believe that the whole was deception ; I 
 cannot believe that the form and voice of Samuel were assumed by a demon ; 
 I cannot believe that all that then passed was a subjective illusion in Saul's 
 diseased mind. I think that Samuel, by God's command, not in response 
 to the witch's spells, did appear as really as did Moses and Elias at the 
 Transfiguration. I am of the opinion of the son of Sirach who says of 
 Samuel : "After his death he prophesied, and showed the king his end, and 
 lifted up his voice from the earth in prophecy, to blot out the wickedness of 
 the people'' (Ecclus. xlvi. 20). The addition made in the Greek version of 
 I Chron. x. 13 seems to me to be justified : " So Saul died for his transgres- 
 sion which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the 
 Lord, which he kept not, and also because he asked counsel of one that 
 had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it, and Samuel the prophet answered 
 kim*^ The arguments on the various views taken may be seen in the 
 commentaries, e.g., in Keil, Wordsworth, and Hummelauer. 
 
 ' The " to-morrow " in i Sam. xxviii. 19 (" to-morrow shalt thou and 
 thy sons be with me'') must not be pressed to mean the very next day, but 
 taken in a wider sense — " time immediately succeeding."' 
 
2o8 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 place in the situation of the PhiHstines and the Israelites. The 
 former had moved somewhat to the west in order to have more 
 favourable ground for their cavalry and chariots, and to threaten 
 the enemy's post on its most exposed side. The Israelites had 
 come down from Mount Gilboa, and taken a strong position 
 near the spring which is in Jezreel at the base of the mountain. 
 Jezreel itself, says Captain Conder/ is situated on a knoll five 
 hundred feet high, and is now called Zerin. The site, which 
 has never been lost, is peculiar, " for whilst on the north and 
 north-east the slopes are steep and rugged, on the south the 
 ascent is very gradual, and the traveller coming northward is 
 astonished to look down suddenly on the valley with its two 
 springs, one (Ain Jalud) welling out from a conglomerate cliff, 
 and forming a pool about one hundred yards long, with muddy 
 borders ; the other (Ain Tubaun), the Crusaders' Fountain of 
 Tubania, where the Christian armies were fed ' miraculously' 
 for three days on the fish which still swarm in most of the great 
 springs near." It was in the neighbourhood of the former of 
 these springs, the'* Fountain of Goliath," that the Israelites were 
 encamped. Here they were attacked by the Philistines in 
 overwhelming force. Weakened by defection, dispirited by the 
 consciousness of inferiority, they were driven from their station 
 to the mountain behind them, and here on its steep ridges made 
 their final stand. The details of the battle are wanting ; the 
 narrator found it a bitter task to write the events of that fatal 
 day. But everywhere we see the figure of Saul towering above 
 the sea of heads, the royal crown encircling the helmet, the royal 
 bracelet glittering on his arm, followed by his brave sons, per- 
 forming prodigies of valour. Oppressed by the chariots in the 
 plain, surrounded by the archers on the hill-side, amid the 
 showers of stones hurled from the rude engines, he combats 
 undaunted, continuing the desperate fight long after success 
 had been rendered impossible. The brave Jonathan fell at his 
 side ; his two other sons, Abinadab (or Ishui) and Melchishua, 
 were slain in his defence ; the flower of his guard lay dead ; 
 the troops were flying in disorder. The enemy gathered around 
 him, intent on skying or capturing their powerful adversary ; 
 none were found to cope with him hand to hand, but the archers 
 from a safe distance aimed their arrows at him, and Saul was 
 
 » "TentWork,"i. 124. 
 
THE DEATH OF SAUL. 209 
 
 sore distressed. Wounded and weakened, deserted by God, 
 hopeless of safety, he calls in his agony to his trusty armour- 
 bearer (whom tradition asserts to have been Doeg the Edomite) 
 to take his sword and slay him, lest he fall into the hands 
 of the uncircumcised Philistines and be by them mocked 
 and maltreated ere he was put to death. But the armour- 
 bearer could not bring himself to comply with the terrible re- 
 quest. His love for his master withheld the blow. He himself 
 was sore afraid ; he was in some sort answerable for his lord's 
 life ; he could not without guilt raise his hand against the Lord's 
 anointed. Hard pressed the king would not delay to expos- 
 tulate, but dropping his spear, and taking the heavy sword from 
 his servant, he fixed the hilt firmly in the ground, and threw 
 the whole weight of his ponderous body upon the upturned 
 weapon. The point pierced his heart, and he fell dead on the 
 blood-stained field. The armour-bearer, unwilling to survive his 
 master, followed his example, and slew himself in the same 
 way ; and when night fell, none were left alive of the gallant band 
 who had fought so bravely round their leader. It was a fatal 
 day for Israel. The king and nearly all his house were cut off ; 
 the defeat was complete ; in utter panic the people fled ; they 
 stopped not in their headlong flight, but, abandoning their 
 homes, took refuge in the country beyond the Jordan, and the 
 Philistines came and occupied the forsaken villages. Returning 
 from the pursuit, the Philistines on the next day visited the field 
 of battle to strip the slain and collect booty. Then the full im- 
 portance of their victory was made known to them. Amid a 
 heap of his bravest warriors they found the corpses of Saul 
 and his three sons. Though the former had been despoiled of 
 his royal ornaments, he was easily recognized by his great 
 stature, and his face was doubtless known to many among 
 them. The news of his fall spread rapidly around, and was 
 proclaimed in every city of the Philistines with joy and exulta- 
 tion. Respect to an enemy's body was not part of the Philistine 
 code. They had feared Saul while living, and now they wreaked 
 their vengeance on him when dead. They cut off his head and 
 those of his sons, stripped their bodies of their arms and armour, 
 which they placed as trophies in the great temple of Astarte at 
 Askelon, sent Saul's head to the temple of Dagon at Ashdod, 
 and the others to some of their chief towns, grim tokens of 
 victory, and fixed the decapitated bodies to the walls of Beth- 
 
 15 
 
2IO SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 shan, a city whose Canaanitish inhabitants would naturally re- 
 joice at indignities offered to their ancient enemy. This town, 
 known afterwards by the name of Scythopolis, and now as 
 Beisan, stood in a commanding situation on a spur of rock over- 
 looking the valley of Jezreel on the one side, and on the other 
 the valley of the Jordan, from which it was about four miles 
 distant. The river Jalud, which drains the eastern portion of 
 the Plain of Esdraelon, passes close under this hill on its way 
 to the Jordan, forming the Wady Jalud, a great highway be- 
 tween east and west, and debouching nearly opposite a ford 
 called pre-eminently Abarah, The Ford. On the slope of the 
 hills of Gilead, facing Bethshan at some twelve miles distant, 
 lay Jabesh Gilead, the town so gallantly rescued by Saul in the 
 early days of his kingdom. The news of the terrible disaster 
 that had befallen their countrymen, and of the maltreatment of 
 the corpse of their king, poignantly affected this grateful people. 
 They at once determined to show that they had not forgotten 
 what they owed to the deceased monarch ; his body should not 
 be left as a laughing-stock to his enemies, a prey to foul birds 
 and insects. So the bravest men of the city set out by night, 
 crossed the Jordan, arrived unmolested at Bethshan, took down 
 from the wall the four corpses, and bore them reverently to their 
 city. There, as the flesh by this time was corrupted, and the 
 bodies were mutilated, and the usual custom of embalming 
 could not be practised, they burned the bodies, and buried the 
 remains under a tamarisk tree which grew beside the town. 
 And to mark their sorrow they fasted seven days, mourning as 
 for a beloved and honoured friend. Some years after, David 
 removed these remains cind interred them in the family burying- 
 place of Kish, at Zelah in Benjamin.^ 
 
 Intelligence of the defeat of the Israelites and of the death of 
 Saul and his sons was brought to David by an Amalekite, who 
 gave correct details of the events that had occurred, but, to win 
 the favour of David, represented himself as having slain Saul at 
 the king's own desire, confirming the truth of his narrative by 
 offering him the royal crown and bracelet of which he had 
 despoiled the dead monarch. Far from rewarding the self- 
 accusing murderer, David gave orders for his immediate execu- 
 tion for having sacrilegiously hfted his hand against the 
 
 * ? Sam. xxi. 152 ff, 
 
THE DEATH OF SAUL. 211 
 
 anointed of the Lord. In the utter abandonment of grief at this 
 great national calamity, and at his own loss thereby, he rent his 
 clothes, and commanded an universal mourning to be observed ; 
 « and they mourned and wept and fasted until even for Saul, and 
 for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the Lord, and for the 
 house of Israel ; because they were fallen by the sword." And 
 then, forgetting all the ills that he had suffered at Saul's hands, 
 remembering only the noble traits of his character, the bravery 
 and skill of his military enterprises, his feats of arms, his manli- 
 ness, his beauty, his goodly stature, recalling with mournful 
 tenderness the virtues of Jonathan, his fleetness of foot, his 
 dexterity in the use of weapons of war, and most of all the 
 warmth and loyalty of his love, David uttered a pathetic elegy, 
 which has been preserved in the unknown *' Book of Jasher," 
 and is here inserted by the historian * :— 
 
 •' Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places I 
 How are the mighty fallen ! " &c. 
 
 , We need not linger long on the delineation of Saul's character. 
 The course of our history has clearly displayed it; its early 
 promise, its gradual deterioration, its ruinous fall. Among all 
 his contemporaries chosen as the fittest to receive the royal 
 dignity, possessing personal beauty, animal courage, command- 
 ing stature, warlike skill, gifted with energy, perseverance, and 
 a high regard for the honour of his nation, Saul entered upon 
 his new and untried office under most favourable circumstances. 
 Though he was not what we should call a religious man in the 
 highest sense of the term, yet he at first exhibited a sincere zeal 
 for the worship of Jehovah and the customs of which it formed the 
 moving power. He repressed with a strong hand infringements 
 of the ancient code ; he would sacrifice his gallant son for a 
 breach of a religious vow. A skilful commander and organizer, 
 he raised a band of heroic warriors, with whose aid he carried 
 on successful wars, of which that with the Amalekites is only an 
 example of one out of many. To him must be ascribed the 
 
 « 2 Sam. i. 17 flf. The clause translated in Revised Version : " And he 
 bade them teach the children of Judah the song of the Bow," is thought by 
 some to be the title found in the Book whence the ode was taken, and 
 transferred to the historian's text, and should run thus : "And he said: 
 * For the children of Judah to learn by heart the Bow, from the Book of 
 Jasher.' " Then follows the dirge. So " Speaker's Commentary." 
 
r 
 
 212 SAMUEL AND SAUL. 
 
 foundation of that empire which reached its cuhninating point 
 under his immediate successors. There was much in him that 
 was lovable ; he certainly won the afiection of his people so 
 that they followed him willingly, and in spite of his later folly 
 and madness, never conspired against him. To what then are 
 we to attribute his failure, which led to his rejection ? It was 
 not that he was impetuous and thoughtless ; it was not that he 
 was jealous and suspicious ; such faults he had, but though they 
 contributed to, they were not the primary cause of his fall. 
 That is to be sought in the feeling that the standard set before 
 him, the ideal to which he ought to attain, was quite beyond the 
 desire of his heart or the bent of his will. To know what is 
 right, and yet to resist it wilfully ; to find no comfort in resist- 
 ance, and yet to persist in opposition, is a state of inward con- 
 flict which may well cloud the brightest mind with gloom and 
 depression. The prophet's voice represented an external con- 
 science to which he gave only partial heed, and which excited 
 his jealousy and troubled his peace. Aware that his sovereignty 
 depended upon his allegiance to Jehovah, he would not realize 
 the fact in his daily conduct ; he rebelled against such con- 
 straint, and at times let the irritability thus occasioned get 
 complete mastery, so that he acted as a madman, losing all 
 sense of justice, law, and humanity. And when at length he 
 finds that he cannot be wholly independent, that the warnings 
 and restraints of the Divine voice cannot be safely dispensed 
 with, instead of trying to retrieve the past by timely repentance 
 and submission, he falls into the depths of a miserable despair, 
 and his religion is merged into a debasing superstition. The 
 progress of his declension has been sketched in the previous 
 narrative. Surface religion is no support in great mental 
 crises. It fails entirely in Saul's great need. He feels 
 remorse, but not repentance ; dissatisfied and angry with him- 
 self, he vents his humour on others ; he can ill brook reproof 
 even from the power for which he had some respect ; head- 
 strong and self-willed he takes his own course, though conscious 
 that that course leads him farther from God, and alienates him 
 from his truest friend. In his inmost soul he knows this, and 
 the knowledge occasions vexation and agony ; he broods upon 
 it ; night and day his meditation is occupied with his own rejec- 
 tion and his unknown rival ; the latent insanity in his mental 
 constitution is stirred into activity by this dark melancholy, and 
 
THE DEATH OF SAUL. 213 
 
 he becomes subject to outbreaks of maniacal fury. And when 
 his gloomy forebodings and vague surmises received a definite 
 object from the women's laudation of David, the hatred and 
 suspicion of this youthful warrior became a rooted passion, and 
 goaded him to reckless cruelty, so that the once generous, high- 
 minded ruler changed into a gloomy, vindictive tyrant ; his 
 old heroic spirit failed ; he felt powerless to contend against his 
 destiny; and though at the fatal battle of Gilboa he fought 
 bravely and disdained to fly, his was the energy of despair, 
 the hopeless struggle of one who feels himself forsaken of 
 God, and the fitting end was suicide. 
 
 The fate of Saul, once chosen of the Lord, the pride of the 
 people, possessed of many noble qualities which endeared him 
 to the wisest and best of the age, then rejected, haunted by evil 
 spirits, the prey of gross superstition, despairing, dying by his 
 own hand, teaches surely that high privileges must be used 
 aright, must lead to a high and holy life, or they become curses 
 and increase condemnation ; teaches that acting against con- 
 science is fatal to the soul's life, hardens the heart, alienates 
 from God ; that religion must be real and vital, if it is to make 
 a man strong to resist evjl, ready to meet temptation, able to 
 fight the Lord's battles against enemies within or without. And 
 it has a lesson also for the nations ; it warns them not to trust 
 in outward endowments, in strength of arm, in multitude of 
 warriors, but to see that their cause is righteous, to act with 
 justice and humanity, and to leave the issue with confidence to 
 the Lord of hosts. 
 

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