Assured of his own death in the coming engagement, and that of his sons, of the ruin of his army and the triumph of his most formidable enemies, whose invasion had tempted him to try this unhallowed expedient — all announced to him by that same authority which had foretold his possession of the kingdom, and whose words had never been falsified — Saul, in a state of de- jection which could not promise success to his follow- ers (comp. Thomson, Land and Book, ii, 168), prepared as best he could to meet the enemy in Gilboa, on the extremity of the great plain of Esdraelon (on the locali- ties of this battle, etc., see Hackett, I llustrations of Script, p. 178 sq.).
The next day the battle came on, and, according to Josephus (Ant. vi, 14,7), perhaps according to the spir- it of the sacred narrative, his courage and self-devotion
returned. The Israelites were driven up the side of Gilboa. Tlie three sons of Saul were slain (1 Sam. xxxi, 2). Saul himself with his armor-bearer was pur- sued by the archers and the charioteers of the enemy (ver. 3; 2 Sam. 1,(3). He was wounded in the stomach (Sept. 1 Sam. xxxi, 3). His shield was cast away (2 Sam. i, 21). In his extremity, having in vain solicited death from the hand of his armor- bearer (Docg the Edomite— the Jews say, "a partner before of his mas- ter's crimes and now of liis punishment"). Saul perished at last by his own sword (1 Sam. xxxi, 4). According to another account (less trustworthy, or, perhaps, to be reconciled with the former by supposing that it de- scribes a later incident), an Amalekite came up at the moment of his death-wound (whether from himself or the enemy) and found him " fallen" but leaning on his spear (2 Sam. i, C, 10). The dizziness of death was gathered over him (ver. 9), but he was still alive ; and he was, at his own request, put out of his pain by the Amalekite, who took off his royal diadem and bracelet and carried the news to David (ver. 7-10). Not till then, according to Josephus (Ant. vi, 14, 7), did the faithful armor- bearer fall on his sword and die with him (1 Sam. xxxi, 5). The body, on being found by the Philistines on the morrow, was stripped and decapi- tated. . The armor was sent into the Philistine cities, as if in retribution for the spoliation of Goliath, and finally deposited in the temple of Astarte, apparently in the neighboring Canaanitish city of Bethshan ; and over the walls of the same city was hung the naked, headless corpse Avith those of his three sons (ver. 9, 10), The head was deposited (probably at Ashdod) in the temple of Dagon (1 Chron. x, 10). The corpse was re- moved from Bethshan by the gratitude of tlie inhabi- tants of Jabesh-gilead, who came over the Jordan by night, carried off the bodies, burned them, and buried them under the tamarisk at Jabesli (1 Sam. xxxi, 13), It is pleasing to think that even the worst men have left behind them those in whom gratitude and affection are duties. Saul had those who mourned him, as some hand was found to have strewn flowers on the newly made grave of Nero. After the lapse of several years, his ashes and those of Jonathan were removed by Da- vid to their ancestral sepulchre at Zelah in Benjamin (2 Sam. xxi, 14).
IV. Saul's Character. — There is not in the sacred history, or in any other, a character more melancholy to contemplate than that of Saul. Naturally humble and modest, though of strong j)assions, he might have adorn- ed a private station. In circumstances which did not expose him to strong temptation, he would probably have acted virtuously. But his natural rashness was controlled neither by a powerful understanding nor a scrupulous conscience; and the obligations of duty and the ties of gratitude, always felt by him too slightly, were totally disregarded when ambition, envy, and jeal- ousy had taken possession of his mind. The diabolical nature of these passions is seen, with friglitful distinct- ness, in Saul, whom their indulgence transformed into an unnatural and bloodthirsty monster, who constantly exhibited the moral infatuation, so common among those who have abandoned themselves to sin, of think- ing that the punishment of one crime may be escaped by the perpetration of another. In liim, also, is seen that moral anomaly or contradiction, which woidd be incredible did we not so often witness it, of an individ- ual pursuing habitually a course which his better nat- ure pronounces not only flagitious, but insane (1 Sam. xxiv, IG, 22). Saul knew that that person should be king whom yet he persisted in seeking to destroy, and so accelerated his own ruin. Fur it can hardly be doubted that the distractions and disaffection occasion- ed by Saul's persecution of David pro(hiced that weak- ness in his government which encouraged the Philis- tines to make the invasion in which himself and his sons perished. "I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath" (IIos. xii, 11). lu
SAUNDERS
378
SATJRIN
the prolonged troubles and disastrous termination of this first reign, the Hebrews were vividly shown how- vain was their favorite remedj' for the mischiefs of foreign invasion and intestine discord.