XV. (1 Samuel 15:1) THE WAR WITH AMALEK. — Saul’s Disobedience to the Will of God in the matter of Sparing the King and the Choicest of the Plunder. — The Last Meeting in Life of Saul and Samuel. — The Prophet reproaches the King. — Death of Agag at the hands of Samuel. EXCURSUS G: ON THE CONDUCT... [ Continue Reading ]
(1 Samuel 15:1) SAMUEL ALSO SAID UNTO SAUL... — The compiler of the history, selecting, no doubt, from ancient state records, chose to illustrate the story of the reign and rejection of Saul by certain memorable incidents as good examples of the king’s general life and conduct. The incidents were al... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT WHICH AMALEK DID TO ISRAEL. — The Amalekites were a fierce, untameable race of wanderers, who roamed at large through those deserts which lie between Southern Judea and the Egyptian frontier. They were descended from Esau’s grandson, Amalek. Not long after the exodus from Egypt, they attacked a... [ Continue Reading ]
SMITE AMALEK, AND UTTERLY DESTROY... — For “utterly destroy” the Hebrew has the far stronger expression, “put under the ban” (_cherem_). Whatever was “put under the ban” in Israel was devoted to God, and whatever was so devoted could not be redeemed, but must be slain. Amalek was to be looked upon a... [ Continue Reading ]
IN TELAIM. — Identical with Telem (Joshua 15:24), a place on the south border of Judah, near the region where the Amalekites chiefly dwelt. — _Kimchi_ Telaim, however, signifies “lambs;” probably “Beth,” house of, is to be understood. Thus it was no town, but the “place or house of lambs” — some ope... [ Continue Reading ]
A CITY OF AMALEK. — Better rendered, _The city of Amalek_: no doubt, their principal place of arms. AND LAID WAIT IN THE VALLEY. — Better, in a torrent bed, then dry (Arabic, “Wady”). There is a strange tradition in the Talmud that Saul’s mind misgave him when he came to this “torrent bed;” thus he... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SAUL SAID UNTO THE KENITES. — The Kenites, like the Amalekites, were a nomad race of Arabs, but seem to have been ever friendly to the Israelites. This kindly feeling sprang up soon after the departure from Egypt, and was, no doubt, in the first instance owing to the fact of Hobab, the father-in... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM HAVILAH UNTIL THOU COMEST TO SHUR. — The Havilah here alluded to cannot be now identified. Shur, which signifies “wall,” probably refers to the wall which crossed the north-east frontier of Egypt, extending from Pelusium, past Migdol, to Hevo. Ebers suggests that this wall gave to Egypt the nam... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE TOOK AGAG... ALIVE. — Agag seems to have been for the sovereigns of Amalek the official title, like Pharaoh in the case of the kings of Egypt, and Abimelech among certain of the Philistine peoples. The meaning of the term Agag is unknown. UTTERLY DESTROYED ALL THE PEOPLE. — That is to say, I... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN CAME THE WORD... — Very likely in a dream.... [ Continue Reading ]
IT REPENTETH ME... — “God does not feel the pain of remorse (says St. Augustine in Psalms 131), nor is He ever deceived, so as to desire to correct anything in which He has erred. But as a man desires to make a change when he repents, so when God is said in Scripture to repent, we may expect a chang... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN SAMUEL ROSE EARLY... — After the revelations of that sad night, the prophet rose, and at once went to seek the guilty king. He was told Saul was come to Carmel, identical with Kurmul in Judah, to the south-east of Hebron; there the victorious monarch had erected a monument of his victory, l... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED BE THOU OF THE LORD. — Saul must have been fully conscious that he had failed to carry out the will and command of the Eternal King of Israel. In the late war, undertaken for the definite and solemn purpose of exterminating a wicked and bloodthirsty people, whose continued existence worked t... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT MEANETH THEN THIS BLEATING?... — “Saul is convicted of falsehood by the voices of the animals which he has spared, contrary to God’s command. Samuel’s mode of citing them against him by the question, ‘What meaneth these voices?’ has an air of holy humour and cutting irony.” — _Lange. _... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PEOPLE SPARED THE BEST OF THE SHEEP... — At once the king understood the drift of his old friend’s words; still more, perhaps, the stern, sorrowful look of reproach which accompanied them, “Yes, I understand your meaning. This bleating and lowing certainly does come from the captured flocks and... [ Continue Reading ]
STAY, AND I WILL TELL THEE... — The king was probably turning away, desirous of closing an interview which to him was full of bitterness, when he was arrested by the solemn words, and probably by the commanding gesture, of his old friend and counsellor, who now addressed him with the majesty and po... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THOU WAST LITTLE IN THINE OWN SIGHT. — Kimchi’s rendering of the Hebrew here is singular: “Though thou seemest to thyself too little and weak to curb the people, yet wast thou the head, and shouldest have done thy duty;” but this, as Lange observes, would imply that Samuel had _accepted_ Saul’s... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SINNERS THE AMALEKITES. — This briefly rehearses the charge of the Most High, which Saul had deliberately disobeyed. It is noticeable that the Amalekites are expressly called “sinners,” thus indicating the reason of the Divine wrath against them. The men of Sodom (Genesis 13:13) were styled “sin... [ Continue Reading ]
DIDST FLY UPON THE SPOIL. — The expression used evidently includes the idea of greedy eagerness, as though Samuel detected a spirit of grasping covetousness at the bottom of this disobedient act of Saul’s.... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, I HAVE OBEYED... — These and the words which follow are simply a repetition of the king’s former excuse for his act: but they show us what was the state of Saul’s mind: he evidently disbelieved in the power of the Eternal as a heart reader. If he could justify himself before Samuel, that was al... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, TO OBEY IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE. — In this answer it would seem that the Spirit of the Lord descended upon Samuel, and that he here gave utterance to one of those rapt expressions which now and again in the course of each of these Hebrew prophets’ lives these famous men were commissioned by... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR REBELLION IS AS THE SIN OF WITCHCRAFT. — Witchcraft, more literally _soothsaying_ or _divination,_ was a sin constantly held up to reprobation in the Old Testament. It was the greatest of all the dangers to which Israel was exposed, and was in fact a tampering with the idol-worship of the surrou... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE SINNED. — The grave condemnation of the prophet appalled the king. The grounds of the Divine rejection evidently sank deep into Saul’s heart. Such a thought as that, in the eyes of the Invisible and Eternal, he ranked with the idolators and heathen sinners around, was, even for one sunk so lo... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THEREFORE, I PRAY THEE, PARDON MY SIN. — But, after all, the sorrow of Saul was rather for the immediate earthly consequence which he feared might follow the Divine rejection. He foresaw his power in Israel would sensibly decrease, so he intreats the great prophet not to desert him.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL NOT RETURN WITH THEE. — Samuel too clearly sees what are the true springs of Saul’s repentance, and refuses at first. It was only, as C. a Lapide forcibly urges, a fear on the part of the king, of losing the kingdom and of incurring public disgrace. The prophet for reply again repeats the ter... [ Continue Reading ]
HE LAID HOLD UPON THE SKIRT OF HIS MANTLE. — The king’s passionate action indicates a restless, unquiet mind. Not content with intreating words, Saul, perhaps even with some violence, lays hold of the old man as he turns away, to detain him. What Saul laid hold of and tore was not the “mantle” (Auth... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD HATH RENT THE KINGDOM. — The prophet at once looks upon the garment torn by the passionate vehemence of the king, as an omen for the future, and uses the rent vesture as a symbol, to show Saul that thus had the Lord on that day rent the kingdom from him. A NEIGHBOUR OF THINE. — It had not... [ Continue Reading ]
THE STRENGTH OF ISRAEL WILL NOT LIE. — This title of the Eternal, here rendered “the Strength of Israel,” would be better rendered _the Changeless One of Israel._ The Hebrew word is first found in this passage. In later Hebrew, as in 1 Chronicles 29:2, it is rendered “glory,” from the Aramaean usage... [ Continue Reading ]
YET HONOUR ME NOW, I PRAY THEE, BEFORE THE ELDERS. — It was a strange penitence, after all, this sorrow of Saul for his great sin. He was, no doubt, terribly in earnest and in great fear; but his earnestness was based upon a desire to maintain his power and royal state, and his fear sprang from a we... [ Continue Reading ]
SO SAMUEL TURNED AGAIN AFTER SAUL. — The prophet, after the repeated and pressing request of the king, consents publicly to worship the Lord in his company. There is little doubt but that the principal motive which induced Samuel on this occasion not to withdraw himself from the public thanksgiving... [ Continue Reading ]
BRING YE HITHER TO ME AGAG THE KING OF THE AMALEKITES. — But in the public service of thanksgiving there was one stern act of judgment still to be done. The King of the Amalekites had been sentenced to die. Saul had spared him for selfish reasons of his own; we need not discuss here the apparent har... [ Continue Reading ]
SAMUEL HEWED AGAG IN PIECES. — It has been suggested, with some probability, that these words refer to a peculiar form of putting to death, like the quartering in vogue during the Middle Ages.... [ Continue Reading ]
CAME NO MORE TO SEE SAUL... — Once more the old friends met together _in life_ (see 1 Samuel 19:24), but the interview on this occasion was not of Samuel’s seeking; nor does it appear then that any communication passed between them. When next the seer and the king _spoke_ together, the seer belonged... [ Continue Reading ]