Antiquities of the Jews — Book 6, Chapter 14

1. About the same time the Philistines resolved to make war against the
Israelites, and sent to all their confederates that they would go along
with them to the war to Reggan, [near the city Shunem,] whence they
might gather themselves together, and suddenly attack the Hebrews. Then
did Achish, the king of Gath, desire David to assist them with his armed
men against the Hebrews. This he readily promised; and said that the
time was now come wherein he might requite him for his kindness and
hospitality. So the king promised to make him the keeper of his body,
after the victory, supposing that the battle with the enemy succeeded to
their mind; which promise of honor and confidence he made on purpose to
increase his zeal for his service.

2. Now Saul, the king of the Hebrews, had cast out of the country the
fortune-tellers, and the necromancers, and all such as exercised the
like arts, excepting the prophets. But when he heard that the
Philistines were already come, and had pitched their camp near the city
Shunem, situate in the plain, he made haste to oppose them with his
forces; and when he was come to a certain mountain called Gilboa, he
pitched his camp over-against the enemy; but when he saw the enemy's
army he was greatly troubled, because it appeared to him to be numerous,
and superior to his own; and he inquired of God by the prophets
concerning the battle, that he might know beforehand what would be the
event of it. And when God did not answer him, Saul was under a still
greater dread, and his courage fell, foreseeing, as was but reasonable
to suppose, that mischief would befall him, now God was not there to
assist him; yet did he bid his servants to inquire out for him some
woman that was a necromancer and called up the souls of the dead, that
So he might know whether his affairs would succeed to his mind; for this
sort of necromantic women that bring up the souls of the dead, do by
them foretell future events to such as desire them. And one of his
servants told him that there was such a woman in the city Endor, but was
known to nobody in the camp; hereupon Saul put off his royal apparel,
and took two of those his servants with him, whom he knew to be most
faithful to him, and came to Endor to the woman, and entreated her to
act the part of a fortune-teller, and to bring up such a soul to him as
he should name to her. But when the woman opposed his motion, and said
she did not despise the king, who had banished this sort of fortune-
tellers, and that he did not do well himself, when she had done him no
harm, to endeavor to lay a snare for her, and to discover that she
exercised a forbidden art, in order to procure her to be punished, he
sware that nobody should know what she did; and that he would not tell
any one else what she foretold, but that she should incur no danger. As
soon as he had induced her by this oath to fear no harm, he bid her
bring up to him the soul of Samuel. She, not knowing who Samuel was,
called him out of Hades. When he appeared, and the woman saw one that
was venerable, and of a divine form, she was in disorder; and being
astonished at the sight, she said, "Art not thou king Saul?" for Samuel
had informed her who he was. When he had owned that to be true, and had
asked her whence her disorder arose, she said that she saw a certain
person ascend, who in his form was like to a god. And when he bid her
tell him what he resembled, in what habit he appeared, and of what age
he was, she told him he was an old man already, and of a glorious
personage, and had on a sacerdotal mantle. So the king discovered by
these signs that he was Samuel; and he fell down upon the ground, and
saluted and worshipped him. And when the soul of Samuel asked him why he
had disturbed him, and caused him to be brought up, he lamented the
necessity he was under; for he said, that his enemies pressed heavily
upon him; that he was in distress what to do in his present
circumstances; that he was forsaken of God, and could obtain no
prediction of what was coming, neither by prophets nor by dreams; and
that "these were the reasons why I have recourse to time, who always
took great care of me." But 27 Samuel, seeing that the end of Saul's
life was come, said, "It is in vain for thee to desire to learn of me
any thing future, when God hath forsaken thee: however, hear what I say,
that David is to be king, and to finish this war with good success; and
thou art to lose thy dominion and thy life, because thou didst not obey
God in the war with the Amalekites, and hast not kept his commandments,
as I foretold thee while I was alive. Know, therefore, that the people
shall be made subject to their enemies, and that thou, with thy sons,
shall fall in the battle tomorrow, and thou shalt then be with me [in
Hades]."

3. When Saul heard this, he could not speak for grief, and fell down on
the floor, whether it were from the sorrow that arose upon what Samuel
had said, or from his emptiness, for he had taken no food the foregoing
day nor night, he easily fell quite down: and when with difficulty he
had recovered himself, the woman would force him to eat, begging this of
him as a favor on account of her concern in that dangerous instance of
fortune-telling, which it was not lawful for her to have done, because
of the fear she was under of the king, while she knew not who he was,
yet did she undertake it, and go through with it; on which account she
entreated him to admit that a table and food might be set before him,
that he might recover his strength, and so get safe to his own camp. And
when he opposed her motion, and entirely rejected it, by reason of his
anxiety, she forced him, and at last persuaded him to it. Now she had
one calf that she was very fond of, and one that she took a great deal
of care of, and fed it herself; for she was a woman that got her living
by the labor of her own hands, and had no other possession but that one
calf; this she killed, and made ready its flesh, and set it before his
servants and himself. So Saul came to the camp while it was yet night.

4. Now it is but just to recommend the generosity of this woman, 28
because when the king had forbidden her to use that art whence her
circumstances were bettered and improved, and when she had never seen
the king before, she still did not remember to his disadvantage that he
had condemned her sort of learning, and did not refuse him as a
stranger, and one that she had had no acquaintance with; but she had
compassion upon him, and comforted him, and exhorted him to do what he
was greatly averse to, and offered him the only creature she had, as a
poor woman, and that earnestly, and with great humanity, while she had
no requital made her for her kindness, nor hunted after any future favor
from him, for she knew he was to die; whereas men are naturally either
ambitious to please those that bestow benefits upon them, or are very
ready to serve those from whom they may receive some advantage. It would
be well therefore to imitate the example and to do kindnesses to all
such as are in want and to think that nothing is better, nor more
becoming mankind, than such a general beneficence, nor what will sooner
render God favorable, and ready to bestow good things upon us. And so
far may suffice to have spoken concerning this woman. But I shall speak
further upon another subject, which will afford me all opportunity of
discoursing on what is for the advantage of cities, and people, and
nations, and suited to the taste of good men, and will encourage them
all in the prosecution of virtue; and is capable of showing them the
desirability of acquiring glory, and an everlasting fame; and of
imprinting in the kings of nations, and the rulers of cities, great
inclination and diligence of doing well; as also of encouraging them to
undergo dangers, and to die for their countries, and of instructing them
how to despise all the most terrible adversities: and I have a fair
occasion offered me to enter on such a discourse by Saul the king of the
Hebrews; for although he knew what was coming upon him, and that he was
to die immediately, by the prediction of the prophet, he did not resolve
to fly from death, nor so far to indulge the love of life as to betray
his own people to the enemy, or to bring a disgrace on his royal
dignity; but exposing himself, as well as all his family and children,
to dangers, he thought it a brave thing to fall together with them, as
he was fighting for his subjects, and that it was better his sons should
die thus, showing their courage, than to leave them to their uncertain
conduct afterward, while, instead of succession and posterity, they
gained commendation and a lasting name. Such a one alone seems to me to
be a just, a courageous, and a prudent man; and when any one has arrived
at these dispositions, or shall hereafter arrive at them, he is the man
that ought to be by all honored with the testimony of a virtuous or
courageous man: for as to those that go out to war with hopes of
success, and that they shall return safe, supposing they should have
performed some glorious action, I think those do not do well who call
these valiant men, as so many historians and other writers who treat of
them are wont to do, although I confess those do justly deserve some
commendation also; but those only may be styled courageous and bold in
great undertakings, and despisers of adversities, who imitate Saul: for
as for those that do not know what the event of war will be as to
themselves, and though they do not faint in it, but deliver themselves
up to uncertain futurity, and are tossed this way and that way, this is
not so very eminent an instance of a generous mind, although they happen
to perform many great exploits; but when men's minds expect no good
event, but they know beforehand they must die, and that they must
undergo that death in the battle also, after this neither to be
affrighted, nor to be astonished at the terrible fate that is coming,
but to go directly upon it, when they know it beforehand, this it is
that I esteem the character of a man truly courageous. Accordingly this
Saul did, and thereby demonstrated that all men who desire fame after
they are dead are so to act as they may obtain the same: this especially
concerns kings, who ought not to think it enough in their high stations
that they are not wicked in the government of their subjects, but to be
no more than moderately good to them. I could say more than this about
Saul and his courage, the subject affording matter sufficient; but that
I may not appear to run out improperly in his commendation, I return
again to that history from which I made this digression.

5. Now when the Philistines, as I said before, had pitched their camp,
and had taken an account of their forces, according to their nations,
and kingdoms, and governments, king Achish came last of all with his own
army; after whom came David with his six hundred armed men. And when the
commanders of the Philistines saw him, they asked the king whence these
Hebrews came, and at whose invitation. He answered that it was David,
who was fled away from his master Saul, and that he had entertained him
when he came to him, and that now he was willing to make him this
requital for his favors, and to avenge himself upon Saul, and so was
become his confederate. The commanders complained of this, that he had
taken him for a confederate who was an enemy; and gave him counsel to
send him away, lest he should unawares do his friends a great deal of
mischief by entertaining him, for that he afforded him an opportunity of
being reconciled to his master by doing a mischief to our army. They
thereupon desired him, out of a prudent foresight of this, to send him
away, with his six hundred armed men, to the place he had given him for
his habitation; for that this was that David whom the virgins celebrated
in their hymns, as having destroyed many ten thousands of the
Philistines. When the king of Gath heard this, he thought they spake
well; so he called David, and said to him, "As for myself, I can bear
witness that thou hast shown great diligence and kindness about me, and
on that account it was that I took thee for my confederate; however,
what I have done does not please the commanders of the Philistines; go
therefore within a day's time to the place I have given thee, without
suspecting any harm, and there keep my country, lest any of our enemies
should make an incursion upon it, which will be one part of that
assistance which I expect from thee." So David came to Ziklag, as the
king of Gath bade him; but it happened, that while he was gone to the
assistance of the Philistines, the Amalekites had made an incursion, and
taken Ziklag before, and had burnt it; and when they had taken a great
deal of other prey out of that place, and out of the other parts of the
Philistines' country, they departed.

6. Now when David found that Ziklag was laid waste, and that it was all
spoiled, and that as well his own wives, who were two, as the wives of
his companions, with their children, were made captives, he presently
rent his clothes, weeping and lamenting, together with his friends; and
indeed he was so cast down with these misfortunes, that at length tears
themselves failed him. He was also in danger of being stoned to death by
his companions, who were greatly afflicted at the captivity of their
wives and children, for they laid the blame upon him of what had
happened. But when he had recovered himself out of his grief, and had
raised up his mind to God, he desired the high priest Abiathar to put on
his sacerdotal garments, and to inquire of God, and to prophesy to him,
whether God would grant; that if he pursued after the Amalekites, he
should overtake them, and save their wives and their children, and
avenge himself on the enemies. And when the high priest bade him to
pursue after them, he marched apace, with his four hundred men, after
the enemy; and when he was come to a certain brook called Besor, and had
lighted upon one that was wandering about, an Egyptian by birth, who was
almost dead with want and famine, [for he had continued wandering about
without food in the wilderness three days,] he first of all gave him
sustenance, both meat and drink, and thereby refreshed him. He then
asked him to whom he belonged, and whence he came. Whereupon the man
told him he was an Egyptian by birth, and was left behind by his master,
because he was so sick and weak that he could not follow him. He also
informed him that he was one of those who had burnt and plundered, not
only other parts of Judea, but Ziklag itself also. So David made use of
him as a guide to find oat the Amalekites; and when he had overtaken
them, as they lay scattered about on the ground, some at dinner, some
disordered, and entirely drunk with wine, and in the fruition of their
spoils and their prey, he fell upon them on the sudden, and made a great
slaughter among them; for they were naked, and expected no such thing,
but had betaken themselves to drinking and feasting; and so they were
all easily destroyed. Now some of them that were overtaken as they lay
at the table were slain in that posture, and their blood brought up with
it their meat and their drink. They slew others of them as they were
drinking to one another in their cups, and some of them when their full
bellies had made them fall asleep; and for so many as had time to put on
their armor, they slew them with the sword, with no less ease than they
did those that were naked; and for the partisans of David, they
continued also the slaughter from the first hour of the day to the
evening, so that there were, not above four hundred of the Amalekites
left; and they only escaped by getting upon their dromedaries and
camels. Accordingly David recovered not only all the other spoils which
the enemy had carried away, but his wives also, and the wives of his
companions. But when they were come to the place where they had left the
two hundred men, which were not able to follow them, but were left to
take care of the stuff, the four hundred men did not think fit to divide
among them any other parts of what they had gotten, or of the prey,
since they did not accompany them, but pretended to be feeble, and did
not follow them in pursuit of the enemy, but said they should be
contented to have safely recovered their wives; yet did David pronounce
that this opinion of theirs was evil and unjust, and that when God had
granted them such a favor, that they had avenged themselves on their
enemies, and had recovered all that belonged to themselves, they should
make an equal distribution of what they had gotten to all, because the
rest had tarried behind to guard their stuff; and from that time this
law obtained among them, that those who guarded the stuff, should
receive an equal share with those that fought in the battle. Now when
David was come to Ziklag, he sent portions of the spoils to all that had
been familiar with him, and to his friends in the tribe of Judah. And
thus ended the affairs of the plundering of Ziklag, and of the slaughter
of the Amalekites.

7. Now upon the Philistines joining battle, there followed a sharp
engagement, and the Philistine, became the conquerors, and slew a great
number of their enemies; but Saul the king of Israel, and his sons,
fought courageously, and with the utmost alacrity, as knowing that their
entire glory lay in nothing else but dying honorably, and exposing
themselves to the utmost danger from the enemy [for they had nothing
else to hope for]; so they brought upon themselves the whole power of
the enemy, till they were encompassed round and slain, but not before
they had killed many of the Philistines Now the sons of Saul were
Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchisua; and when these were slain the
multitude of the Hebrews were put to flight, and all was disorder, and
confusion, and slaughter, upon the Philistines pressing in upon them.
But Saul himself fled, having a strong body of soldiers about him; and
upon the Philistines sending after them those that threw javelins and
shot arrows, he lost all his company except a few. As for 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 bade his armor-bearer draw his sword, and run
him through, before the enemy should 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, because he was
not able to do it with his own hands, and thereby to procure him such a
death as he desired. 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. And when Saul's armor-bearer saw that he was
slain, he killed himself; nor did any of the king's guards escape, but
they all fell upon the mountain called Gilboa. But when those Hebrews
that dwelt in the valley beyond Jordan, and those who had their cities
in the plain, heard that Saul and his sons were fallen, and that the
multitude about them were destroyed, they left their own cities, and
fled to such as were the best fortified and fenced; and the Philistines,
finding those cities deserted, came and dwelt in them.

8. On the next day, when the Philistines came to strip their enemies
that were slain, they got the bodies of Saul and of his sons, and
stripped them, and cut off their heads; and they sent messengers all
about their country, to acquaint them that their enemies were fallen;
and they dedicated their armor in the temple of Astarte, but hung their
bodies on crosses at the walls of the city Bethshun, which is now called
Scythepolls. But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard that they
had dismembered the dead bodies of Saul and of his sons, they deemed it
so horrid a thing to overlook this barbarity, and to suffer them to be
without funeral rites, that the most courageous and hardy among them
[and indeed that city had in it men that were very stout both in body
and mind] journeyed all night, and came to Bethshun, and approached to
the enemy's wall, and taking down the bodies of Saul and of his sons,
they carried them to Jabesh, while the enemy were not able enough nor
bold enough to hinder them, because of their great courage. So the
people of Jabesh wept all in general, and buried their bodies in the
best place of their country, which was named Areurn; and they observed a
public mourning for them seven days, with their wives and children,
beating their breasts, and lamenting the king and his sons, without
either tasting meat or drink 29 [till the evening.]

9. To this his end did Saul come, according to the prophecy of Samuel,
because he disobeyed the commands of God about the Amalekites, and on
the account of his destroying the family of Ahimelech the high priest,
with Ahimelech himself, and the city of the high priests. Now Saul, when
he had reigned eighteen years while Samuel was alive, and after his
death two [and twenty], ended his life in this manner.

FOOTNOTES:

1 (return) [ Dagon, a famous maritime god or idol, is generally supposed
to have been like a man above the navel, and like a fish beneath it.]

2 (return) [ Spanheim informs us here, that upon the coins of Tenedos,
and those of other cities, a field-mouse is engraven, together with
Apollo Smintheus, or Apollo, the driver away of field-mice, on account
of his being supposed to have freed certain tracts of ground from those
mice; which coins show how great a judgment such mice have sometimes
been, and how the deliverance from them was then esteemed the effect of
a divine power; which observations are highly suitable to this history.]

3 (return) [ This device of the Philistines, of having a yoke of kine to
draw this cart, into which they put the ark of the Hebrews, is greatly
illustrated by Sanchoniatho's account, under his ninth generation, that
Agrouerus, or Agrotes, the husbandman, had a much-worshipped statue and
temple, carried about by one or more yoke of oxen, or kine, in
Phoenicia, in the neighborhood of these Philistines. See Cumberland's
Sanchoniatho, p. 27 and 247; and Essay on the Old Testament, Append. p.
172.]

4 (return) [ These seventy men, being not so much as Levites, touched
the ark in a rash or profane manner, and were slain by the hand of God
for such their rashness and profaneness, according to the Divine
threatenings, Numbers 4:15, 20; but how other copies come to add such an
incredible number as fifty thousand in this one town, or small city, I
know not. See Dr. Wall's Critical Notes on 1 Samuel 6:19.]

5 (return) [ This is the first place, so far as I remember, in these
Antiquities, where Josephus begins to call his nation Jews, he having
hitherto usually, if not constantly, called them either Hebrews or
Israelites. The second place soon follows; see also ch. 3. sect. 5.]

6 (return) [ Of this great mistake of Saul and his servant, as if true
prophet of God would accept of a gift or present, for foretelling what
was desired of him, see the note on B. IV. ch. 6. sect. 3.]

7 (return) [ It seems to me not improbable that these seventy guests of
Samuel, as here, with himself at the head of them, were a Jewish
sanhedrim, and that hereby Samuel intimated to Saul that these seventy-
one were to be his constant counselors, and that he was to act not like
a sole monarch, but with the advice and direction of these seventy-one
members of that Jewish sanhedrim upon all occasions, which yet we never
read that he consulted afterward.]

8 (return) [ An instance of this Divine fury we have after this in Saul,
ch. 5. sect. 2, 3; 1 Samuel 11:6. See the like, Judges 3:10; 6:34;
11:29; 13:25; and 14:6.]

9 (return) [ Take here Theodoret's note, cited by Dr. Hudson:—"He that
exposes his shield to the enemy with his left hand, thereby hides his
left eye, and looks at the enemy with his right eye: he therefore that
plucks out that eye, makes men useless in war."]

10 (return) [ Mr. Reland observes here, and proves elsewhere in his note
on Antiq. B. III. ch. 1. sect. 6, that although thunder and lightning
with us usually happen in summer, yet in Palestine and Syria they are
chiefly confined to winter. Josephus takes notice of the same thing
again, War, B. IV. ch. 4. sect. 5.]

11 (return) [ Saul seems to have staid till near the time of the evening
sacrifice, on the seventh day, which Samuel the prophet of God had
appointed him, but not till the end of that day, as he ought to have
done; and Samuel appears, by delaying to come to the full time of the
evening sacrifice on that seventh day, to have tried him [who seems to
have been already for some time declining from his strict and bounden
subordination to God and his prophet; to have taken life-guards for
himself and his son, which was entirely a new thing in Israel, and
savored of a distrust of God's providence; and to have affected more
than he ought that independent authority which the pagan kings took to
themselves]; Samuel, I say, seems to have here tried Saul whether he
would stay till the priest came, who alone could lawfully offer the
sacrifices, nor would boldly and profanely usurp the priest's office,
which he venturing upon, was justly rejected for his profaneness. See
Apost. Constit. B. II. ch. 27. And, indeed, since Saul had accepted
kingly power, which naturally becomes ungovernable and tyrannical, as
God foretold, and the experience of all ages has shown, the Divine
settlement by Moses had soon been laid aside under the kings, had not
God, by keeping strictly to his laws, and severely executing the
threatenings therein contained, restrained Saul and other kings in some
degree of obedience to himself; nor was even this severity sufficient to
restrain most of the future kings of Israel and Judah from the grossest
idolatry and impiety. Of the advantage of which strictness, in the
observing Divine laws, and inflicting their threatened penalties, see
Antiq. B. VI. ch. 12. sect. 7; and Against Apion, B. II. sect. 30, where
Josephus speaks of that matter; though it must be noted that it seems,
at least in three instances, that good men did not always immediately
approve of such Divine severity. There seems to be one instance, 1
Samuel 6:19, 20; another, 1 Samuel 15:11; and a third, 2 Samuel 6:8, 9;
Antiq. B. VI. ch. 7. sect. 2; though they all at last acquiesced in the
Divine conduct, as knowing that God is wiser than men.]

12 (return) [ By this answer of Samuel, and that from a Divine
commission, which is fuller in l Samuel 13:14, and by that parallel note
in the Apostolical Constitutions just now quoted, concerning the great
wickedness of Saul in venturing, even under a seeming necessity of
affairs, to usurp the priest's office, and offer sacrifice without the
priest, we are in some degree able to answer that question, which I have
ever thought a very hard one, viz. Whether, if there were a city or
country of lay Christians without any clergymen, it were lawful for the
laity alone to baptize, or celebrate the eucharist, etc., or indeed
whether they alone could ordain themselves either bishops, priests, or
deacons, for the due performance of such sacerdotal ministrations; or
whether they ought not rather, till they procure clergymen to come among
them, to confine themselves within those bounds of piety and
Christianity which belong alone to the laity; such particularly as are
recommended in the first book of the Apostolical Constitutions, which
peculiarly concern the laity, and are intimated in Clement's undoubted
epistle, sect. 40. To which latter opinion I incline.]

13 (return) [ This rash vow or curse of Saul, which Josephus says was
confirmed by the people, and yet not executed, I suppose principally
because Jonathan did not know of it, is very remarkable; it being of the
essence of the obligation of all laws, that they be sufficiently known
and promulgated, otherwise the conduct of Providence, as to the
sacredness of solemn oaths and vows, in God's refusing to answer by Urim
till this breach of Saul's vow or curse was understood and set right,
and God propitiated by public prayer, is here very remarkable, as indeed
it is every where else in the Old Testament.]

14 (return) [ Here we have still more indications of Saul's affectation
of despotic power, and of his entrenching upon the priesthood, and
making and endeavoring to execute a rash vow or curse, without
consulting Samuel or the sanhedrim. In this view it is also that I look
upon this erection of a new altar by Saul, and his offering of burnt-
offerings himself upon it, and not as any proper instance of devotion or
religion, with other commentators.]

15 (return) [ The reason of this severity is distinctly given, 1 Samuel
15:18, "Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites:" nor indeed
do we ever meet with these Amalekites but as very cruel and bloody
people, and particularly seeking to injure and utterly to destroy the
nation of Israel. See Exodus 17:8-16; Numbers 14:45; Deuteronomy 25:17-
19; Judges 6:3, 6; 1 Samuel 15:33; Psalms 83:7; and, above all, the most
barbarous of all cruelties, that of Haman the Agagite, or one of the
posterity of Agag, the old king of the Amalekites, Esther 3:1-15.]

16 (return) [ Spanheim takes notice here that the Greeks had such
singers of hymns; and that usually children or youths were picked out
for that service; as also, that those called singers to the harp, did
the same that David did here, i.e. join their own vocal and instrumental
music together.]

17 (return) [ Josephus says thrice in this chapter, and twice
afterwards, ch. 11. sect. 2, and B. VII. ch. 1. sect. 4, i.e. five times
in all, that Saul required not a bare hundred of the foreskins of the
Philistines, but six hundred of their heads. The Septuagint have 100
foreskins, but the Syriac and Arabic 200. Now that these were not
foreskins, with our other copies, but heads, with Josephus's copy, seems
somewhat probable, from 1 Samuel 29:4, where all copies say that it was
with the heads of such Philistines that David might reconcile himself to
his master, Saul.]

18 (return) [ Since the modern Jews have lost the signification of the
Hebrew word here used, cebr; and since the LXX., as well as Josephus,
reader it the liver of the goat, and since this rendering, and
Josephus's account, are here so much more clear and probable than those
of others, it is almost unaccountable that our commentators should so
much as hesitate about its true interpretation.]

19 (return) [ These violent and wild agitations of Saul seem to me to
have been no other than demoniacal; and that the same demon which used
to seize him, since he was forsaken of God, and which the divine hymns
and psalms which were sung to the harp by David used to expel, was now
in a judicial way brought upon him, not only in order to disappoint his
intentions against innocent David, but to expose him to the laughter and
contempt of all that saw him, or heard of those agitations; such violent
and wild agitations being never observed in true prophets, when they
were under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. Our other copies, which
say the Spirit of God came him, seem not so here copy, which mentions
nothing of God at all. Nor does Josephus seem to ascribe this impulse
and ecstasy of Saul to any other than to his old demoniacal spirit,
which on all accounts appears the most probable. Nor does the former
description of Saul's real inspiration by the Divine Spirit, 1 Samuel
10:9- 12; Antiq. B. VI. ch. 4. sect. 2, which was before he was become
wicked, well agree with the descriptions before us.]

20 (return) [ What is meant by Saul's lying down naked all that day, and
all that night, 1 Samuel 19:4, and whether any more than laying aside
his royal apparel, or upper garments, as Josephus seems to understand
it, is by no means certain. See the note on Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 14.
sect. 2.

21 (return) [ This city Nob was not a city allotted to the priests, nor
had the prophets, that we know of, any particular cities allotted them.
It seems the tabernacle was now at Nob, and probably a school of the
prophets was here also. It was full two days' journey on foot from
Jerusalem, 1 Samuel 21:5. The number of priests here slain in Josephus
is three hundred and eighty-five, and but eighty-five in our Hebrew
copies; yet are they three hundred and five in the Septuagint. I prefer
Josephus's number, the Hebrew having, I suppose, only dropped the
hundreds, the other the tens. This city Nob seems to have been the
chief, or perhaps the only seat of the family of Ithamar, which here
perished, according to God's former terrible threatenings to Eli, 1
Samuel 2:27-36; 3:11-18. See ch. 14. sect. D, hereafter.]

22 (return) [ This section contains an admirable reflection of Josephus
concerning the general wickedness of men in great authority, and the
danger they are in of rejecting that regard to justice and humanity, to
Divine Providence and the fear of God, which they either really had, or
pretended to have, while they were in a lower condition. It can never be
too often perused by kings and great men, nor by those who expect to
obtain such elevated dignities among mankind. See the like reflections
of our Josephus, Antiq. B. VII. ch. 1. sect. 5, at the end; and B. VIII.
ch. 10. sect. 2, at the beginning. They are to the like purport with one
branch of Agur's prayer: "One thing have I required of thee, deny it me
not before I die: Give me not riches, lest I be full, and deny thee, and
say, Who is the Lord?" Proverbs 30:7-9.]

23 (return) [ The phrase in David's speech to Saul, as set down in
Josephus, that he had abstained from just revenge, puts me in mind of
the like words in the Apostolical Constitutions, B. VII. ch. 2., "That
revenge is not evil, but that patience is more honorable."]

24 (return) [ The number of men that came first to David, are distinctly
in Josephus, and in our common copies, but four hundred. When he was at
Keilah still but four hundred, both in Josephus and in the LXXX.; but
six hundred in our Hebrew copies, 1 Samuel 23:3; see 30:9, 10. Now the
six hundred there mentioned are here estimated by Josephus to have been
so many, only by an augmentation of two hundred afterward, which I
suppose is the true solution of this seeming disagreement.]

25 (return) [ In this and the two next sections, we may perceive how
Josephus, nay, how Abigail herself, would understand, the "not avenging
ourselves, but heaping coals of fire on the head of the injurious,"
Proverbs 25:22; Romans 12:20, not as we do now, of them into but of
leaving them to the judgment of God, "to whom vengeance belongeth,"
Deuteronomy 32:35; Psalms 94:1; Hebrews 10:30, and who will take
vengeance on the wicked. And since all God's judgments are just, and all
fit to be executed, and all at length for the good of the persons
punished, I incline to think that to be the meaning of this phrase of
"heaping coals of fire on their heads."]

26 (return) [ We may note here, that how sacred soever an oath was
esteemed among the people of God in old times, they did not think it
obligatory where the action was plainly unlawful. For so we see it was
in this case of David, who, although he had sworn to destroy Nabal and
his family, yet does he here, and 1 Samuel 25:32-41, bless God for
preventing his keeping his oath, and shedding of blood, which he had
swore to do.]

27 (return) [ This history of Saul's consultation, not with a witch, as
we render the Hebrew word here, but with a necromancer, as the whole
history shows, is easily understood, especially if we consult the
Recognitions of Clement, B. I. ch. 5. at large, and more briefly, and
nearer the days of Samuel Ecclus. 46:20, "Samuel prophesied after his
death, and showed the king his end, and lift up his voice from the earth
in prophecy," to blot out "the wickedness of the people." Nor does the
exactness of the accomplishment of this prediction, the very next day,
permit us to suppose any imposition upon Saul in the present history;
for as to all modern hypotheses against the natural sense of such
ancient and authentic histories, I take them to be of very small value
or consideration.]

28 (return) [ These great commendations of this necromantic woman of
Endor, and of Saul's martial courage, when yet he knew he should die in
the battle, are somewhat unusual digressions in Josephus. They seem to
me extracted from some speeches or declamations of his composed
formerly, in the way of oratory, that lay by him, and which he thought
fit to insert upon this occasion. See before on Antiq. B. I. ch. 6 sect.
8.]

29 (return) [ This way of speaking in Josephus, of fasting "seven days
without meat or drink," is almost like that of St. Paul, Acts 27:33,
"This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried, and continued
fasting, having taken nothing:" and as the nature of the thing, and the
impossibility of strictly fasting so long, require us here to understand
both Josephus and the sacred author of this history, 1 Samuel 30:13,
from whom he took it, of only fasting fill the evening; so must we
understand St. Paul, either that this was really the fourteenth day that
they had taken nothing till the evening, or else that this was the
fourteenth day of their tempestuous weather in the Adriatic Sea, as ver.
27, and that on this fourteenth day alone they had continued fasting,
and had taken nothing before that evening. The mention of their long
abstinence, ver. 21, inclines me to believe the former explication to be
the truth, and that the case was then for a fortnight what it was here
for a week, that they kept all those days entirely as lasts till the
evening, but not longer. See Judges 20:26; 21:2; 1 Samuel 14:24; 2
Samuel 1:12; Antiq. B. VII. ch. 7. sect. 4.]