, cised" heathen. Abuse me. This verb is they were in course of time developed. We 'translRted rnock in Jer. xxniii. 19. "Mal- now return to the narrative of the battle 1111<1 treat" would be a better rendering in both its immediate consequences. As the spoiling places, and also in Judges xix. 25, where, was deferred till the morrow, the struggle too, the word occurs. Its exact meaning is must have been obstin11tely contested and to practise upon another n.ll that passion, decided only just before nightfall. ' lust, anger, or malice dictate. Probably Vers. 9, 10.-They out oft' his head. Saul thought that t1tey would treat him as This was probably done not simply in retali- they had previously treated Samson (Judges ation for what had happened to their cham- u·i. 21-25). pion Goliath, but in accordance with the Vers. 5, 6. - His armour-bearer. The customs of ancient warfare. The fierce joy .Jewish tradition says that he was Doeg the of the Philistines over the fallen Saul proves Edomite, and that the sword on which Saul how great had been their fear of him, and iell was that with which he had massacred how successful he had been in breaking their the priests. This is not very probable; but yoke off Israel's neck.· Had he still had whoever he was, his horror on being asked to David with him the victory would assuredly slay his master, and his devotion to him, are have remained on his side. They put his desen-ing of admiration. All his men. In armour in the house of Aehtaroth. Hebrew, 1 Ch ron. x. 6 " all his house." But Ish- "of the Ashtaroth." Whether it was di- bosheth and Abner survived, and the mean- vided among the various shrines of Astarte, ing probably is not that his whole army, but or whether it was all placed in her famous that his personal attendants, all those posted temple at Askelon, described by Herodotus round him, fell to a man, fighting bravely (i. 105) as the most ancient of the fanes of for their king, as the Scots fought round the Syrian Venus, is uncertain. The former King James V. at Flodden Field. As suicide view agrees best with the Hebrew text and was very rare among the Israelites, the with what is said in 1 Chron. x. 10, where Jea th of Saul is made more in tensely tragic we have the additional information that by the anguish which drove him thus to me they suspended Saul's head in the temple of by his owll hand. Dagon. They fastened his body to the wall POLITICAL RESULT OF THE RATTLE (ver. 7). of Beth-shau, as also the bodies of his sons Yer. 7.-The men of Israel. The term is here (ver. 12). Beth-shan or Scythopolis lies applied to non-combatants, while in ver. 1 about four miles from the Jordan on the it meant those following San! in arms. On west, and twelve miles south of the lake of the other side of the valley. I. e. of J ezreel, Tiberias. It is almost in a straight line and so all the Israelites inhabiting the tribes to the west of Mahanaim, and must have of Issachar, Zabulon, and Naphthali, and the been at once occupied by the Philistines, region generally to the north. In 1 Chron. and as they hung the bodies of the fallen x. 7 this flight is confined to the inhabitants king and his sons on its wall, they evidently of the valley, one of the most fertile districts intended to retain it. of Palestine ; but probably the statement RECOVEltY OF THE BODIES OF SAUL AND made here, that a very large extent of HIS SONS (vers. 11-13). Ver. 11.-J'abesh- country was the prize of victory, is the more Gilead. Eusebius describes this place ns correct. On the other side J' ordan. Th is situated on the road from Pella to Gerasa, phrase constantly means the eastern side of and therefore it would be much nearer the the Jordan, nor need we doubt but that the Jordan than Mahanaim, and probably was people living near it abandoned their homes not more than twelve or fourteen miles and fled; for the river would form but a, distant from Beth-shan. The people there slight protection for them in this northerly had not forgotten how bravely Saul had part of its course. Still the conquests on saved them, and now showed their gratitude the eastern bank of the Jordan must have by rescuing his remains from disgrace. been confined to a small district near the Vers. 12, 13. -They burnt them. Crema- lake of Tiberias, as Abner was able to place tion, though highly honourable among clas- Ishbosheth as king at Mahanaim, a town sical nation8, is here mentioned for the first about twenty miles to the east of the river, time in Holy Scripture, and was probably and not far from Jabez-Gilead. South of resorted to on this occasion to insure the J ezreel the Philistines made no conquests, bodies of Saul and his sons against further and thus Ephraim, Benjamin, and Judah maltreatment, as, if buried, the Philistines remained free, and of course Gilead, and might have made the attempt to get them the most part of the region beyond Jordan again into their power. Some suppose that (see 2 Sam. ii. 8-11). the burning of the dead was nfterwards prac- MALTREATMENT OF THE BODIES OF SAUL tised by the Jews, and quote in its favour AND HIS 80NS (ven,. 8-10). Ver. 8.-It 2 Chron. xvi. 14; Isa. xxxiii. 12; Jer. xxxi. e&me to pass on the morrow. The previous 40 ; xxxiv. 5 ; Amos vi. 10, but these pas- Terse gave us the result. of the victory as sages bear a different interpretation. After ,c;n. x,x,. 1-.B.J THE FlHST BOOK OF S.UIUEL. 563
the exile, interment was the sole methoJ of fonuness for trees. For the final fate of these disposing of the Jead among the Jews, anJ relics see 2 Sam. xxi. 12-14. They fasted in the Talmud cremation is conJemned as a seven days (see Gen. I. 10). The time of heathen practice. The burial of the bones mourning mts thirty days lor Aaron (Numb. of Sanl and his sons proves that their bodies xx. 29) and for i\Ioses (Deut. xxxiv. 8). The here were really burnt. Under a tree. Talrnuclic rnle is strict mourning for seven Hebrew, "under the tama1isk," tbe famous days, less strict for the next twenty-three, in tree of that species at Jabesh. It was under all thirty; and for a father or mother mourn- one tamarisk that Saul commanded the mas• ing was continuer! for a year. The fasting sacre of the prie~ts (eh. xxii. 6), and now his was mourning of the strictest kind, and bones are placed in rest beneath another. proves that the people of Jabesh-Gileacl Perhaps the people remembered the king's honoured to the utmost their deliverer.