The appearance of Saul. 1 5 "uel said unto thee. And Saul said unto his uncle, He "told us plainly that the asses were found. But of the "matter of the kingdom, whereof Samuel spake, he told "him not." On the day of his election he was nowhere to be found, and he was as though he were deaf.2 Some there were, who even after his appointment still said, "How shall this man save us?" "and they brought "him no presents." And he shrank back into private life, and was in his fields, and with his yoke of oxen.1 But there was one distinction which marked out Saul for his future office. "The desire of all Israel" was already, unconsciously, "on him and on "his father's house." He had the one gift by which in that primitive time a man seemed to be worthy of rule. He was "goodly,"—"there was not among the children "of Israel a goodlier person than he," "from his "shoulders and upward he towered above all the peo"ple." When he stood among the people, Samuel could say of him," See ye him, look at him whom the Lord "hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the "people." It is as in the days of the Judges, as in the Homeric days of Greece. Agamemnon, like Saul, is head and shoulders taller than the people. Like Saul, too, he has that peculiar air and dignity expressed by the Hebrew word which we translate "good" or "goodly." This is the ground of the epithet which became fixed as part of his name,-"Saul the chosen," "the chosen of the Lord."9 8 In the Mussulman traditions this is the only trait of Saul which is preserved. His name has there been almost lost, he is known only as Thalût, "the tall "one." In the Hebrew songs of his own time he was. known by a more endearing but not less expressive indication of the same grace. His stately, towering form, standing under the pomegranate tree above the precipice of Migron,2 or on the pointed crags of Michmash, or the rocks of En-gedi, claimed for him the title of the "wild roe, the gazelle," perched aloft, "the "pride and glory of Israel." Against the giant Philis 4 tines a giant king was needed. The time for the little stripling of the house of Jesse was close at hand, but was not yet come. Saul and Jonathan, "swifter than "eagles and stronger than lions," still seemed the fittest champions of Israel. "When Saul saw any strong man "or any valiant man, he took him unto him." He, in his gigantic panoply, that would fit none but himself," with the spear that he had in his hand, of the same form and fashion as the spear of Goliath, was a host in himself. And when we look at the state of Israel at the time, we find that we are still in the condition which would most justify such a choice. His residence, like that of the ancient Judges, is still at the seat of the family. That beacon-like cone, conspicuous amongst the uplands of Benjamin, then and still known by the name of "the "Hill" (gibeah), had been selected apparently by his ancestor Jehiel," for the foundation of one of the chief I D'Herbelot, Thalout ben Kissai. 21 Sam. xiv. 2. 32 Sam. i. 19, the word translated “beauty," but the same term (tsebi) in 2 Sam. ii. 18, and elsewhere, is translated "roe." 4 2 Sam. i. 23. 5 1 Sam. xiv. 52. 7 When Abiel, or Jehiel (1 Chr. viii. 29, ix. 35), is called the "father of Gibeon," it probably means founder of Gibeah. cities in Benjamin. There Saul had "his house," and his name superseded the more ancient title of the city as derived from the tribe.' And there, king as he was, we might fancy ourselves still in the days of Shamgar or of Gideon, when we see him following his herd of oxen in the field, and driving them home at the close of day up the steep ascent of the city. It was on one of these evening returns that his career received the next sharp stimulus which drove him Relief of on to his destined work. A loud wail, such as Jabesh Gibeah. 3 goes up in an Eastern city at the tidings of some great calamity, strikes his ear. He said, "What "aileth the people that they weep?" They told him the news that had reached them from their kinsmen beyond the Jordan. The work which Jephthah2 had wrought in that wild region had to be done over again. Ammon was advancing, and the first victims were the inhabitants of Jabesh, connected by the romantic adventure of the previous generation with the tribe of Benjamin. This one spark of outraged family feeling was needed to awaken the dormant spirit of the sluggish giant. He was a true Benjamite from first to last. "The Spirit of God came upon him," as on Samson. His shy retiring nature vanished. His anger flamed out, and he took two oxen from the herd that he was driving, and (here again, in accordance with the like expedient in that earlier time, only in a somewhat gentler form) he hewed them in pieces, and sent their bones through the country with the significant warning, "Whosoever cometh not after Saul, and after 1 Formerly "Gibeah of Benjamin," henceforth" Gibeah of Saul," down to the time of Josephus (B. J. v. 2, §1). 2 See Lecture XVI. 3 Judg. xx. See Lecture XIII. 4 The same word in 1 Sam. x. 10, xi. 6, and in Judg. xiv. 6, 19; xv. 14 An awe In one "Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen." fell upon the people: they rose as one man. day they crossed the Jordan. Jabesh was res- The first cued. It was the deliverance of his own tribe victory. which thus at once seated him on the throne securely. The East of the Jordan was regarded as specially the conquest of Saul. The people of Jabesh never forgot their debt of gratitude. The house of Saul were safe there when their cause was ruined everywhere else. This was his first great victory. The monarchy was inaugurated afresh.' But he still so far resembles the earlier Judges as to be virtually king only within his own tribe. Almost all his exploits are confined to this immediate neighborhood. In that neighborhood the Philistines are still in the ascendant, as in the days of Samson and Eli. Sanctuaries of Dagon are found, far away from the sea-coast, up to the very verge The Philisof the Jordan valley. It had become a Phil- tine war. istine country, almost as much as Spain had in the ninth century become a Mussulman country. As there, the Arabic names and Arabic architecture reveal the existence of the intruding race up to the very frontier of Biscay and the Asturias, so in the very heart of Palestine, we stumble on the traces of the Philistine. At Gibeah or at Ramah, close by one of the Prophetic schools, is a garrison or exacting officer of the Philistines. At Michmash is another; at Geba is another. At any harvest, an incursion of the Philistines, with their animals to carry off the ripe corn, was a regular event, to be constantly expected. The people are depressed to the same point as before the time of Debo 1 1 Sam. xi. 1-15. But in xii. 12, this is described as preceding the election of Saul. 2 See the map, Palestine after the Conquest. 3 1 Sam. xxiii. 11. 66 66 rah, when "there was not a shield or spear seen among "forty thousand in Israel." "There was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines "said, Lest the Israelites make themselves swords and spears. But all the Israelites went down to the Philis"tines, to sharpen every one his share, and his coulter, "and his ax, and his mattock." Saul and Jonathan alone had arms. The complete panoply of the Philistine giant was a marvel to the unarmed Israelites. As in the days of the Midianite invasion, the Israelites vanished from before their enemies into the caves and pits in which the limestone rocks abound. "Behold "the Hebrews come out of the holes where they have "hid themselves," is the exclamation of the Philistines, as they saw any adventurous warriors creeping out of their lurking-places. The whole nation was pushed eastward. The monarchy was like a wind-driven tree. The sharp blast from Philistia blew it awry. The "He"brews" (so they are usually called by their Philistine conquerors) are said, as if in allusion to their repassing their ancient boundary, to have "passed over Jordan to "the land of Gad and Gilead." The sanctuaries long frequented in the centre of the country, Bethel, and Mizpeh, and Shiloh, were deserted, and the King had to be inaugurated, and the thanksgivings after the victories had to be celebrated, in the first ground that had been won by Joshua in the very outskirts of Palestine - at Gilgal in the valley of the Jordan. In the midst of such a renewal of the disturbed days of old, Saul was 6 Ibid. xiii. 3, 7. See Lecture 1. 1 1 Sam. xiii. 20; Judges v. 21 Sam. xvii. 4. 8. 3 Ibid. xiii. 6. See Lecture XV. 4 Ibid. xiv. 11. 5 Ibid. iv. 6, 9, xiii. 19, xiv. 11, επίχ. 3. p. 10. 7 See 1 Sam. x. 8, xi: 14, xiii. 4, 7 xv. 4 (LXX.), 12. |