tle, its first and last owners named in Scripture, was the son of Kish, a wealthy and powerful Benjamite, though of a family not conspicuous in the tribe, whose descendants can be traced to the time of Ezra.' Saul is described as a choice young man, and a goodly: there was not among the chil dren of Israel a goodlier person than he ;10 from his shoulders and upward, he was taller than any of the people."" To this physical excellence, characteristic of his tribe, he added no small share of its ungovernable temper, which opposition and disappointment aggravated to madness, the common fate of despots, as we see in Cambyses, Caligula, and Paul of Russia. He was the creature of impulse; often kindly, as in his love for David and Jonathan, often noble, as in his patriotic zeal for God, but always wanting the control of steady principle. 13 His birthplace is uncertain. Zelah was the place of his father's sepulchre," but his royal residence was at Gibeah, thence called "Gibeah of Saul;" and this town seems to have been the abode of at least a part of the family.' His age at the time of his election is not stated; but we can hardly suppose so great a dignity, involving the chief command in war and the judgeship, to have been conferred on a man under forty; and this agrees with what we know of the ages of his sons. Jonathan, his eldest son, appears as a warrior the year after Saul's accession," and Ish-bosheth, his younger son, was forty years old at his father's death." The chronology of his accession is obscured by the absence of any clear indication of the period of Samuel's judgeship after the deliverance from the Philistines, from which epoch we have already shown that the forty years which St. Paul assigns to Saul should probably be dated." We can scarcely suppose him to have been so old as seventy at his death, in B.c. 1056, according to the common chronology. § 3. Saul was led to Samuel to be anointed to his future office by what, to the eyes of men, might have seemed an accident." His father Kish, having lost his asses, sent Saul with a servant in search of them. They passed through Mount Ephraim, and by Shalisha and Shalim, till they came on the third day to the neighborhood of Samuel's abode, here 1 Sam. ix. 1, 21. See the pedigree in the Notes and Illustrations (A.). 10 Comp. 2 Sam. i. 19; where he is called "the gazelle of Israel." 11 1 Sam. ix. 2; comp. 2 Sam. i. 23, where he and Jonathan are described 12 2 Sam. xxi. 14. 13 1 Sam. x. 13, 15 2 Sam. ii. 8. 17 1 Sam. ix. 18 called the land of Zuph." Saul now proposed to return, lest his father's care for the asses should pass into anxiety for him and the servant-a mark of his affectionate disposition. The servant, however, told him that in the city which they were approaching there dwelt a man of God who was held in the highest honor, and all whose words came to pass; perhaps he might direct them where to find the asses. Saul's difficulty about the present which it was usual to offer when consulting a seer (for such was the name of a prophet in those days) was removed by the servant, who had with him the fourth part of a skekel of silver. As they ascended the hill on which the city stood, they learned from the maidens who had come out to draw water that the seer had just returned from one of his judicial circuits, and was expected to bless the sacrifice and festival which the people were holding on that day in the high place above the city; and, just as they entered the city, they met Samuel coming forth for that purpose. Samuel was prepared for the interview. God had forwarned him the day before that he would send to him on the morrow a Benjamite, whom he should anoint to be captain over Israel, to deliver them out of the hand of the Philistines; and now, as Saul approached, the word of Jehovah came to Samuel: "Behold the man whom I spake to thee of! this same shall reign over my people." Samuel made himself known to Saul, and having told him that his father's asses were found, he astonished him by the salutation, "On whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father's house?" Waiting as the people were for their destined king, Saul could not but suppose what Samuel meant; and he pleaded that his family was the least in Benjamin, itself the smallest tribe in Israel. Postponing further explanation, Samuel led Saul and his servant into the banqueting-chamber on the high place, and seated them above all the thirty guests who were assembled, persons whose limited number proves their consequence in the city. Samuel then ordered the cook to place before Saul the portion which he had told him to reserve for an expected guest, namely, a boiled shoulder, at once the choicest part of the sacrifice, and the emblem of the weight of government which he was to sustain.1 After the banquet they went down from the high place to the city, and Samuel lodged Saul on the top of his house, a favorite sleeping-place in the East. 18 Some_connect this name with the appellation of Samuel's city, Ra mathaim-Zophim. It perhaps indicates that the whole region was a range of beacon-heights. 19 Comp. Lev. vii. 32; Ezek. xxiv. 4; Is. ix. 6. At daybreak the prophet aroused his guest and led him out of the city; and then, the servant having been sent on before them, Samuel bade Saul stand still to hear the word of Jehovah. Thereupon, producing a vial of oil, he poured it on his head, adding the kiss of homage, and telling him that Jehovah had anointed him to be captain over His inheritance. The prophet named three incidents which would happen to Saul on his return, as signs that Jehovah was with him; the first, an assurance of the safety of his father's cattle, as the prophet had said; the second, a present which was to be an earnest of the future offerings of the people; the third, the descent of the spirit of Jehovah upon him, causing him to prophesy, and turning him into another man. The promised change began at the moment that Saul turned to leave Samuel: he felt that God had given him another heart, and the appointed signs were fulfilled in their order. The only remaining care of his past life was relieved by two men who met him by Rachel's sepulchre at Zelzah, and told him that the asses were found, and that his father was anxious about him. At the oak of Tabor he met three men, who presented to him two loaves of bread out of the offerings which they were carrying up to God at Bethel. And, in fine, when he reached "the hill of God" (probably Gibeah), which was occupied by a garrison of the Philistines, a company of prophets came down from the high place with the instruments of music which they were taught to use in the service of God; and, as they began to prophesy, the spirit of God fell upon Saul, and he prophesied among them. This sign of his inspiration was the more decisive, as he seems to have been a man unlikely to exhibit religious fervor. Those who had known him before expressed their amazement by the question, which passed into a proverb, "Is Saul also among the prophets ?" and there were some who went so far as to question the source of such inspiration by suggesting, "But who is their father ?" Saul then went up to the high place, apparently the hill of Gibeah, to the residence of his uncle (or his grandfather), Ner, in reply to whose curious inquiries he told what Samuel had said about the asses, but said nothing about the matter of the kingdom. After this private designation to his office, he returned to his home."1 § 4. The time soon came for his public manifestation to Israel. Samuel convened the people at Mizpeh; and, after 21 1 Sam. ix., x. i-16. 20 Comp. Matt xii. 24-27. once more reproving them for rejecting God and resolving to have a king, he called on them to present themselves berore God by their tribes and their thousands. Then, whether by lot, or by the Urim and Thummim, or by any other mode of expressing the choice of God, the tribe of Benjamin was taken. 22 The tribe was brought by its families, and the family of Matri was taken; and lastly, out of that family, the choice fell on SAUL, the son of Kish, but he was nowhere to be found. Again they consulted the oracle, which revealed his hiding-place; and he was found concealed among the baggage of the camp-so little eager was he to thrust himself into the office to which he knew his call. He was brought into the midst of the congregation, and there he towered above all the people from his shoulders upward. His goodly presents won universal favor; and when Samuel presented him as the king whom Jehovah had chosen, the like of whom was not to be found among all the people, they shouted with one voice "God save the king. From this whole scene it is clear that what is said of the choice of God is not to be understood as an absolute preference for Saul as being the man best fitted for the king of Israel, but as the selection of one possessing the endowments which would recommend him to the people as the king that they desired. He is commended to the people for the goodliness of his outward form; and in this very same matter of the choice of a king, the same prophet was afterward instructed by God to "look not on his countenance or the height of his stature: ... for man looketh on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh on the heart."24 Throughout the whole transaction, God was giving the people their own desire, and the history of Saul is the working out of the experiment. 9923 In another sense, however, he was the king of Jehovah's choice. The whole circumstances of his selection, and his anointing by the prophet, invested him with authority which bound the people to be subject to him as an ordinance of God. But he was also himself subject to a law. That law had been given through Moses, in anticipation of this day," and now Samuel wrote it in a book and laid it up before Jehovah in the sanctuary, after he had rehearsed it to the people, whom he then dismissed to their homes. Saul retired 22 It is most important to distin- | but the case is one of those in which guish this choice from an election by the popular phrase has passed beyond the people. the power of alteration. 241 Sam. xvi. 7. 23 Literally, "Let the king live!" 25 Deut. xvii. 14, foll at the same time to his home at Gibeah, with no other ret inue than a band of volunteers, whose hearts God had touched. Some murmurs of contempt were heard against him at Gibeah, where his prophetic gifts had already been derided, and some few " men of Belial" neglected to bring him presents; but he held his peace, waiting for an opportunity to prove himself worthy of the crown by his services to his people. 26 § 5. That opportunity soon arrived. During the later years of Samuel the enemies of Israel had gained strength, and this was one chief reason of the desire for a king." We have seen the Philistines in possession of the citadel of Gibeah, and now we meet again with the enemy whom Jephthah had subdued. Nahash" the Ammonite marched against Jabesh-gilead, and would only listen to the offer of a capitulation on the cruel and shameful terms of putting out the right eyes of all the people and laying it as a disgrace on Israel. The men of Jabesh obtained a delay of seven days, and sent for help to Saul at Gibeah. Saul was returning with his cattle from the field when he heard the cry of the people at the tidings. Then, as we read of the other champions of Israel, the spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he summoned Israel to the field by a token as powerful as the "fiery cross " of the Gælic chiefs. Cutting a yoke of oxen into small pieces, he sent them throughout all Israel, declaring that so it should be done to the oxen of him who came not out after Saul and Samuel.29 When the forces were numbered in Bezek, there were 300,000 warriors of Israel, and 30,000 of Judah. On the sixth day of the truce, the men of Jabesh received Saul's promise of help before to-morrow's noon, and they sent word to Nahash that they would place themselves in his hands. In the morning watch, Saul, with his army in three divisions, fell upon the unsuspecting Ammonites, and slaughtered them till the heat of the day put an end to the pursuit. His triumph was adorned by an act of regal clemency. The people called on Samuel to put to death the men who had despised the new-made king; but Saul declared that not a man should be put to death on that day, in which Jehovah had saved Israel.30 26 1 Sam. x. 17-27. 20 The name signifies serpent, and furnishes an indication of Ophite worship among the Ammonites. This association of Samuel with himself should be particularly observed; as should also the separate enumeration of Judah, which agrees with what we have before noticed. It may also indicate the time when the narrative was written. * 1 Sam xi |