1 Samuel 15:12

_AND WHEN SAMUEL ROSE EARLY TO MEET SAUL IN THE MORNING, IT WAS TOLD SAMUEL, SAYING, SAUL CAME TO CARMEL, AND, BEHOLD, HE SET HIM UP A PLACE, AND IS GONE ABOUT, AND PASSED ON, AND GONE DOWN TO GILGAL._ Saul same to Carmel. In the Alexandrian version of the Septuagint it is said that Saul traveled in a chariot. Carmel was in the south of Judah (Joshua 15:55; 1 Samuel 25:2). HE SET HIM UP A PLACE, х_ YAAD_ (H3027), a hand; Septuagint, _ CHEIRA_ (G5495)] - i:e., a pillar (2 Samuel 18:18), indicating that whatever was the form of the monument, it was surmounted, according to the ancient fashion,

10-23 Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners think, by justifying themselves, to escape being judged of the Lord. The noise the cattle made, like the rust of the silver, James 5:3, witnessed against him. Many boast of obedience to the command of God; but what means then their indulgence of the flesh, their love of the world, their angry and unkind spirit, and their neglect of holy duties, which witness against them? See of what evil covetousness is the root; and see what is the sinfulness of sin, and notice that in it which above any thing else makes it...

Verse 1 Samuel 15:12. _HE SET HIM UP A PLACE_] Literally, a _hand_, יד yad. Some say it was a _monument_; others, a _triumphal arch_: probably it was no more than a _hand_, pointing out the place where Saul had gained the victory. _Absalom's pillar_ is called _the hand of_ _Absalom_, 2 Samuel 18:18....

A PLACE - Rather, “a monument.” The Hebrew word יד _yâd_ means a “hand,” but is used in the sense of “monument,” or “trophy,” in 2 Samuel 18:18, where we are told that the marble pillar which Absalom set up in his lifetime, was called “Yad Absalom.” CARMEL - (see the marginal reference) would be on Saul’s line of march on his return from the country of the Amalekites, more especially if he came from the neighborhood of Akaba....

FINAL REJECTION OF SAUL (1 Samuel 15:1.) EXPOSITION DIVINE COMMAND TO PUNISH THE AMALEKITES, AND ITS EXECUTION BY SAUL (1 Samuel 15:1). 1 SAMUEL 15:1 SAMUEL ALSO SAID. Better literally, "And Samuel said." There is no note of time, but probably a considerable interval elapsed before this second trial of Saul was made. God does not finally reject a man until, after repeated opportunities for repentance,

AND WHEN SAMUEL ROSE EARLY TO MEET SAUL IN THE MORNING,.... Having had no sleep since the revelation of the will of God was made unto him, and therefore rose early, being in haste to converse with Saul about it: IT WAS TOLD SAMUEL, SAYING, SAUL CAME TO CARMEL; not to Carmel where Elijah offered sacrifice, for that was very remote from hence; but to Carmel, a city in the tribe of Judah, which lay in the way of Saul's return from Amalek, Joshua 15:55 AND, BEHOLD, HE SET HIM UP A PLACE; to divide his spoil in, as the Targum; or to encamp in, as Kimchi; or to build an altar on, as Jarchi, who takes it to be the same that Elisha after repaired; but, as before observed, this place was at a great distance from Mount Carmel where Elijah sacrificed. The word for a "place" signifies a hand; and, according to the Vulgate Latin version, it was a triumphal arch, and

8. WAR WITH AMALEK: SAUL'S DISOBEDIENCE AND REJECTION CHAPTER 15 _ 1. The commission to destroy Amalek (1 Samuel 15:1)_ 2. Saul's disobedience and rejection (1 Samuel 15:10) 3. Saul's confession (1 Samuel 15:24) 4. The doom of Agag (1 Samuel 15:32) From verse 48 in the previous chapter we learn that Saul smote the Amalekites. Samuel is sent by Jehovah with a new message to Saul telling him to smite Amalek again and to destroy utterly all that they have. It involves another task for Saul. He had been fully established as king and is therefore called upon to discharge his respo

XV. THE WAR AGAINST AMALEK; SAUL'S DISOBEDIENCE AND DEPOSITION (E). - A section of a secondary narrative; according to the scheme adopted here, the last section of this document was 1 Samuel 3:3 to 1 Samuel 4:1. 1 SAMUEL 15:1. Samuel bids Saul attack Amalek and subject it to the _herem_ (pp. 99, 114), or sacred ban, by which all living creatures were put to death in honour of Yahweh. (_Cf._ the cases of Jericho and Achan, Joshua 6 f.) Saul called a general levy to a rendezvous in the south of Judah the numbers are probably exaggerated and advanced against the city of Amalek, possibly a tribal sanctuary which served as the headquarters of this nomad tribe; and lay in ambush in a neighbouring valley. The

BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos._ App-6. PLACE. Hebrew. hand. Either to mark his claim to the place, or. monument, as in 2 Samuel 18:18. ON. over....

Saul's disobedience and its penalty 11. _It repenteth me_ "God's repentance is the change of His dispensation." In the language of the O. T. God is said to repent when a change in the character and conduct of those with whom He is dealing leads to a corresponding change in His plans and purposes towards them. Thus (_a_) upon man's penitence God repents and withdraws a threatened punishment (Exodus 32:14; 2 Samuel 24:16): (_b_) upon man's faithlessness and disobedience He cancels a promise or revokes a blessing which He had given. The opposite is also true, "God is not a man that he should repent" (1 Samuel 15:29). His repentance is not to be understood as though He who foreknows all things reg