1 Samuel 15:8 Komentář

In this chapter we have the final rejection of Saul from being king, for his disobedience to God's command in not utterly destroying the Amalekites. By his wars and victories he hoped to magnify and perpetuate his own name and honour, but, by his mismanagement of them, he ruined himself, and laid his honour in the dust. Here is, I. The commission God gave him to destroy the Amalekites, with a command to do it utterly (Sa1 15:1-3). II. Saul's preparation for this expedition (Sa1 15:4-6). III. His success, and partial execution of this commission (Sa1 15:7-9). IV. His examination before Samuel, and sentence passed upon him, notwithstanding the many frivolous pleas he made to excuse himself (v. 10-31). V. The slaying of Agag (Sa1 15:32, Sa1 15:33). VI. Samuel's final farewell to Saul (Sa1 15:34, Sa1 15:35).

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 15 In this chapter are recorded the order Saul had from the Lord to destroy Amalek utterly, Sa1 15:1 the preparation he made to put it in execution, and the success thereof, Sa1 15:4 the offence the Lord took at his not obeying his order thoroughly, with which Samuel was made acquainted, and which grieved him, Sa1 15:10, upon which he went out to meet Saul, and reprove him; and a long discourse upon the subject passed between them, the issue of which was, that by an irrevocable decree he was rejected from being king, Sa1 15:12 and the chapter is concluded with an account of Samuel's hewing in pieces Agag king of Amalek, and of his final departure from Saul, Sa1 15:32.

And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive,.... This name seems to be a common name of the kings of these people, as Pharaoh was of the Egyptians, see Num 24:2. When this king fell into the hands of Saul, he did not put him to death, as he should have done, but preserved him; for what reasons, see in the following verse: and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword; that is, all that came in his way, or fell into his hands; all between Havilah and Shur; all excepting those that made their escape, for we after read of Amalekites, and that in large bodies, Sa1 27:8.

But he who does not consider these things, will, contrary to justice, spare him who deserves punishment; as Saul spared Agag, and Eli his sons, “who knew not the Lord.” Such a one profanes his own dignity and that church of God which is in his parish. Such a one is esteemed unjust before God and holy men, as affording occasion of scandal to many of the newly baptized and to the catechumens; as also to the youth of both sexes, to whom a woe belongs, add “a millstone about his neck,” and drowning, on account of his guilt. For, observing what a person their governor is, through his wickedness and neglect of justice they will grow skeptical, and, indulging the same disease, will be compelled to perish with him; as was the case of the people joining with Jeroboam, and those which were in the conspiracy with Korah.

1. King Saul, who had good beginnings but by no means persevered in the good things he had begun, is presented through the text of sacred History, so that in him we may see what is to be imitated and what is to be avoided. Thus indeed we also pick from badly cultivated fields, which rise up to harvest mixed with thorns. He truly knows how to gather well from them, who takes care to pick the ears of grain while striving to avoid the thorns. So when the care of a garden is neglected, along with the vegetable that refreshes there grows the weed that pricks. For it was as if the Lord was instructing His disciples to enter badly cultivated fields cautiously, when He said: "The princes and Pharisees have sat upon the seat of Moses. Whatever they tell you, do; but what they do, do not do" (Matt. 23:2). As if to say: Because the deeds and words of the wicked are mixed together, they must be used in such a way that what gives life is taken from them, and what kills is avoided. Hence again, foretelling, He says: "They will come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves" (Matt. 7:15). Up to this point, then, we have gladly attended to King Saul vigorously carrying out the care of the kingdom; now let us carefully examine in what respect he, as a despiser of the Lord's command, ought to be avoided and rejected. For the text continues: (Verses 8, 9.) "He captured Agag, king of Amalek, alive, but all the common people he slew with the edge of the sword. And Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best flocks of sheep, and of the herds, and the garments, and the rams, and all that was beautiful, and they were unwilling to destroy them. But whatever was vile and worthless, this they destroyed." 2. The Word of the Lord came: Now go, and strike Amalek, and destroy all that belongs to him. Do not spare him, and do not covet anything of theirs. He therefore plainly stood forth as a transgressor through disobedience, because he refused through pride to fulfill the command of the Lord. The Lord indeed commanded the prophet, saying: Do not spare him, and do not covet anything of his possessions. But this man is shown both to have spared and to have coveted all his choicest things: so that, while the manner of the transgression is shown, it might be demonstrated how detestable is the fault of disobedience. 3. But if we describe the wars of the flesh, we find that the falls of kings are great. Hence the Lord also says in the Gospel: "If the salt has lost its savor, with what shall it be salted?" (Matt. 5:13). The kings of the Church are her preachers, as has already been shown above. Who then is Agag, king of Amalek, if not the carnal sense? For since we possess from the soul both rationality and sensuality, rationality is ascribed to the mind, sensuality to the flesh; and through the former we share kinship with the angels, through the latter with brute animals. In the former, the higher we are raised, the closer we draw to the heavenly citizens. But through the latter, the more we slide toward the enticements of the flesh, the more carnal, so to speak, we are found to be. Hence, when the daughters of men had already been seen and desired, and pleasures had already been fulfilled in luxury, concerning those who by the merit of purity were called sons of God, the Lord threatens in Genesis, saying: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever, because he is flesh" (Gen. 6:3). For man becomes flesh when reason is subjugated to the carnal sense. The king of Amalek, therefore, is the vigor of the carnal sense, which commands through base impulses so as to drag captive reason toward the allurements of obscenity. And fittingly does the name of the Amalekite king suit the carnal sense. For Agag is interpreted as "meditating" or "speaking." To meditate, for him, is to gather the phantasms of wantonness through inner meditation. And to speak, for him, is to arouse the flesh through base impulses to lust. For he has, as it were, a great cry of speech, because by striking the flesh he stirs it more ardently. For by meditating he gathers what he sets forth by speaking: because everyone who is subject to the carnal sense, the more freely he beholds the images of wantonness within, the more powerful the motions of baseness he feels outwardly. He meditates, therefore, through the inner vision of baseness, but he speaks through the outward motion of pleasure. The king of Amalek is therefore called "speaking and meditating," because he can arouse the slippery enticements of the flesh in those whom he deceives through base thoughts, and whom he instructs through the experience of alluring sensation. But it should be noted that the more freely he meditates, the more freely he also speaks: because he stirs the flesh more powerfully the more he holds the causes of his agitation impressed within through thought. For in the manner of fire, the more attentively it is blown upon, the more it is kindled: because if the breath of impure thought is absent, the heat of lustful agitation cannot be present. The king of Israel therefore fights against the king of Amalek when a teacher of the Church argues against fornication. He captures the defeated one when he receives sinners converted to pardon not only as penitents but also as confessors. He therefore holds the king of Amalek already bound, as it were, who sees the carnal sense in converted sinners already subjected to reason through the love of chastity. But what does it mean that the bound one lives, except that there are some who are not moved by their own passions, but upon hearing of the obscenities of others, are moved? They are strong in fighting, but as victors they fall. For he who kept the conquered king alive clearly found pleasure in the person of the captured king in the triumph of that very war. 4. But what else do those do who receive the confession of sins from others? For while they think about what those confessing have done, they burn with desire toward the crimes they hear; for often while they hear the enticements with which others had overwhelmed themselves, they themselves begin to love what those others, now dying to such things through their exhortation, confess. Already therefore Agag has been defeated and captured in his own city, but he is preserved by the victor, when what is detested by the subjects is loved by the prelates: because carnal sense begins to flourish in those in whom it had lost the vigor of its wicked dominion among the others. And because while the pastors rush toward the precipice, the subjects follow along, the king is said to have taken Agag alive, but the same king, and the people subject to the same king, are recorded to have spared the best things of Amalek. For to spare is characteristic of an affected mind, out of love for that which it spares. This certainly befits the vice of lust: because as soon as it begins to please, it draws the mind into love of itself. Because its force is also vehement, it does not know how to remain stationary: because assuredly it quickly accomplishes its work, if the wakening mind does not quickly expel it from itself. For when it invades the mind, it spreads itself through innumerable thoughts of shameful things. Hence also both Saul and the people are rightly recorded to have spared the best of the flocks and herds. The thoughts of lusts are indeed called flocks and herds: because they are both innumerable and are fed in the reprobate heart by the contemplation of uncleanness. They are also the best, not by proof of goodness, but by the appetite of the one choosing them. For in the reprobate heart, because nothing is loved more dearly, they are called the best flocks, to which no others are compared. But they are called the best on account of the blindness of heart, and herds on account of the guilt of transgression. For to reprobate minds it is no great thing to think unclean thoughts; but before God it is no small thing to store unclean things in the temple of God, that is, in the regenerate spirit. He spares therefore not only the sheep, but also the herds: because he who through the love of lust regards the faults of uncleanness as though they were small, spares them as though they were small, but does not find the deserved punishments to be small. Moreover, by the name of sheep the lighter thoughts of lust can be understood, and by herds the stronger and more troublesome ones. The king and the people certainly spare these, when the reprobate teacher and his subjects are subjected to the vexations of unclean thought, both light and strong. But what is it to spare the garments, except for the already condemned mind to deliberate upon unclean things? For if the golden garment is the glory of the virgin bride, what are the garments of Amalek, except the foul defilements of lust? But they are called garments: because by their covering both soul and body are stained. For because the perpetration of lust defiles both soul and body, they are called not a garment, but garments. But, as I said, to spare is to deliberate, and to love unclean things through the affection of the mind. But the unhappy soul thus captured, thus ensnared, because it is driven by wondrous impulses to perpetrate its deliberated depravity, is rightly recorded, after the sheep, herds, and garments, to have spared also the rams. For as it were the horns of rams please it in the gentle blows of lusts, since it strives to retain in itself that one thing by which it may be pierced through to the death of uncleanness. He therefore spares the rams, who gladly receives the blows of his own headlong fall. For he is pricked, that he may serve the desires of his flesh; but that which pricks him sharply, delights him lightly. Because likewise lust entices the mind through innumerable modes of obscenity, they are recorded to have spared not only these named things, but all things that were beautiful. All things which the unclean soul is seen to fashion gladly for itself from the pleasure of lust are called the beautiful things of Amalek. For it could in no way desire these things, if their appearance did not violently please it. 5. But because the fall of the victors is asserted, it is said: 'Nor did they wish to destroy them.' As if to say: They could have destroyed them, if they had wished. For nothing is conquered more easily than lust, if every impure thought is avoided. Therefore it can be destroyed all the more easily, the more each person is able to think of things other than the pleasures of the flesh. For since we cannot imagine two things at the same time, while we think of something else, whatever it may be, we cannot think impure thoughts. Swift and easy, therefore, is the victory over lust through the watchfulness of thought: if, as often as carnal things present themselves, we turn to anything at all that is not an enticement of lust. This I would call easy for those who are standing, not easy for those who have fallen: because he who is made a slave of the impure spirit through the commission of sin can neither freely avoid thoughts of the flesh nor quickly turn to other thoughts. Therefore it is said of the victors: 'They did not wish to destroy them, though they could have,' because before the fall, sins are easily avoided by the free; but if they refuse to avoid them when they can, afterward they cannot even if they wish, because they cannot perfectly will it. To whom indeed Truth Himself says: 'If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed' (John 8:36). As if to say: Because you willingly ceased to be free, you no longer have in yourselves the power to attain freedom. But what does it mean that it is said: 'But whatever was vile and worthless, this they destroyed,' except that some, through the practice of greater pleasures, disdain the lesser ones? What is worthless and vile to them is what they despise by choosing those things that please them more. For because they seek more refined sins, they reject certain ones; and because they approve more precious sins, they consider the lesser ones cheap and small. Rightly therefore it is said: 'Whatever was vile and worthless, this they destroyed.' Because they choose more refined sins, and those that please them less they reject as unfit and despise as cheap. 6. All these things, understood morally, signify the battles and victories over lusts; but according to the historical sense, they designate the swelling pride of the arrogant and disobedient. For the command had been given to Saul by the Lord that he should so destroy Amalek that he would spare none of them and covet nothing. He who is therefore declared to have spared the king of Amalek and all the best things is openly shown to be proud and disobedient. But perhaps he despised the command because he heard it from the prophet, not from the Lord. Yet he certainly ought to have listened to the prophet in such a way as to heed the authority that the prophet set forth beforehand. For the prophet, about to command that he strike the king of Amalek, prefaced it by saying: "Thus says the Lord," so that Saul would not dare to despise the command he had heard through a man, as though it were merely a man's. Lest again the exalted king should treat his ministry with contempt, the prophet likewise prefaced it by saying: "The Lord sent me to anoint you as king." As if to say: The Lord commands you in your royal ministry through the same one through whom He raised you to the dignity of kingship. Therefore he ought to have obeyed all the more humbly, the more clearly he recognized that this man had been sent by God. But while he despised the prophet who was sent, he equally despised the Lord who sent him. Whence it adds: (Verses 10, 11.) "The word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying: I regret that I made Saul king, because he has abandoned me and has not fulfilled my words in deed."

And he took Agag, king of Amalek, alive, etc. Thus far, Saul's struggle distinguished him as an excellent and discerning ruler, either of himself or of the people subject to him. From this point on, it marks him as indolent and reprobate, who rightly spared the innocent kinsmen of Moses. He rightly destroys all the common people and vile and reprobate things; but he incorrectly spares the flocks of sheep, other animals that are on the earth, garments, and all beautiful things, along with the king himself. The leaders of spiritual warfare must exterminate all those who oppose God's servants fleeing from intellectual Egypt—that is, the darkness of the world—whether they be men or reprobate actions, with the sword of the word and the rectitude of life; but whatever they find innocent and Mosaic among them, they ought to preserve unharmed. However, those who strive only to eradicate detestable and unspeakable things, such as fornication, idolatry, perjury, the concubinage of men, thefts, false testimonies, and other such crimes, either in their own morals or in those of their subjects, and do not wish to destroy drunkenness and revelries, contentions and jealousies, greed, hatred, and the desire for vain glory or honor, as if these were less harmful or even beneficial, as well as the king of vices himself, that most fattened one, the swelling of pride, indeed incur the guilt of very grievous transgression. Because of this merit of guilt, and exemplifying Saul, the kingdom of God was once taken from the people of the Jews and given to a nation producing its fruits. And many Christians today leave the promised crown of life, which was awarded to them, to be obtained by others. Here too, according to the letter, we are most healthily admonished that the authority of the divine command should always prevail in us over human affection. For man, through foolish pity, spares man, whom God has commanded not to be spared; as if man knew better what should be done with man than He who made man (Eccl. X). Agag not only designates pride by the authority of the kingdom (because the beginning of all sin is pride), but also by his name, which is translated to “roof,” because often contained by the knowledge of neighbors, the arrogance of haughtiness swells in the hearts of the wicked. However, Saul seizes King Agag alive, and the crowd kills him, who eradicates the vices of the flesh, knowing how to distinguish their head, pride, from virtues through disputation, and defining how harmful it is, but does not know how to extinguish it in himself by living humbly. And Saul spares Agag, and the people also spare him, when even the very leader of virtues in his heart softly nods to the pride lying hidden in his innermost parts; and the entire company of spiritual works following him is corrupted by the assent to this nefarious swelling.

Samuel sends Saul to destroy the Amalekites, and all their substance, Sa1 15:1-3. Saul collects an immense army and comes against their city, Sa1 15:4, Sa1 15:5. He desires the Kenites to remove from among the Amalekites, Sa1 15:6. He smites the Amalekites, and takes their king, Agag, prisoner, and saves the best of the spoil, Sa1 15:7-9. The Lord is displeased, and sends Samuel to reprove him, Sa1 15:10, Sa1 15:11. The conversation between Samuel and Saul, in which the latter endeavors to justify his conduct, Sa1 15:12-23. He is convinced that he has done wrong, and asks pardon, Sa1 15:24-31. Samuel causes Agag to be slain; for which he assigns the reasons, Sa1 15:32-35.

SAUL SENT TO DESTROY AMALEK. (Sa1 15:1-6) Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee . . .: now therefore hearken thou unto . . . the Lord--Several years had been passed in successful military operations against troublesome neighbors. During these Saul had been left to act in a great measure at his own discretion as an independent prince. Now a second test is proposed of his possessing the character of a theocratic monarch in Israel; and in announcing the duty required of him, Samuel brought before him his official station as the Lord's vicegerent, and the peculiar obligation under which he was laid to act in that capacity. He had formerly done wrong, for which a severe rebuke and threatening were administered to him (Sa1 13:13-14). Now an opportunity was afforded him of retrieving that error by an exact obedience to the divine command.

he took Agag . . . alive--This was the common title of the Amalekite kings. He had no scruple about the apparent cruelty of it, for he made fierce and indiscriminate havoc of the people. But he spared Agag, probably to enjoy the glory of displaying so distinguished a captive, and, in like manner, the most valuable portions of the booty, as the cattle. By this wilful and partial obedience to a positive command [Sa1 15:3], complying with it in some parts and violating it in others, as suited his own taste and humor, Saul showed his selfish, arbitrary temper, and his love of despotic power, and his utter unfitness to perform the duties of a delegated king in Israel.

War with Amalek. Saul's Disobedience and Rejection - 1 Samuel 15 As Saul had transgressed the commandment of God which was given to him through Samuel, by the sacrifice which he offered at Gilgal in the war with the Philistines at the very commencement of his reign, and had thereby drawn upon himself the threat that his monarchy should not be continued in perpetuity (Sa1 13:13-14); so his disobedience in the war against the Amalekites was followed by his rejection on the part of God. The Amalekites were the first heathen nation to attack the Israelites after their deliverance out of Egypt, which they did in the most treacherous manner on their journey from Egypt to Sinai; and they had been threatened by God with extermination in consequence. This Moses enjoined upon Joshua, and also committed to writing, for the Israelites to observe in all future generations (Exo 17:8-16). As the Amalekites afterwards manifested the same hostility to the people of God which they had displayed in this first attack, on every occasion which appeared favourable to their ravages, the Lord instructed Samuel to issue the command to Saul, to wage war against Amalek, and to smite man and beast with the ban, i.e., to put all to death (Sa1 15:1-3). But when Saul had smitten them, he not only left Agag the king alive, but spared the best of the cattle that he had taken as booty, and merely executed the ban upon such animals as were worthless (Sa1 15:4-9). He was rejected by the Lord for this disobedience, so that he was to be no longer king over Israel. His rejection was announced to him by Samuel (Sa1 15:10-23), and was not retracted in spite of his prayer for the forgiveness of his sin (Sa1 15:24-35). In fact, Saul had no excuse for this breach of the divine command; it was nothing but open rebellion against the sovereignty of God in Israel; and if Jehovah would continue King of Israel, He must punish it by the rejection of the rebel. For Saul no longer desired to be the medium of the sovereignty of Jehovah, or the executor of the commands of the God-king, but simply wanted to reign according to his own arbitrary will. Nevertheless this rejection was not followed by his outward deposition. The Lord merely took away His Spirit, had David anointed king by Samuel, and thenceforward so directed the steps of Saul and David, that as time advanced the hearts of the people were turned away more and more from Saul to David; and on the death of Saul, the attempt of the ambitious Abner to raise his son Ishbosheth to the throne could not possibly have any lasting success.