words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt? 10 Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered thee to-day into mine hand in the cave: and some3 bade me kill thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD'S anointed. 11 Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand : for in that I cut off the skirt of thy Rom. 12:17-21. 2Lev. 19: 16. Prov. 18:8; 26: But the sole and simple maxim of David was, Do right, and leave the results to God; and that the results thus left to God were so generally favorable to him was not because of his political astuteness, but because his spirit, under divine enlightenment, so generally led him the right way. Many men, while wishing to do right, often hesitate and deliberate as to what is right. But it was not so with David. He at once, as by an inspiration, saw what was right, best, and truest; and without hesitating, with all the confidence which experience gives, committed himself to the instant impulse of that truthful spirit which never, when heeded, led him wrong, and seldom suffered him to stray. It is not the less true that had David suffered the king to be slain under these circumstances the result could not but have been most discouraging to himself. Would the people willingly have consigned the sceptre to the hands stained with the blood of Saul? Would not Jonathan himself have been stung into open war against the slayer of his father, and instead of submitting to the exaltation of his friend, would he not rather, with the approval and sympathy of all Israel, have stood up for his own rights? Besides, by this act David would set an example of disregard for the character and condition of the "Lord's anointed," which might be turned most dangerously against himself when exalted to the throne. Kitto. 7. David stayed his servants. Let us learn to frame our lives after the noble example of King David, who, when he had many occasions given to work evil for evil towards King Saul, yea, and many times had opportunity to perform mischief and to slay him, nevertheless, fearing God, would not follow his fleshly affections and walk inordinately without the will of God's word, which he professed alway to be his direction. Bp. Latimer. - My young friends, will you accept this advice for your guidance through life? Never take a short road to any object when the gate into that road is sin. How much purer would our political and our commercial life become if men would only consent to act upon that principle! Be not in such hot haste. Keep by the highway of the great King! That will lead you right, though it may sometimes seem to lead you round. Let no vision of immediate success beguile you to do wrong. Do as God would have you, and leave it to him to bring you to the goal you seek in his own time. Make haste slowly, and rather resign yourself to the loss of your kingdom than go to it through shame and sin. Taylor. 8. David cried after Saul. It was a bold thing to do; and one hardly knows which to admire the more, the magnanimity that spared Saul in the cave or the valor that braved him and his troops outside of it. But often the bolder course is the wiser, and the courage of a man in placing himself in the very midst of his enemies so surprises them that they never think of doing him harm. Thus it seems to have been in the present instance; for as David stands before Saul, and proceeds to plead his cause with him, no one of the royal troops interferes, and the king himself is deeply moved, but it is with sor row rather than revenge. And it was no marvel that such an effect was produced upon him, for seldom has a more tender, earnest, manly, and candid appeal been made by one man to another than that which David here addressed to Saul.-Bowed himself. His behavior was very respectful, giving honor to whom honor was due, and teaching us to order ourselves reverently to all superiors, even to those that have been most injurious to us. Henry. 9. David said. David remained at so great a distance from Saul and his army that he was in no danger of being immediately seized by him, though Saul could both see and hear him. Scott. 11. My father, see. To confirm what he said he showed him the lappet of his coat which he had cut off, and said, My father, see. In these words there is an expression of the childlike reverenco and affection which David cherished towards the anointed of the Lord. Keil. robe, and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil1 nor transgression in mine hand, and I have not sinned against thee; yet thou huntest2 my soul to take it. 12 The LORD judge between me and thee, and the LORD avenge me of thee but mine hand shall not be upon thee. 13 As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked: but mine hand shall not be upon thee. Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea. 15 The LORD therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead1 my cause, and deliver5 me out of thine hand. 16 And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept. 14 After whom is the king of 26: 24. Ch. 13. The proverb. The meaning is this: Only a wicked man could wish to avenge himself: I do not. Keil. Guilt is the consequence and fruit of guilt. If I had been guilty of conspiring against thee I should have crowned that guilt by killing thee when thou wert in my power. Delaney. -1. Men's own iniquity will ruin them at last. So some understand it. Give them rope enough and they will hang themselves. 2. Bad men will do bad things. If David had been a wicked man he would have done this wicked thing. Henry. 14. A dead dog. One of the meanest and weakest of his subjects. Of no more consideration and strength, in comparison with the king of Israel, than a dead dog or a contemptible flea. Chandler. By these similes David meant to describe himself as a perfectly harmless and insignificant man, of whom Saul had no occasion to be afraid. A dead dog cannot bite nor hurt, and is an object about which the king ought not trouble himself. Keil. 15. The Lord therefore judge. As Saul had no good ground for persecuting David, the latter could very calmly commit his cause to the Lord God that he might decide it as judge, and deliver him out of the hand of Saul. Keil. 16. Saul wept. Saul himself, with all his rage and malice, could not withstand this instance of generosity in David, and with his tears acknowledged David's innocence and his own guilt, and even prayed God to reward that very person whom but the moment before he was pursuing to destruction. Chandler. I add only one other thought: Observe, from the case of Saul, that true repentance is a deeper thing than feeling, and is distinguished by permanence as well as sincerity. Saul says, "I have sinned"; but we must not imagine, because he uses these words, that he has truly repented of his transgressions. Genuine and spurious repentance differ in the root out of which they spring. The spurious springs from fear, or from a desire to escape punishment; the genuine springs from the contemplation of God, and now of God more especially as he has revealed himself to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Which, my hearer, is yours? Have you ever yet said, "I have sinned"? and if you have said it, why have you done so? True repentance is simultaneous with the reception of Christ, and is not to be regarded as a preparation for coming to him. The question has often been asked, indeed, whether faith or repentance comes first; but in reality they may almost be regarded as two ways of describing the same thing. A man truly believes only when he repents: he really repents only when he believes. Taylor. LESSON VII. FEBRUARY 13, 1876. SAUL AND HIS SONS SLAIN. 1 SAMUEL 31:1-6. CONNECTION.' At Ziklag David's power received constant increase. The position he now occupied, in a strong town on the frontier towards Judah, no longer a wandering exile but a great lord, able to find rewarding employment for the swords of resolute men, and the hopes of whose great future began to loom dis tinctly in the horizon, caused his force to be greatly increased by accessions from various quarters. In 1 Chron. xii, 1-22, a long list is given, of persons, of more or less consideration in their tribes, who, through disaffection with the government of Saul, made themselves voluntary exiles, and staked all their Kitto.prospects in David's cause. But though thus encouraged with the accession of new adherents, David appears shortly after this to have given way to despondency and almost to despair, for he said, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul; there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines." Here David and his men, with their wives and children, lived for sixteen months. Now, there is no possibility of vindicating David for all this. We cannot even offer a plausible excuse for him. It is easy to say that, in the circumstances in which he was placed, some allowance must be made for him. But who put him into these circumstances? His going thither was in itself a wrong thing; and one sin can never palliate another. Then as to the falsehood of his life during these months, we must unequivocally and emphatically condemn it. He was seeking all through his own interest, not God's glory. Mark the prolific progeny that sprang from the one parent sin of unbelief in this dark chapter of David's life, -prayerlessness, desertion of the sphere of duty, theft, murder, falsehood. All these have germinated from the one innocent-looking little seed, loss of confi. dence in God! Saul and his army were on the ridge of Mount Gilboa, clinging to the hills with that instinctive confidence in their strength which the inhabitants of all mountainous districts feel. From his elevated post of observation he could see the whole host of the Philistines, and the sight made him afraid, so that his heart trembled greatly. But to whom could he turn for succor? Samuel was dead; Abiathar and the ephod were with David; and ever, as he thought of God, it was with the feeling that Jehovah had abandoned him. Had there been but one indication of sincere repentance given by him; had he humbled himself in confession of sin before the Lord, or thrown himself on his covenant-keeping faithfulness, there might, even yet, have been deliverance. Never, however, has he gone so far as now, when, as Dean Stanley says, "Having swerved from the moral principle which alone could guide it, his religious zeal was turned into a wild and desperate superstition." Taylor. The hosts of Philistia are much farther north than usual, - Shunem, the site of their camp, being within the tribal limits of Issachar, on the west point of Little Hermon, nearly four miles north from Jezreel. Saul mustered his army on the mountains of Gilboa which skirt the eastern portion of the great plain of Esdraelon, fifty miles north by cast from Jerusalem. "Three miles north of them is the parallel chain of Little Hermon. These two heights mark the position of the two armies: Saul and his men on the western heights of Gilboa, the Philistines on those of Hermon. Endor is beyond Hermon on the northern slope. Saul, not without risk and toil, passes by night across the valley and over Hermon beyond the camp of the Philistines to consult the sorceress at Endor."-In his distress he sought counsel and help from the Lord, but found no answer, neither by dreams nor by the Urim (the linen ephod of the priest) nor by prophets, all these usual methods of obtaining answers from God failing him utterly. In this emergency Saul determined to consult some woman "who had a familiar spirit," i. e. who had some supposed spirit so under her control as to come at her call, even as the servants of a family come at the call of their master. The original Hebrew word is used for a bottle, the analogy being apparently this: that as a bottle supposes something contained within it, so the body of the sorceress is supposed to have some personal presence and force within, other than human. This analogy suggests ventriloquism as the art by which the sorceress practised upon the credulity and superstition of the people, the pretence being that this other (apparent) voice is that of the spirit. The narrative assumes that this sorceress of Endor pretended to call up the spirits of the dead, this power or skill being commonly styled "necromancy." By the art of ventriloquism sounds were produced which seemed to come up from the under world, out of caves or deep recesses. Thus, naturally, necromancy and ventriloquism were twin arts, operated together, the one by means of the other. The leading facts of this narrative (verses 11-19) are clearly stated and easily understood. I take the most obvious sense to be the true one, and must believe, therefore, that the sorceress called for Samuel, and that Samuel in fact came and talked with Saul, uttering words most true and terribly appalling. Nothing can be determined from the narrative as to the real powers of the sorceress of Endor. Her astonishment when she saw Samuel proves that this was entirely a new experience to her, all unknown before. She shrieked with amazement and fear, and the facts of the narrative prove only this: not that she ever on any other occasion called up the dead, not that she obtained audible responses from the spirits of the dead or knowledge in any way from such spirits, but only that she pretended to do these things, and made use of ventriloquism and perhaps other kindred arts to make people believe that she possessed and used these powers. Cowles. The apparition appeared at the demand of Saul, and not at the woman's invocation. It has been thought, and we once thought so, that the king did not see the shade, but merely judged it was Samuel from the woman' description; but on looking more closely at the text, it becomes more emphatic than at first appears. It is really stated that "Saul perceived (knew, or assured himself) that it was Samuel himself." This 28 not what the woman saw, but what Saul saw; and the sacred writer gives us the authority of his own declaration for the fact. Kitto. 1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa.1 2 And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchi-shua, Saul's sons.2 3 And the battle3 went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers. 4 Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised5 come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not, for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it. PARALLEL PASSAGES.-11Ch. 28: 4. 2Ch. 14:49. "Oh, 14:6; 17: 26. 1 Chron. 8:33. 32 Sam. 1: 6. Judg. 9: 54. 1. The Philistines fought. While David was living in the land of the Philistines (28:1) it came to pass that the Philistines gathered their armies together for a campaign against Israel. The Philistines gathered all their armies together towards Aphek, but Israel encamped at the fountain in Jezreel. This fountain is at present Ain Jalûd, i. e. Goliath's fountain (probably so called because it was regarded as the scene of the defeat of Goliath), a very large fountain, which issues from a cleft in the rock at the foot of the mountain on the northeastern border of Gilboa, forming a beautifully limpid pool of about forty or fifty feet in diameter, and then flowing in a brook through the valley. Consequently, Aphek must be carefully distinguished from towns of the same name in Asher (Joshua 19:30), and in Judah (Josh. 15: 53), and also at Ebenezer (1 Sam. 4:1). Keil.-If the Israelites had not forsaken God there had been no Philistines left to molest them. If Saul had not forsaken him they had by this time have been put out of all danger by them. The Philistines took an opportunity to make this attempt when they had David among them, whom they feared more than Saul and all his forces. Henry.Sir Isaac Newton conjectures that the Philistines had received a great increase to their armies by vast numbers of men which Amasis had driven out of Egypt. A. Clarke.-Mount Gilboa. The battle had been raging fiercely between the Philistines and Saul on Mount Gilboa. The vale of Esdraelon, whereon so many decisive battles in the world's history have been fought, stretches eastward across cen tral Palestine. It is of a triangular shape, having its apex westward in a narrow pass through which the river Kishon runs into the Mediterranean Sea. Its northern side is formed by the hills of Galilee; its southern by the hills of Samaria; and from the base on the east three branch plains, separated from each other by mountain ridges, run still farther eastward on to the Jordan. The northern branch lies between Mount Tabor and Little Hermon; the central branch has Little Hermon on the north and Gilboa on the south; and the southern branch is between Mount Gilboa and Jenim. Now, the Philistines, on the present occasion, were in the central one of these three branch plains, and were encamped at the base of Little Hermon, here called Moreh, hard by the well of Harod. Their position was admirably chosen, since, with a gentle slope behind them, they had in front a level place of some two or three miles broad, well fitted for those military chariots on which they so much relied for success. Taylor. 2. The Philistines followed hard. The principal engagement took place on the plain of Jezreel, but when the Israelites were obliged to yield, they fled up the mountains of Gilboa, and were pursued and slain there. Keil.- Saul and his sons. Probably Saul never informed his sons of what had been told concerning his own and their approaching death. Scott. - Slew Jonathan. It was certainly no small grief to David to hear of Jonathan's death, yet still there seems to be a direction of Providence in suffering him to be slain. For though Jonathan might have made a voluntary surrender of the throne, yet, as he was the people's favorite, there might have been some who would not allow of it. Stackhouse. -Who can fail to drop a tear over the faithful, the amiable, the excellent Jonathan! There are few characters among men more amiable or more extraordinary. He was endowed with fortitude, fidelity, magnanimity, a soul susceptible of the most refined friendship, yet superior to all the temptations of ambition and vanity; and all these crowned with the most resigned submission to the will of God. Delaney. - God would hereby (the death of Jonathan with Saul), teach that the difference between good and bad is to be made in the other world, not in this. We cannot always judge of the spiritual or eternal state of any by the manner of their death. Henry. 4. Armor-bearer. The Jews say that Saul's armor-bearer was Doeg, whom he preferred to that dignity for killing the priests; and if so, justly does his violent dealing return on his own head. Henry. Thrust me through. As for (Saul) himself he fought with great bravery; and when he had received so many wounds that he was not able to bear up nor to oppose any longer, and yet was not able to kill himself, he bid his armor-bearer to draw his sword and run him through before the enemy should 5 And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. 6 So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together. PARALLEL PASSAGE. - 1Ch. 28: 19. take him alive. But his armor-bearer not daring to kill his master he drew his own sword, and placing himself over against its point he threw himself upon it; and when he could neither run it through him nor by leaning against it make the sword pass through him he turned him round and asked a certain young man that stood by who he was; and when he understood that he was an Amalekite he desired him to force the sword through him. This the young man did accordingly; and he took the golden bracelet that was on Saul's arm, and his royal crown that was on his head and ran away. Josephus. (See 2 Sam. 1: 1-17.)-It was by sparing the Amalekites that Saul sinned the sin on account of which he was rejected from his kingdom, and an Amalekite aids the consummation of his career in death. He was sore afraid. Since he was supposed to be answerable for the king's life. Keil. - His armorbearer would not run him through and he did well to refuse it. He was sore afraid, not of death, for he himself ran wilfully upon that immediately, but he could not so far conquer his reverence for the king his master. Henry. - Lest these abuse me. He was afraid they might put him to some ignominious death, or make sport with him as they did with Samson. Bp. Patrick. - Lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and play with me, i. e. cool their courage upon me by maltreating me. Keil.- Saul took a sword. Miserable man! he finds himself dying and all his care is to keep his body out of the hands of the Philistines, but no care to resign his soul into the hands of God who gave it. As he lived he died, proud and jealous. They who rightly understand themselves think it of small account, in comparison, how it is with them in death so it may but be well with them after death. Henry. -a most 6. So Saul died. There are two accounts of the death of Saul. One is that of the sacred historian himself, the other that of an Amalekite who brought the tidings to David. The former is of course the true account. It would seem that the Amalekite had, from a distance, witnessed this transaction, and approaching took the royal insignia from the body. These were the bracelets, ancient and still subsisting insignia of royalty in the East, which we recognize in the ancient monuments of Egypt, Persia, and Assyria, and among the existing regalia of Persia, India, China, and other lands. Also his crown, which, being worn in battle, was probably some kind of diademed helmet, such as we find in ancient monuments. It was, no doubt, a question with the man whether he should not make off with this precious spoil; but on second thoughts, he fancied it would be better to take them to David, who, flattered by this recognition of his claims, would not fail to reward him beyond their intrinsic worth. To enhance his merits he also determined to claim the credit of having, at Saul's request, slain him with his own hand. How could David fail to load with honors and wealth the hand which had laid his great enemy in the dust? Never was human sagacity more at fault. David was affected with most sincere grief at the tidings which the man brought; but he burned with indignation that an Amalekite should have dared to shed the blood of the Lord's anointed, whose life had heretofore been so precious in his eyes. After, therefore, reproaching him for the deed, he commanded that he should be put to death,—a hard measure, scarcely justified by the higher standard of feeling which Christianity has introduced, but which was, without doubt, highly applauded in that day. Kitto.There is nothing to commend in the manner of Saul's death. He died not gallantly fighting, but by his own hand; he died not as a hero, but as a deserter. Self-murder is manifestly the effect of cowardice, and it is as irrational and iniquitous as it is base. Delaney. All his men. Not all the warriors who went out with him to battle, but all the king's servants or all members of his house who had taken part in the battle. Neither Abner nor his son Ishbosheth was included, for the latter was not in the battle, and the former did not belong to his house or servants. Keil. As the news of the fate of Saul, and especially of Jonathan, filled his heart, he called his men around him, and taking his harp, he sang that noble elegy, which, known to his own countrymen as the "Song of the Bow," has been extracted from the Book of Jasher by the sacred historian and embalmed for us in the annals of the chosen people. It is introduced by these words: "Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow; behold it is written in the Book of Jasher." The words "the use of" are in italics, as not in the original. So we may read, "He bade them teach the children of Judah the bow," that is the song called "The Bow." The Book of Jasher seems to have been a collection of ancient Jewish songs or ballads corresponding in some degree to the minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, the only other quotation from it in Scripture being the poetical commemoration of the victory of Joshua in the Valley of Ajalon. So ends the history of Saul. But we may not pass from it without staying for a moment to point the lesson which it so impressively teaches. It may be given in the words of David himself, at a later date, te |