Saol

1. The first king of Israel The son of Kish, he belonged to the small but warlike tribe of Benjamin, witliin which tribe his family had its seat at Gibeah. During his early years the Philistines had overrun the Southern tribes of Israel, had captured the ark, had de- stroyed Shiloh, and were so thoroughly masters of Judaea that they maintained an outpost in Benjamin (1 S 13'). Yet, though the tribes were humbled and separated, they had not entirely lost the sense of belonging to one race or of havin" a common destiny ; and the oppression of the I'liilis- tines served to make clear to them that, in order to assert these things, a single leader was an indis- pensable necessity. To have discovered the un- Kno^vn Saul, to have recognized his fitness for this task, and to have nerved him for attempting it, is the large service of Samuel, whom every account agrees in connecting with the rise of the new king. According to one account, the future chief was sent by his father to seek for some straj-ed asses. Baffled in the search, he turned aside to ask Samuel, an inconspicuous seer in the land of Zuph, for information about their fate. Samuel satisfied this anxiety, but roused in the questioner the conviction of a greater destiny. Commanding him in J'"s name to deliver Israel, he confirmed the message by certain signs, the occurrence of which would serve to remove any hesitation in attempt- ing 80 grave a task, and bade Saul then wait at home until his opportunity arrived (1 S 9. lO'"'' '"). The opportunity was not long delayed. Nahasli, a chief of Ammon, besieged Jabesh-gilead, and, when the inhabitants ofl'ered to surrender, would grant no mUder terms than that their right eyes should be put out. So convinced was he of the helpless condition in which Israel lay, that be even allowed them to send messengers asking help from the tribes west of Jordan, for tlius would his glory be increased by the disgrace inflicted on all Israel. Tlie news reached Saul as he was driving his cattle home from the plough. He saw Unless Gibeon is confused with Gibeah in 1 Ch S^sf- the clan hod once dwelt in Gibeon. Zela is also mentioned (2 S 21») a4 the burial-place of Kish, and as the Boat burial-place of his son. SAUL SAUL 413 in lis own wrath at the insult the indignation of I»raul, and in the inciJcni the very means needed to stir the pride of his people to a strong ell'ort. Slaying the oxen, he sent a species of liery cross through the South, and, with the hastily-levied force whicli obeyed the summons, defeated Nahasli. The grateful peojile at Samuel's bidding brought tlieir newly-found leader to the sacred place at Gilgal, ana solenmly crowned him aa their king before J" (1 S 11, onnt vv."- "• >>). The other account represents Samuel as the acknowleilged head over Israel, who ruled in Kainah as judge. When the Israelites, dissatisfied with their condition and %>ith the conduct of tlie judge's sons, desired a king, he at first refused their request, as rejecting God's immediate government in the nation, but at J"'s command consented (1 S 8). A popular assi'mbly was held at Miz|iah, where Saul was elocied prince by tlie sacred lot (lO"''-'^). A few opposed tlie election, and Saul withdrew with his supporters to Gibeah. The Nahash in- cident oH'ered the new king the occasion which justi- fied his election, and silenced all opposing voices. After it the people, convened at Gilgal, renewed the consecration, while Samuel solemnly resigned his oflice (11'-- 12). This account regarded the kingship not only as a novelty, but as a backward step from the older theo'iacy, an accommodation to the weakness of the people. It was impossible for the Philistines to view with indifference Saul's election (however it had been brouglit about), and not to dread the quickened national life which the victory over Nahash was sure to produce among their subject people. Realizing this, and prejjaring for the inevitable shock, Saul retained about him a small army. He chose 30U0 men, placed ono-tliird of them under his son Jonathan at the home of the clan, but kept the other two-thirds under his own orders near Bethel. Probably he intended to rouse the strong tribe of Ephraim to his support. The impatient courage o! Jonathan precipitated the struggle. He struck down the garrison or representative i^^'fi) which the Philistines had in Benjamin. The Philistines replied by gathering an army, which thej' marched up the valley of Aijalon in the direction of Mich- mash. They thus drove themselves like a wedge between the Northern and Southern tribes. Lest they should cut him oti' from Benjamin, Saul was forced to fall back, especially since the majority of his troops fled, some into liiding, others across Jordan. The king with the 600 men who still clung to him retired on Gilgal, + in which position he secured a safe base on the transjordanic tribes. He left at the head of the wady and opposite the Philistine position a small outpost under Jonathan, who .shiiuld watch t he movements of the enemy and warn the main body (13'"'). For a, time there was hesitation. Probably the Phil, wished to draw the Isr. armv from its strong position and from its supiiorts. fiut the invaders were too proudly conhuent of their strength. Forming a camp above Michraash, tliey divided almost their wliole force into detachments and sent these northward to forage and to check any rising which Ejihraim mifjht attempt (13"""-''). Jonathan saw his opjiortunity and seized it. With- out delaying to request support from his father, he struck full at the weakened centre, overwhelmed the outpost at Michmash which had been set to watch him, and penetrated to the camp. Thence It would be an easy task to crush the divided • The exact senae of 311} (1 S 13») cannot be conaldcred pArtain, but in this connexion it is enou^ii to know that it reiircsentcd in eome way the Phil. Buzcrainlv. t See, however, Wellh. Comp. 247 f.; Budde, Jticht. u. Sam, 191 «., and W. R. Smith, OTJC' 181 n., aoa to whom OUgat Is lo unhistorical interpolation. detachments in detail. So sudden was the defeat that Saul on hearing the news lia<l no time even to consult the oracle. He followed instantly his son's assault. The Isr. au.\iliaries among the enemy deserted. The scattered Philistines were only preserved from utter ruin by the exhaustion of their victors ; they streamed back by the same pass by which they had entered, and the South country was for a period free (14'"'''). Here it would appear that the independent record of Saul's reign ceased. Here accordingly (14^'"'-) have been inserted a brief list of his household, and a statement that the struggle between the young kingdom and the Philistines continued <iuring his entire lifetime. Most of the remaining in- formation about the reign is derived from accounts which relate it as introductory to the ajipearance of David on the stage of Isr. history ; and it is only just to the first king's memory to remember that the rest of his life is narrated t'rora the point of view of an introduction to the life of his greater rival. But the king showed his prowess, and turned the new vigour of his realm against other foes than the Philistines. Men long remembered his victory over the Amalekites, jjartly because the motive of the war had been such a racial and religious antipathy, as the quickened self -con- sciousness of the young nation was keener to feel (1 S 15). And something of the same feeling must have prompted the king to crush the Gibeonites, that foreign tribe which had been received into the Isr. nation (cf. 2 S 21"). About this period, however, Saul lost the support of Samuel, who had done so much to set him on the throne. The accounts ditler as to the reason which produced the quarrel. One referred it to the victorious campaign against the Amalekites. These borderers had long troubled the South country of Judah, ravaging it with»sudden forays, since t^ie desert offered refuge in defeat or secure retreat with booty. Samuel commanded the king to proclaim a religious war and root them out ; and Saul obeying delivered a blow from which the people never again recovered. He sjiari'd, however, the best of the spoil, and especially Agag, the captured king. For this disregard of the exact tuiiiis of his command Samuel de- nounced the fall of Saul's house in the very hour of his triumph (1 S 15). The other account dated the strife from the time when Saul had retreated on Gilgal, and was anxiously expecting, with a handful of wavering men, the assault of the I'liilis tines. Samuel had bade him wait there during seven days, with the promise to come down then and offer sacrifice on his behalf. As the prophet's arrival was delayed beyond the set jieriod, and the peoiile were threatening to desert him, the king ventured to sacrifice independently. For this he brought upon himself the prophecy of the fall of hb dynasty (13»-">'). Certainly, Saul through this quarrel was de- prived of a restraining and a strengthening influ- ence. The victory, too, at Jlichmash could not be final, it was only introductory. The Philistines, with their organized force and their strong cities, could better uear such a defeat than the Israelites such a victory. What was required from the young realm was no longer a vigorous rising followed by a momentary effort, but the patient organization of a steady defence. And this, because ■ It must always be remcnibtTi'd that tbtrc wiut a tbeolof^col question debated in these matters. Saul, tlio hcavi-ii-appointed kiii^', failed in his misuion and fell on Uilboo. There uinst therefore have been something in hia life which broutfht uix)n him the disnlcasure of J", wlio would otiierwise iiave given him victory. Tnus the Chronicler (1 Oh lOi^) gives as an luiditionaj cause 'for the king's rejection tlie fact that ho had consulted an evil spirit at Endor ; and Josephus (A nl. Vl. xiv. ») adds also aa a cause that he hod destroyed Ahimelecti the high priest and the city of the high priests.' it was so novel in Isr. liistory, must have severely tried the temper of trihes not yet fully weaned from their desert instincts. Intertribal jealousies, further, which jilaywl so larjje a part in that early period (of. .Ig tf-""- 8'"' 12'-' etc.), and which troubled the kinj,'dom even after David's reign had consolidated it (f.gr. 1 K 12'"), could not fail to spring up, especially since the chief belonged to one of the smaller tribes. All these things are enougti to account in a sensitive man for the deep melancholy which clouded the king's powers at the very time when those were most needed (1 S W]. David's fame as a skilful harp player led to his being brought to the little court, where his music soothed the king's vexed mood. The charm, which made all men whom he met love the future king, laid hold on Saul, and he attached the young man pLTinanently to liis person as his armour-bearer (l(i'^"-'). 15y this time the war against Philistia had changed its ch.aracter. On their side the Pliilistines, taught liy the disaster at Michmash not to despise their foes, and probably considering the subjugation of the barren hill-country scarcely worth the trouble it cost, were content to keep open their trade-route along the coast. On his side Saul recognized the folly of attempting to besiege the five strongly fortified cities in the valley. In the new border warfare which sprang up David soon proved himself an adejit, and rose to a trusted position in the army. Recognizing his prowess, Saul gave the young captain his daughter Michal in marriage, and asked as bride gift the present of 100 Phil, foreskins — a gift significant at once of the low culture of the period and tlie character of the war (IS', "'-). But the new Bon-in-law proved dangerouslj' strong. His deeds in the field and the personal magnetism which never forsook him, won him the love of Jonathan and the more perilous applause of the multitude. To the darkened mind of the king it seemed by no means impossible that ambition might prove too strong for gratitude anil kinship. By guile and liy open force he sought to get David into his hands. Each eHbrt failed : even his daughter deserted him and tricked his messengers, while her husband escaped (ch. 19). After that open rupture David continued to linger in the neigh- bourhood of the court, while etlbrts were made, esjiecially by the leal-hearted Jonathan, to heal the breach between Saul and tlie stoutest of his servants. But this only served to draw upon the jirince the suspicion that he had entered into a conspiracy with the .son of Jesse to dethrone the king, — a suspicion which Jonathan was too proud in his integrity even to deny. The jiroud silence, howe\'(^r, would not appeal to so darkened a mind as Saul's hiid become. Such a position could not endure. At last David fled to Nob, northward from Jerus., and thence made his way through the country of the Philistines into the familiar South, where his own clan were sure to shelter him (ch. 21). Saul, 'sitting under the tamarisk-tree at Gibeah,' reproached his own men as traitors because they had not betrayed the plotter, and as fools because they failed to recognize how the first result of setting up this Judahite would be the loss of power and jirestige to Benjamin. He forthwith took a fearful vengeance on the priests wlio had harboured the fugitive, by massacring almost the entire household of Ahiraelech at Nob, and then pursued the refugee in his retreat (22"''). How far tills quarrel was the result of baseless suspicion in the diseased mind of the king, and how far it may have been justified by facts, must always remain uncertain. The fulness of the • Thi li uitdoubtedly the roeaning and the sting of 1 S 2030t. details which we possess, both over this period and over that in which David was hunted througli the Negeb, proves that the hairbreadth escapes of the great king before he came to the throne were a favourite subject with the early historians. But all the accounts were written from a standpoint which regarded David as the divinely appointed king over all Israel. And it is not an impossibility that the active, patriotic mind of the young soldier may have seen the need, if his country were to bo delivered, of some stronger hand upon the reins of government at that period. It is also possible that he may have been betrayed into words or acts which wrought with extra power on the morbid mind of Saul. The first intention of the fugitive seems to have been to settle in a tract still occupied by the Canaanites which lay between Judah and Philistia. It enjoyed the double advantage of lying near the settlements of his own kindred, and of olFering the desert for a last retreat. There he might hope to set up an independent principality without going over to the hereditary enemy ; and the inter- mittent war along the western frontier might draw the kind's attention away from his escaped captain. Once, therefore, he attempted to settle in a town at Keilah (23'^- )• But the district was devoted to the king, and Saul drove him headlong from this refuge. He then betook himself to the pasture country S.E. of Judah and adjoining the Dead Sea. But here also, though he allied himself with the strong clan of the Calebites by his marriage with Abigail, he was unable to maintain himself. Saul's government was powerful enough to expel him even from this comer of the realm (chs. 24-26), and he was finally driven to find refuge under the protection of Aciiish in Gath (27-). The Philistine princes, recognizing his worth, and especi- ally his aptitude for the border warfare in wliich he had annoyed themselves, settled the fugitive in Ziklag (v."), where he might cover their unguarded flank, and keep the ' way of the sea,' the trade-route for Egypt, against the unruly tribes of the desert. It is a strong proof of the extent to which the kingdom had been consolidated even during these years of war, that Saul was able to drive out of this remote part of his government one who combined with his popularity as captain family ties in that very region. The young realm must also have included much on the eastern side of the Jordan, for the last stand of Saul's house under Ishbosheth was made at Mahanaim (2 S 2"'-). It now began to creep along the backbone of the hill-countrj" and to aim at overpassing the valley of Jezreel into the Northern tribes. Had this succeeded, it would not only have gained a great accession of strength in linking the Northern tribes more closely with the Southern, it would also have cut the line of communication by which the trade of the Euphrates found its way over Damascus and Philistia to Egypt. This would have meant draining one chief artery of the life-blood in that trading com- munity. (Only on this view of the problem can we understand why the final grapple between the two powers was not fought in the South near tlie head- quarters of them both, but in the comparatively far-off North.) Threatened in their most vulnerable point, the Philistines roused themselves to action, and marched by Sharon and Megiddo into Esdraelon to clear the threatened route. Saul followed them along the hUIs, and crossing by En-gannim posted his army on Mt. Gilboa at the opposite side of the valley from Shunem where his adversaries lay. • No reference has been made to the other positions occupied by Saul and the Philistines, because, so Iotij; as the position of Aphelt depends on nothing better than conjecture, all the I rest must remain uncertain also. For a careful discussion of SAUL SAVOUR, SAVOURY ill In this position he commanded both Jordan and K.ilraelon. Thisi was no longer a guerilla contest, but a CTapple of sheer bodily strength between the two Ivin^donis. Sa\il realized it, suspected also that the I'hilislines were too strong for him. Ilis visit to the witch at Endor (ch. 28) both betrayed and increased the agitation with which he faced the battle. Men said he went into tho fif;ht knowing what was before him ; that the evening before, Samuel, who had tirst anointed him to lead the armies of Israel, summoned him to a trj-st at the grave. So it fell out. The ground on which the light befell was not such as could protect the Isr. infantry from the dreaded chariots of the enemy. The Philistines cros.sed the valley and mounted the hill slopes. Saul saw his army routed, his sons slain, and retained only strength enough to command his own death. I'he Philis- tines next day found their great enemy dead, consecrated his armour in the temple of tlie Ash- taroth, and hung his decapitated body in the public square of Bethshan. But gratitude was as strong as hate, for men of Jabeshgilead crossed the Jordan in the night, took down the body of the prince to whom they owed so much, and buried it on the site of his first victorj' (ch. 31). Saul had been called to the task of freeing Israel from the Philistines, for without that freedom no advance was possible for the nation. And what had prompted him to seat himself on the throne had oeen no personal ambition, but a recognition of this fact, a very call of J". Because they could not fail to recognize this and the excellence of the deed, his people could not fail to reverence his memory, and even he who had fared worst at the king's liands sang his imperisliable lament over him (2 S !'»"•). Yet Saul had failed in his attempt, and died on Mount Gilboa. How that could lie po.ssible was the problem which long puzzled men in Israel. May it not be that they did not look w idcly enough ? For Saul had done his work, despite his failure. No one ever questioned but that the kingdom must continue ; lie had proved its value too well for that. The only question which still remained w.asas to the man who should succeed and complete the imperfect task. That some one must, was a foregone conclusion. The first king, though outward circumstances h.ad proved too strong for him, and though he had been unable to resolve the many difliculties which the new condition of all'airs raised within Israel itself, had done enougli to make the way clear for his successor : Saul died on Gilboa, but he made David jwssilile. Saul was married to Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahim.'iaz (1 S H"). Most of his sons died at his side (31-') ; but one at least, Ishbaal or Ishbosheth (which see), escaped from CJilboa to meet a sadder fate (2 S 4"). A son of Jonathan, Mephibosheth (which see), appears in the history of David (2S0'"- ]9="'), and from him the Chronicler (1 Ch 9"") derives a long line of descendants. It was one of Dean Stanley's suggestions which requires nothing except proof, that as Zimri anpears in that list, the rebellion of 1 K 16" may tiave been the last ell'ort of the fallen house to recover its positicm. Saul also left issue t)y a subordinate wife (2 S 21"), for whose fate see KizPAH. It U difllcult to accept the computation ol Ac 1.321, which niAkoa the ienjfth of thiB llrst rei^n in lurael 40 j'cars. Fr>r, within two years o( hia fatlier's iicceswion, .lonattian waa able to lcal troops into hattle (1 S 131-3), a fact wliich arjfuca lor Saul an age of 40 ycara at his 'coronation,' and it is ahnost ImpoRMihle to believe that it was a man of 80 years of ajje who toiiflit at Mount Oilboa. Josephus (Ant. x.'viii. 4, vi. liv. ft) fives the lenf^th of the reiicn ui 20 years. Wliile this may be tho question and a KOod statement of \ts difflculty, see Smith, IKllll, 400 (t., (176. and cf. ArliRK, No. 3. It is just p08sil>le that Bethshan was the o))Jet-tive of t>olh forees, and that tiie Philistines •outfht to relieve, the Israelites to cover, the 8iei;e of the town. merely a giiess, It does not present the above difficulties, and OL'rees with the fact that Islibaal was 4i) yeant old at his father'l death. See, further, Bkv.tamix, David, and the Litera- ture at end of the latter article. 2. Saul of Tarsus. See Paul. A. C. Welch.