A. M. 2888. A. C. 1116; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4301. A. C. 1110. 1 SAM. i. TO THe end. presents Saul to them: See ye him whom the Lord | find the beginning of his reign so prosperous, and the hath chosen, that there is none like him among the people;' for the historian hath told us before, that 2 from his shoulders and upwards, he was higher than any of the people.' 3 46 Nay, had I leisure to gratify the curious, I might show, that not only in the east, but in the western and most polite countries, this tallness of stature, and gracefulness of appearance were always deemed no unbecoming qualifications for the regal dignity; and therefore we find Pliny, who certainly was a fine speaker, and knew how to single out the proper qualities in any great man, telling his audience, in his panegyric to Trajan, that "the strength and tallness of his body, the nobleness of his aspect, the dignity of his countenance, and the gracefulness of his speech, did everywhere denote and proclaim the prince." As on the contrary, what notions the ancients had of a prince of a low stature, and mean appearance, we may gather from the fine which Plutarch tells us the Lacedemonians set upon their king, for marrying a little woman, who was likely to bring not kings, but kinglings,' to reign over them. It must be remembered, however, that tallness of stature was not the only thing that recommended Saul to the kingdom. His father is said to have been a mighty man of power;' which though it may not signify his great wealth, and interest in his country, because' Saul himself declares the contrary, yet it doubtless denotes his strength, and courage, and fortitude of mind, which in a great measure he transmitted to his son. For who in war was more brave and undaunted than he, had he but known how to use his victories as well as acquire them? But here was his great misfortune, that when he was successful, he was too apt to be unmindful of what God had enjoined him. Who in peace was more prudent and politic than he, till his fears and jealousies of David, mixed with an unhappy temper of blood, made him malicious and implacable? Nothing can be supposed more wise and discreet, than his holding his peace,' and taking no notice of the slights which were put upon him at his first election; nothing more great and generous, than his answer to some who would have prompted him to revenge, after he had established his throne by a glorious conquest; There shall not a man be put to death this day; for to-day the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel.' Nothing certainly was more different, than Saul's modestly declining the offer of a kingdom; when elected, passing by indignities, and returning to a private life; when called out to action, mustering his forces, leading out his armies, vanquishing his enemies, relieving his friends; and when settled in peace, forgiving injuries, and conferring benefits; and the same Saul, sullen and discontented with himself, false to his promises, jealous of his friends, listening to sycophants, quarrelling with his relations, attempting the life of his own son, murdering a whole city of God's priests, and instead of consulting the divine oracle, flying to the devil for advice in his distress; and therefore we need less wonder, that we 86 latter part of it ending in so sad a catastrophe. Whether Saul deserved this fate or no, we may best perceive by a review of some instances wherein he is said to have offended God. In the beginning of the third year of his reign, the Philistines raised so powerful an army against him, that his own forces for fear of them, deserted in great numbers. Gilgal was the place of their rendezvous, and Samuel, who had hitherto transacted matters between God and Saul, had given him assurance, that in seven days' time, he would come thither, to offer sacrifices and peace-offerings, and to show him what he was to do ;' but, as Abarbinel has observed, every one of these articles he transgressed. For, besides that he distrusted Samuel's word, or thought it scorn perhaps, that the king should stay for a prophet, instead of waiting till the appointed days were expired, he called for the sacrifices on the seventh morning; instead of ordering a proper person to officiate, himself adventured to offer up the sacrifice; and instead of inquiring of God in a regular way, he was determined to begin the war without any previous consultations: so that, in this behaviour of his, there were all the signs of pride and ingratitude, impatience and distrust, neglect of God, contempt of his prophet, and an apparent invasion of the priestly office; upon which accounts Samuel declares, that God would reject him, and not continue the kingdom in his family. 9 God, no doubt, by his divine omniscience, foresaw what other sins Saul would commit, and might therefore without any breach of his mercy, have pronounced a peremptory sentence against him; but the passage before us implies no such thing. It is no more than a threat, or a simple denunciation of what God would do, if he were not more observant for the future, and might have been revoked, had he not persisted in his disobedience, and committed a much greater offence against the divine Majesty in the war against Amalek. The opposition which these people gave the Israelites, while they were on their journey to the land of Canaan, provoked God to such a degree, that, as the historian relates the matter, he swore, that 10 he would have war with Amalek from generation to generation; and therefore commanded Moses' to write it, for a memorial, in a book, and to rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, that he would utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven: and when they were upon the point of entering upon the promised land, they were reminded of the same divine decree against that wicked people: "Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt, how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary, and he feared not God: therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about in the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.' In this passage we have some reasons assigned, why God was so highly incensed against the Amalekites." They A. M. 2888. A. C. 1116; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4301. A. C. 1110, 1 SAM. i. TO the end. were descendants of Esau, and therefore by pedigree, were allied to the Israelites, and of the stock of Abraham. They seem to have broke off with the Edomites very early, and to have joined themselves with the old Horites, a nest of idolaters, that lived on Mount Seir; and so turned apostates from the religion of Abraham. These apostates were the first that drew the sword against the Israelites, who were their brethren in blood, and without any manner of provocation, took the advantage, and came upon their rear, while they were feeble, faint, and weary, which was not only a great inhumanity, but done with an intent to defeat God's design in bringing up the people of Israel, and to hinder, if possible, their entrance into Canaan; for which reason the impiety of these people is particularly taken notice of, namely, 'that they feared not God, but that their hand was lifted up against the throne of the Lord, against the throne of the God of Abraham,' their father, which was no small aggravation of their crime. It was for these reasons, then, that God had determined to destroy the whole race of Amalek, and had made choice of Saul to put his decree in execution: and if, to indulge his own covetousness, he thought proper to prevaricate in the matter, he became guilty of the like sin (to use the words of the learned Dr Jackson) as if a judge or inferior magistrate, being intrusted to do justice in a matter unto which his sovereign had peremptorily and determinately sworn, should upon a bribe, or other sinister respect, neglect his duty, and, as much as in him lay, make his master forsworn.' And as a judge that would dare to do this, deserves more deaths than one; so, considering the infinite difference between God and man, and the long train of wickedness which Saul afterwards ran into, the severity can hardly be thought excessive, in God's punishing his contempt of this great command, by the alienation of the crown from his family. 26 66 oppressions which occasioned the exploits of Ehud, Gideon, Jephthah, and Saul, will soon perceive, that these later generations were every moment renewing the rancour and hostilities of their forefathers against the children of Israel, and consequently were very justly comprised under the sentence which had originally passed upon them. 4 3 Children indeed shall not be put to death for their fathers:' but this prohibition, we must observe relates to men, and not to God. Men, when they put a child to death for the sin of his father, assume an authority that they have no right to. The law which authorizes them to punish the father, gives them no power over the life of the child, but God is sovereign Lord and Master of the lives of both. Men who kill the child, to aggravate the punishment of the father can give the child no equivalent for the loss of his life; but God, in the future dispensation of things, can render him an ample compensation for it: and therefore, since in a general devastation, whether of war, famine, or pestilence, without a divine interposition for every particular person, the innocent must necessarily suffer with the guilty, it is satisfaction enough to think, that these innocent persons do not finally perish when they die, but are thenceforward taken under God's immediate care, and in the world to come, will find their retribution. Those, of all others who die, in their infancy, in what manner soever it be, have reason to bless God, what grief soever it may give their parents, for being delivered out of the miseries of this life, in order to be made happy in another. 5 Several of the Jewish doctors are of opinion, that after the death of Eli and his sons, Samuel, by God's particular election, succeeded to the high priest's office; and this they are the rather induced to believe, because they read of his offering sacrifices in places distinct from the tabernacle; of his wearing an ephod, which was a vest"But why should the Amalekites, for offences com- ment peculiar to the priest; of his consecrating two mitted by their forefathers so many years before, deserve kings, Saul and David; and find the Psalmist placing this punishment? Or suppose they did, why should young him among persons of that order and distinction. But children and infants suffer as guilty, for the crimes of the more probable opinion is, that he was no more than their parents?" Our blessed Saviour, in a case some- a Levite, and, by birth, incapable of the priesthood, what like this, has helped us to a solution of the former which was only annexed to Aaron's family; that there is part of this question, when he tells the Jews of his time, no mention made in Scripture of his having any particuthat they built the sepulchres of the prophets, which lar designation to that office; that there is no reason to their fathers had killed: that in so doing, they allowed think, that God would break through his own laws and oror approved of their deeds: and that therefore the blood dinances, in favour of him, when there was no occasion for of all the prophets, which had been shed from the foun- it, since Hophni and Phinehas, when they died, might dation of the world, should be required of that genera- have sons of sufficient age to succeed them; that his puttion.' From whence we may draw this inference,―Thatting on an ephod, was no more than what David did; his when any particular people commit the same crimes that sacrificing from the tabernacle, what Gideon and Saul their ancestors did; when they approve of them, when they imitate them, and, by the like actions, declare, that if they were in their circumstances, they would pursue the same steps, they are justly punishable, even in virtue of the sentence which passed upon their ancestors; and that the divine suspension of that sentence, in order to try whether they would reform and amend, is so far from being an hardship, that the longer it is continued, the more it is an instance of God's mercy, and patience, long-suffering. and Now, whoever looks into the conduct of the descendants of these old Amalekites, and considers the several 3 Deut. xxiv. 16. 'Saurin's Dissertation 30. vol. 4. a God, indeed, in a law given to the Jews, threatens that he will punish the children for their fathers' iniquity; but God hath the highest right of authority both over our affairs as well as our life, since it is but his gift, which he, without any cause, and at any period, can take from man when he pleaseth.-Grotius on the Right of War, vol. 2. b It is generally supposed, but without any grounds that the exercise of the high priest's function was not entered upon till such an age; and that Eli's grand-children were not as yet qualified for it: but Josephus (Antiq. b. 15. c. 2.) informs us, that Aristobulus the brother of Mariamne, was both admitted into that place, and officiated in it, when he was no more than seventeen years old.-Calmet's Commentary, on 1 Sam. xxv. 1. A. M. 2888. A. C. 1116; OR, ACCOrding to halES, A. M. 4301. A. C. 1110. 1 SAM. i. TO THE END. did; and his anointing kings, what both Elias and Eli-quence to transact at the same time; but I cannot see sha did so that these little incidents of his life could under what obligation he was to discover that. 'Secrecy never give him that character. And though it be granted is of great use in all important negotiations, and the that the Psalmist has thought proper to place him in concealing of one design, under the umbrage of another, company with Moses and Aaron, yet, at the same time, is as just and laudable a practice, as the drawing of a he has taken care to point us out the difference between curtain to keep out spies. Acts of religion indeed are them; Moses and Aaron among the priests, and Samuel sometimes made cloaks for iniquity; but it is hard to among such as call upon his name,' that is, who sing conceive, what possible prevarication there could be, in God's praise, which was the common employment of the performing one act of obedience towards God, in order Levites. Put the case, then, that Samuel was no priest, to facilitate the performance of another. The short of yet it seems to be a privilege indulged to some great the matter is, when there are two ends of any action, as men, upon some extraordinary occasions, to offer sacri- there were in the case now before us, a man may, withfices, where there was neither the tabernacle, nor any out any injury to truth, declare the one, and conceal the altar, but what they themselves erected. Thus Gideon other; nor can any imputation justly fall upon God, for and Manoah both, by the directions of an angel, made suggesting an expedient to his servant, in the execution their burnt-offerings just by their own habitations, and of which there confessedly was no sin. upon no other altar than a rock; and yet, that they were accepted by God, is evident from the miraculous fire that did consume them. 2 8 And for the same reason, because it was by God's direction, or the instigation of his Holy Spirit, that Samuel cut Agag in pieces, we cannot say that this reIn most countries, indeed, the priesthood was a privi- sentment carried him beyond the bounds of respect that lege annexed to the regal dignity, and even in the Jewish was due to his sovereign. Agag had been a bloody economy, where the sacerdotal office was distinct. Thus tyrant, and was now cut off, not for the sins of his anDavid, upon the reduction of the ark, sacrificed oxen and cestors only, but for his own merciless cruelty. His fatlings, and Solomon, in the beginning of his reign, death had been predicted above 400 years before, ' by and before the temple was built, sacrificed in high places. the prophet Balaam; but Saul, out of a mistimed comBut there is much more to be said for Samuel: he lived passion, and in opposition to the express commands of in a place that was an academy of the prophets, and God, had thought proper to spare him. Here therefore whither much people resorted to be instructed in the law. was a fit occasion for Samuel to exert himself, and, notShiloh was now laid desolate, and the ark, which was withstanding the presence of his prince, to vindicate the the tabernacle's chief furniture, was separated from it; honour of his God, by expressing a zeal suitable to that so that till God had declared his choice of some other of Phinehas, in slaying Zimri, or of that noble band of place, the people were, in a great measure, at liberty Levites, who destroyed the worshippers of the golden where to offer their devotions; and Samuel more especial-calf, though it does not necessarily follow, that he slew ly, in a city of so great concourse, and where he himself him himself, because what he commanded might be presided, was obliged in conscience to provide the peo-called his own act, though it was nevertheless done by ple in the best manner he could, with a public place of the public executioner of justice. worship. He himself did but rarely, and upon extraordinary occasions, officiate in the sacrifice, yet that, whenever he did it, he did it with the acceptance and approbation of God, is plain from the testimony of Scripture, and the success which God gave him against his enemies, after he had performed such an act of devotion for thus the account is, And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt-offering wholly unto the Lord; and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him, and the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel.' 9 Some commentators have been so far carried away with the manner of the Scripture expression, viz., that 10 an evil spirit from the Lord troubled Saul,' as to think that he was really possessed with a devil, which at certain times came strongly upon him, and threw him into all the mad fits whereof we read: but it should be considered, that the word 'spirit,' in the sacred language, is of a very extensive signification, and denotes frequently, not only the dispositions of the mind," but those of the body likewise; that the custom of the Jews was to imagine, that every affliction, whose cause they were ignorant of, proceeded immediately from God; and that it is a very common thing to find the Scripture phrase accommodating itself to this vulgar prejudice. Now, in our interpretation of Scripture, this I think should be a rule :-That when a passage is capable of two senses, whereof the one supposes a miracle, and the other a natural event only, the latter should take place, especially when there are no circumstances to determine us to the contrary. But now in the case before us, the frequent access of Saul's malady, the symptoms that attended a The Jews themselves acknowledge, that a prophet is not subject to the ceremonial law, but may, at any time, himself sacrifice in what place he pleases: and therefore, when Samuel went to Bethlehem to anoint David, it cannot be questioned, but that he had a right to sacrifice there, though there was neither ark nor tabernacle in the place; nor can it be denied, but that one part of his errand was to offer the sacrifice which he carried along with him. He had indeed an affair of greater conse-it, and the remedy made use of to assuage it, do suffi 12 A. M. 2888. A. C. 1116; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4310. A. C. 1110. 1 SAM. i. TO THE END. 10 9 12 8 or black bile inflamed; and that the man was hypochon- Music, though an art of no necessity to human life, driac, rather than possessed. Agreeable to this bad was certainly of a very early invention. Before the complexion of body was the natural temper of his mind, deluge, Jubal is called the father, or master of those which through his whole conduct was suspicious, diffident, who played upon the harp, and ancient organ, as the cruel, passionate, and vindictive. Add to this, that the two Hebrew words in that place are generally translated. remorses of his conscience, the menaces of Samuel, In the time of Jacob, we find his father-in-law complainGod's rejection of him, and his continual apprehensions ing of him, that he had stolen away from him, and not of being either dethroned or put to death, by his compe- given him an opportunity of dismissing him honourably, titor, confirmed still more and more the evil dispositions with mirth, and with song, with tabret, and with harp. which his temper engendered, and carried them by fits Moses, upon his passage over the Red Sea, cominto downright madness; and as madness is occasioned posed a song, which was sung in parts by himself, at the by an atrabilious humour highly inflamed, and diffused head of the men, and by "his sister, with timbrels and through the blood, and from melancholic vapours which dancing, leading up the women. Samuel, upon his ascend to the brain, and make an alteration in its tem- institution of the schools of the prophets, introduced perature, it is no hard matter to conceive, that the agree- several kinds of music: so that before Saul's election to able sound of a musical instrument, which occasions joy the kingdom, we read of the psaltery, and tabret, the and self-complacency, should dissipate these bad hu- pipe, and the harp, in use among them. The kings of mours, and make the blood and spirits return to their the east made it a point of their grandeur and magniequal and natural motion. ficence, to have men to play to them upon several occasions; and therefore we may suppose, that Saul, when he came to the throne, in some reasonable time, conformed to the mode. David, who was himself a great master of music, kept in his house some companies of singing men and singing women, as the words of old Barzillai seem to imply; and Solomon, who denied his heart no pleasure, came not behind his father in this respect; for he had his "men-singers and women-singers likewise, and musical instruments of all sorts. Josephus tells us, that he had made four hundred thousand, merely for the use of the temple; and therefore we may well suppose, that he had no small variety of them, for the use of the musicians that attended his person. : 13 What the power of music is, to sweeten the temper, and allay and compose the passions of the mind, we have some examples from sacred history, but many more from the profane. As this same Saul was returning from Samuel, he met, at the place which is called the hill of God,' a company of prophets, playing on several instruments; and such was the effect of their melody, that the Spirit,'as the Scripture expresses it,' came upon him, and he was turned into another man.' When Elisha was desired by Jehoshaphat, to tell him what his success against the king of Moab would be, the prophet required a minstrel to be brought unto him, and when the minstrel played, (it is said) that the hand of the Lord came upon him not that we are to suppose, that the gift of prophecy was the natural effect of music, but the meaning is, that music disposed the organs, the humours, the blood, and in short the whole mind and spirit of the prophet, to receive the supernatural impression. The truth is, common experience, as well as the testimony of the gravest authors, does prove, that there is in music a certain charm, to revive the spirits, mellow the humours, allay the passions, and consequently, to dissipate that rage, or melancholy, which either fumes up into the brain vapours, or overspreads the heart with grief and dejection. We need less wonder, therefore, that we find the Pythagoreans, whenever they perceived, either in themselves or others, any violent passion beginning to arise, immediately betaking themselves either to their flute or guitar; that we find Theophrastus declaring that music is an excellent remedy against several distempers, both of the mind and body; others, that Asclepiades, a renowned physician among the ancients, was used to cure madness by the power of symphony; and others again, that the most violent poison, that of the sting of the tarantula, But suppose we, as some imagine, that they wanted has been expelled very frequently by this means. The the harmony of a concert, or several parts of music goonly remaining difficulty is, how David, with his single ing on at the same time; yet it is much to be questioned, harp, and unassisted with any other instruments, could whether that simplicity of composition, which resembles effect such a cure upon Saul? And to satisfy this, nature most, is not a greater beauty and perfection than I must be obliged to inquire a little into the nature of the Jewish music which was possibly in vogue at that time. in 6 'Calmet's Commentary on 1 Sam. xxvi. 17. 4 it M. Le Clerc seems to be of opinion, that the music of the ancient Hebrews was not very regular: "They were a nation," says he, " entirely given to agriculture, and had neither theatres nor any public diversions of this kind; all the use which they made of their music, consisted in singing some sacred hymns, which David instituted; but we have no reason to think, that their performances of this kind were either harmonious or methodical;" but now the learned Kircher has confuted all this. For 15 is not probable," says he, "that such an innumerable quantity of musical instruments, made by the most skilful hands, should serve only to produce some rude and inartificial sounds. Among the Hebrews there was certainly a wonderful order of songs and chanters, a wonderful distribution of the singers, and a wonderful agreement of words fitted to harmonious notes; neither is it likely that all the instruments of one choir, did perform their parts in unison, but that they made a various harmony, with an admirable and accurate contexture of the upper parts with their respective basses.” 8 Gen. iv. 21. 11 14 Ec. ii. 8. 9 Gen. xxxi. 27. 12 1 Sam. x. 5. 15 10 Exod. xv. 13 3 2 Sam. xix. 35. Musurgia Univer. b. 2. c. 4. a This instrument in Hebrew is named Hugah, and was a Elianus Var. Hist. b. 14. c. 27. 5 In a book on Frantic Fits. kind of flute composed of several pipes, of a different bigness, 6 Censorinus de Die Natali, b. 12. 7 See Saurin, vol. 4. dissertation 33. joined to one another.-Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Music. 3 But after all, the words in the text say nothing of Saul's forgetfulness of David, or that he inquired who he was. They only intimate, that he was ignorant of his family, and desired to be informed from what parent he was descended; and considering how many servants there are in every court, especially in a lower station, whose pedigree the king knows nothing of, and how apt we are all to forget the names of those that live at a distance, as Jesse did from Saul, and with whom we hold little or no intercourse, we need not much wonder, that Saul, who had no concern for David's family before this adventure, should quite forget the name of his father, living in another country, and which he had cursorily heard perhaps, but never once fixed in his mind: but A. M. 2888. A. C. 1116; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M, 4301. A. C. 1110. 1 SAM. i. TO THE END. that combination of several voices and tunes, which con- an action that was quite contrary to the character of a stitutes our concerts. For, to use the words of another musician. author, in a science wherein I profess to be no adept, "The ancients," says he, "had as great a number of instruments as we; they had their symphonies, and voices of all sorts, as well as we; but then they had this advantage above us, that their singing voices and instruments neither drowned the words nor destroyed the sense of what they sung. While their ears were charmed with the melody, and their hearts touched with the delicacy of the song, their minds were transported with the beauty of the words, with the liveliness, grandeur, or tenderness of the sentiments. So that, at one and the same time, they had all the pleasurable impressions and sensations that the most exact imagery of thoughts and sentiments, joined with symphony, or a true harmony, could produce in their breasts;" and for this reason, it is rightly sup-now that the son was going upon a desperate enterprise, posed by Josephus, that while David played upon his harp, he sung psalms and hymns to king Saul, whose words very probably were adapted to the occasion, and that both these put together were conducive to his cure; though God without doubt, who gave a blessing to his endeavours, was the principal cause of the removal of the malady. : and was to have great riches, as well as the king's daughter, if he came off victorious, it did not a little behove the king to know something more of the parentage of this young champion, and into what family he was to match his daughter and upon this presumption, there is no madness, no absurdity, no incongruity, in his bidding Abner to inquire whose son the stripling is.' "It is a brave and gallant youth. I am charmed with his behaviour. If he falls in the attempt, he shall have an honourable interment; if he succeeds, and slays the giant, he shall be my son-in-law." a 56 The Jews give a very romantic reason for David's going to Achish, the king of the Philistines, namely, that it was to demand an execution of the treaty, whereby the conqueror was to have a sovereign power and dominion over the conquered, which Goliath proposed when he challenged the Israelites; and that upon this account, the chief ministers about that king were so alarmed at his arrival, Is not this David, the king of this our land ?* as some take the words. It is apparent, however, from the context, that the land, to which these words relate, is Judea, and that David, at this time, was in no condition to make any high demands. That David's skill in playing upon the harp, in a great measure removed Saul's melancholy, is manifest from his retiring from court to his father's house, and betaking himself to his usual occupation of a shepherd. How long he continued with his father, the Scripture is silent; but a short time might be sufficient to impair the king's remembrance of him, especially when he appeared in another dress than what he wore at court, and was just now come off rough from a journey. He had played to the king indeed, and happily relieved his disorder: but who knows, but that he then wore an habit proper for his profession as a musician, and, as clothes make a great alteration in a man, appeared now quite another creature in his plain shepherd's garb? Who knows, but that the 2 minister, whoever he was, that recommended him to the king, finding that his music proved medicinal to him, might take the freedom to send to his father, and request that his son might continue a little longer at court, even without the king's knowledge or direction? And it seems not unlikely, that the office of armourbearer, whatever it imported, was a place of honour and respect, more than strict duty and attendance, because Saurin's Dissertation on the Combat of David. 1 Sam. xvii. 25. we find David sometimes retiring to his father's house, as not obliged always to reside at court. Saul's rancour and rage against him were so implacable, and now that so many were turned informers against him, his power to apprehend him was become so great, that there was no staying any longer in his dominions; 51 Sam. xvii. 56. See Sol. Jarchi on 1 Sam. xxi. 12. a The suppositions of our author to account for Saul's inquiry who David was, after we are told in the text, that he had been Without our supposing then, as some commentators made Saul's armour-bearer, and had played for a time before him, have done, that Saul's distemper had disturbed his head, is perhaps the best that could be made in the circumstances, but and impaired his memory, we need but consider the is by no means satisfactory. In fact, the whole account in the humour and fashions of a court, the hurry of business, text is so incoherent, that we can hardly record it as a part of the the multitude of servants, the variety of faces, and the │—31, ver. 41 and ver. 54 to the end of chap. xvii. are awant original. Accordingly we find, that in the Septuagint, ver. 12 shoals of comers and goers, that are every day seening, as also, verses 1-5, 9, 10, 11, 17, 18, 19, of chap. xviii.; there; and withal, consider the momentous issue of a and if the narrative is read, omitting the verses, it will be seen battle lost or won, and what full employ the king or his chief commander must have for all his thought and attention, when an army is drawn up in array, and ready to engage; and then we may easily account both for Saul and Abner's wanting recollection, when they saw David disguised in his shepherd's coat, and now entering upon 'Calmet's Dissertation on the Music of the Ancients. Le Clerc's Commentary on 1 Sam. xxvii. 55. that nothing is awanting to complete the sense, and make it |