The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 263

CHAPTER XV. solemn address, reminding Saul that he wea Jehovah's anointed one, and therefore had DIVINE COMMAND TO PUNISH THE AMA• special duties towards him ; that be had also LEKITES, AND ITS EXECUTION BY SAUL been anointed by Samuel's instrumentality, (vers. 1-9). Ver. l.~amuel also said. and after earnest instruction as to his duties ; Better literally, "And Samuel said." There and, finally, that Israel was J ehovah's people, is no note of time, but probably a consider- and their king, therefore, bound to obey able interval elapsed before this second trial Jehovah's commands. of Saul was made. God does not finally Ver. 2.-Amalek. The Amalekites were reject a man until, after repeated oppor- a fierce race of nomads who inhabited the tunities for repentance, he finally proves desert to the south of Judea towards Egypt. obdurate. Dand committed worse crimes They were, and still continue to be in their than Saul, but he had a tender conscitnce, descendants, the Bedouins, an untamable and each fall was followed by deep and race of savages, whose delight is in robbery earnest sorrow. Saul sinned and repented and plunder. Between them and Israel not. Just, then, as Eli had a first warning, there was bitter hostility occasioned by which, though apparently unconditional in its their having attacked the people immediately terms (eh. ii 27-36), was really a call to after the Exodus (Exod. xvii. 8-16), and repentance, and was only made irrevocable the command there given to exterminate by his persistence for many years in the them is repeated now, probably in conse- same sins (eh. iii. 11-14), so was it with quence of their raids having become more Saul. The prophet's words in eh. xiii. 13, numerous and sanguinary under their present 14 were a stern warning, and had Saul taken king, as we gather from ver. 33. The refer- them to heart, God 'IS'ould have forgiven him ence to a war with tlie Amalektes in eh. xiv. his sin. He repented not, but repeated the 48 no doubt refers to this expedition, as we offence, and so the sentence was confirmed. have there a mere summary of Saul's military When, then, critics say that we have two enterprises. I remember. Literally, " I accounts of Saul's rejection, and that he is have visited;" but the sense of remembering represented as having been set aside first for seems confirmed by such passages as Gen. xxi. one reason and then for another, their ob- 1 ; 1. 24 ; Isa. xxiii. 17; xxvi 16. The jection arises entirely from a false view of Septuagint, however, and Aquila give a very God's dealings \\ith mankind. Alike pro- good sense: "I have considered," "thought mises and threatenings, blessings and pun- over." How he le.id· we.it for him in the ishments are conditional ; for there is no we.y. There is no idea in the Hebrew of heathen fatalism in Holy Scripture, but ambuscade or treachery. It is simply, "How mercy waiting to triumph onr justice. God, he set himself in the way against him," i. e. then, was not willing lightly io cast away so opposed, withstood him, tried to bar his noble an instrument as Saul. His first sin progress. too had been committed when he was new in Ver. 3.-Utterly destroy. Hebrew, "put the kingdom, and in a position of danger under the ban." The word herem, ban, and dilliculty. He waits, therefore, till Saul properly signifies a thing set apart, especially bas had some years of success and power, one devoted to God ; and whatever was so and his character has developed itself, and is devoted could not be redeemed, but must be taking its permanent form; and then again slain. When a country was put under the ban, gives him a trial in order to test his fitness all living things, men and cattle, were to be ~.,o Le a theocratic king. The interest, then, killed ; no spoil might be taken, but it was ~f this chapter lies in the unfolding of Saul's to be burnt, and things indestructible by fire, character, and so it follo"·s immediately as silver and gold, were to be brought into 11pon eh. xiv., which was occupied with the the treasury. Everything, in short, belonging same subject, without any note of chronology, to such a nation was looked upon as accursed becauae the historical narrative is subserv- (see Num. xxi. 2, 8). ient to the personal. Hence, too, Samuel's Ver. 4.-Tele.im. ICimchi i,lcntifies thi•  011. X\'. 1- 35.] '111E .nnsT LOOK ti.,.. S,\:\l uf:L.