1 Samuel 11

1. Nahash the Ammonite came up. This invasion seems to have been previously threatened: see 1 Sam. xii. 12.

7 he took, etc. A symbolical action, like that recorded in Judges xix. 29.

8. Bezek. Probably Khirbet-Ibzik, north-east of Shechem, on the road to Bethshan.

three hundred thousand . . . thirty thousand. This was evidently a collection of all the men immediately available.

11 in three companies. Like Gideon, Judges vii. 16.

were scattered. How gracefully the men of Jabesh-gilead remembered this deliverance is seen in xxxi. 11-13.

13. There shall not a man be put to death. Saul’s conduct upon this occasion would serve to increase his popularity; of which Samuel wisely took advantage, in order to obtain a solemn recognition of his royal dignity at Gilgal. Samuel’s whole course in these transactions towards both the king and the people forms a noble close to his own political life, as well as to the patriotic actions of that succession of Divinely-appointed judges of whom he was the last.