1 Samuel 14
Butler14 47-52. Summary account of Saul’s wars and of his family.
15 1 And Samuel said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I have marked that which Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him in the way, when he came up out of Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. 4 And Saul summoned the people, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
Verse 6. The Kenites spared.
7. And Saul smote the Amalekites, from Havilah as thou goest to Shur, that is before Egypt. 8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with 9 the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them : but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. 10, 11 Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king : for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my com- 12 mandments. And Samuel was wroth ; and he cried unto the LORD all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning ; and it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a monument, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to 13 Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul : and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD : I 14 have performed the commandment of the LORD. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this 15 bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear ? And Saul said. They have brought them from the Amalekites : for the people spared the best of the sheep and 16 of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God ; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. 17 And he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, Though thou wast little in thine own sight, 18 wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel ? And the LORD anointed thee king over Israel ; and the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the 19 Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst that which was evil in the 20 sight of the LORD ? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, 21 and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, 22 the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Be- cause thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. 24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned : for I have transgressed the commandment of the 25 LORD, and thy words : because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, I 26 pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD. And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee : for thou hast rejected the word of the 27 LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned 28 about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his robe, and it rent. And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neigh- 29 bor of thine, that is better than thou. And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor re- 30 pent : for he is not a man, that he should repent. Then he said, I have sinned : yet honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with 31 me, that I may worship the LORD thy God. So Samuel turned again after Saul ; and Saul worshipped the LORD. 32 Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came 33 unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal. 34, 35 Then Samuel went to Ramah ; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death ; for Samuel mourned for Saul : and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.
47. The various wars undertaken by Saul whom the people elected king “to go out be- fore them and fight their battles” are here sum- marily noticed. A. F. K.—These expeditions are only indicated in the sacred text, as not forming constituent elements in the history of the kingdom of God, however they may have contributed to the prosperity of the Jewish state. The war against Amalek alone is sepa- rately told (ch. 15), alike from its character and from its bearing on the kingdom which God would establish in Israel. 49-51. Along with these outward successes the sacred text also in- dicates the seeming prosperity of Saul, as regarded his family-life. It almost appears as if it had been intended to place before us, side by side in sharp contrast, these two facts: Saul’s prosperity both at home and abroad, and his sudden fall and rejection, to show forth that grand truth which all history is evolving: Jehovah reigneth! A. E.
Some years had passed during which Saul had distinguished himself in the field by a series of always successful operations against the hostile nations around, whom he taught to respect the power of Israel, though he did not bring them under subjection. It would appear that in all these proceedings he acted much as an independent sovereign, without the required indications of his dependence upon the Divine King of Israel. One trial more was to be afforded him—one more test of his obedience, before the sentence of exclusion from his dynasty was finally pronounced. Kit.
Special Commission to Destroy Amalek.
1. Me did Jehovah send.** The pronoun stands emphatically at the head of the sentence. The prophet appeals to his former commission to anoint Saul as accrediting him to be God’s messenger on the present occasion. “The note of special warning” with which he prefaces the command indicates that he felt that “the discipline of Saul’s life was gathering itself up into a special trial,” and that this would be “a crisis in that life-history.” A. F. K.
15 : 1. Already Saul had openly violated the fundamental principles of the constitution on which he held the throne, and the prophet had announced its forfeiture. Still this forfeiture was not carried into immediate execution. Time and opportunity were given him to retrace his steps; nay, more,—and this gives its chief interest to this narrative—God spontaneously puts him afresh on trial, proposes to him a new test of obedience. Samuel comes to Saul, comes of his own accord, with a proposal emanating immediately from the Most High, commissioning the king to go and execute on Amalek the doom pronounced many hundred years before. A man of a right spirit, in Saul’s place, would have accepted this commission with joy. It carried with it no indistinct indication that he had not utterly been cast out of the Divine favor. It gave him a renewed opportunity of proving his fidelity to the crown, and regaining the place from which he had fallen. Without reproaching him for the past, how tenderly does Samuel remind him of it, and how earnestly does he plead with him to be faithful to the new trust committed to him. Hanna.
3. This sin of Amalek slept all the time of the Judges, who were only for rescue and defence; now, so soon as Israel hath a king and that king is settled in peace, God gives charge to call them to account. It was that which God had both threatened and sworn; and now he chooses out a fit season for the execution. Bp. H.
8,9. Agag, the king, was taken prisoner; but all the rest of the people were put to death, clearly showing that Saul was not moved to disobedience by any feelings of humanity. There can be no doubt that Agag was spared to add splendor to Saul’s triumphant return, as a king making war for himself rather than as the servant of Jehovah. The spoil was dealt with in like manner; and here the people shared the sin, sparing all the best of the cattle and all that was valuable, and destroying all that was vile and refuse. It was doubtless true in part, as Saul afterward declared, that he would have offered some of the cattle in sacrifice to God; but the chief motive in sparing them was clearly to enrich his followers with the spoil. Instead of pursuing the campaign and finishing the destruction of the fugitives, he returned by way of Carmel to Gilgal (verse 12). P. S.
10,11. What now follows in the sacred narrative is tragic, grand, and even awful. The first scene is laid at night in Samuel’s house at Ramah. It is God who speaketh to the aged seer. “It repenteth Me that I have made Saul king, for he has returned from after Me, and My Word he has not executed” (literally, set up). “And it kindled in Samuel” (intense feeling), “and he cried unto Jehovah the whole night.” A. E.—Without ceasing, the man of prayer fought all that night for the soldier. Connected with him by no tie of kindred, Samuel appears in this pleading for the fallen king as one who was girt about with the moral greatness of a loving heart. But his prayers could not change the purposes of Almighty wisdom. Sime.—12. With the morning light came calm resolve and the terrible duty of going in search of Saul on this errand of God. A. E.
The vain-glorious character of Saul was further evinced in his homeward march, by his setting up a monument of his exploit at Carmel (south of Hebron)—thus appropriating to himself all the honor of the success, and such as no other king ever ventured to do. Compare the spirit which this evinces with the constant and heart-felt dependence upon God, and the formal ascription of all honor and glory to Him, evinced in the Psalms and the history of David—a far greater conqueror than Saul. Kit.
13. Saul’s greeting to Samuel.** God had said to the Prophet, Saul hath not performed my commandment. In bold denial now sounds the assertion of Saul, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. He is forward, too, in making a profession of obedience before he is inquired of by Samuel. This assertion of itself, where no challenge of innocence is uttered, indicates sensitiveness of conscience and consciousness of guilt. B.—His heart knew that his tongue was as false as his hands had been; and if his heart had not been more false than either of them, neither of them had been so gross in their falsehood. If hypocrisy were not either foolish or impudent, she durst not show her head to a seer of God. Bp. H.
14,15. Samuel first disproves Saul’s assertion by the evidence of his senses, and speaking only for himself. The bleating of the sheep and lowing of the oxen testified loudly against the king. The fact he cannot deny, and therefore he undertakes to justify it. He puts the responsibility upon the people; an unworthy subterfuge, showing that his character, both as king and man, was utterly demoralized. Then, as a color of excuse for their act, he affirms that the best of the sheep and oxen were spared for sacrifice. But, he adds, virtually repeating his first assertion of obedience for himself and the people, “the rest we have utterly destroyed.” The answer was deceitful and false at every point. He knew that the people would not have dared to spare without his assent, and that he had assented to it; that both he and the people sought their own advantage in sparing the cattle; and that, even if they had intended to offer them in sacrifice, the offerings would be appropriated to sacrificial meals, and so be used for their own gratification. And he should have inferred that God would not accept for sacrifice at the altar the cattle which He had distinctly commanded to be sacrificed to Him in the field. Often and plainly before, he had been told that God could be served, and would be worshipped, only in the way He had himself prescribed. His whole plea, therefore, was utterly false and hypocritical.
16,17,18,19. Samuel charges guilt home upon Saul. He speaks now expressly in God’s name, faithfully uttering the message of Jehovah in part. He reminds Saul of his obscure origin, and the honor God had put upon him in exalting him to be king over Israel; recalls the distinctness of the Divine command he was bidden to execute in destroying the enemies of
God and of Israel; refers to the ease of the service and the certainty of his success, since it was a journey upon which he was sent rather than a war to be waged at his own charges. Thus he emphasizes the terrible charge with which he concludes, that Saul had disobeyed the voice of the Lord, and done evil in his sight, by selfishly converting to his own use that which was to have been destroyed for the honor of God.
20,21. Saul boldly denies the charge. First, with a defiant spirit, he reasserts his entire obedience to God’s command, and then again shifts the responsibility for the sparing of the cattle from himself to the people, repeating the attempt to justify their act, by their purpose to offer the animals in sacrifice to God. He admits that he spared the King Agag, but affirms that he had destroyed all the people of Amalek, and that he held the king a prisoner. In all this reply he does but confirm the Prophet’s charge. He spared the king to grace his own triumph, and the cattle to enrich himself and his people. B.—If Saul’s intention of sacrifice had been true, it had been frivolous, for God hates robbery for burnt-offering; God appointed these cattle to be sacrificed to him in the field, and therefore will give to those no thanks that bring them to be sacrificed at his altar; for he will be served in his own way, and according to the rule he himself has prescribed. H.
What was already devoted to the Lord could not be offered to Him on the altar, because it belonged to Him already, but must be burnt together with the city to which it belonged, “in the midst of the street thereof” (De. 12:16). This base paltering with truth, this pretext of piety to excuse wilful disobedience, awakened the true prophetic spirit in Samuel’s breast, and, rapt beyond himself by the inspiration of the Most High, he poured forth in winged words the eternal truth which lies at the foundation of all religious service, the inferior worth of ceremonial to moral obedience, so far in anticipation of any teaching yet given. E. V.—With a burst of prophetic inspiration Samuel rends asunder Saul’s tissue of excuses, and lays bare his sin. His words are the key-note of the long remonstrance of the prophets in subsequent ages against the too common error of supposing that external ceremonial can be of any value in the sight of God when separated from the true devotion of the worshipper’s heart which it symbolizes. A. F. K.
If the sacred writer had not recorded the tenderness of Samuel in crying to Jehovah all night for the king, a reader might think every gentle feeling was dead in the prophet’s bosom. But the sternness of Samuel goes hand-in-hand with his tenderness. And when these two feelings invite our judgment on the part he bore in this interview, there is but one thing to be said: while the prophet loved Saul much, he loved Jehovah more. Because he loved Saul much, he cried to God all night, striving to turn aside the sword of justice. When he failed, the greater love which he bore to Jehovah came into play. Sime.
22, 23. The Prophet defines the sin, and pronounces the doom of Saul. In words so vivid, piercing, stern, that they seem to kindle into flame upon the page, he refutes Saul’s justification, defines the character and shows the enormity of his guilt, and concentrates the accusation in the very announcement of God’s sentence of final rejection. First he appeals to Saul’s own instructed conscience as against even the excuse he had offered. Compared with obedience to God, did not Saul himself know that burnt-offering was an abomination, and sacrifice a mockery in His sight? And still referring to the comparison of outward worship and heart obedience, he concentrates the charge against the king by sharply affirming that rebelliousness or stubbornness—i.e., self-willed disobedience, is like in character and guilt to a rejection of Jehovah, a turning away from true heart worship to the impostures of witchcraft, or the iniquities of idol-worship. Then follows the sentence of doom: Because thou hast despised, made nothing of, the word or commandment of the Lord, therefore he has despised, made nothing of thee, and cast thee down from being king. Few words of the Old Testament are so instructive. That obedience is better than sacrifice, is evident from the character and cost of each. “In sacrifice a man offers only the strange flesh of irrational animals, whereas in obedience he offers his own will, which is rational or spiritual worship.” And the cost of bringing a lamb or heifer to the altar is not comparable with that of bringing every high thought and selfish passion as a sacrifice of obedience to God. Moreover, sacrifice itself finds meaning and value only as in outward form it expresses the fact of inward penitence, submission and trust. It is in these the penitent Psalmist finds the sacrifices of God to consist. Specially instructive also are these words of Samuel, occurring at this early period in Israel’s history, and followed by many of like import, as showing that the spiritual meaning of the ceremonial law was taught to and understood by the people. B.
Above all merely formal acts of worship, though they be acts that God himself has prescribed, above all sacrifices, whether of the lamb of the fold or the gold of the coffer, precious, in God’s reckoning, is the ear that is open to hear His word, and the hand that is ready to do His bidding. And for the constant hearkening to His voice, and the constant doing of His will, He will accept no substitute in the costliest offerings that we may present. It is sad to reflect how much of the religion that exists among us is a religion of substitution and compromise. Some of the costliest things we have we would offer Him. No small portion of our time we would dedicate to His worship and service. No small portion of our wealth we would contribute for the extension of His kingdom. Many a painful duty will we do, many a painful sacrifice will we make; but all for this, that having given so much to God, the rest may be our own to do with as we please, to spend as we may list. It cannot be. The Holy One and the Just will enter into no such compromise, will stoop to no such terms. It is a broad, unrestricted obedience that He claims; a willing, loving, universal service. He asks the heart—the whole heart; the life—the whole life. For the habitual neglect of any one known duty, for the habitual commission of any one known sin, no compensation can be accepted. And there is something singularly impressive in this testimony to the comparative worthlessness of all sacrifices and burnt-offerings issuing from the very heart of the Levitical institute, spoken at the very time when all the statutes and ordinances of the Lord touching the manifold services of the sanctuary were in full force. To bear this very testimony in front of the priesthood, was, in truth, one of the chief designs of the Prophetic office. And it is with no stinted breath that the first in the line of this order sounds here the key-note, responded to by one after another of his successors, till Jeremiah is bold enough to say, in the name of the Lord, “I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them: Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people” (Jer. 7: 22, 23). Hanna.
21,25. Driven from evasion to evasion, he could no longer dissemble his guilt, but was constrained to confess that he had feared the people instead of God, had obeyed their voice instead of the voice of God. The extreme solicitude with which, after his confession, he importuned Samuel to turn with him and honor him before the elders of the people, showed that the respect of men was still the darling object of his heart. Gisborne.
David, during his reign, committed a more heinous offence against domestic and social morality than anything that Saul as yet had done; but he was pardoned and restored because when charged with the sin—“Thou art the man”—he confessed it, and excused not himself. And then he cried to God, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” But Saul, when charged with disobedience, showed no shame or sorrow on its account. He at once put himself in a defensive attitude, stooped to subterfuge, laid the blame on others, had no feeling but a desire to escape consequences. It is pitiful to see that the king looked no higher than to Samuel, and asked no more than that the prophet would pardon him, and favor him so far as to join with him while he publicly worshipped the Lord. D. F.
27-31. He entreated him to go with him, and when Samuel refused, and turned to leave, he laid such hold on the corner of his mantle that he rent it. Not terrified by the violence of the king, Samuel only bade him consider this as a sign of how Jehovah had that day rent the kingdom from him. At last the painful scene ended. Saul gave up the pretence of wishing Samuel’s presence from religious motives, and pleaded for it on the ground of honoring him before the elders of his people. And to this Samuel yielded. A. E.—The abject wretchedness of the man seems to have touched him. But it is not said that Samuel worshipped with him. Samuel would no doubt continue firm to his purpose not to identify himself with Saul as king, or give him any moral support in his attitude of disobedience. 32, 33. So far from that, Samuel openly superseded him in dealing with Agag; he went out of his way, and did an act which could not but appear a frightful one for a venerable prophet of the Lord. It is the voice of the real king that sounds in the command, “Bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites.” W. G. B.
Rising to the stern demands of God’s fearful retributions, Samuel declares to Agag, “As thy sword has made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women,” and then “hewed the guilty king in pieces before the Lord”—the final clause “before the Lord” signifying that God was solemnly present to that scene, and that it was done in faithful though stern fulfilment of God’s command. It was the moment for God’s eternal justice to be vindicated. There was no element in Saul’s character equal to such an emergency; there was none in Samuel’s that could shrink from fulfilling God’s high behest. The contrast is a lesson in moral sublimity. H. C.
Far higher than feelings of humanity, there may be, though unknown to us, a justice requiring the infliction of a punishment, which our pity shrinks from as harsh or terrible. Pity is not allowed to interfere with justice when a traitor, or a spy, or a murderer meets his fate. But an all-knowing judge may treat nations and races precisely as men treat their fellows who have been guilty of crime. This is the position taken by Hebrew historians. It is a reasonable position; one, too, which can be detended and vindicated on principles of the highest morality. As a man is to his fellow-men for reward or punishment, so may a nation be to God. There are no other grounds on which the morality of Amalek’s destruction can be placed. Sime.—It is one of the sublime prerogatives of the God of nations to hold men to righteousness and to deter them from outrageous inhumanity. There will be cases that must be made terrible examples of the punishment which such sinners deserve. The assumption—sometimes so hastily and thoughtlessly made—that real benevolence never can restrain sin by means of inflicted suffering, may sometimes seem plausible, but is sadly short-sighted, not to say puerile. It has never measured the mischiefs of unrestrained sin in the moral universe; has taken no account of the true interests of moral beings, or of the value of holiness; and does not even attempt to estimate the responsibilities of the Great Father of all to restrain and punish the free moral wickedness of his creatures. H. C.
35. From that day forward Samuel came no more to see Saul. God’s ambassador was no longer accredited to him. The Spirit of Jehovah departed from him. But still Samuel mourned for him and over him; mourned as for one cut off in the midst of life, dead while living, a king rejected of God. And still “Jehovah repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.” A. E.
The rejection of Saul took no sudden effect. Gravely and sadly it was pronounced by Samuel; but it brought about no immediate catastrophe. None the less was it a sure and fatal sentence. We know that Saul was not dethroned. He had a long reign, and died on the battle-field. But the process was already begun which led him to dark Gilboa, which led one better than him to Hebron and to Jerusalem; and the remainder of this book is occupied in showing how the Divine rejection of Saul took effect, and how the Lord brought forward and trained the son of Jesse for the kingdom. D. F.