13 And Saul said, There shall not a man be put to death this day: for to day the LORD hath wrought salvation in Israel.

14 Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the king

dom there.

15 And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

Verse 1. "Jabesh-gilead."-This place is sometimes called simply "Jabesh:" the addition, "Gilead,” defines its situation in Gilead on the east of the Jordan. It was in the lot of the half tribe of Manasseh, and Jerome says that it was, in his time, a village, on a mountain, six miles from Pella on the road to Gerasa. The place is chiefly noted in the sacred history for the circumstance here recorded, and for the gratitude which the inhabitants exhibited many years after for the timely assistance they received from Saul on this occasion.

2. "That I may thrust out all your right eyes."-The earliest instance of this barbarous infliction is afforded in the treatment of Samson at Gaza. It probably originated in the desire to disable or incapacitate an enemy or rival, without putting him to death. Persia is the country which, more than any other, has in all ages been distinguished for the frequency of this most horrid punishment; and where, in consequence, like other customary evils, it is regarded rathe: as one of the common calamities of life, to which high station, in particular, is incident, than as the subject of that intense horror and compassion with which it is regarded by ourselves. The punishment is entirely extra-judicial in that country. It is not recognised by the law, and is always inflicted by absolute power on the objects of its fear or anger. These are usually such persons as have aspired, or are supposed likely to aspire to the throne (see the note on Jud. ix. 5); or else the chiefs of tribes and other distinguished persons, whom it is considered desirable to deprive of power without putting them to death; and sometimes the adult male inhabitants of rebellious towns, in order to strike terror by a dreadful example. The last wholesale form of this barbarity affords the nearest analogy to the case in the text. Sir John Malcolm, in his History of Persia,' mentions an instance of this sort which took place in the year 1795. At that time the throne was contested by two persons, Lootf Ali Khan, who had reigned and maintained his right, and Aga Mahomed Khan, who claimed to reign, and by victories established his claim. The former was shut up by the latter in the city of Kerman; but he effected his escape, and then Aga Mahomed "Wreaked his vengeance upon the unfortunate inhabitants of the city of Kerman: nearly 20,000 women and children were granted as slaves to his soldiers; and all the males who had reached maturity were commanded to be put to death or to be deprived of their eye-sight. Those who escaped his cruelty owed their safety neither to mercy nor to flight, but to the fatigue of their executioners, who only ceased to be the instruments of glutting the revengeful spirit of their enraged monarch, when they were themselves exhausted with the work of blood. The numbers that were slain on this memorable occasion were great, and exceeded even those who were deprived of sight, though the latter are said to have amounted to seven thousand. Many of these miserable wretches are still alive. Some, who subsist on charity, wander over Persia, and recount, to all who will listen to the tale, the horrors of that day of calamity." We have the rather copied this, as it affords a modern exhibition of such horrors as those which but too often distinguished the warfare of ancient times. Sir John adds, in a note: "It has been stated, that Aga Mahomed directed that a number of pounds weight of eyes should be brought to him: nor is the tale incredible."

Nahash was comparatively merciful in requiring only one eye from the men of Jabesh. In Persia, the object being to create blindness, one eye alone is almost never taken. The only instance we know is that mentioned by Sir R. K. Porter, who states that the late king's brother (Hossein Ali Khan), having seized a troop of thirty robbers, ordered them all to be punished by the loss of their left eyes and right hands. Josephus says that the intention of Nahash in proposing to put out the right eyes of the men of Jabesh, was to disable them from acting as warriors. According to him, this disability resulted from the fact that a person who exposed his shield to the enemy, necessarily held it so as to conceal his left eye, leaving only the right for vision; and, consequently, that to lose the right eye was, for warlike purposes, as bad as being quite blind. We should also suppose that such a loss must deprive archers and slingers of the power of taking an accurate aim. Nahash, however, does himself assigu a very distinct reason for his proceeding.

7. "And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces."-This is analogous to the incident recorded in Judges xix. where the Levite sends about the remains of his dismembered concubine for the same purpose. He needed no other sacrifice, she having herself been the victim to the sin of the "sons of Belial" in Gibeah, the very place from whence Saul sends his present message. The principle of the custom is not difficult to understand. It was a conventional sum mon to war, to which usage had attached such peculiar solemnity as would alone perhaps have sufficed to give it effect even without the denunciation of vengeance against those who failed to obey the call. Nevertheless," So shall it be done to his cattle" must have been felt as a peculiarly awful threat, to a people who were almost entirely devoted to agricultural and pastoral pursuits. The analogy enables us to perceive that the Levite's transmission of his concubine remains, amounted to the denunciation, "So let it be done to his wife and daughters who fails to become an avenger. Probably the Levite's conduct was a new, but striking, application of the recognised principle: here we have, appa rently, the more regular practice.

We think we can discover a trace of the same class of ideas in a passage of the Iliad. The contending power agree by solemn oaths, confirmed by sacrifices, to abide the result of a combat between Menelaus and Paris. Afte the gods had been solemnly invoked by Agamemnon, the victims were slain, and as they bled, wine was poured ou upon the ground with the prayer:

"All glorious Jove, and ye the pow'rs of Heav'n,
Whoso shall violate this contract first,

So be their blood, their children's and their own,
Pour'd out, as this libation on the ground."

We are then told that Priam put the victims into his chariot and took them with him to Troy. The reason for hi doing this is thus stated in the scholium (by Villoison), quoted in a note to Cowper's translation:-"Priam carrie home the lambs, that he may send them round the city for the information of those not present at the ceremony; fo it was customary for the natives of a place to make that use of victims sworn in confirmation of a sworn treaty." The is, the lambs were sent round to make those to whom they were exhibited parties in the covenant, and to involve ther in the denunciation-that their blood should be likewise poured out if they did not observe its conditions.

A still more striking illustration may be derived from a passage in the third canto of Sir Walter Scott's 'Lady of the Lake,' and the note thereon. In the latter he says, that "When a (Highland) chieftain designed to summon his clan, upon any sudden or important emergency, he slew a goat, and making a cross of any light wood, seared its extremities in the fire, and extinguished them in the blood of the animal. This was called the Fiery Cross, also Crean Tarigh, of the Cross of Shame, because disobedience to what the symbol implied, inferred infamy. It was delivered to a swift and trusty messenger, who ran full speed with it to the next hamlet, where he presented it to the principal person, with a single word, implying the place of rendezvous. He who received the symbol was bound to send it forward, with equal dispatch, to the next village; and thus it passed with incredible celerity through all the district which owed allegiance to the chief, and also among the allies and neighbours, if the danger was common to them. At sight of the Fiery Cross, every man, from sixteen years old to sixty, capable of bearing arms, was obliged instantly to repair to the place of rendezvous. He who failed to appear suffered the extremities of fire and sword, which were emblematically denounced to the disobedient by the bloody and burnt marks upon this warlike signal." Sir Walter further states that the Fiery Cross was exhibited with effect so late as the civil war of 1745-6; and then quotes a passage from Olaus Magnus, showing that a practice almost precisely analogous existed among the ancient Scandinavians. The command and denunciation with the latter were to the effect that, on an appointed day, a certain number of men, or else every man from fifteen years old and upward, should come with his arms, and expenses for ten or twenty days, under pain that his or their houses should be burnt, as intimated by the burnt symbol.

The effect of the message was no doubt much the same in Palestine as in Scandinavia or in the Highlands, and is thus stated by Sir Walter in the poem itself:

"Fast as the fated symbol flies,

In arms the huts and hamlets rise;
From winding glen, from upland brown,
They pour'd each hardy tenant down.
Nor slack'd the messenger his pace;

He show'd the sign, he named the place.
And pressing forward, like the wind,
Left clamour and surprise behind.

The fisherman forsook the strand,

The swarthy smith took dirk and brand;
With changed cheer, the mower blithe
Left in the half-cut swath the scythe;
The herds without a keeper stray'd,
The plough was in mid-furrow stay'd,
The falc'ner toss'd his hawk away,
The hunter left the stag at bay;
Prompt at the signal of alarms,
Each son of Alpine rush'd to arms."

8. "Bezek.”—Jerome says that there were two villages near each other, seven miles from Neapolis (Shechem) on the road to Scythopolis (Bethshan). This doubtless answers to the site of the present transaction, being in the great muster-field and battle-field of Esdraelon, and nearly opposite to Jabesh-Gilead on the other side of the river. A place called Bezek is noted in Judges i. for the defeat, by the tribes of Judah and Simeon, of the powerful king whose capital it was, and who took his name (Adoni-Bezek, or Lord of Bezek) from it. Whether this was the same as the present Bezek, it is not easy to say. The tribes asked of the Lord (at Shiloh doubtless) who should go up against the Canaanites. The answer was "Judah." Accordingly, Judah, calling for the aid of Simeon, went and defeated the king of Bezek. As all the tribes were ready for this service, and Judah was merely honoured with the preference, and as the answer was given at Shiloh, it is not improbable that the Bezek of that narrative is the same as this, and it seems by no means necessary that, as some think, it should be in the tribe of Judah. Sandys, however, mentions a Bezek in that tribe. "We departed (from Bethlehem), bending our course to the mountaines of Iudea, lying west from Bethlehem: neere to which, on the side of the opposite hill, we passt by a little village, called (as I take it) Bezec; inhabited only by Christians, mortall (as they say) to the Mohametans that attempted to dwell therein." If the first chapter of Judges requires a Bezek in Judah, this might well be taken for its position; but as no one mentions it but Sandys, and he speaks so doubtfully, we fear there is no sufficient authority for giving it in the map the place which he indicates.

CHAPTER XII.

1 Samuel testifieth his integrity. 6 He reproveth the people of ingratitude. 16 He terrifieth them with thunder in harvest time. 20 He comforteth them in God's mercy.

AND Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over

you.

2 And now, behold, the king walketh before you and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood childhood unto this day.

3 Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded?

whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any "bribe to blind mine you. eyes therewith? and I will restore it

4 And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man's hand.

5 And he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.

6 ¶ And Samuel said unto the people, It is the LORD that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.

7 Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD of all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did "to you and to your fathers.

1 Ecclus. 46. 19, 2 Heb. ransom. 3 Or, that I should hide mine eyes at him. • Or, made. • Heb, righteousnesses, or benefits,

Heb, with

done in the sight of the LORD, in asking | ye go after vain things, which cannot profit you a king. nor deliver; for they are vain.

18 So Samuel called unto the LORD; and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the LORD

and Samuel.

19 And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the LORD thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. 20 And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart; 21 And turn ye not aside: for then should

13 Heb. from ceasing.

22 For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great_name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.

23 Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:

24 Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider "how great things he hath done for you.

25 But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.

14 Or, what a great thing, &c.

Verse 11. "Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel."-No judge named Bedan occurs in the history. There are various explanations; of which that perhaps is the best which follows the Septuagint, Syriac and Arabic versions in reading “Barak” instead of "Bedan." The Syriac and Arabic also have "Samson" instead of "Samuel :" and it indeed seems as unlikely that the prophet should omit Samson, as that he should place his own name in a list of military deliverers. These alterations, sanctioned by the best ancient versions, are in accordance with the list given by the Apostle in Heb. xi. 32.

17. "He shall send thunder and rain.”—It is evident that rain and thunder must have been of extraordinary occurrence at this season, or else its exhibition might not have been so distinctly recognised as the Lord's answer to the call of Samuel. The wheat harvest is usually over towards the end of May or early in June, and its commencement depends upon the cessation of the latter rains, after which the corn soon arrives at maturity. Consequently, that it was the time of wheat harvest, is, in itself, an evidence that the season for rain had passed. Rain sometimes falls so late as the early part of May; but in the remainder of that month, and throughout the months of June, July, and the early part of August, rain scarcely ever falls, and continues to be rare even till the middle or end of September, when the rainy season commences.

CHAPTER XIII.

1 Saul's selected band. 3 He calleth the Hebrews

to Gilgal against the Philistines, whose garrison Jonathan had smitten. 5 The Philistines great host. 6 The distress of the Israelites. 8 Saul, weary of staying for Samuel, sacrificeth. 11 Samuel reproveth him. 17 The three spoiling bands of the Philistines. 19 The policy of the Philistines, to suffer no smith in Israel.

SAUL 'reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,

2 Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel; whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in mount Beth-el, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin: and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent.

3 And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear.

with the Philistines. And the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal.

selves together to fight with Israel, thirty 5 And the Philistines gathered themthousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Beth-aven.

6 When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits.

7 And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.

8¶'And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.

4 And all Israel heard say that Saul had 9 And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt smitten a garrison of the Philistines, and offering to me, and peace offerings. And that Israel also 'was had in abomination | he offered the burnt offering.

Heb, the son of one year in his reigning. Or, the hill.

3 Heb. did stink. 4 Heb. trembled after him.

5 Chap. 10. 8.

10 And it came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might "salute him.

11 And Samuel said, What hast thou done? "And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash;

12 Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not 'made supplication unto the LORD: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.

13 And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. 14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.

15 And Samuel arose, and gat him up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him, about six hundred men.

16 And Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people that were present with them abode in Gibeah of Benjamin: but the Phi listines encamped in Michmash.

17 And the spoilers came out of th camp of the Philistines in three companies one company turned unto the way tha leadeth to Ophrah, unto the land of Shual:

18 And another company turned the wa to Beth-horon: and another company turne to the way of the border that looketh to th valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

19 Now there was no smith foun throughout all the land of Israel: for th Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews mak them swords or spears:

20 But all the Israelites went down to th Philistines, to sharpen every man his shar and his coulter, and his ax, and his ma tock.

21 Yet they had 'a file for the mattock and for the coulters, and for the forks, ar for the axes, and to sharpen the goads.

22 So it came to pass in the day of battl that there was neither sword nor spear four in the hand of any of the people that we with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul ar with Jonathan his son was there found. 23 And the "garrison of the Philistin went out to the passage of Michmash.

9 Heb. a file with mouths.

10 Heb. to set. 11 Or, standing camp.

6 Heb. bless him. 7 Heb. intreated the face. 8 Heb. found. Verse 1." Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years."-There is nothing about "reigning" in the fi clause of the original. It is, literally, "Saul was the son of a year," which being the Hebrew idiom for expressing t age of a person, it seems that the first clause expressed his age, and the second states how long he had reigned; that the word expressing the number of years he had lived, has in some way or other been lost. Origen, in his Hexap inserts "thirty," and is followed by Houbigant and Boothroyd. Vignoles, however, in his Chronology,' thinks that S was forty years of age at the time of his election; and Dr. Hales observes, that he could not well have been mu younger, since, in the second year of his reign, his eldest son, Jonathan, held a separate military command, and sm the Philistine garrison in Geba, as recorded in this chapter.

3. "Geba."-This is thought to be the same as the "hill of God" (Geba, Gibeah, Gibeon, &c. all mean a hill), wh the Philistines are described as having a garrison in chap. x. 5, which is also here said of Geba. The passage in Isai referred to in the note below, on verse 5, renders it clear that Geba and Michmash were at the opposite ends or si of the defile of Michmash. The possession of these strong posts appears to have given the command of this importa defile; which supplies the reason why they were now garrisoned by the Philistines, and why, at a long subseque period, Sennacherib was careful to take possession of them on his approach to Jerusalem. Some think that Geba w the same as Gibeah. They were doubtless in the same neighbourhood; and the name of Geba (y) is the same form and meaning as that of Gibeah, wanting the unessential termination or . There is also an interest in su posing that the first exploit against the Philistines was the expulsion of their garrison from Saul's native town; t still, Geba and Gibeah seem rather to be mentioned as distinct places, both in this chapter and in Josh. xviii. 24-28 5. "Thirty thousand chariots."-If we allow two horses and two men to each chariot, there must have been six thousand of each, for the chariots alone. The horsemen also are only six thousand, whereas, usually, the prop tion of cavalry in the ancient armies was far greater than the chariots. Such a number of chariots, or any thi approaching to such a number, never appear even in those vast armies which ancient history describes as having be occasionally raised by the great monarchs of the East. The proportion of chariots in an army was in fact exceeding small. Pharaoh pursued the Israelites to the Red Sea with only six hundred chariots. Jabin, the powerful king Canaan, possessed nine hundred (Judges iv. 3). David took one thousand from Hadadezer (2 Sam. viii. 3). Zer the Ethiopian, had but three hundred in his army of a million of men (2 Chron. xiv. 9); there does not appear to ha been more than two hundred in the immense army which Darius raised for the contest with Alexander (Q. Curti iv. 8); Antiochus Eupator had but three hundred in his large army (2 Mac. xiii. 2); and the great army which Mi ridates brought against the Romans contained but one hundred. It may therefore be safely doubted whether Philistines, with all the assistance which their neighbours might afford, could bring into the field a number of chari such as perhaps all Asia could not supply. That the text conveys an erroneous impression is generally admitted; there are different opinions as to the correct understanding. Some think, with Bishop Patrick, that the number right, but that it does not refer exclusively to war-chariots, but includes carriages of all kinds, for conveying the ba gage of the infantry, for taking back the plunder from the Israelites, and other uses. Others apprehend that "thi