1. Samuel 11:11 Yorum

In this chapter we have the first-fruits of Saul's government, in the glorious rescue of Jabesh-Gilead out of the hands of the Ammonites. Let not Israel thence infer that therefore they did well to ask a king (God could and would have saved them without one); but let them admire God's goodness, that he did not reject them when they rejected him, and acknowledge his wisdom in the choice of the person whom, if he did not find fit, yet he made fit, for the great trust he called him to, and enabled, in some measure, to merit the crown by his public services, before it was fixed on his head by the public approbation. Here is, I. The great extremity to which the city of Jabesh-Gilead, on the other side of Jordan, was reduced by the Ammonites (Sa1 11:1-3). II. Saul's great readiness to come to their relief, whereby he signalized himself (Sa1 11:4-10). III. The good success of his attempt, by which God signalized him (Sa1 11:11). IV. Saul's tenderness, notwithstanding this, towards those that had opposed him (Sa1 11:12, Sa1 11:13). V. The public confirmation and recognition of his election to the government (Sa1 11:14, Sa1 11:15).

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 11 This chapter relates the distress the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead were in on account of the Ammonites, Sa1 11:1 upon which they sent messengers to Saul, whose spirit was immediately stirred up to help them, Sa1 11:4, and prepared for it, and came up soon enough for their relief, and slew their enemies, Sa1 11:7, which gained him much honour and reputation among the people, and occasioned the renewal of the kingdom to him, Sa1 11:12.

And the people said unto Samuel,.... By which it seems that Samuel accompanied Saul in this expedition; though it is somewhat difficult to account for it, that a man of his years should be able to attend so quick a march that Saul made; it may be, therefore, that he might follow after him gently, and meet him quickly after the battle was fought, when the people made the following speech to him: who is he that said, shall Saul reign over us? is such a mean inexperienced man fit to rule over us? who can bear his government, and submit to it? what can be expected from him, that he should deliver and save us out of the hands of our enemies? in this they had respect to the sons of Belial, and what they said, Sa1 10:27, but now it appeared he was sufficiently qualified, and God had made him an instrument of salvation, and was a proper person to be king over them: bring the men, that we may put them to death; so transported were they with affection to Saul, and indignation against those men.

12. The people are indeed divided into parts, so that we may strike the serpent Nahash not with a single battle line. And indeed they are divided into three parts, so that the fruit and dignity of sacred abstinence may be shown: because through fasting we are called back to that contemplation of the Holy Trinity which we lose by eating. For hence it is that the fasts of the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel are commended. For Moses, that he might deserve to receive the Law, fasted twice for a period of forty days (Exod. 34:28). Elijah, that he might escape the hands of Jezebel, in forty days by the strength of a single meal arrived at Horeb, the mountain of God (1 Kings 19:8). Our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, fasting for forty days in the wilderness, took no food whatsoever (Matt. 4:2). Therefore Saul divides the people into three parts: because as an example for those who practice abstinence, the fasts of the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel are set forth. And when the next day comes, the teacher enters the midst of the camp: because divine grace, which illuminates the hearts of preachers for teaching, also irradiates the minds of the hearers and powerfully raises them to the hope of victory. On the next day, therefore, the teacher, about to triumph, enters the camp of the enemies and lays it open, and in it powerfully strikes the battle lines of concupiscence. And because the minds of the subjects themselves advance by hearing, the king is said to enter the camp of the Ammonites in the morning watch and to continue in their slaughter until the day grew hot. The morning watch is indeed in God's inspiration; the heat of the sun is in its fullness. For as it were the morning light rises for us when, weighed down by the darkness of temptations, we begin to see from the mouth of preachers the light of virtue, that we may follow it. And the sun grows hot for us when through their words our mind is kindled and, as if refined by the heat of a burning sun, is inflamed with holy desires. Then indeed Ammon is violently struck down: because the people of vices is driven from our senses. Therefore the ruler who enters the camp of the Ammonites in the morning watch should not sheathe his sword from slaughter until the day grows hot, because he ought to persist in the instruction of his subjects for so long as it takes until he sees them inflamed with the great heats of the inner light. In this place it should be noted that Nahash, that is, "serpent," is said to be king of the Ammonites; but the people Ammon itself is interpreted as "sorrow." And because we have said that the vice of gluttony is signified by this serpent, when Nahash is struck, the people of sorrow is conquered: because from the one vice of gluttony, innumerable hosts of vices are brought forth to wage war against the soul. And when that same vice of gluttony is cut away, we subjugate many other vices to ourselves. The vice of gluttony is indeed one, but the stings of lust are innumerable, which follow that one going before them as if he were their king. They indeed suggest pleasant things, but lead to the laments of eternal weeping. When Nahash therefore is fought against, the people of sorrow is slain: because when we tame gluttony, the incitements of lust are destroyed. Whence it is rightly asserted that not Nahash himself, but Ammon subject to him—that is, the people—is slain: because the appetite for eating is to be restrained, not extinguished. But it is never well restrained if the people of sorrow that follows—that is, the shameful motions of lust—are not put to death. Against Nahash, therefore, our principal struggle lies: because when he is overcome, Ammon is slain; because lust is then well struck down if its principal origin is subjugated. But how far the progress of chastity advances is secretly shown through what follows. For it says: (Verse 11) "But the rest were scattered, so that not even two were left together." 13. The proof of true abstinence is not in the weakening of the body, but in the perfection of chastity. For the serpent is well worn down if gluttony is so restrained that all the violence of lustful bodily movements is diminished. For the illicit movement of the flesh, as long as the flesh itself exists, cannot be removed, but the violence of its movement can be removed. Indeed, it cannot be taken from the flesh that the law of the flesh should not move its members; yet the violence of the movement can be taken from the flesh, so that the movement remains, but all the obscenity of pleasure is taken away from that same movement, and that movement becomes simple, in which no remaining baseness of lust exists. Well, therefore, are others said to have been turned to flight, because when divine grace perfectly rewards those who are abstinent, it removes from their bodily movements all the stings of obscenities; but it leaves them their natural movements, so that they may always be tempted but never be conquered; since it leaves behind what greatly displeases them, yet so weakens what it leaves behind that it does not permit it to prevail over the victors. He had indeed struck the Ammonites who said: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest while preaching to others, I myself should become a castaway" (1 Cor. 9:27). Yet even after others were slain, he could not slay the fugitives, because he laments, saying: "I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind" (Rom. 7:23). Likewise, because he saw that those who remained were weakened, he says: "No creature shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom. 8:39). What then does it mean that he laments that a law dwells in his members warring against the law of his mind, if after some were destroyed, others were turned to flight—unless it is because perfect men grieve vehemently over this very thing, that they endure simple movements of the flesh against their will? For they would wish so to remain in the flesh that they would endure nothing from the flesh against the will of the mind. And because this is impossible, he said beforehand: "To will is present with me, but to accomplish I find not. For the good that I will, I do not; but the evil that I hate, that I do" (Rom. 7:18–19). As if he were saying: I would wish to be in the flesh, not with that perfection by which one perfected in the flesh is perfect, but as the angels of God in heaven. But this power I find not, because as long as the death of sin has not been swallowed up in the future resurrection, that which is sin dwelling in me moves me against myself. But what cannot be extinguished can be put to flight. For the movement of the flesh is, as it were, turned to flight when it is well chastised by fasting. For it rises against the spirit all the more rarely and with greater difficulty, the more the presiding spirit subjects it to itself through mortification, since it so tames it that it is slow to rebel and quick to be stilled. 14. But it must be subtly observed what is said: "So that two were not left together." Two indeed remain, but they do not remain together. For there are two things: impure thought and the natural movement of the flesh. In the struggle of the saints, sometimes an impure thought comes first, and sometimes they feel the law of the flesh rising against the law of the mind; but those who are already victors do not fear enemies turned to flight if they return again to battle, because they cannot fight against them simultaneously. For when a wicked thought presents itself, they cast it away before the flesh is moved by its suggestion. And when the law of the flesh stirs the members, the law of the mind in no way nourishes the shameful movement by thinking shameful things; and while it casts away the one, it by no means feels the attack of the other. Rightly, therefore, it is said of the perfect victory of the elect that "the others were scattered, so that two of them were not left together": because through the mortification of the body they advance to such a height of perfection that whatever is brought against them from the flesh or from the mind is easily overcome, since these are not permitted to join together in battle. And indeed the elect attain this victory over all the senses of the body, those who can subject the besieging Nahash to themselves through the power of abstinence. For the flesh, when nourished and fattened, is prone to the fall of the tongue, the eyes, the hearing, smell, and touch. Therefore, when the illicit movements of the bodily senses are drawn from the vice of gluttony into warfare against the mind, it is as if the Ammonite people accompany King Nahash to the siege of the Israelites. But when Nahash is perfectly conquered, Ammon is both partly destroyed and partly put to flight in such a way that two of them are not found together; because when we wear down the body through abstinence, we weaken the countless illicit movements of our senses; and those we cannot entirely uproot, we put to flight as though enfeebled. Of these, two do not remain together against us in battle, because in the pleasure of any bodily sense, we do not join the sense of the mind to it. For often we see with our eyes, often we hear with our ears, often we perceive by touch, often by smell, things that can draw the carnal soul to illicit love; but by perfectly mortifying our flesh we are victors, because we do not see two of the conquered adversaries together. We may indeed behold desirable things, but we avoid joining the appetite of the soul to the movements of the eyes. Often too an illicit thought presents itself to the heart, but the victor over the serpent finds only its fleeting movement, which he observes, alone. For regarding those things which the heart thinks about accidentally, he by no means raises any of the bodily senses toward them through illicit movement. Such indeed are those whom the prophet marvels at, saying: "Who are these that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?" (Isaiah 60:8). For they are like doves at their windows who receive desirable things but do not lose the simplicity of a pure heart by desiring them; because they see things they might crave, but they avoid illicitly craving what they behold. Because we advance toward this victory through the exhortation of our preachers, it is fittingly recorded that the Ammonite people were defeated and slain by Saul. Their wars, indeed, are not uniform but diverse. For sometimes they powerfully crush hidden adversaries, and sometimes they wisely endure false brethren. The former they subdue within by great virtue; the latter they tolerate without by wondrous patience. Within, through immense struggles, they are distinguished by the glory of great triumphs; but without, they are adorned with the incomparable honors of such great meekness. We who have learned the account of their inner victory, let us now hear how they also conquer outwardly. For it follows: "And the people said to Samuel: 'Who is it that said: Shall Saul reign over us? Give us the men, and we will kill them.' And Saul said: 'No one shall be killed on this day, because the Lord has wrought salvation in Israel.'"

And it happened when the next day came, etc. It happened when the grace of God the Savior appeared for the help of the struggling Church, He established it in three parts of the faithful, namely of the married, the continent, and the teachers; whom the prophet designates under the names of Noah, Daniel, and Job, skillfully instructing each group to sharpen themselves for defending the peace of the Church.

And he entered the middle of the camp in the morning watch, etc. As Lucifer of sound doctrine rises among the darkness of heresies, immediately the camps of perfidy are disturbed. But with the Scriptures glowing from the Sun of righteousness, they vanish, completely anathematized. For the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1).

But the rest were dispersed, etc. The heart and soul of the multitude of believers, although widely scattered, are one. However, the heretics, who seem to have temporarily escaped the judgment of the Church, and are expelled farther from her, are also discordant among themselves. Just as Isaiah said, “And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians” (Isaiah 19). For Sabellius against Arius, Eutyches against Nestorius, Photinus against the Manichean, and the rest of the impious against the impious, stir up the weapons of iniquity.

Nahash, king of the Ammonites, besieges Jabesh-gilead; and proposes to its inhabitants the most degrading conditions of peace, Sa1 11:1, Sa1 11:2. They apply to their brethren for help, Sa1 11:3, Sa1 11:4. Saul hears of their distress; takes a yoke of oxen, hews them in pieces, and sends them throughout the coasts of Israel, with the threat that all who did not come to his standard should have his cattle served in like manner; in consequence of which he is soon at the head of an army of three hundred and thirty thousand men, Sa1 11:5-8. He sends to Jabesh-gilead, and promises help, Sa1 11:9, Sa1 11:10. Saul attacks the Ammonites next morning, and gives them a total overthrow, Sa1 11:11. The people are greatly encouraged, and propose to put to death those who are opposed to Saul's government: but this he prevents, Sa1 11:12, Sa1 11:13. Samuel leads the people to Gilgal: they offer sacrifices, and renew the kingdom to Saul, Sa1 11:14, Sa1 11:15.

Put the people in three companies - Intending to attack the Ammonites in three different points, and to give his own men more room to act. In the morning watch - He probably began his march in the evening, passed Jordan in the night, and reached the camp of the Ammonites by daybreak. That two of them were not left together - This proves that the rout was complete.

NAHASH OFFERS THEM OF JABESH-GILEAD A REPROACHFUL CONDITION. (Sa1 11:1-4) Then Nahash the Ammonite came up--Nahash ("serpent"); (see Jdg 8:3). The Ammonites had long claimed the right of original possession in Gilead. Though repressed by Jephthah (Jdg 11:33), they now, after ninety years, renew their pretensions; and it was the report of their threatened invasion that hastened the appointment of a king (Sa1 12:12). Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee--They saw no prospect of aid from the western Israelites, who were not only remote, but scarcely able to repel the incursions of the Philistines from themselves.

on the morrow, that Saul put the people in three companies--Crossing the Jordan in the evening, Saul marched his army all night, and came at daybreak on the camp of the Ammonites, who were surprised in three different parts, and totally routed. This happened before the seven days' truce expired.