Chapter 7.
SAUL'S WAR WITH THE AMALEKITES, AND CONQUEST OF THEM.FJAJ 6.42
1. NOW Samuel came unto Saul, and said to him, that he was sent by God
to put him in mind that God had preferred him before all others, and ordained
him king; that he therefore ought to be obedient to him, and to submit
to his authority, as considering, that though he had the dominion over
the other tribes, yet that God had the dominion over him, and over all
things
That accordingly God said to him, that "because
the Amalekites did the Hebrews a great deal of mischief while they
were in the wilderness, and when, upon their coming out of Egypt, they
were making their way to that country which is now their own, I enjoin
thee to punish the Amalekites, by making war upon them; and when thou hast
subdued them, to leave none of them alive, but to pursue them through every
age, and to slay them, beginning with the women and the infants, and to
require this as a punishment to be inflicted upon them for the mischief
they did to our forefathers; to spare nothing, neither asses nor other
beasts, nor to reserve any of them for your own advantage and possession,
but to devote them universally to God, and, in obedience to the commands
of Moses, to blot out the name of Amalek entirely." (15)
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.FJAJ 6.43
2. So Saul promised to do what he was commanded; and supposing that
his obedience to God would be shown, not only in making war against the
Amalekites, but more fully in the readiness and quickness of his proceedings,
he made no delay, but immediately gathered together all his forces; and
when he had numbered them in Gilgal, he found them to be about four hundred
thousand of the Israelites, besides the tribe of Judah, for that tribe
contained by itself thirty thousand
Accordingly, Saul made an irruption
into the country of the Amalekites, and set many men in several parties
in ambush at the river, that so he might not only do them a mischief by
open fighting, but might fall upon them unexpectedly in the ways, and might
thereby compass them round about, and kill them
And when he had joined
battle with the enemy, he beat them; and pursuing them as they fled, he
destroyed them all
And when that undertaking had succeeded, according
as God had foretold, he set upon the cities of the Amalekites; he besieged
them, and took them by force, partly by warlike machines, partly by mines
dug under ground, and partly by building walls on the outsides
Some they
starved out with famine, and some they gained by other methods; and after
all, he betook himself to slay the women and the children, and thought
he did not act therein either barbarously or inhumanly; first, because
they were enemies whom he thus treated, and, in the next place, because
it was done by the command of God, whom it was dangerous not to obey
He
also took Agag, the enemies' king, captive, - the beauty and tallness of
whose body he admired so much, that he thought him worthy of preservation.
Yet was not this done however according to the will of God, but by giving
way to human passions, and suffering himself to be moved with an unseasonable
commiseration, in a point where it was not safe for him to indulge it;
for God hated the nation of the Amalekites to such a degree, that he commanded
Saul to have no pity on even those infants which we by nature chiefly compassionate;
but Saul preserved their king and governor from the miseries which the
Hebrews brought on the people, as if he preferred the fine appearance of
the enemy to the memory of what God had sent him about
The multitude were
also guilty, together with Saul; for they spared the herds and the flocks,
and took them for a prey, when God had commanded they should not spare
them
They also carried off with them the rest of their wealth and riches;
but if there were any thing that was not worthy of regard, that they destroyed.FJAJ 6.44
3. But when Saul had conquered all these Amalekites that reached from
Pelusium of Egypt to the Red Sea, he laid waste all the rest of the enemy's
country: but for the nation of the Shechemites, he did not touch them,
although they dwelt in the very middle of the country of Midian; for before
the battle, Saul had sent to them, and charged them to depart thence, lest
they should be partakers of the miseries of the Amalekites; for he had
a just occasion for saving them, since they were of the kindred of Raguel,
Moses's father-in-law.FJAJ 6.45
4. Hereupon Saul returned home with joy, for the glorious things he
had done, and for the conquest of his enemies, as though he had not neglected
any thing which the prophet had enjoined him to do when he was going to
make war with the Amalekites, and as though he had exactly observed all
that he ought to have done
But God was grieved that the king of the Amalekites
was preserved alive, and that the multitude had seized on the cattle for
a prey, because these things were done without his permission; for he thought
it an intolerable thing that they should conquer and overcome their enemies
by that power which he gave them, and then that he himself should be so
grossly despised and disobeyed by them, that a mere man that was a king
would not bear it
He therefore told Samuel the prophet, that he repented
that he had made Saul king, while he did nothing that he had commanded
him, but indulged his own inclinations
When Samuel heard that, he was
in confusion, and began to beseech God all that night to be reconciled
to Saul, and not to be angry with him; but he did not grant that forgiveness
to Saul which the prophet asked for, as not deeming it a fit thing to grant
forgiveness of [such] sins at his entreaties, since injuries do not otherwise
grow so great as by the easy tempers of those that are injured; or while
they hunt after the glory of being thought gentle and good-natured, before
they are aware they produce other sins
As soon therefore as God had rejected
the intercession of the prophet, and it plainly appeared he would not change
his mind, at break of day Samuel came to Saul at Gilgal
When the king
saw him, he ran to him, and embraced him, and said, "I return thanks
to God, who hath given me the victory, for I have performed every thing
that he hath commanded me." To which Samuel replied, "How is
it then that I hear the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the greater
cattle in the camp?" Saul made answer, That the people had reserved
them for sacrifices; but that, as to the nation of the Amalekites, it was
entirely destroyed, as he had received it in command to see done, and that
no one man was left; but that he had saved alive the king alone, and brought
him to him, concerning whom, he said, they would advise together what should
be done with him." But the prophet said, "God is not delighted
with sacrifices, but with good and with righteous men, who are such as
follow his will and his laws, and never think that any thing is well done
by them but when they do it as God had commanded them; that he then looks
upon himself as affronted, not when any one does not sacrifice, but when
any one appears to be disobedient to him
But that from those who do not
obey him, nor pay him that duty which is the alone true and acceptable
worship, he will not kindly accept their oblations, be those they offer
ever so many and so fat, and be the presents they make him ever so ornamental,
nay, though they were made of gold and silver themselves, but he will reject
them, and esteem them instances of wickedness, and not of piety
And that
he is delighted with those that still bear in mind this one thing, and
this only, how to do that, whatsoever it be, which God pronounces or commands
for them to do, and to choose rather to die than to transgress any of those
commands; nor does he require so much as a sacrifice from them
And when
these do sacrifice, though it be a mean oblation, he better accepts of
it as the honor of poverty, than such oblations as come from the richest
men that offer them to him
Wherefore take notice, that thou art under
the wrath of God, for thou hast despised and neglected what he commanded
thee
How dost thou then suppose that he will respect a sacrifice out of
such things as he hath doomed to destruction? unless perhaps thou dost
imagine that it is almost all one to offer it in sacrifice to God as to
destroy it
Do thou therefore expect that thy kingdom will be taken from
thee, and that authority which thou hast abused by such insolent behavior,
as to neglect that God who bestowed it upon thee." Then did Saul confess
that he had acted unjustly, and did not deny that he had sinned, because
he had transgressed the injunctions of the prophet; but he said that it
was out of a dread and fear of the soldiers, that he did not prohibit and
restrain them when they seized on the prey.FJAJ 6.46
"But forgive me,"
said he, "and be merciful to me, for I will be cautious how I offend
for the time to come." He also entreated the prophet to go back with
him, that he might offer his thank-offerings to God; but Samuel went home,
because he saw that God would not be reconciled to him.FJAJ 6.47
5. But then Saul was so desirous to retain Samuel, that he took hold
of his cloak, and because the vehemence of Samuel's departure made the
motion to be violent, the cloak was rent
Upon which the prophet said,
that after the same manner should the kingdom be rent from him, and that
a good and a just man should take it; that God persevered in what he had
decreed about him; that to be mutable and changeable in what is determined,
is agreeable to human passions only, but is not agreeable to the Divine
Power
Hereupon Saul said that he had been wicked, but that what was done
could not be undone: he therefore desired him to honor him so far, that
the multitude might see that he would accompany him in worshipping God.
So Samuel granted him that favor, and went with him and worshipped God.
Agag also, the king of the Amalekites, was brought to him; and when the
king asked, How bitter death was? Samuel said, "As thou hast made
many of the Hebrew mothers to lament and bewail the loss of their children,
so shalt thou, by thy death, cause thy mother to lament thee also."
Accordingly, he gave order to slay him immediately at Gilgal, and then
went away to the city Ramah.FJAJ 6.48