The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 265

<>I' events, but especially with San 1. In choos- \Yhile Saul's own conscienco was silent they i 11g him he had hoped that, in addition to high were proclaiming Iris disobedience. a11i litary qualities, he would possess a religious Yer. 15.-They have brought them. Ne ·rnd obedient heart. He had no,, obtained doubt this was verbally_tnrn, nm\ very pro- for tim a second tria\, and if, warned by his bably the excuse of holdmg a great sacrifice <'nrlier failure, he had pro.ed trustworthy all to Jehovah had been put prominently for- might have been well. Saul had too mauy ward. But reasons are never wanting wher uoble gifts for Samnel to foe! indifferent at men have made up their minds, ·and the the perrnrsion of so great an intellect and so people who so readily obeyed Saul before J1eroic a heart. But he was of a despotic (eh. xiv. 24, 34, 40) would have obeyed him temperament, and would bend to no will but no,v, had he really wished it. For a king so his own ; and so he had sa ,·ed the best of the wilful and imperious as Saul thus to seek plunder to enrich the people, and Agag for excuses, and try to throw the blame on possibly as a proof of his personal triumph. others, marks, as has been well observed, . a And he tried unto Jehovah all night. /. e. thorough break-down of his moral character. he offered an earnest prayer for forgiveness Ver. 16.-Stay. Samuel will hear no more. for Saul, and for a change in his heart. As Long as he had striven for him in prayer Abravanel says, Samuel no donbt loved Saul (ver. 11), he now feels that Saul has fallen for his beauty and heroism, and therefore too low for recovery to be possible. This prayed for him ; but no change came in night. It i~· plain from this that Samuel -answer to his prayer, and as forgiveness is had not gone to meet Saul at- Carmel, but on -conditional upon man's repentance, Saul was receiving information of his movements had not forgiven. It is remarkable how often proceeded straight to Gilgal, distant from i-amuel is represented as "crying" unto God Ramah about fifteen- miles. • (see eh. ni. 8, 9 ; xii. 18). Ver. 17.-When--rather, Though-thou Ver. 12.-Samuel rose early. If Samuel wast little in thine own sight. Before µis ,rns at home at Ramah, he would have a elevation to the royal dignity Saul hacl journey of several days before reaching deemed himself altogether unequal to so Carmel, the city mentioned in Josh. xv. heavy a task (eh. ix. 21); now, after great 55, on the road from .A.raa, on the borders military successes, he is filled with arrogance, -of the wilderness of Judah, about ten miles and will rule in open defiance of the con- south-east of Hebron. The words in the ditions upon which Jehovah had appointed morning should be joined with rose early. him to the office Before setting out, however, Samuel learned Ver. 18.-The sinners. The Amalekites that Saul had already marched northward were a race of robbers,- and the command "to towards Gilgal, having first set him up a place devote them " was the consequence of the -Hebrew, "a hand," i. e. a monument, robbery and murder practised by them on .something to call attention to his victory. the Israelite borders. In 2 Sam. xviii. 18 Absalom's pillar is styled Vers. 20, 21.-Saul's justification of him- "Absalom's hand." A Hebrew trophy in self is remarkable, as he seems entirely un- honour of a victory possibly had a hand conscious of having done anything wrong. earred npon it. Gilgal was the city in the His education had no doubt been defective ,Jordan valley near Jericho, whither Samuel (eh. x. 12), and his knowledge of the law noac followed Saul. was probably Yery small ; but he must have "fer. 13.-Blessed be thou of Jehovah. listened to Samuel's injunctions in a very Saul meets Samuel with all external respect, off - hand way, and have troubled himself .and seems even to expect his approval, say- about very little more than that he was to ing, I have performed the commandment of make war upon the Amalekites. There may .Jehovah. .A.nd so he had in the half-way in even have been the wish in his mind to let which men generally keep God's command- Samuel know that he was now king, and ments, doing that part which is agreeable to would carry on affairs after his own fashion. themselves, and leaving that part undone The very form of his answer requires notice ; which gives them neither pleasure nor profit. for the word rendered yea is literally in that, Saul probauly had thought very little about or becaitse, and may be paraphrased as fol- the exact terms of the command given him, lows : Do you reproach me thus because I cand having successfully accomplished the have obeyed· you 1 See, ·there is Agog· in main point of carrying out a vast foray proof of our victory; ·and if the people have ;against the .A.malekites, regarded the captive spared the cattle, it was with the best ot king and the plundered cattle as proofs of his intentions. The next clause, the chief of Yittory. The trophy at Carmel is a token of the things which should have been utterly 1,is own self-satisfaction. destroyed, reads in the A. V. like an ironical Ver. 14.-What meaneth then this bleat- parenthesis. It is not so, but an important ing 1 &c. Literally, "What is this voice of part of Saul's defence. These sheel? and j;heep in my ears, and the voice of oxen ! " oxen were "the best of the devoted thmgs," O!I. X'I. 1-35.] THE FIRST BOOK OF SA:MVF:L. 267