the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh. 6 And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly. 7 And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. 8 And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9 And they said unto the messengers that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabesh-gilead, To morrow, by that time the sun be hot, ye shall have help. And the messengers came and shewed it to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad. 10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, To morrow we will come out unto you, and ye 2 Heb. as one man. shall do with us all that seemeth good unto you. 11 And it was so on the morrow, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the host in the morning watch, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day; and it came to pass, that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them were not left together. 12 And the people said unto Samuel, Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us? bring the men, that we may put them to death. 13 And Saul said, There shall not a man be put to death this day: for to day the LORD hath wrought salvation in Israel. 14 T Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there. 15 And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. 3 Or, deliverance. Verse 2. That I may thrust out all your right eyes.The earliest instance of this barbarous infliction is afforded in the treatment of Samson, at Gaza. It probably originated in the desire to disable or incapacitate an enemy or rival without putting him to death. Persia is the country which, more than any other, has in all ages been distinguished for the frequency of this most horrid punishment, and where, in consequence, like other customary evils, it is regarded rather as one of the common calamities of life, to which high station, in particular, is incident, than as the subject of that intense horror and compassion with which it is regarded by ourselves. The punishment is entirely extra-judicial in that country. It is not recognised by the law, and is always inflicted by absolute power on the objects of its fear or anger. These are usually such persons as have aspired, or are supposed likely to aspire, to the throne (see the note on Judg. ix. 5); or else the chiefs of tribes and other distinguished persons, whom it is considered desirable to deprive of power without putting them to death; and sometimes the adult male inhabitants of rebellious towns, in order to strike terror by a dreadful example. The last wholesale form of this barbarity affords the nearest analogy to the case in the text, Sir John Malcolm, in his History of Persia, mentions an instance of this sort which took place in the year 1795. At that time the throne was contested by two persons, Lootf Ali Khan, who had reigned and maintained his right, and Aga Mohammed Khan, who claimed to reign, and by victories established his claim. The former was shut up by the latter in the city of Kerman: but he effected his escape; and then Aga Mohammed 'wreaked his vengeance upon the unfortunate inhabitants of the city of Kerman : nearly twenty thousand women and children were granted as slaves to his soldiers; and all the males who had reached maturity were commanded to be put to death, or to be deprived of their eyesight. Those who escaped his cruelty owed their safety neither to mercy nor to flight, but to the fatigue of their executioners, who only ceased to be the instruments of glutting the revengeful spirit of their enraged monarch, when they were themselves exhausted with the work of blood. The numbers that were slain on this memorable occasion were great, and exceeded even those who were deprived of sight, though the latter are said to have amounted to seven thousand. Many of these miserable wretches are still alive. Some, who subsist on charity, wander over Persia, and recount, to all who will listen to the tale, the horrors of that day of calamity.' We have the rather copied this, as it affords a modern exhibition of such horrors as those which but too often distinguished the warfare of ancient times. Sir John adds, in a note, It has been stated that Aga Mohammed directed that a number of pounds weight of eyes should be brought to him: nor is the tale incredible.' Nahash was comparatively merciful in requiring only one eye from the men of Jabesh. In Persia, the object being to create blindness, one eye alone is almost never taken. The only instance we know is that mentioned by Sir R. K. Porter, who states that the late king's brother (Hossein Ali Khan), having seized a troop of thirty robbers, ordered them all to be punished by the loss of their left eyes and right hands. Josephus says that the intention of Nahash, in proposing to put out the right eyes of the men of Jabesh, was to disable them from acting as warriors. According to him, this disability resulted from the fact that a person who exposed his shield to the enemy necessarily held it so as to conceal his left eye, leaving only the right for vision; and consequently, that to lose the right eye was, for warlike purposes, as bad as being quite blind. We should also suppose that such a loss must deprive archers and slingers of the power of taking an accurate aim. Nahash, however, does himself assign a very distinct reason for his proceeding. 7. And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces. This is analogous to the incident recorded in Judges xix., where the Levite sends about the remains of his dismembered concubine for the same purpose. He needed no other sacrifice, she having herself been the victim to the sin of the sons of Belial' in Gibeah, the very place from whence Saul sends his present message. The principle of the custom is not difficult to understand. It was a conventional summon to war, to which usage had attached such peculiar solemnity as would alone perhaps have sufficed to give it effect, even without the denunciation of vengeance against those who failed to obey the call. Nevertheless, So shall it be done to his cattle' must have been felt as a peculiarly awful threat, to a people who were almost entirely devoted to agricultural and pastoral pursuits. The analogy enables us to perceive that the Levite's transmission of his concubine's remains amounted to the denunciation, 'So let it be done to his wife and daughters who fails to become an avenger.' Probably the Levite's conduct was a new, but striking, application of the recognized principle: here we have apparently the more regular practice. Among many analogous customs which might be produced, we may refer to that mentioned by Lucian as practised among the Pythians. When any one had received an injury, and had not the means of avenging himself, he sacrificed an ox, and cut it in pieces, which he caused to be dressed and publicly exposed; then he spread out the skin of the victim and sat upon it with his hands tied behind him. All who chose to take part in the injury which had been done took up a piece of the ox and swore to supply and maintain for him, one, five horses; another, ten; others still more: some infantry, each according to his strength and ability: they who had only their person engaged to march themselves; and an army composed of such soldiers, far from retreating or disbanding, was invincible, as it was engaged by an oath-that their blood should be likewise poured out if they did not observe its conditions. A still more striking illustration may be derived from a passage in the third canto of Sir Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake, and the note thereon. In the latter he says, that When a (Highland) chieftain designed to summon his clan, upon any sudden or important emergency, he slew a goat, and, making a cross of any light wood, seared its extremities in the fire, and extinguished them in the blood of the animal. This was called the Fiery Cross, also Crean Tarigh, or the Cross of Shame, because disobedience to what the symbol implied inferred infamy. It was delivered to a swift and trusty messenger, who ran full speed with it to the next hamlet, where he presented it to the principal person, with a single word, implying the place of rendezvous. He who received the symbol was bound to send it forward, with equal despatch, to the next village; and thus it passed with incredible celerity through all the district which owed allegiance to the chief, and also among the allies and neighbours, if the danger was common to them. At sight of the Fiery Cross every man, from sixteen years old to sixty, capable of bearing arms, was obliged instantly to repair to the place of rendezvous. He who failed to appear suffered the extremities of fire and sword, which were emblematically denounced to the disobedient by the bloody and burnt marks upon this warlike signal. Sir Walter further states that the Fiery Cross was exhibited with effect so late as the civil war of 1745-6; and then quotes a passage from Olaus Magnus, shewing that a practice almost precisely analogous existed among the ancient Scandinavians. The command and denunciation with the latter were to the effect that, on an appointed day, a certain number of men, or else every man from fifteen years old and upward, should come with his arms, and with means for ten or twenty days, under pain that his or their houses should be burnt, as intimated by the burnt symbol. The effect of the message was no doubt much the same in Palestine as in Scandinavia or in the Highlands, and is thus stated by Sir Walter in the poem itself: From winding glen, from upland brown, Each son of Alpine rush'd to arms.' 8. Bezek.'-Jerome says that there were two villages near each other, seven miles from Neapolis (Shechem) on the road to Scythopolis (Bethshan). This doubtless answers to the site of the present transaction, being in the great muster-field and battle-field of Esdraelon, and nearly opposite to Jabesh-Gilead, on the other side of the river. A place called Bezek is noted in Judges i. for the defeat, by the tribes of Judah and Simeon, of the powerful king whose capital it was, and who took his name (Adoni-Bezek, or Lord of Bezek) from it. Whether this was the same as the present Bezek, it is not easy to say. The tribes asked of the Lord (at Shiloh doubtless) who should go up against the Canaanites. The answer was Judah.' Accordingly, Judah, calling for the aid of Simeon, went and defeated the king of Bezek. As all the tribes were ready for this service, and Judah was merely honoured with the preference, and as the answer was given at Shiloh, it is not improbable that the Bezek of that narrative is the same as this, and it seems by no means necessary that, as some think, it should be in the tribe of Judah. Sandys, however, mentions a Bezek in that tribe. We departed (from Bethlehem), bending our course to the mountains of Judea, lying west from Bethlehem: near to which, on the side of the opposite hill, we passed by a little village, called (as I take it) Bezec; inhabited only by Christians, mortal (as they say) to the Mahometans that attempted to dwell therein.' If the first chapter of Judges require a Bezek in Judah, this might well be taken for its position; but as no one mentions it besides Sandys, and he speaks so doubtfully, we fear there is no sufficient authority for giving it in the map the place which he indicates. 12. And the people said,' etc.-In the late transaction against the Ammonites Saul displayed a large measure of those heroic qualities which the ancient nations most desired their monarchs to possess. Considering all the cir cumstances, the promptitude and energy of his decision, the speed with which he collected an immense army and brought it into action, and the skill and good military conduct of the whole transaction, there are probably few operations of the Hebrew history which more recommend themselves to the respect and admiration of the modern soldier. Its effect was not lost upon the people, who joyfully recognized in their king the qualities which have generally been held most worthy of rule; and so much was their enthusiasm excited, that they began to talk of putting to death the small minority who had refused to recognize his sovereignty. But Samuel interposed to prevent an act unbecoming a day in which God had wrought salvation in Israel.' So harsh a proceeding would also have been rather likely to provoke than allay the disaffection of the leading tribes. Samuel took advantage of this feeling to invite the army, which comprehended in fact the effective body of the Hebrew people, to proceed to Gilgal, there solemnly to confirm the kingdom to Saul, seeing that now his claims were undisputed by any portion of the people. This was done with great solemnity and with abundant sacrifices of peace and joy. CHAPTER XII. 1 Samuel testifieth his integrity. 6 He reproveth the people of ingratitude. 16 He terrifieth them with thunder in harvest time. 20 He comforteth them in God's mercy. AND Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. 2 And now, behold, the king walketh before you and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. 3 Behold, 'here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any 'bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. 4 And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man's hand. 5 And he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness. 6¶ And Samuel said unto the people, It is the LORD that ‘advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. 7 Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD of all the 'righteous acts of the LORD, which he did "to you and to your fathers. 8 When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the LORD, then the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place. 9 And when they forgat the LORD their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. 10 And they cried unto the LORD, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. 11 And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and deli vered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe. 12 And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us when the LORD your God was your king. 13 Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you. 14 If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the "commandment of the LORD, then shall both and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD your God: ye 15 But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers. 16 Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the LORD will do before your eyes. 17 Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto the LORD, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a king. 18 So Samuel called unto the LORD; and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel. 19 And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the LORD thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. 20 ¶ And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart; 21 And turn ye not aside for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain. 22 For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people. 23 Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: 24 Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider "how great things he hath done for you. 25 But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king. Or, that I should hide mine eyes at him. 13 Heb. from ceasing. 4 Or, made. 9 Judges 4. 2. 14 Or, what a great thing, &c. Verse 2. And now behold the king walketh before you.'The preceding solemnity had been obviously designed to keep the people in remembrance of their continued dependence upon Jehovah. But lest it should be construed into an approbation and sanction of all their proceedings, the prophet took this public occasion of reminding them that their proceeding had been most unpleasing to their divine King; although, if they maintained their fidelity to him and to the principles of the theocracy, some of the evil consequences might be averted. He also neglected not the opportunity of justifying his own conduct and the purity of his administration. He challenged assembled Israel to produce one instance of oppression, fraud, or corruption on his part, while he had been their sole judge; and in that vast multitude not one voice was raised to impugn his integrity and uprightness. He then proceeded to remind them of their past transgressions, in forgetting or turning astray from their God, with the punishments which had invariably followed, and the deliverances which their repentance had procured; shewing them, by these instances, the sufficiency of their divine Sovereign to rule them, and to save them from their enemies, without the intervention of an earthly king, whom they had persisted in demanding. And he assured them that, under their regal government, public sins would not cease to be visited with public calamities. To add the greater weight to his words, and to evince the divine displeasure, the commissioned prophet called down thunder and rain from heaven, then at the usual season of wheat-harvest, when the air is naturally, in that country, serene and cloudless. On this the people were greatly alarmed at the possible consequences of the displeasure they had provoked, and besought Samuel to in tercede for them. The prophet kindly encouraged them to hope that if they continued to trust faithfully in God, all would yet be well. 11. Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel.' -No judge named Bedan occurs in the history. There are various explanations; of which that perhaps is the best which follows the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions in reading Barak' instead of Bedan.' The Syriae and Arabic also have 'Samson' instead of 'Samuel :' and it indeed seems as unlikely that the prophet should omit Samson, as that he should place his own name in a list of military deliverers. These alterations, sanctioned by the best ancient versions, are in accordance with the list given by the Apostle in Heb. xi. 32. · 17. He shall send thunder and rain.'—It is evident that rain and thunder must have been of extraordinary occurrence at this season, or else its exhibition might not have been so distinctly recognized as the Lord's answer to the call of Samuel. The wheat-harvest is usually over towards the end of May or early in June, and its commencement depends upon the cessation of the latter rains, after which the corn soon arrives at maturity. Consequently, that it was the time of wheat-harvest, is, in itself, an evidence that the season for rain had passed. Rain sometimes falls so late as the early part of May; but in the remainder of that month, and throughout the months of June, July, and the early part of August, rain scarcely ever falls, and continues to be rare even till the commencement of the season of rain in October or November. Indeed we see, from Prov. xxvi. 1, that' rain in harvest' was as incomprehensible to an ancient Hebrew as 'snow in summer.' CHAPTER XIII. 1 Saul's selected band. 3 He calleth the Hebrews thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Beth-aven. 6 ¶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in SAUL 'reigned one year; and when he had high places, and in pits. reigned two years over Israel, 2 Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel; whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in mount Beth-el, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent. 3 ¶ And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in 'Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear. 4 And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel also was had in abomination with the Philistines. And the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal. 5 And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty 1 Heb. the son of one year in his reigning. 2 Or, the hill. 5 Chap. 10. 8. As 7 And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people 'followed him trembling. 8 ¶ And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. 9 And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering. 10 And it came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might "salute him. 11 T And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, 3 Heb. did stink. 6 Heb. bless him. 4 Heb. trembled after him. and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash; 12 Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the LORD: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering. 13 And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. 14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee. 15 And Samuel arose, and gat him up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him, about six hundred men. 16 And Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin: but the Philistines encamped in Michmash. 17 And the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies: one company turned unto the way that leadeth to Ophrah, unto the land of Shual: 18 And another company turned the way to Beth-horon and another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness. 19 Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: 20 But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his ax, and his mattock. 21 Yet they had 'a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads. 22 So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found. 11 23 And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the passage of Michmash. Heb. a file with mouths. Verse 1.Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years.-There is nothing about reigning' in the first clause of the original. It is, literally, Saul was the son of a year,' which being the Hebrew idiom for expressing the age of a person, it seems that the first clause describes his age, and the second states how long he had reigned; but that the word expressing the number of years he had lived has in some way or other been lost. Origen, in his Hexapla, inserts thirty,' and is followed by Houbigant and others. Vignoles, however, in his Chronology, thinks that Saul was forty years of age at the time of his election; and Dr. Hales observes that he could not well have been much younger, since, in the second year of his reign, his eldest son, Jonathan, held a separate military command, and smote the Philistine garrison in Geba, as recorded in this chapter. 3. Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines.'-How it came to pass that there were Philistine garrisons in the land is not very clear. It would seem, however, that in resigning their conquests after their last defeat, they had retained some hill fortresses, from which they knew the Hebrews would find it difficult to dislodge them; and that, when they recovered from the blow which was then inflicted upon their power, they contrived, by the help of this hold which they had in the country, to bring the southern tribes (at least those of Judah and Benjamin) under a sort of subjection. Thus, when Saul was returning home after having been privately anointed by Samuel at Ramah, and met the sons of the prophets at Gibeah, we learn that at that place was a garrison of the Philistines.' And now we further learn that the Hebrews had in fact been disarmed by that people. According to that jealous policy of which other examples will ultimately be offered (2 Kings xxiv. 14; Jer. xxix. 2), they had even removed all the smiths of Israel, lest they should make weapons of war; in consequence of which the Hebrews were obliged to resort to the Philistine garrisons whenever their agricultural implements needed any other sharpening than that which a grindstone could give; and as this was an unpleasant alternative, even these important instruments had been suffered to become blunt at the time to which we are now come; and so strict had been the deprivation of arms that, in the military operations which soon after followed, no one of the Israelites, save Saul and his eldest son, was possessed of a spear or sword. [APPENDIX, No. 34.] Geba.-This is very generally supposed to be the same place as Gibeah, noticed under ch. x. 26. Both names mean a hill, and Gibeah is in the original essentially the same name as Geba, distinguished only by a feminine termination. If they were not the same, they must have been very near to each other-much nearer in fact than we can well expect to find towns so similarly designated; nor are there any ruins or named site near Gibeah which might be supposed to represent Geba. Nevertheless there are some reasons against regarding the two names as indicating the same place; and for the present the point must be regarded as unsettled. 5. Thirty thousand chariots.'-If we allow two horses and two men to each chariot, there must have been sixty thousand of each for the chariots alone. The horsemen also are only six thousand, whereas, usually, the proportion of cavalry in the ancient armies was far greater than the chariots. Such a number of chariots, or anything approaching to such a number, never appears even in those vast armies which ancient history describes as having been occasionally raised by the great monarchs of the East. The proportion of chariots in an army was in fact exceedingly small. Pharaoh pursued the Israelites to the Red Sea with only six hundred chariots. Jabin, the powerful king of Canaan, possessed nine hundred (Judg. iv. 3). David took one thousand from Hadadezer (2 Sam. viii, 3). Zerah, the Ethiopian, had but three hundred in his army of a million |