1 Samuel · Chapter 31

Verse 1. Now the Philistines fought] This is the continuation of the account given in 1 Samuel 29:1-11.

The men of Israel fled] It seems as if they were thrown into confusion at the first onset, and turned their backs upon their enemies.

Verse 1. Now the Philistines fought against Israel — That is, gave them battle. As they began the quarrel, (1 Samuel 29:1,) so they seem to have begun the fight. It must be observed that the foregoing chapter is a digression, to relate what happened to David at this time. The sacred writer now resumes the thread of the narrative in regard to Saul, relating what befell him upon his return from Endor. And it seems he was scarce returned before the Philistines attacked his camp, and, after some resistance, broke into it. Delaney thinks that they were encouraged to this attempt by some secret information of Saul’s having stolen out of the camp the evening before, with his general, Abner, (who is supposed to have been one of his attendants,) and another person. Certainly intelligence of that kind could not be hard to be obtained, and, if obtained, would be a strong encouragement to such an attack. And if this were the case, Saul’s applying to the enchantress was the immediate cause of his destruction. See 1 Chronicles 10:13, where one cause of his death is stated to be his applying for counsel to one who had a familiar spirit.

DEATH OF SAUL AND HIS SONS, 1-13.

From this chapter on, through the subsequent history of the Kings, we have the parallel, and ofttimes supplementary, compilations of the books of Chronicles. Compare with this chapter 1 Chronicles 10. This chapter resumes the account of the Philistine war which was commenced at 1 Samuel 28:1, and broken off at 1 Samuel 29:11.

1. The men of Israel fled — It was probably whispered among the Israelitish troops that Saul had received a communication from Samuel, and that their defeat and their leader’s death had been foretold. This would unnerve their bravest heroes, and spread terror among all. And after his return from that midnight conference with the witch of Endor Saul himself could have had no spirit to fight.

V. 2. Jonathan-David’s dear friend; God so ordering it for the farther exercise of David’s faith and patience; and that David might depend upon God alone for his crown, and receive it solely from him, and not from Jonathan; who doubtless, had he lived, would have speedily settled the crown upon David’s head. There was also a special providence of God, in taking away Jonathan, (who of all Saul’s sons, seems to have been the fairest for the crown) for preventing divisions, which might have happened amongst the people concerning the successor: David’s way to the crown being by this means made the more clear. Abinadab-Called also Ishui, 1 Samuel 14:49. Ishbosheth was not here, being possibly at home for the management of affairs there.

Verse 2. Followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons] They, seeing the discomfiture of their troops, were determined to sell their lives as dear as possible, and therefore maintained the battle till the three brothers were slain.

Verse 2. The Philistines slew Jonathan — David’s dear friend; God so ordering it for the further exercise of David’s faith and patience; and that David might depend upon God alone for his crown, and receive it solely from him, and not from Jonathan; who, doubtless, had he lived, would have speedily settled the crown upon David’s head. There was also a special providence of God in taking away Jonathan, (who, of all Saul’s sons, seems to have been the fairest for the crown,) for preventing divisions, which might have happened among the people concerning the successor: David’s way to the crown being by this means made the more clear. Abinadab — Called also Ishui, 1 Samuel 14:49. Ish-bosheth was not here, being possibly at home for the management of affairs there. Thus the prediction of Samuel was fulfilled: but who can forbear dropping a tear over the faithful, the amiable, the excellent Jonathan? “There are few characters among men more lovely or more extraordinary than his: fortitude, fidelity, magnanimity! a soul susceptible of the most refined friendship, and superior to all the temptations of ambition and vanity! and all these crowned with the most resigned submission to the will of God.” — Delaney.

2. Followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons — When Saul and his sons saw the people flying they probably placed themselves in the thickest of the battle, and sought, as by the last efforts of despair, to turn the tide of the Philistines’ victory. Thus they exposed themselves to death.

Verse 3. He was sore wounded of the archers.] It is likely that Saul’s sons were slain by the archers, and that Saul was now mortally wounded by the same. Houbigant translates, The archers rushed upon him, from whom he received a grievous wound. He farther remarks that had not Saul been grievously wounded, and beyond hope of recovery, he would not have wished his armour-bearer to despatch him; as he might have continued still to fight, or have made his escape from this most disastrous battle. Some of the versions render it, He FEARED the archers greatly; but this is by no means likely.

Verse 3. The archers hit him — Hebrews whaxmy jim-stauhu, found him. Houbigant renders it, rushed upon him. It seems by this that the Philistines gained the battle, chiefly by the advantage of their archers. Probably these were some hired troops, for we meet with no mention before this of any archers in any of the Philistines’ armies or battles; and it seems to have been a way of fighting that Saul and the Israelites were not prepared for, and therefore they were soon thrown into confusion by it. “The use of the bow, however,” says Dr. Dodd, “was not unknown. Jonathan is celebrated for his skill and dexterity in it; and so were some of the worthies who resorted to David; but it seems not yet to have been brought into common practice, if, as has been collected from 2 Samuel 1:18, David, after this battle, had the Israelites taught the use of it.”

3. Battle went sore — This verse is rendered better thus: Then the battle was heavy against Saul, and the archers, men with the bow, discovered him, and he became greatly terrified because of the archers — After his sons had fallen, Saul was in worse straits than ever, for now the brunt of the battle came on him. Archers — µyrwm, shooters; explained further by the phrase men with the bow; that is, men who shot arrows with the bow. whaxmy, found him; discovered him; singled him out; not hit him, as our version. After the fall of his sons, the archers discovered Saul, and began to aim their missiles at him. ljyw, imperfect, shortened from lwj, to writhe, to quake with pain. The word nowhere means to be wounded, as our version has it here. It is, indeed, probable that some of their arrows struck him, and this caused his alarm. He saw that he was the mark of the Philistine sharp-shooters, and he therefore writhed and quaked with terror at the thought of falling by such hands.

Verse 4. Draw thy sword, and thrust me through] Dr. Delaney has some good observations on this part of the subject: “Saul and his armour-bearer died by the same sword. That his armour-bearer died by his own sword is out of all doubt; the text expressly tells us so; and that Saul perished by the same sword is sufficiently evident. Draw THY sword, says he to him, and thrust me through; which, when he refused, Saul, says the text, took THE sword, ta (brjh eth hachereb, the very sword,) and fell upon it. What sword? Not his own, for then the text would have said so; but, in the plain natural grammatical construction, the sword before mentioned must be the sword now referred to, that is, his armour-bearer’s, 1 Chronicles 10:4, 5. Now it is the established tradition of all the Jewish nation that this armour-bearer was Doeg, and I see no reason why it should be discredited; and if so, then Saul and his executioner both fell by that weapon with which they had before massacred the priests of God. So Brutus and Cassius killed themselves with the same swords with which they stabbed Cæsar; and Calippus was stabbed with the same sword with which he stabbed Dio.”

Verse 4. Lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me — He was afraid they might put him to some ignominious death, or make sport with him, as they did with Samson. But his armour-bearer would not, for he was sore afraid — He dreaded to think of killing his king. Saul took a sword, and fell upon it — “A truly brave man,” says Delaney, “would have died fighting, as Jonathan did, or would, at worst, have gloried at being abused, and even tortured, for having done his duty! Saul then died, not as a hero, but a deserter. Self-murder is demonstrably the effect of cowardice: and it is as irrational and iniquitous as it is base. God, whose creatures we are, is the sole arbiter, as he is the sole author of our life: our lives are his property; and he hath given our country, our family, and our friends, a share in them. And, therefore, as Plato finely observes in his Phædo, God is as much injured by self-murder, as I should be by having one of my slaves killed without my consent. Not to insist on the injury done to others, in a variety of relations, by the same act.”

4. His armourbearer would not — He dared not stretch forth his hand against the Lord’s anointed; the very thought of such an act filled him with fear. Saul took a sword — Rather, took the sword, that is, the sword of the armourbearer just referred to. Fell upon it — Thrust it through himself by falling over upon it.

This account of Saul’s death is every way consistent with itself and with Saul’s character, and is to be regarded as the true and authentic record of the sacred historian himself. The story of the Amalekite, who stole the king’s crown and bracelet, and brought them to David, (2 Samuel 1:4-10,) is to be treated as a fabrication, feigned with the hope of finding favour with the successor of Saul.

Verse 5. He (his armour-bearer) fell likewise upon his sword — The same sword on which Saul had fallen, which was the sword of the armour-bearer. This will appear evident to any one that reads these two verses (the 4th and 5th) in the original. Now it is the established tradition of the Jewish nation, that this armour-bearer was Doeg, which is not at all unlikely; and if so, then both Saul and his executioner fell by that very weapon with which they had before massacred the priests of God!

5. His armourbearer saw that Saul was dead — He probably drew the sword from the body of the king and hoped to save him, but all too late. He fell likewise upon his sword — The same sword by which the Lord’s anointed had been slain. Touching and beautiful was this devotion of the faithful armourbearer to his king. It not only evidences the deep attachment of a true and tender heart, but also shows that Saul was not without a strong personal magnetism, which drew others to him, and kept them firmly there. At his public election at Mizpeh there clave to Saul a number of men whose hearts were touched by God, (1 Samuel 10:26,) and at no time during his reign did he want for attendants who were thus tenderly attached to his person and interests.

Verse 6. And all his men] Probably meaning those of his troops which were his life or body guards: as to the bulk of the army, it fled at the commencement of the battle, 1 Samuel 31:1.

Verse 6. And all his men; his body guard, brave men who would not survive the fall of their master. But in 1 Chronicles 10:6 it is said, all his house died together. They knew that the Philistines would give them no quarter; and therefore they preferred being enrolled in the list of heroes, which forbids the historian from putting them in the catalogue of suicides.

6. All his men — All his household, (compare 1 Chronicles 10:6,) who went with him to the war, and on whom his hopes for the future hung. “The end of the unhappy king corresponded to his life ever since the day of his rejection as king. When he had lost the battle, and saw his three sons fall at his side, and the archers of the enemy pressing hard upon him, without either repentance or remorse he put an end to his life by suicide, to escape the disgrace of being wounded and abused by the foe.” — Keil.

Verse 7. The men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley] They appear to have been panic-struck, and therefore fled as far as they could out of the reach of the Philistines. As the Philistines possessed Beth-shan, situated near to Jordan, the people on the other side of that river, fearing for their safety, fled also.

Verses 7-10. They on the other side Jordan — Or, rather, on this side Jordan; for the Hebrew word signifies either side. And there was no occasion for those beyond Jordan to flee. Saul and his three sons — “The Scripture,” as Mr. Henry well observes, “makes no mention of the souls of Saul and his sons, what became of them after they were dead; secret things belong not to us.” They cut off his head — As the Israelites did by Goliath, and fastened it in the temple of Dagon, 1 Chronicles 10:10. In the house of their idols — To give them the glory of this victory. And by this respect shown to their pretended deities, how do they shame those who give not the honour of their achievements to the living God! They fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan — To expose it, as we do the bodies of great malefactors, to public shame and reproach. And thus, as appears by verse 12, they did with the bodies of his sons.

7. The men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley — The inhabitants on the opposite side of the great Plain of Jezreel; that is, on the western side of the plain, opposite to the mountains of Gilboa. On the other side Jordan — The western side of Jordan, opposite to Jabesh-Gilead. Thus the entire northern part of the land of Israel fell under the dominion of the Philistines. Philistines came and dwelt in them — This speedy occupation by the Philistines of the conquered and depopulated cities of Israel, shows their strong purpose to hold henceforth in close subjection the country whose people had been to them so irrepressible a foe. But Abner seems to have recovered these cities to the kingdom of Saul, (2 Samuel 2:8-10,) and subsequently David utterly subdued the Philistines. 2 Samuel 8:1.

V. 8. Saul and his three sons-“The scripture, as Mr. Henry well observes, makes no mention of the souls of Saul and his sons, what became of them after they were dead: secret things belong not to us.”

Verse 8. On the morrow] It is very likely that the battle and pursuit continued till the night, so that there was no time till the next day to strip and plunder the slain.

Verses 7-10. They on the other side Jordan — Or, rather, on this side Jordan; for the Hebrew word signifies either side. And there was no occasion for those beyond Jordan to flee. Saul and his three sons — “The Scripture,” as Mr. Henry well observes, “makes no mention of the souls of Saul and his sons, what became of them after they were dead; secret things belong not to us.” They cut off his head — As the Israelites did by Goliath, and fastened it in the temple of Dagon, 1 Chronicles 10:10. In the house of their idols — To give them the glory of this victory. And by this respect shown to their pretended deities, how do they shame those who give not the honour of their achievements to the living God! They fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan — To expose it, as we do the bodies of great malefactors, to public shame and reproach. And thus, as appears by verse 12, they did with the bodies of his sons.

8. On the morrow — They did not pause in the heat of battle or in the first flush of victory to gather up their trophies. They found Saul and his three sons — They probably knew that he had fallen, or at all events had not escaped with the fugitives of Israel, but until now they had not stopped their pursuit to search for his dead body.

V. 9. Cut off his head-As the Israelites did by Goliath, and fastened it in the temple of Dagon, 1 Chronicles 10:10. Idols-To give them the glory of this victory. And by this respect shewn to their pretended deities, how do they shame those, who give not the honour of their achievements to the living God?

Verse 9. And they cut off his head] It is possible that they cut off the heads of his three sons likewise; for although only his head is said to be cut off, and his body only to be fastened to the walls of Beth-shan, yet we find that the men of Jabesh-gilead found both his body and the bodies of his three sons, fastened to the walls, 1 Samuel 31:12. Perhaps they only took off Saul’s head, which they sent about to their temples as a trophy of their victory, when they sent the news of the defeat of the Israelites through all their coasts, and at last placed it in the temple of Dagon, 1 Chronicles 10:10.

Verses 7-10. They on the other side Jordan — Or, rather, on this side Jordan; for the Hebrew word signifies either side. And there was no occasion for those beyond Jordan to flee. Saul and his three sons — “The Scripture,” as Mr. Henry well observes, “makes no mention of the souls of Saul and his sons, what became of them after they were dead; secret things belong not to us.” They cut off his head — As the Israelites did by Goliath, and fastened it in the temple of Dagon, 1 Chronicles 10:10. In the house of their idols — To give them the glory of this victory. And by this respect shown to their pretended deities, how do they shame those who give not the honour of their achievements to the living God! They fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan — To expose it, as we do the bodies of great malefactors, to public shame and reproach. And thus, as appears by verse 12, they did with the bodies of his sons.

9. They cut off his head — His sons seem to have received the same barbarous treatment. See verse 12. This revenge on the lifeless bodies of the slain shows, according to some writers, the low and miserable barbarity of the Philistines; but did not David treat the dead body of Goliath in the same way? (1 Samuel 17:54;) and what shall be said of Samuel’s hewing of Agag in pieces? 1 Samuel 15:33. We must not judge the usages of that age by our own. To publish it — That the daughters of the uncircumcised might rejoice and triumph. 2 Samuel 1:20.

Verse 10. They put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth] As David had done in placing the sword of Goliath in the tabernacle. We have already seen that it was common for the conquerors to consecrate armour and spoils taken in war, to those who were the objects of religious worship.

They fastened his body to the wall] Probably by means of iron hooks; but it is said, 2 Samuel 21:12, that these bodies were fastened in the STREET of Beth-shan. This may mean that the place where they were fastened to the wall was the main street or entrance into the city.

Verses 7-10. They on the other side Jordan — Or, rather, on this side Jordan; for the Hebrew word signifies either side. And there was no occasion for those beyond Jordan to flee. Saul and his three sons — “The Scripture,” as Mr. Henry well observes, “makes no mention of the souls of Saul and his sons, what became of them after they were dead; secret things belong not to us.” They cut off his head — As the Israelites did by Goliath, and fastened it in the temple of Dagon, 1 Chronicles 10:10. In the house of their idols — To give them the glory of this victory. And by this respect shown to their pretended deities, how do they shame those who give not the honour of their achievements to the living God! They fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan — To expose it, as we do the bodies of great malefactors, to public shame and reproach. And thus, as appears by verse 12, they did with the bodies of his sons.

Ver. 10. The wall of Beth-shan; in the public street or principal place of the town. 2 Samuel 21:12.

10. Ashtaroth — See on Judges 2:13. Beth-shan — The modern Beisan, between the mountains of Gilboa and the river Jordan. See on Joshua 17:11. The wall of Beth-shan, to which the bodies were fastened, appears to have faced some main street of the city. 2 Samuel 21:12.

Verse 11. When the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard] This act of the men of Jabesh-gilead was an act of gratitude due to Saul, who, at the very commencement of his reign, rescued them from Nahash, king of the Ammonites, (see 1 Samuel 11:1, &c.,) and by his timely succours saved them from the deepest degradation and the most oppressive tyranny. This heroic act, with the seven days’ fast, showed that they retained a due sense of their obligation to this unfortunate monarch.

Verses 11, 12. The inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead — They lived on the other side of Jordan; for the people on this side were fled. All the valiant men arose, and went all night — To avoid discovery. And took the body of Saul, &c. — They had been delivered by Saul in the beginning of his reign from the Ammonites, when they were in danger of losing their lives, chap. 11.; and therefore they now showed their gratitude toward him by not suffering his corpse to want the honour of burial. And came to Jabesh and burnt them there — It was not the custom of the Hebrews to burn their dead, but to bury them; but perhaps they burned these bodies for fear, if they buried them, the Philistines might take them up again to fasten them in the same ignominious manner to their walls.

11. The inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead — Who ever preserved a tender and grateful remembrance of what they owed to the heroism of Saul. See chap. 11.

V. 12. Took the body, &c.-This they did, not only out of a concern, for the honour of Israel, and the crown of Israel, but out of gratitude to Saul, for his zeal and forwardness to rescue them from the Ammonites.

Verse 12. And burnt them there.] It has been denied that the Hebrews burnt the bodies of the dead, but that they buried them in the earth, or embalmed them, and often burnt spices around them, &c. These no doubt were the common forms of sepulture, but neither of these could be conveniently practiced in the present case. They could not have buried them about Beth-shan without being discovered; and as to embalming, that was most likely out of all question, as doubtless the bodies were now too putrid to bear it. They therefore burnt them, because there was no other way of disposing of them at that time so as to do them honour; and the bones and ashes they collected, and buried under a tree or in a grove at Jabesh.

Verses 11, 12. The inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead — They lived on the other side of Jordan; for the people on this side were fled. All the valiant men arose, and went all night — To avoid discovery. And took the body of Saul, &c. — They had been delivered by Saul in the beginning of his reign from the Ammonites, when they were in danger of losing their lives, chap. 11.; and therefore they now showed their gratitude toward him by not suffering his corpse to want the honour of burial. And came to Jabesh and burnt them there — It was not the custom of the Hebrews to burn their dead, but to bury them; but perhaps they burned these bodies for fear, if they buried them, the Philistines might take them up again to fasten them in the same ignominious manner to their walls.

12. Burnt them — Such disposal of the bodies of the dead was not a custom among the Israelites, but has been accounted for in the present case on the supposition that these bodies were mutilated and already putrid, so that they could not receive honourable burial; and there was danger that the Philistines, finding the bodies stolen from the wall of Beth-shan, would hasten to recapture them, and do them some greater dishonour.

V. 13. Fasted-To testify their sorrow for the loss of Saul, and of the people of God; and to intreat God’s favour to prevent the utter extinction of his people. But you must not understand this word of fasting strictly, as if they eat nothing for seven whole days; but in a more large sense, as it is used both in sacred and profane writers; that they did eat but little, and that but mean food, and drank only water for that time. This book began with the birth of Samuel, and ends with the death of Saul: The comparing these together will teach us to prefer the honour that comes from God, before all the honours of the world.

Verse 13. And fasted seven days.] To testify their sincere regret for his unfortunate death, and the public calamity that had fallen upon the land. THUS ends the troublesome, and I had almost said the useless, reign of Saul. A king was chosen in opposition to the will of the Most High; and the government of God in effect rejected, to make way for this king. Saul was at first a very humble young man, and conducted himself with great propriety; but his elevation made him proud, and he soon became tyrannical in his private conduct and in his political measures. His natural temper was not good; he was peevish, fretful, and often outrageous; and these bad dispositions, unchecked by proper application to the grace of God, became every day more headstrong and dangerous. Through their violence he seems at times to have been wholly carried away and deranged; and this derangement appears to have been occasionally greatly exacerbated by diabolical influences. This led him to take his friends for his foes; so that in his paroxysms he strove to imbrue his hands in their blood, and more than once attempted to assassinate his own son; and most causelessly and inhumanly ordered the innocent priests of the Lord at Nob to be murdered. This was the worst act in his whole life. Saul was but ill qualified for a proper discharge of the regal functions. The reader will remember that he was chosen rather as a general of the armies than as civil governor. The administration of the affairs of the state was left chiefly to Samuel, and Saul led forth the armies to battle. As a general he gave proof of considerable capacity; he was courageous, prompt, decisive, and persevering; and, except in the last unfortunate battle in which he lost his life, generally led his troops to victory. Saul was a weak man, and very capricious; this is amply proved by his unreasonable jealousy against David, and his continual suspicion that all were leagued against him. It is also evident, in his foolish adjuration relative to the matter of the honey (see 1 Samuel 14:24-30, 38-44) in which, to save his rash and nonsensical oath, he would have sacrificed Jonathan his son!

The question, “Was Saul a good king?” has already in effect been answered. He was on the whole a good man, as far as we know, in private life; but he was a bad king; for he endeavoured to reign independently of the Jewish constitution; he in effect assumed the sacerdotal office and functions, and thus even changed what was essential to that constitution. He not only offered sacrifices which belonged to the priests alone; but in the most positive manner went opposite to the orders of that God whose vicegerent he was.

Of his conduct in visiting the woman at En-dor I have already given my opinion, and to this I must refer. His desperate circumstances imposed on the weakness of his mind; and he did in that instance an act which, in his jurisprudential capacity, he had disapproved by the edict which banished all witches, &c., from Israel. Yet in this act he only wished to avail himself of the counsel and advice of his friend Samuel.

To the question, “Was not Saul a self-murderer?” I scruple not to answer, “No.” He was to all appearance mortally wounded, when he begged his armour-bearer to extinguish the remaining spark of life; and he was afraid that the Philistines might abuse his body, if they found him alive; and we can scarcely say how much of indignity is implied in this word; and his falling on his sword was a fit of desperation, which doubtless was the issue of a mind greatly agitated, and full of distraction. A few minutes longer, and his life would in all probability have ebbed out; but though this wound accelerated his death, yet it could not be properly the cause of it, as he was mortally wounded before, and did it on the conviction that he could not survive.

Taking Saul’s state and circumstances together, I believe there is not a coroner’s inquest in this nation that would not have brought in a verdict of derangement; while the pious and the humane would everywhere have consoled themselves with the hope that God had extended mercy to his soul.

MILLBROOK, June 11, 1818.

Ended this examination August 13, 1827.-A.C.

Verse 13. And fasted seven days — To testify their sorrow for the loss of Saul, and of the people of God; and to entreat God’s favour to prevent the utter extinction of his people. But we must not understand this word of fasting strictly, as if they ate nothing for seven whole days; but in a more large sense, as it is used both in sacred and profane writers; that they did eat but little, and that but mean food, and drank only water for that time. This book began with the birth of Samuel, and ends with the death of Saul. The comparing these together will teach us to prefer the honour that comes from God before all the honours of the world. The reader will do well to observe also that in this book we have two such examples of piety and virtue in Samuel and David as we cannot too frequently make the subject of our consideration. On the other hand, in the example of Saul we have a picture of the miserable state of that man who forgetteth God, and turneth aside from his commandments. May God, through Jesus Christ, send down his grace into our hearts, that, through our whole lives, we may be inclined to imitate the first, and may always dread to fall into the state of the latter, and, as the only way to escape it, make it our chief study and delight to please God, and do his will; for this is the whole of man: in which all his happiness, all his peace consists. For that there is no peace to the wicked, hath been pronounced by Him who knoweth the nature and frame of man; by the Lord himself, who cannot lie. “The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked,” Isaiah 57:20, 21.

13. Took their bones — From which it appears that they were not burned to ashes. Buried them… at Jabesh — Where they remained until David had them removed and placed in the sepulchre of Kish at Zelah. 2 Samuel 21:14. Fasted seven days — Because of their deep humiliation and grief.

Here ends the history of Saul, and at its close we may well pause to record a few additional reflections on his life and reign. We are impressed from the beginning to the end of his career with the conviction, which deepens all the way along, that he was unequal to his times. He was the center of events and persons greater than himself, and was sadly deficient in those mental and religious qualities which mark the highest style of man. He possessed, indeed, some touching and tender traits of character. In his earlier years he was meek and little in his own eyes, (1 Samuel 15:17,) though in the eyes of all who knew him he was a choice and noble youth. 1 Samuel 9:2. His emotional soul quickly caught the ecstasy of the prophetic schools, and he prophesied among them; and even in the later days of his insane persecution of David there would come moments of deep humiliation and contrition of soul, when he would melt into tearful tenderness. 1 Samuel 24:16; 26:21. But he was unequal to the weight of empire. Elevation to power spoiled and finally ruined him, for there was in him a sad mental and religious incapacity for meeting the exigencies of that most trying period of Israelitish history.

“If Samuel is the great example of an ancient saint growing up from childhood to old age without a sudden conversion, Saul is the first direct example of the mixed character often produced by such a conversion, a call coming in the midday of life to rouse the man to higher thoughts than the lost asses of his father’s household or than the tumults of war and victory. He became ‘another man,’ yet not entirely. He was, as is so often the case, half-converted, half-roused. His mind moved unequally and disproportionately in its new sphere. Backwards and forwards, in the names of his children, we see alternately the signs of the old heathenish superstition and of the new purified religion of Jehovah. He caught the prophetic inspiration not continuously, but only in fitful gusts. Then he would be again the slave of his common pursuits. His religion was never blended with his moral nature. It broke out in wild, ungovernable acts of zeal and superstition, and then left him more a prey than ever to his own savage disposition. With the prospects and the position of a David, he remained to the end a Jephthah or a Samson, with this difference, that, having outlived the age of Jephthah and of Samson, he could not be as they; and the struggle, therefore, between what he was and what he might have been, grew fiercer as years went on; and the knowledge of Samuel, and the companionship of David, became to him a curse instead of a blessing.” — Stanley.

The true theocratic view of Saul’s reign is appropriately given in Jehovah’s own words. Hosea 13:11: “I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.” We must not understand, then, that Saul was chosen because God saw in him the proper qualifications for a king, but quite the contrary. God wished to punish his people for their loss of the true theocratic spirit, and their blind adherence to the false principles and aims with which they thought to revolutionize their government, and the punishment came by the administration of an incompetent king. The leaders of Israel were in an almost passionate haste for change. The occasion and manner of their asking for a king was like throwing the blame of all their national misfortunes on Jehovah, and was accompanied by a suggestion that a king like one of the heathen monarchs would be better than any other kind of leader; so he gave them a king much after their fancy in order to punish them — a man of lofty stature, of splendid personal appearance, of strong heroic impulses, but sadly defective in those nobler virtues which make a man after God’s own heart.

We need not suppose that Saul was so exclusively chosen of God as that the people had no hand and voice in his election. Already, when he first appeared to Samuel, he was designated as the one above all others, “on whom was all the desire of Israel.” 1 Samuel 9:20. His noble presence and lofty stature, and the wealth and political influence of his family, had already led many in Israel, as they were talking up a king, to turn their eyes to Saul, the son of Kish. The sacred historian may have purposely passed over the merely human measures that were used to secure Saul’s election, and have given us, as is the design of sacred history, the working of God’s hand in the matter.

In the introduction to chapter 13, where the history of Saul’s reign properly begins, we have called attention to the fact that the first three chapters of that history (13, 14, and 15) are devoted to a detailed account of the three great errors of Saul’s life. From these three errors sprang all his after woes. They were the religious crises of his history, and at each point he failed.

But though Saul’s reign was a failure, his whole career is sketched with a plaintive tenderness. Not only did Samuel greatly mourn for Saul, (1 Samuel 15:11, 35; 16:1,) but the sacred historian, caught the sad, tender spirit of that saintly judge, and breathed it into his narrative. In the same spirit David pours forth his touching elegy over the fallen beauty and might of Israel. 2 Samuel 1:19-27. In the same spirit let us remember that “pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”