1 Samuel 11:1-15
1 Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabeshgilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee.
2 And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.
3 And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days' respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel: and then, if there be no man to save us, we will come out to thee.
4 Then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul, and told the tidings in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voices, and wept.
5 And, behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field; and Saul said, What aileth the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh.
6 And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.
7 And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.
8 And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
9 And they said unto the messengers that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabeshgilead, To morrow, by that time the sun be hot, ye shall have help.a And the messengers came and shewed it to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad.
10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, To morrow we will come out unto you, and ye shall do with us all that seemeth good unto you.
11 And it was so on the morrow, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the host in the morning watch, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day: and it came to pass, that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them were not left together.
12 And the people said unto Samuel, Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us? bring the men, that we may put them to death.
13 And Saul said, There shall not a man be put to death this day: for to day the LORD hath wrought salvation in Israel.
14 Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
15 And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
Israel’s First King
1 Samuel
Helen Pocock
Chapter 11
Saul rescues the town of Jabesh
v1 Nahash was an *Ammonite. He went with his army to seize the town of Jabesh in the country of Gilead. They surrounded Jabesh. The people from Jabesh said, ‘Make a contract with us and we will accept you as our ruler’. v2 Nahash said, ‘I will make a contract with you. But I will pull out the right eye of every person in your town. Then you will have shame among the people of *Israel’. v3 The rulers of Jabesh said to him, ‘Wait for 7 days. We will send a message to all the people in *Israel. We will ask them to rescue us. If no-one comes to rescue us, we will let you be our ruler’.
An ‘Ammonite’ was a person from the *tribe or country of Ammon. The Ammonites had attacked *Israel in the past (read Judges 3:13; Judges 11:4-32). When an army attacked a town, the soldiers often killed all the people in that town. The people who came from Jabesh could not fight and win against the Ammonites. They wanted to give in and let Nahash rule them. But if Nahash pulled out their right eyes, they would not be able to fight very well. In those days, many men fought with bows and arrows. They needed two eyes so that they could aim their arrows straight. The people from Jabesh did not want to have this shame. So they asked the *Israelites to help them. Nahash probably thought that his army was strong enough to fight the *Israelites.
v4 The men took the message to the town of Gibeah. Saul lived in this town. When they told the people the news, the people started to cry aloud. v5 Saul had been in his field. Now he was coming home with his *oxen. He heard the people crying. He said, ‘What has happened? Why are the people crying?’ They told Saul what the men from Jabesh had said. v6 When Saul heard the news the Spirit of God took control of him in a powerful way. Saul became very angry. v7 He killed two of his *oxen. He cut them into pieces. He gave the pieces to the men from Jabesh. He told the men to take the pieces to all the towns that were in *Israel. The men said, ‘Everyone must follow Saul and Samuel into battle. Someone will cut up your *oxen like this if you do not follow’. The people were afraid of the *Lord. So all the men came together as one group. v8 They met together with Saul at the town of Bezek. There were 300 000 men from the country of *Israel. There were 30 000 men from the country of *Judah.
v9 Saul spoke to the men who had brought the news from Jabesh. He told them to go back to Jabesh and tell the people this message. ‘Someone will rescue you. It will happen tomorrow before midday’. So, the men went and told the message. All the people in Jabesh were very happy. v10 The men of Jabesh went and spoke to Nahash. They said, ‘Tomorrow we will come out to you. Then you can do anything that you want with us’.
v11 The next day Saul divided his soldiers into three groups. At dawn, they attacked the *Ammonite army. The *Israelite soldiers killed and defeated them by midday. Some of the *Ammonite soldiers escaped and scattered. Each man ran off by himself.
Saul was the king of *Israel now but he still worked in his fields. Saul was angry when he heard about the *Ammonite attack on Jabesh. The Spirit of God gave him power to rescue the town and the people. The Spirit of God gives power to people for the special job that God gives them. Without this power, they cannot do the job. *Israel did not have an army. Saul required every man in *Israel to fight. He warned them to frighten them. But the people were not afraid of Saul. They were afraid of the *Lord. Saul was a strong leader because God gave him the power. The men came from many different towns but they were a united group. They met at Bezek. Bezek was about 16 kilometres (10 miles) away from Jabesh.
In verse 8, a ‘thousand’ is the name for a large group of men. The group has a maximum of 1000 men, but there may be fewer men. So there were 300 large groups of men from *Israel and 30 groups from *Judah. This verse shows that the writer of 1 Samuel wrote it after the days of king Solomon. *Israel was one country during the rule of Saul, David and Solomon. When Solomon died, *Israel divided into *Judah and *Israel (1 Kings 12).
The people in Jabesh heard that Saul and his army would rescue them. They were very happy now. In verse 10, ‘we will come out to you’ has two meanings. Nahash thought that the people from Jabesh would give in to him. But the people meant that they would go and fight him. The *Ammonites were not ready for the attack. ‘The next day’ (verse 11) meant after sunset. The *Israelite day ended at sunset. Their new day started in the evening (Genesis 1:3). The *Israelites defeated the *Ammonites. Only a few of the *Ammonite soldiers escaped.
v12 The people of *Israel said, ‘Some men said, “We do not think that this man can save us”. Where are those men? Bring them to us and we will kill them’.
v13 Saul said, ‘No. The *Lord rescued the people of *Israel today. You must not kill these men’.
v14 Samuel said, ‘We will all go to the town of Gilgal. Then we will declare again that Saul is our king’. v15 So everyone went to Gilgal. They went to the holy place. They declared that Saul was king. They gave peace *offerings to the *Lord. Saul and all the *Israelites had a special party because they were happy.
In 10:27, some men did not think that Saul could save the *Israelites. At Jabesh, Saul proved that he could. This proved that he was a good leader. In verse 13, Saul was not proud. He knew that God had rescued the people. Saul was wise. He did not punish those who opposed his authority. Instead, Samuel had a special meeting. Everyone declared that Saul was king. This time no-one opposed him. The *Israelites were happy with God and happy with Saul. The Bible sometimes calls the ‘peace *offering’ (verse 15) the ‘fellowship’ or ‘friendship’ *offering. The people gave *offerings to the *Lord. Then they ate part of the *offerings together. You can read about this *offering in Leviticus 3 and 7:11-21. This was probably the same *offering as in 1 Samuel Chapter s 1 and 9.
People declared Saul as king on three different occasions. This way, Samuel helped the people to accept Saul as king. First, Samuel *anointed him with oil in 10:1. This was a private time with just Saul and Samuel. The second time was a public event. God chose Saul from all of the *Israelites (10:17-25). But some people opposed Saul. The third time was in 11:14-15. This time all the *Israelites went to the holy place. Everyone knew then that God gave Saul the power to be their king.
Ammonite ~ a person who came from the family of Ammon, who was the grandson of Lot (Genesis 19:36-38).Israel ~ the group of people that God chose. Israel is the name of all the people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel is also the name of the land that God gave to the people of Israel.
tribe ~ a family from one man. The first Israelites were the 12 sons of Jacob. The family of each son became a tribe.
Israelites ~ the people of Israel; the people who speak the Hebrew language.
Israel ~ the group of people that God chose. Israel is the name of all the people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel is also the name of the land that God gave to the people of Israel.
Hebrew ~ the language of the Israelite people. A Hebrew is an Israelite person.
Israelites ~ the people of Israel; the people who speak the Hebrew language.
Israel ~ the group of people that God chose. Israel is the name of all the people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel is also the name of the land that God gave to the people of Israel.
Hebrew ~ the language of the Israelite people. A Hebrew is an Israelite person.
Lord ~ the name of God in the Bible. The special name of God that he announced only to the Israelites (Genesis 3:13-15). It links God with his covenant (promise) to them.
Israelites ~ the people of Israel; the people who speak the Hebrew language.
Israel ~ the group of people that God chose. Israel is the name of all the people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel is also the name of the land that God gave to the people of Israel.
Hebrew ~ the language of the Israelite people. A Hebrew is an Israelite person.
Judah ~ one of the 12 tribes of Israel. The land in southern Israel that belonged to the tribe of Judah.
tribe ~ a family from one man. The first Israelites were the 12 sons of Jacob. The family of each son became a tribe.
Israel ~ the group of people that God chose. Israel is the name of all the people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel is also the name of the land that God gave to the people of Israel.
Israelites ~ the people of Israel; the people who speak the Hebrew language.
Hebrew ~ the language of the Israelite people. A Hebrew is an Israelite person.
offering ~ a gift for God (or false gods) from the priest and people; an Israelite’s gift to God.
gods ~ gods with a small ‘g’ are all the false gods.
Israelites ~ the people of Israel; the people who speak the Hebrew language.
Israel ~ the group of people that God chose. Israel is the name of all the people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel is also the name of the land that God gave to the people of Israel.
Hebrew ~ the language of the Israelite people. A Hebrew is an Israelite person.
anoint ~ to mark a person with oil to show that God has chosen him for a special job.