saul Summary and Overview

asked for. (1.) A king of Edom (Gen. 36:37, 38); called Shaul in 1 Chr. 1:48. (2.) The son of Kish (probably his only son, and a child of prayer, "asked for"), of the tribe of Benjamin, the first king of the Jewish nation. The singular providential circumstances connected with his election as king are recorded in 1 Sam. 8-10. His father's she-asses had strayed, and Saul was sent with a servant to seek for them. Leaving his home at Gibeah (10:5, "the hill of God," A.V.; lit., as in R.V. marg., "Gibeah of God"), Saul and his servant went toward the north-west over Mount Ephraim, and then turning NE they came to "the land of Shalisha," and thence eastward to the land of Shalim, and at length came to the district of Zuph, near Samuel's home at Ramah (9:5-10). At this point Saul proposed to return from the three days' fruitless search, but his servant suggested that they should first consult the "seer." Hearing that he was about to offer sacrifice, the two hastened into Ramah, and "behold, Samuel came out against them," on his way to the "bamah", i.e., the "height", where sacrifice was to be offered; and in answer to Saul's question, "Tell me, I pray thee, where the seer's house is," Samuel made himself known to him. Samuel had been divinely prepared for his coming (9:15-17), and received Saul as his guest. He took him with him to the sacrifice, and then after the feast "communed with Saul upon the top of the house" of all that was in his heart. On the morrow Samuel "took a vial of oil and poured it on his head," and anointed Saul as king over Israel (9:25-10:8), giving him three signs in confirmation of his call to be king. When Saul reached his home in Gibeah the last of these signs was fulfilled, and the Sprit of God came upon him, and "he was turned into another man." The simple countryman was transformed into the king of Israel, a remarkable change suddenly took place in his whole demeanour, and the people said in their astonishment, as they looked on the stalwart son of Kish, "Is Saul also among the prophets?", a saying which passed into a "proverb." (Compare 19:24.) The intercourse between Saul and Samuel was as yet unknown to the people. The "anointing" had been in secret. But now the time had come when the transaction must be confirmed by the nation. Samuel accordingly summoned the people to a solemn assembly "before the Lord" at Mizpeh. Here the lot was drawn (10:17-27), and it fell upon Saul, and when he was presented before them, the stateliest man in all Israel, the air was rent for the first time in Israel by the loud cry, "God save the king!" He now returned to his home in Gibeah, attended by a kind of bodyguard, "a band of men whose hearts God had touched." On reaching his home he dismissed them, and resumed the quiet toils of his former life. Soon after this, on hearing of the conduct of Nahash the Ammonite at Jabeshgilead (q.v.), an army out of all the tribes of Israel rallied at his summons to the trysting-place at Bezek, and he led them forth a great army to battle, gaining a complete victory over the Ammonite invaders at Jabesh (11:1-11). Amid the universal joy occasioned by this victory he was now fully recognized as the king of Israel. At the invitation of Samuel "all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal." Samuel now officially anointed him as king (11:15). Although Samuel never ceased to be a judge in Israel, yet now his work in that capacity practically came to an end. Saul now undertook the great and difficult enterprise of freeing the land from its hereditary enemies the Philistines, and for this end he gathered together an army of 3,000 men (1 Sam. 13:1, 2). The Philistines were encamped at Geba. Saul, with 2,000 men, occupied Michmash and Mount Bethel; while his son Jonathan, with 1,000 men, occupied Gibeah, to the south of Geba, and seemingly without any direction from his father "smote" the Philistines in Geba. Thus roused, the Philistines, who gathered an army of 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and "people as the sand which is on the sea-shore in multitude," encamped in Michmash, which Saul had evacuated for Gilgal. Saul now tarried for seven days in Gilgal before making any movement, as Samuel had appointed (10:8); but becoming impatient on the seventh day, as it was drawing to a close, when he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, Samuel appeared and warned him of the fatal consequences of his act of disobedience, for he had not waited long enough (13:13, 14). When Saul, after Samuel's departure, went out from Gilgal with his 600 men, his followers having decreased to that number (13:15), against the Philistines at Michmash (q.v.), he had his head-quarters under a pomegrante tree at Migron, over against Michmash, the Wady esSuweinit alone intervening. Here at Gibeah-Geba Saul and his army rested, uncertain what to do. Jonathan became impatient, and with his armour-bearer planned an assault against the Philistines, unknown to Saul and the army (14:1-15). Jonathan and his armour-bearer went down into the wady, and on their hands and knees climbed to the top of the narrow rocky ridge called Bozez, where was the outpost of the Philistine army. They surprised and then slew twenty of the Philistines, and immediately the whole host of the Philistines was thrown into disorder and fled in great terror. "It was a very great trembling;" a supernatural panic seized the host. Saul and his 600 men, a band which speedily increased to 10,000, perceiving the confusion, pursued the army of the Philistines, and the tide of battle rolled on as far as to Bethaven, halfway between Michmash and Bethel. The Philistines were totally routed. "So the Lord saved Israel that day." While pursuing the Philistines, Saul rashly adjured the people, saying, "Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening." But though faint and weary, the Israelites "smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon" (a distance of from 15 to 20 miles). Jonathan had, while passing through the wood in pursuit of the Philistines, tasted a little of the honeycomb which was abundant there (14:27). This was afterwards discovered by Saul (ver. 42), and he threatened to put his son to death. The people, however, interposed, saying, "There shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground." He whom God had so signally owned, who had "wrought this great salvation in Israel," must not die. "Then Saul went up from following the Philistines: and the Philistines went to their own place" (1 Sam. 14:24-46); and thus the campaign against the Philistines came to an end. This was Saul's second great military success. Saul's reign, however, continued to be one of almost constant war against his enemies round about (14:47, 48), in all of which he proved victorious. The war against the Amalekites is the only one which is recorded at length (1 Sam. 15). These oldest and hereditary (Ex. 17:8; Num. 14:43-45) enemies of Israel occupied the territory to the south and south-west of Israel. Samuel summoned Saul to execute the "ban" which God had pronounced (Deut. 25:17-19) on this cruel and relentless foe of Israel. The cup of their iniquity was now full. This command was "the test of his moral qualification for being king." Saul proceeded to execute the divine command; and gathering the people together, marched from Telaim (1 Sam. 15:4) against the Amalekites, whom he smote "from Havilah until thou comest to Shur," utterly destroying "all the people with the edge of the sword", i.e., all that fell into his hands. He was, however, guilty of rebellion and disobedience in sparing Agag their king, and in conniving at his soldiers' sparing the best of the sheep and cattle; and Samuel, following Saul to Gilgal, in the Jordan valley, said unto him, "Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he also hath rejected thee from being king" (15:23). The kingdom was rent from Saul and was given to another, even to David, whom the Lord chose to be Saul's successor, and whom Samuel anointed (16:1-13). From that day "the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him." He and Samuel parted only to meet once again at one of the schools of the prophets. David was now sent for as a "cunning player on an harp" (1 Sam. 16:16, 18), to play before Saul when the evil spirit troubled him, and thus was introduced to the court of Saul. He became a great favourite with the king. At length David returned to his father's house and to his wonted avocation as a shepherd for perhaps some three years. The Philistines once more invaded the land, and gathered their army between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim, on the southern slope of the valley of Elah. Saul and the men of Israel went forth to meet them, and encamped on the northern slope of the same valley which lay between the two armies. It was here that David slew Goliath of Gath, the champion of the Philistines (17:4-54), an exploit which led to the flight and utter defeat of the Philistine army. Saul now took David permanently into his service (18:2); but he became jealous of him (ver. 9), and on many occasions showed his enmity toward him (ver. 10, 11), his enmity ripening into a purpose of murder which at different times he tried in vain to carry out. After some time the Philistines "gathered themselves together" in the plain of Esdraelon, and pitched their camp at Shunem, on the slope of Little Hermon; and Saul "gathered all Israel together," and "pitched in Gilboa" (1 Sam. 28:3-14). Being unable to discover the mind of the Lord, Saul, accompanied by two of his retinue, betook himself to the "witch of Endor," some 7 or 8 miles distant. Here he was overwhelmed by the startling communication that was mysteriously made to him by Samuel (ver. 16-19), who appeared to him. "He fell straightway all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel" (ver. 20). The Philistine host "fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines, and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa" (31:1). In his despair at the disaster that had befallen his army, Saul "took a sword and fell upon it." And the Philistines on the morrow "found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa." Having cut off his head, they sent it with his weapons to Philistia, and hung up the skull in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod. They suspended his headless body, with that of Jonathan, from the walls of Bethshan. The men of Jabesh-gilead afterwards removed the bodies from this position; and having burnt the flesh, they buried the bodies under a tree at Jabesh. The remains were, however, afterwards removed to the family sepulchre at Zelah (2 Sam. 21:13, 14). (See DAVID T0000982.) (3.) "Who is also called Paul" (q.v.), the circumcision name of the apostle, given to him, perhaps, in memory of King Saul (Acts 7:58; 8:1; 9:1).

(desired), more accurately Shaul. 1. One of the early kings of Edom, and successor of Samlah. #Ge 36:37,38; 1Ch 1:48| (B.C. after 1450.) 2. The first king of Israel, the son of Kish, and of the tribe of Benjamin. (B.C, 1095-1055.) His character is in part illustrated by the fierce, wayward, fitful nature of the tribe and in part accounted for by the struggle between the old and new systems in which he found himself involved. To this we must add a taint of madness. which broke out in violent frenzy at times leaving him with long lucid intervals. He was remarkable for his strength and activity, #2Sa 1:25| and, like the Homeric heroes, of gigantic stature, taller by head and shoulders than the rest of the people, and of that kind of beauty denoted by the Hebrew word "good," #1Sa 9:2| and which caused him to be compared to the gazelle, "the gazelle of Israel." His birthplace is not expressly mentioned; but, as Zelah in Benjamin was the place of Kish's sepulchre. #2Sa 21:14| it was probable; his native village. His father, Kish, was a powerful and wealthy chief though the family to which he belonged was of little importance. #1Sa 9:1,21| A portion of his property consisted of a drove of asses. In search of these asses, gone astray on the mountains, he sent his son Saul It was while prosecuting this adventure that Saul met with Samuel for the first time at his home in Ramah, five miles north of Jerusalem. A divine intimation had made known to him the approach of Saul, whom he treated with special favor, and the next morning descending with him to the skirts of the town, Samuel poured over Saul's head the consecrated oil, and with a kiss of salutation announced to him that he was to be the ruler of the nation. #1Sa 9:25 ... 10:1| Returning homeward his call was confirmed by the incidents which according to Samuel's prediction, awaited him. #1Sa 10:9,10| What may be named the public call occurred at Mizpeh, when lots were cast to find the tribe and family which was to produce the king, and Saul, by a divine intimation was found hid in the circle of baggage which surrounded the encampment. #1Sa 10:17-24| Returning to Gibeah, apparently to private life, he heard the threat issued by Nahash king of Ammon against Jabesh-gilead. He speedily collected an army, and Jabesh was rescued. The effect was instantaneous on the people, and the monarchy was inaugurated anew at Gilgal. #1Sa 11:1-15| It should be, however, observed that according to #1Sa 12:12| the affair of Nahash preceded and occasioned the election of Saul. Although king of Israel, his rule was at first limited; but in the second year of his reign he began to organize an attempt to shake off the Philistine yoke, and an army was formed. In this crisis, Saul, now on the very confines of his kingdom at Gilgal, impatient at Samuel's delay, whom he had directed to be present, offered sacrifice himself. Samuel, arriving later, pronounced the first curse, on his impetuous zeal. #1Sa 13:5-14| After the Philistines were driven back to their own country occurred the first appearance of Saul's madness in the rash vow which all but cost the life of his soil. #1Sa 14:24, 44| The expulsion of the Philistines, although not entirely completed, ch. #1Sa 14:52| at once placed Saul in a position higher than that of any previous ruler of Israel, and he made war upon the neighboring tribes. In the war with Amalek, ch. #1Sa 14:48; 15:1-9| he disobeyed the prophetical command of Samuel, which called down the second curse, and the first distinct intimation of the transference of the kingdom to a rival. The rest of Saul's life is one long tragedy. The frenzy which had given indications of itself before now at times took almost entire possession of him. In this crisis David was recommended to him. From this time forward their lives are blended together. [DAVID] In Saul's better moments he never lost the strong affection which he had contracted for David. Occasionally, too his prophetical gift returned, blended with his madness. #2Sa 19:24| But his acts of fierce, wild zeal increased. At last the monarchy itself broke down under the weakness of his head. The Philistines re-entered the country, and just before giving them battle Saul's courage failed and he consulted one of the necromancers, the "Witch of Endor," who had escaped his persecution. At this distance of time it is impossible to determine the relative amount of fraud or of reality in the scene which follows, though the obvious meaning of the narrative itself tends to the hypothesis of some kind of apparition. ch. #2Sa 19:28| On hearing the denunciation which the apparition conveyed, Saul fell the whole length of his gigantic stature on the ground, and remained motionless till the woman and his servants forced him to eat. The next day the battle came on. The Israelites were driven up the side of Gilboa. The three sons of Saul were slain. Saul was wounded. According to one account, he fell upon his own sword, #1Sa 31:4| and died. The body on being found by the Philistines was stripped slid decapitated, and the headless trunk hung over the city walls, with those of his three sons. ch. #1Sa 31:9,10| The head was deposited (probably at Ashdod) in the temple of Dagon #1Ch 10:10| The corpse was buried at Jabesh-gilead. #1Sa 31:13| 3. The Jewish name of St. Paul.

SAUL (desired). 1. A king of Edom. Gen 36:37-38; called Shaul in 1 Chr 1:48-49. 2. The first king of Israel, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin. His personal appearance was so remarkably fine and noble as to be particularly mentioned by the sacred historian. His search for his father's asses was the occasion of his visit to Samuel, whom he consulted as a "seer," on the advice of his servant. Samuel, having been divinely admonished of the approach of Saul and instructed what to do, invited him to his house and treated him with marked distinction. The next day Samuel made known to him privately that he was to have the rule over Israel, and while they were in the way he took a vial of oil, and, pouring it on his head, anointed him for the regal office. To convince Saul that this thing was of the Lord, Samuel predicted three signs, the last Saul's power to "prophesy," which would be fulfilled on his home-journey. The events happened as Samuel had foretold and Saul prophesied. By prophecy we are to here understand excited proclaiming or singing, and not a foretelling of the future. 1 Sam 9; 1 Sam 10:1-16. At this point we are obliged to depart from the order in First Samuel. The brutal insult of Nahash was avenged by Israel under the leadership of Saul, who from his home at Gibeah, whither he had gone after his secret anointing, sends an urgent order upon every man in the nation to follow him. Some 330,000 assembled under his leadership, and a great victory was gained. 1 Sam 11. Thus the Lord prepared the way for Saul's acceptance by the people as their king. 1 Sam 10:17-25. At first, Saul lived unpretendingly, almost as a private citizen - indeed, his sway seems to have been limited. But after a little while (comp. 1 Sam 10:26-27, 1 Sam 13:2) he lived in more regal fashion. It is impossible to say how old he was at this time, but perhaps about forty years. He was emphatically a military king, and so successful was he that the borders of Israel must have been considerably enlarged and the fear of Israel very widespread. His reign opened favorably. But he soon proved he was no ideal prince. So impatient was he that he could not wait at Gilgal for Samuel to come, as he had appointed, and so he offered sacrifice; for doing which he was reproved by the old prophet, 1 Sam 13:14, yet the divine favor was not withdrawn. Very strange, if not the result of madness, was his insisting that Jonathan should die, though the army interfered in time. The declaration of Samuel that the Lord would not establish his house preyed upon his mind, and he was a changed man from this time forth. He treated God's command carelessly, 1 Sam 15, and was again severely rebuked by Samuel; nor did he show any real repentance. He looked upon his attendants with suspicion. He played the coward before the Philistines. Music relieved him, but his malady was no ordinary lunacy. His treatment of David, his first love for him, his failure to remember him, the return of his affection, and then the complete turn against him, indicated the state of his mind. He pursued David, though twice he was momentarily softened by David's words and deeds. 1 Sam 24:16; 1 Sam 26:21. We can understand how jealousy, nourished, became madness at last. Then, too, we see the hand of God. Saul breaks down completely. On the eve of a battle, which his unsettled mind forebodes will be decisive, he seeks a witch, and of her demands an interview with Samuel. The woman performs her incantations, but, to her horror, she herself sees an apparition and hears the voice of the dead. Samuel charged Saul with his disobedience to the divine command in the matter of Amalek, assured him that all his efforts to obtain aid elsewhere were vain if God had become his enemy, and admonished him that defeat and ruin were at hand, and that he and his sons should the next day be inhabitants of the world of spirits. 1 Sam 28. The last flicker of the old fire of courage sufficed to enable Saul to man himself for the conflict, notwithstanding this crushing intelligence. He gave the Philistines battle, but was routed with dreadful slaughter. Among the killed were Saul's three sons. Saul, finding himself wounded and likely to fall into the hands of the enemy, threw himself upon the point of his own sword. When the Philistines found the body of Saul they severed the head from it and fastened the body on the city wail, from which it was afterward taken in the night by some of his friends from a distance, and carried to Jabesh-gilead and buried. 1 Sam 31.

Hebrew SHAUL 1. An early king of Edom (Genesis 36:37-38). 2. Genesis 46:10. 3. 1 Chronicles 6:24. 4. First king of Israel. The names Kish and Ner, Nadab and Abi-nadab, Baal and Mephibosheth, recur in the genealogy in two generations. The family extends to Ezra's time. If the Zimri of 1 Chronicles 9:42 be the Zimri of 1 Kings 16 it is the last stroke of the family of Saul for the kingdom. Saul was son of Kish, son of Ner, son of Abiel or Jehiel. 1 Samuel 9:1 omits Ner, the intermediate link, and makes Kish son of Abiel; 1 Chronicles 8:33 supplies the link, or Ner in 1 Chronicles is not father but ancestor of Kish (1 Chronicles 9:36-39), and Ner son of Abi-Gibeon (father or founder of Gibeon, 1 Chronicles 8:29) is named only because he was progenitor of Saul's line, the intermediate names mentioned in 1 Samuel 9 being omitted. The proud, fierce, and self willed spirit of his tribe, Benjamin, is conspicuous in Saul (see Judges 19; 20; 21). Strong and swift fooled (2 Samuel 1:23), and outtopping the people by head and shoulders (1 Samuel 9:2), he was the "beauty" or "ornament of Israel," "a choice young man," "there was none goodlier than he." Above all, he was the chosen of the Lord (1 Samuel 9:17; 1 Samuel 10:24; 2 Samuel 21:6). Zelah was Kish's burial place. Gibeah was especially connected with Saul. The family was originally humble (1 Samuel 11:1-21), though Kish was "a mighty man of substance." Searching for Kish's donkeys three days in vain, at last, by the servant's advice, Saul consulted Samuel, who had already God's intimation that He would send at this very time a man of Benjamin who should be king. God's providence, overruling man's free movements to carry out His purpose, appears throughout the narrative. Samuel gave Saul the chiefest place at the feast on the high place to which he invited him, and the choice portion. Setting his mind at ease about his asses, now found, Samuel raised his thoughts to the throne as one "on whom was all the desire of Israel." "Little then in his own sight" (1 Samuel 15:17), and calling himself "of the smallest of the tribes, and his family least of all the families of Benjamin" (1 Samuel 9:21), Saul was very different from what he afterward became in prosperity; elevation tests men (Psalm 73:18). Samuel anointed and kissed Saul as king. On his coming to the oak ("plain") of Tabor, three men going with offerings to God to Bethel gave him two of three loaves, in recognition of his kingship. Next prophets met him, and suddenly the Spirit of God coming upon him he prophesied among them, so that the proverb concerning him then first began, "is Saul also among the prophets?" The public outward call followed at Mizpeh, when God caused the lot to fall on Saul. So modest was he that he hid himself, shunning the elevation, amidst the baggage. A band whose hearts God had touched escorted him to Gibeah, while the worthless despised him, saying "how shall this man save us?" (compare Luke 14:14, the Antitype, meekly "He held His peace"; Psalm 38:13). NAHASH'S cruel threat against Jabesh Gilead, which was among the causes that made Israel desire a king (1 Samuel 8:3; 1 Samuel 8:19; 1 Samuel 12:12), gave Saul the opportunity of displaying his patriotic bravery in rescuing the citizens and securing their lasting attachment. His magnanimity too appears in his not allowing any to be killed of those whom the people desired to slay for saying "shall Saul reign over us?" Pious humility then breathed in his ascription of the deliverance to Jehovah, not himself (1 Samuel 11:12-13). Samuel then inaugurated the kingdom again at Gilgal. In 1 Samuel 13:1 read "Saul reigned 40 years"; so Acts 13:21, and Josephus "18 years during Samuel's life and 22 after his death" (Ant. 16:14, section 9). Saul was young in beginning his reign (1 Samuel 9:2), but probably verging toward 40 years old, as his son Jonathan was grown up (1 Samuel 13:2). Ishbosheth his youngest son (1 Chronicles 8:33) was 40 at his death (2 Samuel 2:10), and as he is not mentioned among Saul's sons in 1 Samuel 14:49 he perhaps was born after Saul's accession. In the second year of his reign Saul revolted from the Philistines whose garrison had been advanced as far as Geba (Jehu, N.E. of Rama), (1 Samuel 10:5; 1 Samuel 13:3) and gathered to him an army of 3,000. Jonathan smote the garrison, and so brought on a Philistine invasion in full force, 30,000 chariots. 6,000 horsemen, and a multitude as the sand. The Israelites, as the Romans under the Etruscan Porscna, were deprived by their Philistine oppressors of all smiths, so that no Israelite save Saul and Jonathan had sword or spear (1 Samuel 13:19-21). Many hid in caves, others fled beyond Jordan, while those (600: 1 Samuel 13:15) who stayed with Saul followed trembling. Already some time previously Samuel had conferred with Saul as to his foreseen struggle against the Philistines, and his going down to Gilgal (not the first going for his inauguration as king, 1 Samuel 11:14-15; but second after revolting from the Philistines) which was the most suitable place for gathering an army. Samuel was not directing Saul to go at once to Gilgal, as seen as he should go from him, and wait there seven days (1 Samuel 10:8); but that after being chosen king by lot and conquering Ammon and being confirmed as king at Gilgal, he should war with the Philistines (one main end of the Lord's appointing him king, 1 Samuel 9:16, "that he may save My people out of the hand of the Philistines, for I have looked upon My people, because their cry is come unto Me"), and then go down to Gilgal, and "wait there seven days, until I come, before offering the holocaust." The Gilgal meant is that in the Jordan valley, to which Saul withdrew in order to gather soldiers for battle, and offer sacrifices, and then advance again to Gibeah and Geba, thence to encounter the Philistines encamped at Michmash. Now first Saul betrays his real character. Self will, impatience, and the spirit of disobedience made him offer without, waiting the time appointed by Jehovah's prophet; he obeyed so far and so long only as obedience did not require crossing of his self will. Had he waited but an hour or two, he would have saved his kingdom, which was now transferred to one after God's own heart; we may forfeit the heavenly kingdom by hasty and impatient unbelief (Isaiah 28:16). Saul met Samuel's reproof "what hast thou done?" with self justifying excuses, as if his act had been meritorious not culpable: "I saw the people scattered from me, and thou camest not within the days appointed (Samuel had come before their expiration), and the Philistines gathered themselves. ... Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto Jehovah; I forced myself therefore (he ought to have forced himself to obey not disobey; necessity, is often the plea for sacrificing principle to expediency) and offered." Jonathan's exploit in destroying the Philistine garrison (1 Samuel 14) eventuated in driving the Philistines back to their own land. (See JONATHAN.) The same reckless and profane impatience appears in Saul; he consults Jehovah by the priest Ahiah (1 Samuel 14:18 read with Septuagint, "bring here the ephod, for he took the ephod that day in the presence of Israel"; for the ark was not usually taken out, but only the ephod, for consultation, and the ark was now at Kirjath Jearim, not in Saul's little camp); then at the increasing tumult in the Philistine host, impatient to join battle, interrupted the priest, "withdraw thine hand," i.e. leave off. Contrast David's patient and implicit following of Jehovah's will, inquired through the priest, in attacking in front as well as in taking a circuit behind the Philistines (2 Samuel 5:19-25). Saul's adjuration that none should eat until evening betrayed his rash temper and marred the victory (1 Samuel 14:29-30). His scrupulosity because the people flew upon the spoil, eating the animals with the blood (1 Samuel 14:32-35), contrasts with true conscientiousness which was wanting in him at Gilgal (1 Samuel 13). Now he built his first altar. Jonathan's unconscious violation of Saul's adjuration, by eating honey which revived him (1 Samuel 13:27-29, "enlightened his eyes," Psalm 13:3), was the occasion of Saul again taking lightly God's name to witness that Jonathan should die (contrast Exodus 20:7). But the guilt, which God's silence when consulted whether Saul should follow after the Philistines implied, lay with Saul himself, for God's siding "with Jonathan" against the Philistines ("he hath wrought with God this day") was God's verdict acquitting him. Thus convicted Saul desisted from further pursuit of the Philistines. His warlike prowess appears in his securing his regal authority (1 Samuel 14:47, "took the kingdom over Israel") by fighting successfully against all his enemies on every side, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Zobah, the Philistines, and Amalek (summarily noticed 1 Samuel 14:48, in detail in 1 Samuel 15). Saul's second great disobedience at his second probation by God was (1 Samuel 15) his sparing the Amalekite Agag and the best of the sheep, oxen, etc., and all that was good; again self will set up itself to judge what part of God's command it chose to obey and what to disobey. The same self complacent blindness to his sin appears in his words to Samuel, "I have performed the commandment of Jehovah." "What meaneth then tills bleating of the sheep?" Saul lays on the people the disobedience, and takes to himself with them the merit of the obedience: "they have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep ... to sacrifice ... and the rest we have utterly destroyed." True obedience observes all the law and turns not to the right or left (Joshua 1:7; Deuteronomy 5:32). The spirit of self will shows its nonsubmission to God's will in small but sure indications. Saul had zeal for Israel against the Gibeonites where zeal was misplaced, because not according to God's will (2 Samuel 21); he lacked zeal here, where God required it. He shifts the blame on "the people" and makes religion a cloak, saying the object was "to sacrifice unto Jehovah, thy God." We must not do evil that good may come (Romans 3:8). Samuel tears off the pretext: "behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, ... for rebellion is as the silt of witchcraft," the very sin which Saul fell into at last (1 Samuel 28). As Saul rejected Jehovah's word so He rejected Saul "from being king." In 1 Chronicles 10:13 "Saul died for his transgression (Hebrew maal, 'prevarication,' shuffling, not doing yet wishing to appear to do, God's will) against Jehovah, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit." The secret of Saul's disobedience he discloses, "because I feared the people and obeyed their voice," instead of God's voice (Exodus 23:2; Proverbs 29:25). Even in confession, while using the same words as David subsequently, "I have sinned" (2 Samuel 12:13), he betrays his motive, "turn again with me ... honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people and before Israel" (John 5:44; John 12:43). Man's favor he regarded more than God's displeasure. Henceforth Samuel, after tearing himself from the king, to the rending of his garment (the symbol of the transference of the kingdom to a better successor), came to Saul no more though mourning for him. As the Spirit of Jehovah came upon David from the day of his anointing (1 Samuel 16:13-14), so an evil spirit from (it is never said OF) Jehovah troubled Saul, and the Spirit of Jehovah departed from hint. David then first was called in to soothe away with the harp the evil spirit; but music did not bring the good Spirit: to fill his soul, so the evil spirit returned worse than ever (Matthew 12:43-45; 1 Samuel 28:4-20). No ritualism or sweet melody, though pleasing the senses, will change the heart; the Holy Spirit alone can attune the soul to purity and peace. Like his tribe, which should "ravin as a wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at night ... the spoil" (Genesis 49:27), Saul was energetic, choleric, and impressible, now prophesying with the prophets whose holy enthusiasm infected him, now jealous to madness of David whom he had loved greatly and brought permanently to court (1 Samuel 16:21; 1 Samuel 18:2) and made his armour bearer; and all because of a thoughtless expression of the women in meeting the conquerors after the battle with Goliath, "Saul hath slain his thousands, David his ten thousands" (1 Samuel 17; 1 Samuel 18:7). A word was enough to awaken suspicion, and suspicion was wrested into proof of treason, "what can he have more but the kingdom?" (see Ecclesiastes 4:4; Proverbs 27:4). But David's wise walk made Saul fear him (1 Samuel 18:12; 1 Samuel 18:14-15; 1 Samuel 18:29; Psalm 101:2; Psalm 5:8). God raised up to David a friend, Michal, in his enemy's house, which made Saul the more afraid. So, not daring to lay his own hand on him, he exposed him to the Philistines (1 Samuel 18:17-27); in righteous retribution, it was Saul himself who fell by them (Psalm 9:15-16). For a brief time a better feeling returned to Saul through Jonathan's intercession for David (1 Samuel 19:4-6); but again the evil spirit returned, and Saul pursued David to Michal's house, and even to Samuel's presence at Naioth in Ramah. But Jehovah, "in whose hand the king's heart is, to turn it wheresoever He will" (Proverbs 21:1), caused him who came to persecute to prophesy with the prophets. Yet soon after, because Jonathan let David go, Saul cast a javelin at his noble unselfish son, saying, "thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, for as long as he liveth thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom" (1 Samuel 20:28-33). Saul's slaughter of the priests at Nob, on Doeg's information, followed (1 Samuel 22), Saul upbraiding his servants as if conspiring with David and feeling no sorrow for the king; "yet can David, as I can (1 Samuel 8:14, compare 1 Samuel 22:7), give every one of you fields and vineyards?" etc., thus answering to David's picture of him (Psalm 53:7), "this is the man that trusted in the abundance of his riches," etc.(See DOEG; DAVID.) By slaying the priests, so that Abiathar alone escaped to David, Saul's sin recoiled on himself, for Saul thereby supplied him whom he hated with one through whom to consult Jehovah, and deprived himself of the divine oracle, so that at last he had to have recourse to witchcraft, though he had himself tried to extirpate it (1 Samuel 23:2; 1 Samuel 23:9; 1 Samuel 28:3-7, etc.). The Philistines, by whom Saul thought to have slain David, were the unconscious instruments of saving him from Saul at Mann (1 Samuel 23:26-27). David's magnanimity at the cave of Engedi in sparing his deadly foe and only cutting off his skirt, when in his power, moved Saul to tears, so that his better feelings returned for the moment, and he acknowledged David's superiority in spirit and deed, and obtained David's promise not to destroy his seed (1 Samuel 24). Once again (1 Samuel 26), at Hachilah David spared Saul, though urged by Abishai to destroy him; the Altaschith of Psalm 57; 58; 59; refers to David's words on this occasion, "destroy not." (See ALTASCHITH.) David would not take vengeance out of God's hands (Psalm 35:1-3; Psalm 17:4; Psalm 94:1-2; Psalm 94:23; Romans 12:19). His words were singularly prophetic of Saul's doom, "his day shall come to die, or be shall descend into battle and perish." The "deep sleep from Jehovah" on Saul enabled David unobserved to take spear and cruse from Saul's bolster. From a hill afar off David appealed to Saul, "if thy instigation to (i.e. giving up to the manifestation of thine own) evil be from Jehovah, through His anger against thee for sin, let Him smell sacrifice" (Hebrew), i.e. appease God's wrath by an acceptable sacrifice; "but if thy instigators be men, they drive me out from attaching (Hebrew) myself to the inheritance of Jehovah (the Holy Land); now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth far away from the face of Jehovah," i.e. do not drive me to perish in a heathen land; contrast Psalm 16:4-6. Saul acknowledged his sinful "folly" (meaning "wickedness" in Scripture: see MUTH-LABBEN), and promised no more to seek his hurt, and blessed him. The consultation with the witch at Endor preceded the fatal battle of Gilbea. Saul had "put away out of the land wizards," etc. But the law forbad them to live (Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:10, etc.). He only took half measures, as in sparing the Amalekite king; "rebellion" ended in "witchcraft" (1 Samuel 15:23). He had driven away the only man, David, who could have saved him from the Philistines (1 Samuel 17; 2 Samuel 5:17-22). He had killed all by whom he could have consulted Jehovah (1 Samuel 21; 22). How men's own wickedness, by a retributive providence (Jeremiah 2:19), corrects them! She was mistress of a "spirit" (baalath-ob) with which the dead were conjured up to inquire of them the future. Either she merely pretended this, or if there was a demoniacal reality Samuel's apparition differed so essentially from it that she started at seeing him, and then (what shows her art to be something more than jugglery) she recognized Saul; probably she fell into a state of clairvoyance in which she recognized persons, as Saul, unknown to her by face. Saul did not himself see Samuel with his eyes, but recognized that it was he from her description, and told him his distress; but Samuel told him it was vain to ask of a friend of God since Jehovah was become his enemy. Saul should be in Hades by the morrow for his disobeying as to the Amalekites, while David, Amalek's destroyer (1 Samuel 30:17), should succeed. On the morrow the Philistines followed hard upon Saul, the archers hit him; then Saul having in vain begged his armour bearer to slay him (1 Samuel 31:4) fell on his own sword, but even so still lingered until an Amalekite (of the very people whom he ought to have utterly destroyed) stood upon and slew him, and brought his crown and bracelet to David (2 Samuel 1:8-10). The Philistines cut off his head and fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan. The armour they put in the temple of Ashtaroth, the head in the temple of Dagon (1 Samuel 31:9-10; 1 Chronicles 10:10); the tidings of the slaughter of their national enemy they sent far and near to their idols and to the people. The inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead showed their gratitude to their former deliverer by bravely carrying off the bodies of him and his sons, and burning them, and burying the bones under a tree. His life is a sadly vivid picture of declension and deterioration until suicide draws a dark curtain over the scene. In his elegy David brings out all his good qualities, bravery, close union with Jonathan, zeal for Israel whose daughters Saul clothed in rich spoils; David generously overlooks his faults (2 Samuel 1). Years after he had the bones of Saul and Jonathan buried in Zelah in the tomb of Kish (2 Samuel 21:12-14). 2 Samuel 21:5. Paul's original name. He was proud of his tribe Benjamin and the name Saul (Acts 13:21).