1 Samuel 31:13 Komentář

In the foregoing chapter we had David conquering, yea, more than a conqueror. In this chapter we have Saul conquered and worse than a captive. Providence ordered it that both these things should be doing just at the same time. The very same day; perhaps, that David was triumphing over the Amalekites, were the Philistines triumphing over Saul. One is set over against the other, that men may see what comes of trusting in God and what comes of forsaking him. We left Saul ready to engage the Philistines, with a shaking hand and an aching heart, having had his doom read him from hell, which he would not regard when it was read him from heaven. Let us now see what becomes of him. Here is, I. His army routed (Sa1 31:1). II. His three sons slain (Sa1 31:2). III. Himself wounded (Sa1 31:3), and slain by his own hand (Sa1 31:4). The death of his armour-bearer (Sa1 31:5) and all his men (Sa1 31:6). IV. His country possessed by the Philistines (Sa1 31:7). His camp plundered, and his dead body deserted (Sa1 31:8). His fall triumphed in (Sa1 31:9). His body publicly exposed (Sa1 31:10) and with difficulty rescued by the men of Jabesh-Gilead (Sa1 31:11-13). Thus fell the man that was rejected of God.

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 31 This chapter gives an account of the battle between the Philistines and the Israelites, which had been preparing for, and the issue of it; in which Saul, his three sons, and his servants, were slain, upon which his army fled, and several of his cities were taken, Sa1 31:1; what the Philistines did with his body and his armour, Sa1 31:8; the former of which, together with the bodies of his sons, the men of Jabeshgilead rescued, and burnt them, and buried their bones under a tree at Jabesh, expressing great sorrow and concern, Sa1 31:11.

And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh,.... For though they burned the bodies, yet so as to preserve the bones; and these, together with the ashes of the parts burnt, they gathered up, and buried under a tree near this city; this tree is said to be an oak, Ch1 10:12; so Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, was buried under an oak, Gen 35:8. The Jews generally interred their dead under some oak, as aforementioned writer observes (q); pleased perchance with the parallel, as he expresses it, that as these plants, seemingly dead in winter, have every spring an annual resurrection, so men's dry bones shall have new sap put into them at the day of judgment: and fasted seven days; not that they ate and drank nothing all that time, but they fasted every day till evening, as the Jews used to do; so long it seems a man may live without eating, but not longer; See Gill on Exo 24:18 and see Gill on Kg1 19:8; this they did, as Kimchi thinks, in memory of the seven days Nahash the Ammonite gave them for their relief, in which time Saul came and saved them, Sa1 11:3. (q) Pisgah-Sight of Palestine b. 2. ch. 2. p. 82. Next: 2 Kings (2 Samuel) Introduction

And they fasted for seven days. Literally and rightly for the dead, so that they may reach rest, it is fasted for seven days, which after the six ages of this world, in which we labor in the flesh, the seventh is in that world the age of rest for the souls freed from the flesh, in which the blessed await that glorious time when they may deserve to rise. The figure of this rest and resurrection, and the seventh day in the law, and the seventh or fiftieth year, in which rest of works was given, typologically foretold. The Lord showed the same example of our hope and dispensation of faith, who was crucified on the sixth day of the week, rested on the seventh in the tomb with His body, and on the eighth which is the first day of the week, rose from the dead. But in part of the allegory, regarding the blindness of the Jews who thus far observe the Sabbath carnally, his faithful fellow citizens and kinsmen rightfully retain sorrow and continuous grief in their hearts, as if they are fasting for seven days; because while their brothers and kin are still established in error, they can in no way have full joy. But when they too have fully understood the mystery of the eighth day, that is, of the Lord's and their own resurrection, both together, aided by the grace of Christ, will rejoice in perpetual festivity.

A battle in Mount Gilboa between Israel and the Philistines; in which the former are defeated, and Saul's three sons slain, Sa1 31:1, Sa1 31:2. Saul, being mortally wounded, and afraid to fall alive into the hands of the Philistines, desires his armor-bearer to despatch him; which he refusing, Saul falls on his sword, and his armor-bearer does the same, Sa1 31:3-6. The Israelites on the other side of the valley forsake their cities, and the Philistines come and dwell in them, Sa1 31:7. The Philistines, finding Saul and his three sons among the slain, strip them of their armor, which they put in the house of Ashtaroth, cut of their heads, send the news to all the houses of their idols, and fasten the bodies of Saul and his three sons to the walls of Beth-shan, Sa1 31:8-10. Valiant men of Jabesh-gilead go by night, and take away the bodies; burn them at Jabesh; bury their bones under a tree; and fast seven days, Sa1 31:11-13.

And fasted seven days - To testify their sincere regret for his unfortunate death, and the public calamity that had fallen upon the land. Thus ends the troublesome, and I had almost said the useless, reign of Saul. A king was chosen in opposition to the will of the Most High; and the government of God in effect rejected, to make way for this king. Saul was at first a very humble young man, and conducted himself with great propriety; but his elevation made him proud, and he soon became tyrannical in his private conduct and in his political measures. His natural temper was not good; he was peevish, fretful, and often outrageous; and these bad dispositions, unchecked by proper application to the grace of God, became every day more headstrong and dangerous. Through their violence he seems at times to have been wholly carried away and deranged; and this derangement appears to have been occasionally greatly exacerbated by diabolical influences. This led him to take his friends for his foes; so that in his paroxysms he strove to imbrue his hands in their blood, and more than once attempted to assassinate his own son; and most causelessly and inhumanly ordered the innocent priests of the Lord at Nob to be murdered. This was the worst act in his whole life. Saul was but ill qualified for a proper discharge of the regal functions. The reader will remember that he was chosen rather as a general of the armies than as civil governor. The administration of the affairs of the state was left chiefly to Samuel, and Saul led forth the armies to battle. As a general he gave proof of considerable capacity; he was courageous, prompt, decisive, and persevering; and, except in the last unfortunate battle in which he lost his life, generally led his troops to victory. Saul was a weak man, and very capricious; this is amply proved by his unreasonable jealousy against David, and his continual suspicion that all were leagued against him. It is also evident, in his foolish adjuration relative to the matter of the honey (see Sa1 14:24-30, Sa1 14:38-44) in which, to save his rash and nonsensical oath, he would have sacrificed Jonathan his son! The question, "Was Saul a good king?" has already in effect been answered. He was on the whole a good man, as far as we know, in private life; but he was a bad king; for he endeavored to reign independently of the Jewish constitution; he in effect assumed the sacerdotal office and functions, and thus even changed what was essential to that constitution. He not only offered sacrifices which belonged to the priests alone; but in the most positive manner went opposite to the orders of that God whose vicegerent he was. Of his conduct in visiting the woman at En-dor I have already given my opinion, and to this I must refer. His desperate circumstances imposed on the weakness of his mind; and he did in that instance an act which, in his jurisprudential capacity, he had disapproved by the edict which banished all witches, etc., from Israel. Yet in this act he only wished to avail himself of the counsel and advice of his friend Samuel. To the question, "Was not Saul a self-murderer?" I scruple not to answer, "No." He was to all appearance mortally wounded, when he begged his armor-bearer to extinguish the remaining spark of life; and he was afraid that the Philistines might abuse his body, if they found him alive; and we can scarcely say how much of indignity is implied in this word; and his falling on his sword was a fit of desperation, which doubtless was the issue of a mind greatly agitated, and full of distraction. A few minutes longer, and his life would in all probability have ebbed out; but though this wound accelerated his death, yet it could not be properly the cause of it, as he was mortally wounded before, and did it on the conviction that he could not survive. Taking Saul's state and circumstances together, I believe there is not a coroner's inquest in this nation that would not have brought in a verdict of derangement; while the pious and the humane would everywhere have consoled themselves with the hope that God had extended mercy to his soul. Millbrook, June 11, 1818. Ended this examination August 13, 1827. - A.C.

SAUL HAVING LOST HIS ARMY AT GILBOA, AND HIS SONS BEING SLAIN, HE AND HIS ARMOR-BEARER KILL THEMSELVES. (Sa1 31:1-7) Now the Philistines fought against Israel--In a regular engagement, in which the two armies met (Sa1 28:1-4), the Israelites were forced to give way, being annoyed by the arrows of the enemy, which, destroying them at a distance before they came to close combat, threw them into panic and disorder. Taking advantage of the heights of Mount Gilboa, [the Israelites] attempted to rally, but in vain. Saul and his sons fought like heroes; but the onset of the Philistines being at length mainly directed against the quarter where they were, Jonathan and two brothers, Abinadab or Ishui (Sa1 14:49) and Melchishua, overpowered by numbers, were killed on the spot.

Death and Burial of Saul and His Sons - Sa1 31:1-13 The end of the unhappy king corresponded to his life ever since the day of his rejection as king. When he had lost the battle, and saw his three sons fallen at his side, and the archers of the enemy pressing hard upon him, without either repentance or remorse he put an end to his life by suicide, to escape the disgrace of being wounded and abused by the foe (Sa1 31:1-7). But he did not attain his object; for the next day the enemy found his corpse and those of his sons, and proceeded to plunder, mutilate, and abuse them (Sa1 31:8-10). However, the king of Israel was not to be left to perish in utter disgrace. The citizens of Jabesh remembered the deliverance which Saul had brought to their city after his election as king, and showed their gratitude by giving an honourable burial to Saul and his sons (Sa1 31:11-13). There is a parallel to this chapter in Ch1 10:1-14, which agrees exactly with the account before us, with very few deviations indeed, and those mostly verbal, and merely introduces a hortatory clause at the end (Ch1 10:13, Ch1 10:14).