1 Samuel 15:1
Hearken — Thou hast committed error already, now regain God's favour by thy exact obedience to what he commands.... [ Continue Reading ]
Hearken — Thou hast committed error already, now regain God's favour by thy exact obedience to what he commands.... [ Continue Reading ]
I remember — Now I will revenge those old injuries of the Amalekites on their children: who continue in their parents practices. Came from Egypt — When he was newly come out of cruel and long bondage, and was now weak, and weary, and faint, and hungry, Deuteronomy 25:18, and therefore it was barbaro... [ Continue Reading ]
Destroy — Both persons and goods, kill all that live, and consume all things without life, for I will have no name nor remnant of that people left, whom long since I have devoted to utter destruction. Spare not — Shew no compassion or favour to any of them. The same thing repeated to prevent mistake... [ Continue Reading ]
Kenites — A people descending from, or nearly related to Jethro, who anciently dwelt in rocks near the Amalekites, Numbers 24:21, and afterwards some of them dwelt in Judah, Judges 1:16, whence it is probable they removed, (which, dwelling in tents, they could easily do) and retired to their old hab... [ Continue Reading ]
To Shur — That is, from one end of their country to the other; he smote all that he met with: but a great number of them fled away upon the noise of his coming, and secured themselves in other places, 'till the storm was over.... [ Continue Reading ]
All — Whom he found. Now they paid dear for the sin of their ancestors. They were themselves guilty of idolatry and numberless sins, for which they deserved to be cut off. Yet when God would reckon with them, he fixes upon this as the ground of his quarrel.... [ Continue Reading ]
Vile — Thus they obeyed God only so far as they could without inconvenience to themselves.... [ Continue Reading ]
Repenteth — Repentance implies grief of heart, and change of counsels, and therefore cannot be in God: but it is ascribed to God when God alters his method of dealing, and treats a person as if be did indeed repent of the kindness he had shewed him. All night — To implore his pardoning mercy for Sau... [ Continue Reading ]
A place — That is, a monument or trophy of his victory.... [ Continue Reading ]
They — That is, the people. Thus, he lays the blame upon the people; whereas they could not do it without his consent; and he should have used his power to over — rule them.... [ Continue Reading ]
A journey — So easy was the service, and so certain the success, that it was rather to be called a journey than a war.... [ Continue Reading ]
The king — To be dealt with as God pleaseth.... [ Continue Reading ]
But the people, &c. — Here the conscience of Saul begins to awake, tho' but a little: for he still lays the blame on the people.... [ Continue Reading ]
Sacrifice — Because obedience to God is a moral duty, constantly and indispensably necessary; but sacrifice is but a ceremonial institution, sometimes unnecessary, as it was in the wilderness: and sometimes sinful, when it is offered by a polluted hand, or in an irregular manner. Therefore thy gross... [ Continue Reading ]
Rebellion — Disobedience to God's command. Stubbornness — Contumacy in sin, justifying it, and pleading for it. Iniquity — Or, the iniquity of idolatry. Rejected — Hath pronounced the sentence of rejection: for that he was not actually deposed by God before, plainly appears, because not only the peo... [ Continue Reading ]
I have sinned — It does by no means appear, that Saul acts the hypocrite herein, in assigning a false cause of his disobedience. Rather, he nakedly declares the thing as it was.... [ Continue Reading ]
Pardon my sin — Neither can it be proved that there was any hypocrisy in this. Rather charity requires us to believe, that he sincerely desired pardon, both from God and man, as he now knew, he had sinned against both.... [ Continue Reading ]
I will not — This was no lie, though he afterwards returned, because he spoke what he meant; his words and his intentions agreed together, though afterwards he saw reason to change his intentions. Compare Genesis 19:2. This may relieve many perplexed consciences, who think themselves obliged to do w... [ Continue Reading ]
Strength of Israel — So he calls God here, to shew the reason why God neither will nor can lie; because lying proceeds from the sense of a man's weakness, who cannot many times accomplish his design without lying and dissimulation; therefore many princes have used it for this very reason. But God ne... [ Continue Reading ]
Turned — First, that the people might not upon pretence of this sentence of rejection, withdraw their obedience to their sovereign; whereby they would both have sinned against God, and have been as sheep without a shepherd. Secondly, that he might rectify Saul's error, and execute God's judgment upo... [ Continue Reading ]
As, &c. — Whereby it appears, that he was a tyrant, and guilty of many bloody actions. And this seems to be added for the fuller vindication of God's justice, and to shew, that although God did at this time revenge a crime committed by this man's ancestors 400 years ago, yet he did not punish an inn... [ Continue Reading ]
To see Saul — That is, to visit him, in token of respect or friendship: or, to seek counsel from God for him. Otherwise he did see him 1 Samuel 19:24. Though indeed it was not Samuel that came thither with design to see Saul, but Saul went thither to see Samuel, and that accidentally.... [ Continue Reading ]