The Bible: what it is Part 19

The book of Samuel was, consequently, not written by Samuel. The words now and beforetime denote too long an interval to allow room for such a supposition. But yet the word Nabi, 'prophet,' not in use in the time of Samuel, actually occurs in the Pentateuch, and other books of the Old Testament; as for example, in Genesis, chap. {132} xx., v. 7; Exodus, chap, vii., v. 1; chap, xv., v. 20; Numbers, chap. xi., v. 29; chap, xii., v. 6; Deuteronomy, chap, xiii., vv. 1,5; chap. xviii., v. 15; chap, x.x.xiv., v. 10; Judges, chap, iv., v. 4; chap, vi., v. 8; 1 Samuel, chap, iii., v. 20; chap. ix. v. 9; 2 Samuel, chap, vii., v. 2; 1 Kings, chap, xiii., v. 11. In the later of these pa.s.sages it is not to be wondered that the word rendered 'prophet' should be found, because the writer of the First Book of Samuel tells us that it had come into use in his time, and therefore must have been a common word afterwards; but that it should occur in the Book of Genesis proves either that Genesis was written after the introduction of the word into the Hebrew language, or that the writer of the First Book of Samuel is wrong in describing the word as modern, or that the meaning of the word had changed. I believe that the word was actually a new word in the Hebrew language, introduced after the Babylonish captivity, and consequently that the First Book of Samuel, as well as the Pentateuch, were written after that captivity. ('Hebrew Records.')

Verse 15. In a note to Home's 'Deism Refuted,' Bishop Middle-ton is quoted, in favour of, the simplicity of the style of the Bible; the style here is undoubtedly simple enough: 'The Lord had _told Samuel in his ear_ a day before Saul came.'

Verse 24. According to the Hebrew it is not Samuel, but the cook, who speaks in this verse to Saul.

'What are we to think of all this? Can we believe that it was by accident that the a.s.ses of Kish disappeared, and that Saul was led to the house of Samuel? Let those believe this who have faith in seers, fortune-tellers, the G.o.ds of the heathen, and a particular Providence in finding lost a.s.ses; but to those who have not lost or abjured their senses, it is clear that all this is a crafty manoeuvre, secretly contrived to attain a particular object. We cannot doubt that Samuel, a man so acquainted throughout Israel, had already known the person of Saul. He thought his character suited to his end; but, to be a.s.sured precisely of it, it was necessary to talk with him. He could not decently go to see him; he must send for him. He says to a devotee (as men of that caste always had them), "G.o.d wishes to prove his servant Kish; go, take away his a.s.ses, and lead them to such a place." The man obeys. Behold Saul seeking them. He does not find them. In such a case, how many Swiss, Bavarian, Tyrolese, Breton, Vendean peasants would go to see the fortune-teller? But nothing was easier to this divine than to bribe people on the route which Saul was to take. It was foreseen by Samuel. He projected the sacrifice and the feast after this calculation.

The portion set apart for an absent guest proves it. When he had Saul in his house he employed the evening to sound him in every way; he prepared him for his new part; finally he sends off the servant, and mysteriously, without witness, performs the grand, the important ceremony of pouring a little oil on his head [mark well the circ.u.mstance; he anoints him without witness in secret for a public effect]; he kisses him, says the text; he tells him that from this moment G.o.d has consecrated him unchangeable, irremovable king of Israel.

{133} 'At this stage of their intimacy, it is evident their confidence was complete. Saul knew and accepted the propositions and conditions of Samuel. He who had measured the mind of his pupil, in order to subjugate him more and more, uttered several predictions to be accomplished immediately. "In returning home (says he) you will meet at such a place two men, who will tell you that your father has found his a.s.ses; further on you will find three men going to Beitel (or Bethel), they will say to you such things; they will make you such a present. Again, at the hill of the Philistines, you will find a procession of prophets, descending from the high place, to the sound of the lyres, of drums, of pipes, and of guitars. The spirit of G.o.d will seize you; you will prophesy with them; you will be changed to another man. When these signs shall happen to you, you must do that which you wish. G.o.d will be with you; you must come and find me at Galgala to sacrifice: I shall go down there to offer pacificatory sacrifices; you must wait my arrival seven days, and I will let you know what you must do. Saul went, and all that Samuel had predicted came to pa.s.s!" Now, what was there miraculous here? It was easy for Samuel to organise all these meetings, and even to calculate the time and place of the procession of the prophets--a religious ceremony which had its fixed days and hours.

'Saul, dismissed by Samuel, met the procession of prophets, and at sight of the train, seized with the spirit of G.o.d, he set himself to prophesy with them. The people inquired if Saul had become a prophet. Those who knew it asked what had happened to the son of Kish to have also become a prophet? Others observed, what is their father to them? His father-in-law having questioned him on the details of his journey, Saul told him all except the affair of the royalty. Behold, then, a connivance between Saul and Samuel.

'There remained a public scene to play to gain the respect and credulity of the people. For this purpose, Samuel convoked at Maspha a general a.s.sembly. After some reproaches on the part of G.o.d (for nothing can be done without his name), you wish to have, says he, another king than your G.o.d; you shall have him. In the meantime he began to draw by lot the twelve tribes of Israel, to know from which tribe should issue their king. The lot fell upon the tribe of Benjamin: he drew them by lot, and the lot fell upon the family of Matri; and finally on the person of Saul. a.s.suredly if there is any juggling, it is that of drawing lot on a thing already determined. As to the trick of directing the lot, we know that it requires but very little address to play the sleight of hand: it has been seen everywhere; we yet see examples of it

'It is necessary that the Hebrew people should believe that G.o.d himself had made choice of Saul, in order that his choice might impose obedience upon all, and respect to the malcontents, which the opposition had not yet let be seen. By an addition to the jugglery, Saul was not present: it is clear that Samuel had concealed him; they seek him; they soon find him in the hiding-place which the seer had the merit of divining. The people were surprised to see so fine a {134} man; and, according to the literal account, they cried 'G.o.d save the King.' Then Samuel read to the people the statutes of the kingdom, and he wrote them a book, which he deposited, without doubt, in the temple. Alter the ceremony the people were dismissed. Saul returned to his house at his farm; and to form an army he a.s.sembled around him men whose hearts G.o.d had touched; that is the sycophants and partisans of Samuel; but the evil one's exclaimed, What! is this he who is to save us? And they carried him no presents.

'These last expressions point out a party of malcontents. Their spirit and tone of disdain indicate the low rank and condition in which Saul was born, and perhaps also the mediocrity of his talents already known to his neighbours, without exposing a secret infirmity, which we shall soon see developed. We perceive, then, that these malcontents were of a cla.s.s distinguished by birth and by wealth, who are in the text denominated "evil ones," because the writer was a believer, a devotee, imbued with the ideas of the priest, his hero, and that of the superst.i.tious majority of the nation.

'The book of royal statutes, written by Samuel, is worthy of some attention. The Hebrew word mashfat [------] which it is designated, signifies sentence rendered--law imposed. What was this law, this const.i.tution of royalty? The answer is not doubtful. It was the same mashfat mentioned in the 8th chapter and 11th verse, where Samuel being angry, says to the people--Here is the mashfat of the King; who will reign over you: he will take your children; he will employ them in the service of his chariots and his horses; they will run before him and before his chariots of war; he will make them captains over thousands and captains of fifties; he will employ them as labourers in his fields to gather his harvest, to make his instruments of war, and his chariots.

He will take your daughters and make them perfumers (or washerwomen), his cooks, and his bakers. He will take your corn fields, your olive orchards, and your vineyards; he will give them to his servants; he will take the tenth of your grain and of your wine to give to his eunuchs and servants; he will take away your slaves, male and female, as well as your a.s.ses; and the best of your goods will be for his use; he will decimate your cattle, and of your own persons he will make slaves.

'Those will be deceived who take this for menaces only. It is simply the picture of what pa.s.sed among the neighbouring people who had kings. It is an instructive sketch of the civil, political, and military state of those times when we see chariots, slaves, eunuchs, t.i.thes, tillages of different kinds, companies and battalions of thousands and fifties, etc., as in later periods. Such were the evils resulting from the theocratic _regime_, or government of priests in the name of G.o.d, that the Hebrews preferred to it a military despotism, concentrated in a single person; who at home had the power of maintaining peace, and abroad to repel aggression and the intrusion of strangers.

'If Samuel had been a just man he would, in establishing the rights of the king, have also fixed the balance of his duties, what const.i.tuted the rights of the people: he would have imposed upon him, {135} as is practised in Egypt, the duties of temperance in all things, of abstinence from luxury, of repressing his pa.s.sions, of overseeing his agents, of discountenancing flatterers, of resolution to punish, and of impartiality to judge between his subjects. But the priest Samuel was irritated at having wrested from him the sceptre which his knavery had obtained. The most to be regretted in this affair is, that Saul was not endowed with sufficient means or sufficient spirit to counteract this perfidious protector. He could, by feigning to hold Samuel strictly to his order, by obliging him to explain it clearly, have thrown back upon him the checks which he imposed, and thus, in the eyes of the people, he would have had the merit of liberating them. David did not fail; but Saul, altogether a brave warrior, and not suspecting the policy of the temple, became the dupe and the victim of a consummate Machiavelism.

'According to Samuel, the royal statute was a pure and severe despotism, a genuine tyranny. According to Moses, it was quite another thing. To be convinced of this, it is sufficient to read the precept recorded in the 17th chapter of Deuteronomy, verse 14, etc. It says, literally, "When you shall have entered into the land which Jehovah your G.o.d has given you, and which you shall possess and inhabit, and you shall say I will establish over me a king like all the people that surround me, you shall establish him who shall choose Jehovah your G.o.d; you shall take him from among your brethren (Jews); you shall not take a stranger who is not your brother; and this king shall not possess many horses; he shall not make the people return to Egypt to have many horses; he shall not multiply wives, that his heart turn not away; he shall not ama.s.s treasures of gold and silver, and when he shall sit upon the throne he shall write for himself a copy of the law in a book before the priests and the Levites, and this copy shall be in his hands; he shall read it every day of his life to learn to fear Jehovah his G.o.d, and to practise all his precepts." What a difference between this statute of Moses and that of Samuel! Mark well the words: the king shall be one of your brethren, a man entirely as one of you; and he shall be submissive to the will of the nation. How happens it that Samuel was not intimate with, or did not mention, a single word of an ordinance of the legislator so precise and radical? How was it that no person made the least mention of it? Was this law of Moses unknown or forgotten? or was it by some chance not yet inserted? These are reasonable suspicions in this respect.' (_Vide_ Volney.)

Dr. Giles observes that:--

'The description of a king (Deuteronomy xvii., 16--20), presents nothing offensive to the feelings or injurious to the happiness of the people: nor does it seem to imply that the Almighty would disapprove of the Israelites choosing for themselves a king when they should, be settled in the land of promise. On the contrary, it conveys an idea that the request would be a natural one, and it explains the mode in which the pet.i.tion should be complied with. Is it, then, likely that Samuel had read this description, when he cautioned the people {136} against choosing a king by giving that forcible picture of his tyranny and his rapacity?

'The words of Samuel will seem highly reasonable to those who know the nature of Oriental despotism, if we only suppose that Samuel had never read the 17th chapter of Deuteronomy, which deals so much more leniently with the same contingency.

'It is something, also, to our present point that neither does Samuel cause Saul to copy out the book of the law as before alluded to, and this seems to prove that there was no book of the Law besides the two tables of stone then in existence.'

*Chapter x., v. 5. 'The hill of G.o.d, where is the garrison of the Philistines.' So that, according to this, the G.o.d of the Israelites, who had brought the Jewish nation into the land promising to cast out all opposers, not only failed in the promise, but actually suffered the indignity of having the hill designated _par excellence_ as the 'hill of G.o.d,' occupied by a hostile garrison.

The musical accompaniments to the prophesying, prove that a very different meaning must attach to the word than the one usually given; some allege that the word means poet. It is used in many places in a manner entirely unconnected with the foretelling of future events. In the epistle to t.i.tus the word prophet is used in reference, probably to a heathen poet. By Chronicles, chap, xxv., v. 123, the word 'prophesying' clearly denotes musical performances 'under order of the king.' The Douay in a foot-note tells me that prophesying is singing praises to G.o.d by divine impulse.

I am inclined to consider the word prophet as synonymous with that of _bard_. Our ancient bards recited the events of the past, and in stirring poetical phraseology gave forth their hopes and conjectures of victories in the future.

Verse 12 has no connection with the rest of the chapter, and it is not consistent in itself. There is no connection between the question 'Who is their father?' and the following words, 'Therefore it became a proverb, is Saul also amongst the prophets?' Besides which, in chap, xix., v. 24, we get a totally different version of the origin of the proverb.

Verse 25. This book is lost, I presume. It is never referred to afterwards. Was it a revelation from G.o.d?

Verse 26. Why did not G.o.d touch the hearts of every man.

*Chapter xi., vv. 4 to 7. Although Saul was the anointed king of Israel, he seems to have been ploughing in a field, and to have killed the very oxen he had been using. The king at that time, therefore, was not so well off as the priest.

Verses 8 to 15. 'The Hebrew version says, thirty thousand men of Judea, and three hundred thousand of the eleven tribes. The Greek, on the contrary, says, seventy thousand of Judea, and six hundred thousand of the others. Such variations, which are often repeated, show the credit that is due to these books of morals. According to the Greek version, by supposing every six persons to furnish one man-of-war, there would be three millions of inhabitants on a {137} territory of nine hundred square leagues; consequently more than three thousand persons to the square league; which is against all probability. The most reasonable number, perhaps, is twenty thousand picked men for a _coup de main_, which moreover demanded rapidity. Saul departs like an arrow; arrives at break of day, and pours on the camp of the Ammonites, who, accustomed to the sluggish manner of the Jews, expected no such movement. Saul surprises, destroys them, and delivers the town. The people, charmed with this beginning, come uncovered, and propose to Samuel to slay those who do not recognise and salute the king. Saul brave, and for this reason generous, opposes it. This once Samuel is satisfied, and gives orders that there snail be a general a.s.sembly at Gilgal to renew the installation, which was done. But why this second ceremony? Was it to give the opponents and malcontents an opportunity to rally with the majority of the people, and to stifle a schism which had more partisans than are indicated? for we see symptoms of it when in the approaching war with the Philistines there were found in their camp many Hebrew deserters, bearing arms against the party of Samuel and Saul. This was the first apparent motive, and it was quite ingenious. But we shall soon discover that Samuel, always, profound and full of deception, had another secret intimately connected with his interests and character.

The text tells us, chap, xii., that the a.s.sembly being formed, Samuel standing before all the people, made a speech, the substance of which was that he had managed their affairs with perfect integrity; that he had taken no one's ox or a.s.s; that he had oppressed or persecuted no one; that he had not taken bribes; and that nevertheless he had been forced to put a king in his place. He attributes this step as against G.o.d. But why G.o.d? It was himself. As, by the nature of the royal _regime_, such as he has pictured it, Saul could not fail to cause similar vexations, a contrast was created which even at this time tends to diminish the credit he had just, acquired, and shows the jealousy that actuated Samuel.

'The priest insisted that G.o.d had, until then, governed the nation by his special servants, such as Moses, Aaron, Gideon, Jephtha, etc.; and that the people, now rebellious, wished to govern themselves by men of their own choice. But as this new system took away the supreme and arbitrary power from the priests of whom Samuel was the head, we see whence came the deep hatred which he entertained for it; and his sacerdotal arrogance in setting himself up as the chief interpreter and representative on earth of the Divinity. Here the writer (a priest also) has joined a remarkable circ.u.mstance: "You see," says Samuel to the people, "that we are in the time of harvest [the end of June, or beginning of July.] Well, I will invoke G.o.d, and he will answer me in a voice of thunder and rain, and you shall know your sin of disobedience."

So there came thunder and rain, and the people were seized with fear; they knew their sin and demanded pardon of Samuel, who (generously) answered that he would not cease always to pray for them.

'This recital is very well, but we have a right to ask for the {138} evidence of its truth? Who has seen the occurrence? Who has told it to us? A narrator at second hand. Was he a witness of it? He is the only one; he is partial. Besides, a crowd of facts and similar accounts are found among the Greeks, the Romans, and all the ancient barbarians. Are we to believe that their seers, that their divines had also the gift of miracles? But admitting the recital and the fact, we have yet the right to say that Samuel, more knowing than a mult.i.tude of superst.i.tious, ignorant peasants, had perceived the sign, or forerunner of a storm, which is not rare at that time of the year. I myself, while travelling, have seen it in the last days of December, when the case is still more singular. The result was, the people placed greater confidence in Samuel; and that was what this ecclesiastical king wanted, in order not to lose the tutelage of his royal lieutenant.' ( _Vide_ Volney.)

*Chapter xii., v. 11. 'Bedan.' "It is remarkable," says Bishop Patrick, "that there is no such name as Bedan mentioned in the Book of Judges."

'Dr. Hales, with a singular boldness of criticism, observes on the same pa.s.sage:--

'"Perhaps Barak may be meant."

'This supposition might pa.s.s if it were certain that the Book of Judges contained a full history of all that period of the Jewish national existence; but as it certainly is a very brief history, and occasionally changes with great abruptness from one subject to another, it is most probable that other writings once existed which perished before the present Book of Judges was compiled.' (_Vide_ 'Hebrew Records.')

*Chapter xiii., v. 1. The Douay translates this--'Saul was a child of one year when he began to reign.'

'It was natural for this new king to be elated with his first and brilliant success, and with his sudden and high fortune. We find him also a little while after declare war against the Philistines. Several incidents mentioned give cause to suspect that this was contrary to the wish of Samuel, and that hence began the misunderstanding which we shall soon see break out. Samuel might with reason represent to Saul "that the Philistines were powerful, warlike, and formidable; that their maritime trade rivalled that of Sidon and Tyre, giving them the means of industry superior to those of the Hebrews; who, although left in peace under their own government, were not in a state fit for independence or resistance, since they had not even the liberty of having smiths to make their axes, their ploughshares, and still more their lances, and that it was, therefore, better to temporise." This is all very true and wise.

But Saul went farther; full of confidence in the ardour of the people, he could answer that G.o.d would benevolently provide, as in the time of Gideon and Jephtha. He chose three thousand men to remain on duty with him, and sent away the rest. Of this light corps he gave one thousand to his son Jonathan. This young man soon attacked a post of the Philistines, who called to arms and gathered together. Saul, seeing them numerous, summoned the {139} Hebrews. According to the historian the Philistines detached thirty thousand war chariots, six thousand hors.e.m.e.n, and a mult.i.tude of foot soldiers, as numerous as the sand of the sea sh.o.r.e. We ask, who counted these chariots and hors.e.m.e.n? There is, besides, a shocking contradiction, for the whole territory of the Philistines was not more than one hundred leagues square, which does not answer to more than two hundred thousand inhabitants. We must suppose, according to the narrative, there was more than one hundred thousand warriors. It is a very remarkable circ.u.mstance that in the books of the Jews the numbers are generally exaggerated beyond belief, and almost always in round numbers by decimals. Fear seized the Hebrews; the country people dispersed, and hid themselves in the mountains and caves.

Saul found himself in a great straight; he called upon Samuel, who desired him to wait seven days (he wished to see how it would turn).

During this time the people contrived to desert. Saul, believing that success depended upon a propitiatory sacrifice, ordered preparations, and seeing the enemy ready to attack him before Samuel's arrival, he determined to make the sacrifice himself, which was the duty of the priest. Finally Samuel arrived: "What have you done?" says he to Saul. The king explains his reasons. Samuel answers, "You have acted foolishly; you have not observed the orders which G.o.d gave you; he had established your kingdom for ever: now your kingdom shall not stand; _G.o.d has chosen a man after his own heart_ (this phrase must be borne in mind when criticising David's life); he has made him chief over his people;" and Samuel went away.

'Such a sudden change of conduct could not take place without serious motives. We must suppose that some dissention had arisen between them; some serious dispute of the kind which I have pointed out. If, however, that should not suffice to explain a part so decided, or justify so much insolence, I can perceive another motive. The course of public and private actions of Saul, show that he was subject to a nervous disease, the symptoms of which are those of epilepsy. Might it not be that this distressing disease being ordinarily concealed, Samuel did not know of it when he made choice of Saul; but having discovered it, he perceived himself to blame in public opinion and before his enemies, and then sought occasion and means to disown him? It is no less true that in this his conduct is wicked and blameable, inasmuch as he destroys the confidence of the people in their chief, and encourages them to desert and lay open the country to the enemy.

'This priest thought all success impossible, and by immolating his vanquished pupil he wished to insure for himself a compromise with his enemies, both within and without. Chance defeated his calculations. Saul remained with six hundred men, courageous and determined like himself.

He takes post before the enemy's camp, prohibiting all attack. Several days pa.s.sed. His son, Jonathan, stealing under cover (of the night, probably), followed by one only squire, he presents himself before a Philistine post, situated on a high rock; he is taken for a refugee Hebrew, such as had arrived in great numbers for several days before; he climbs up with his squire and is received. {140} In a moment they both attack the enemy with so much boldness and good fortune that they stretch twenty men dead upon half an acre of ground. Confusion and terror spread through the camp.' [In fact, Jonathan's exploit exercised such a wonderful effect that, we are told, the earth quaked and trembled with fear. The Douay says, that 'it was a miracle from G.o.d;' our authorised text does not notice the miracle, but it is quite certain that the last word of the Hebrew verse is [------] (Alehim or Elohim), for which I find no equivalent in our version. Why is this omitted?] The Philistines think themselves betrayed, either by one another or by the refugee Hebrews. One man strikes another: Saul, hearing the noise, advances with his men, and the rout became complete. Carried away by his excessive courage, the king imprudently forbids the eating of anything before the end of the day, and of the slaughter and pursuit. His son, ignorant of this, refreshes himself with a little honey; his father would have immolated him to his oath (like Jephtha), but the people oppose it, and save Jonathan. [I confess that I do not quite understand how the Israelites smote the Philistines without weapons; but G.o.d's ways are not as our ways. Nor do I understand how it was that the Lord allowed the people to escape, who ate the flesh with the blood thereof.} 'Here is a second victory of the new king; but this happened contrary to all expectations, and must have disconcerted Samuel, who does not appear upon the scene of action. The Philistines being vanquished, retire to their own country. It would appear that a truce must have been made, since the historian does not speak any more of war on this side. He mentions that Saul turned his arms against other nations; "that he attacked one after another: the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Idumeans, the Syrian kings of Sobah, to the north and beyond Damas; and that it was not until then that he turned again against the Philistines and Amalekites." Everywhere he was fortunate and conquered. It is evident these different wars must have taken several years; at least each of them one campaign. The narrator likewise seems to terminate here his history in numbering and naming the wives whom Saul married, the children he had, and the man whom he made commander of his guard and general of his troops. 'From the manner in which the fourteenth chapter is terminated!' a reader used to the style of these books would believe that the history of Samuel is really finished; for the ordinary form in closing the history of the other kings, is by recounting their wives, their children, and the prominent personages of their reign. The fifteenth chapter, however, which follows, seems to commence another portion of the reign of Saul, containing the details of the consecration and subst.i.tution of David, which may be dated from a scene of the final rupture, which took place between the king and Samuel. May it not have been that the last compiler, presumed to have been Esdras, in arranging the ma.n.u.scripts originally written by Samuel, Nathan, and G.o.d, according to the testimony given in Chronicles i., 29, sewed the narratives together without much care, as was generally done among {141} the ancients? We shall see the proof of this in the presentation of David to Saul.' ( _Vide_ Volney.)

*Chapter xv., vv. 2 and 3. Christian, contrast these with Daniel, chap.

ix, v. 9, and then consider well how your Deity has ent.i.tled himself to the attribute of a G.o.d of love, shewing mercy and forgiveness to all, even to those who have rebelled against him.

Verse 9. If only as a measure of policy, Saul's conduct is worthy of approval; he acted far more wisely than Samuel.

Verse 29 is contradicted by v. 35 of this chapter, and in Jeremiah, chap, xv., y. 6; and of all the parts of the Bible this is the most absurd, for the whole transaction arises from his having repented that he had set up Saul as king. (See V. 11.)

Verse 32. The Douay says that Agag was 'very fat;' if the Jews were cannibals this would doubtless be a sufficient reason for the sacrifice.

Volney thus comments on this chapter (the reader ought to bear in mind that Volney scarcely ever quotes from the Protestant version):--

'Several years, perhaps eight or ten, were pa.s.sed in the wars of Saul without any mention of Samuel. Without doubt the successes and popularity of the king affected the prophet. At last he reappears on the scene; he seeks an occasion favourable to his views; he finds Saul; he opens by recalling to his mind that he consecrated him king. This was to induce obedience, through a sentiment of grat.i.tude, to what he was going to say. "Behold," he observes, "what that G.o.d now ordains who formerly ordered me to consecrate you. I recollect what the people of Amalek did against my people at the coming up from Egypt. (It was 400 years before; Amalek had opposed the pa.s.sage of the Hebrews, and had slain many.) Go now, strike Amalek; destroy all that belongs to them; spare nothing; you must slay men, women, children, oxen, sheep, goats," etc Who is not chilled at such a command? To make G.o.d order the extermination because of a quarrel 400 years before, in which the Hebrews were the aggressors, for they wished to force a pa.s.sage through the territory of Amalek. But what was the object of Samuel? He had a design in view, and an occasion was wanted to execute it. Samuel saw a popular cause for war and seized it

'Saul formed an army. The Hebrew text says 10,000 men of Judah and 200,000 foot soldiers of the other tribes. The Greek says 400,000 men of one and 30,000 of the other. The Alexandrian ma.n.u.script says only 10,000 of each, which is the most probable. Why these contradictions? Why these absurdities? For it is absurd to collect 200,000 men to take by surprise a small tribe of Bedouins. Saul departs and surprises the Amalekites in the desert; he kills all those who fall into his hands; takes their king alive; guards him together with the beasts and other booty. Returning triumphant to Mount Carmel, he descends to the valley where there is an altar, and prepares, says the text, to offer a sacrifice to G.o.d of the best among the spoil, according to the rites of the Greeks and Romans.

Samuel arrives; but, says the historian, G.o.d had spoken {142} to the seer (during the night) and had said, "I repent of having made Saul king, for he has turned from me and does not obey my orders." This, it is said, frightened Samuel, who cried to the Lord all night. Here again is a vision, a conference, a repentance from G.o.d! Could our negroes and savages hear such fables without laughing? The Jews believe all; they do not ask any proof of Samuel; he however is the only evidence; he only could have written such details. He is here author, actor, judge, and party. Who would be a Jew to believe upon his word? Yet it is a proverb, "as unbelieving as a Jew."

'Samuel arrives and advances to Saul. "What means," says he, "this noise of cattle that I hear?" Saul answers, "The people have spared the best of the effects of Amalek to offer to the Lord our G.o.d; we have destroyed the rest." "Allow me (replies Samuel) to relate what G.o.d said to me last night." "Speak," says Saul. "When you was little in your own eyes (says the Lord) did not I make you king of Israel, and now have I not sent you against Amalek directing you to exterminate him; why have you not fulfilled my commandment? Why have you sinned and kept the spoils?" "I have obeyed (replied Saul); I marched, I destroyed Amalek, and brought away the king alive, but the people have kept back these spoils and these victims of beasts to offer on the altar of G.o.d at Galgala."

Samuel answers, "Does G.o.d demand these offerings and victims rather than obedience to his orders? You endeavour to ascertain good fortune by a victim, by inspecting the fat of rams; but know that the sin of divination is rebellion, a falsehood, an idolatry; but since you reject the commands of G.o.d he rejects your kingdom."

'Saul, feeble and superst.i.tious, confesses himself culpable; he supplicates the amba.s.sador of G.o.d to pray for the removal of his sin; the priest rejects his prayer, reiterates his deposition, and turns to leave him. Saul seizes the skirt of his coat or cloak to retain him; the priest, implacable, makes an effort by which the part is torn. "G.o.d (he repeats) has torn from you the kingdom of Israel, and has delivered it to a better; he has so decreed; is he man to repent?" Saul insists, "I have sinned, do not dishonour me before my people and before their chiefs; return to me, and I will humble myself before thy G.o.d." (These words seem remarkable; there were, then, among the Hebrews, other acknowledged G.o.ds who lived on an equality with Jehovah.) And Samuel returned, and Saul humbled himself before Jehovah. Samuel then said, "Bring me Agag, king of Amalek;" and Agag being come, Samuel said to him, "What you have done to the children of our mothers that shall be done to yours;" and Samuel cut him in pieces [it seems with an axe].

Having performed this exploit, Samuel returned to Ramatah, and during his life did not visit Saul.