ELI--DEFEAT OF ISRAEL--ADMINISTRATION OF SAMUEL

ELI--DEFEAT OF ISRAEL--ADMINISTRATION OF SAMUEL
Samson was the last of the military heroes stirred up to deliver Israel from its oppressors. The two that followed, Eli and Samuel, were men of peace--the one a priest, and the other a Levite.
THE HIGH PRIEST GOVERNS ISRAEL
In the absence of a person specially called and appointed to deliver and judge the people, the civil government, by the principles of the theocracy, devolved on the high-priest, as the vizier of the great king, having access to his presence, and being the interpreter of his will. It is not easy to see that Samson exercised the civil government over any of the tribes. And although, therefore, in order to carry on the succession of times, it is convenient to say that at his death the government devolved on the high-priest, yet, in fact, there is little reason to question that the high-priest exercised as much authority before as after. But, in such times as these, that authority was but small, and chiefly, as it would appear, judicial, particularly in adjusting disputes between persons of different tribes. The heads of the several tribes seem to have considered themselves fully competent to manage their internal affairs; and their divided allegiance to Jehovah involved the political evil, that the authority of the general government was proportionably weakened, and the cohesion of the tribes in the same degree relaxed. Subject to this preliminary observation, the high-priest may, for historical convenience, be considered the successor of Samson. It is remarkable that functionaries so important, in the theory of the Hebrew constitution, as the high-priests, are scarcely noticed in the history of the Judges. From Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, to Eli, a high-priest is not mentioned on any occasion, nor would even their names be known but for the list in Chronicles (1 Chronicles 6:4-16), where the order is thus given: Abishua, Bukki, Uzzi, Zerahiah, Meraioth.
ELI IS PRIEST DUE TO CHANGE IN LINEAGE
In the person of Eli, a change in the line of succession to this high office took place, as he was the first of the race of Ithamar, the second son of Aaron. But as the line of his elder son Eleazar was not extinct, and as the cause of the change is not assigned, some difficulty has been experienced in accounting for it. The Jews, as we have seen, suppose that it was because the existing pontiff had not taken measures sufficiently active to prevent Jephthah from sacrificing his daughter. But if in the absence of all positive information, a conjecture might be hazarded, we would suggest the probability that the last pontiff of Eleazar's line died leaving no son old enough to take the office, and that it then (as afterward in the succession to the kingdom) devolved on his adult uncle or cousin of the line of Ithamar. Such a course resorted to in temporal successions, to avoid the evils of a minority and regency, must have been much more necessary in the case of the high-priesthood. That the change took place in some such natural and quiet way, seems to afford the most satisfactory explanation of the silence of the record of a matter of such importance.
ELI LACKS STERNNESS
Eli was a good and pious man, estimable in private life for his many virtues and the mildness of his character; but he was greatly wanting in those sterner virtues which became his public station, and which were indeed necessary for the repression of wickedness, and the punishment of the wrong doer. As he grew old, he devolved much of his public duty upon his sons Hophni and Phinehas, two evil-disposed men, who possessed the energy their father lacked, without any of his virtues. Even in their sacred ministrations at the tabernacle, their conduct was so shamefully signalized by rapacity and licentiousness, that the people, through their misconduct, were led to abhor the offering of Jehovah. All this became known to Eli; but, instead of taking the immediate and decisive measures which became his station, he contented himself with a mild and ineffective remonstrance. This weakness of Eli was justly counted a sin in that venerable person; and a prophet was commissioned to warn him of the evil consequences, which were no less than the exclusion of his race from the pontificate to which he had been advanced. But even this could not rouse the old man to the exertion which became his station; but he seems rather to have acquiesced in this judgment as a thing not to be averted.
SAMUEL RAISED AT TABERNACLE
The next reproof which this remiss judge received was through an unexpected channel.
At the tabernacle, in personal attendance upon the high-priest, was a, boy, a Levite, who having been the child signally granted in answer to the many prayers of Hannah, his previously barren mother, was by her consecrated from the womb, as a Nazarite, to Jehovah. In consequence of this, combined with his Levitical character, he had been left at the tabernacle as early as he could be separated from his mother's care, to render such services there as his tender years allowed. His name was Samuel: and as his pious mother came to Shiloh yearly with her husband to celebrate the passover (bringing with her a dress for her son), she had the delight of perceiving that he, growing up under the shadow of the altar, conducted himself with such propriety and discretion, that he stood very high in the favor of God and man. That he was thus, from his very infancy, constantly before the eyes of the people when they attended at the tabernacle, doubtless went far to prepare the way for that influence and station which he ultimately attained.
SAMUEL WARNED OF ELI'S FAMILY
It was the thirty-first year of Eli's administration, when Samuel, then twelve years of age, lay on his bed at night, that he heard a voice calling him by his name. He supposed that it was Eli who had called; he hastened to him, but found that it was not so. This was repeated three times; and at the third time, Eli, concluding that it was the Lord who had called the lad, instructed him to answer, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” Samuel obeyed; and the Voice then delivered to him, as an irrevocable doom, the former denunciations against Eli's house, “because his sons had made themselves vile, and he restrained them not;” declaring that he would “do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.” In the morning, the lad, being pressed by Eli, delivered to him the message he had received. But even this only gave occasion for the further manifestation of the passive virtues of his character. “It is Jehovah,” he said; “let him do what seemeth to him good.”
SAMUEL MADE PROPHET
After this, matters went on for some time much as they had done. Eli's sons pursued their old courses, making themselves still more vile; and their father, though now well aware of the doom which hung over himself and them, took no measures in the hope to avert it. But as Samuel grew, the word of the Lord again came to him from time to time, and all Israel knew that he was established to be a prophet of Jehovah.
ARK TAKEN TO THE BATTLEFIELD
Thus passed ten years, at the end of which the threatened judgments began to be inflicted upon the house of Eli. At that time the Israelites rashly, and without consulting their Divine king, embarked in a war with the Philistines. In the forty years since the death of Samson, this people had recruited their strength, and recovered the courage of which they appear to have been for a season deprived by the astounding calamity which swept away so many of their chiefs and nobles. In the first engagement the Israelites were defeated, with the loss of four thousand men' On this they sent to Shiloh for the ark of the covenant, not doubting of victory under its protection. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, attended into the camp. On its arrival there, “all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth ran again.” On hearing this, and being apprized of its cause, the Philistines were filled with consternation; and the manner to which their alarm was expressed affords a very clear intimation of the effect which had been produced on their minds, by the wonders which Jehovah had wrought for the deliverance and protection of Israel. “Woe unto us!” they cried; “who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues of the wilderness.” The procedure itself did not strike them as strange, for it was not unusual among ancient nations to take their gods to their wars; and the ark, with its cherubim, the Philistines supposed to be the god of the Hebrews. They did not question the existence of that God, or his special care for his people; neither did they deny his power, of which, indeed, they were afraid. They allowed Jehovah to be the god of the Hebrews, in the same sense in which they regarded Dagon to be their own god. It was his universal and exclusive power that they denied, or rather did not recognize.
PHILISTINES CAPTURE THE ARK
Notwithstanding their alarm, the Philistines did not give way to despair; but like a brave people, which they were always, the imminence of the danger only stimulated them to the more strenuous exertions for victory. They cried to one another: “Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye become not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you! Quit yourselves like men, and fight!”
They fought: and the victory was given to them, to punish the Hebrews for their misdoings, and for having engaged in this war without consulting their King, as well as to teach them that undue confidence in the ark itself was a superstition, if not an idolatry, apart from a due reliance on God himself, whose footstool only the ark was. Thirty thousand men of Israel fell in the battle and pursuit; the guilty sons of Eli were among the slain, and the ark itself was taken.
ELI DIES
Eli, blind and old, remained at Shiloh, anxiously expecting news from the camp; “for his heart trembled for the ark of God;” and that he might be in the way of receiving the earnest rumors from the war, he sat watching by the wayside. One day he heard an outcry in the town, which had been occasioned by the news brought by one of the fugitives from the battle. This man, with his clothes rent and dust upon his head, soon came before the high-priest and gave to him the tidings, that Israel fled before the Philistines--that there had been a great slaughter-that his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain--and that the ark of God was taken! No sooner had the last words passed the lips of the messenger, than the high-priest fell backward from off his seat; and being old and heavy, his neck was broken in the fall. Soon after the news of all these calamities was carried to the wife of Phinehas; on hearing which she was taken with the pains of labor, and died, after she had looked upon the son to whom she gave birth, and given him the sad name of Ichabod (Inglorious); for she said, “The glory is departed from Israel; for the ark of Jehovah, the God of Israel, is taken.” These incidents serve to evince the depth of that astonishment and grief with which the loss of the ark was regarded.
ARK TROUBLES PHILISTINES
The Philistines soon found that they had small cause to rejoice in the glorious trophy they had won; and most convincingly was it made known to them that the Israelites had been defeated for the punishment of their sins, which rendered them unworthy of their God's protection, and not through his want of power to save. The Philistines certainly considered that they had taken captive the god of the Hebrews, and could, on the principles of pagan idolatry, hardly fail to attribute it to the superior power of Dagon, their own god. Yet they still must have had a very salutary dread of the God of Israel; and while they could not but regard the ark as the proudest of their trophies, it was probably more with the view of propitiating him, by associating him with their own god, than by way of insult, that they deposited the conquered ark in the temple of their Dagon at Azotus. But God disdained this dishonoring alliance; and twice the Philistines found their idol overthrown, and the second time broken to pieces, before the ark of God. And further to demonstrate his power in such a way as might include a. punishment for their idolatry and for the abominations connected with it, the Lord smote the people of the place with
Ethiopian Car drawn by Oxen Indian Car drawn by Oxen hemorrhoids, or the piles, with a mortal destruction. The land also swarmed with jerboas, whereby the products of the fields were consumed. Attributing these calamities to the presence of the ark, they sent it to Gath, where it remained until the pressure of the same inflictions compelled them to send it from them. It was taken to Ekron, another of the five metropolitan cities of Philistia. The Ekronites received it with terror, crying, “They have brought round to us the ark of the God of Israel to slay us and our people.” They therefore, in an assembly of “the lords of the Philistines,” proposed that the ark should be sent back to its own place in the land of Israel. This was determined; nor was the determination too soon, for already the hand of God was so heavy upon Ekron, that “the cry of the city, went up to the heavens.” And that it might be sent away with all honor, the diviners, who were consulted as to the best means of giving effect to the intention which had been formed, counseled that five golden hemorrhoids, and five golden mice, one from each of the Philistine states, should be deposited in a coffer beside the ark, as a trespass-offering: for even thus early the custom had come into use of making votive offerings representing the instruments of affliction, or of the parts afflicted, to the god to whom the infliction or the cure was attributed. That they might give the glory to the God of Israel, and not harden their hearts as did the Egyptians, and thereby bring upon themselves the punishments of that people, were the reasons by which this course of conduct was enforced. And they are remarkable as showing the effect, even at this remote date, upon the neighboring nations, of the wonders of judgment and deliverance which had been wrought in the land of Egypt.
ARK SENT ON CART
To testify all possible respect, the ark was placed in a new car, to which were yoked two kine, whose necks had never before been subjected to the yoke. Their calves were tied up at home; and, by the advice of the priests, it was concluded to leave the cows free to take their own course: if the animals went away from their calves to the land of Israel, it was to be inferred that a right judgment had been formed of the cause from which their calamities proceeded; but if not, they might conclude that it had been the result of natural causes. From such incidents the heathen were even thus early accustomed to conjecture the will of their gods. In this case, no sooner were the kine set free than they turned their backs upon their young, and took the road toward the town of Bethshemesh in Judah, being the nearest city of the Levites toward the Philistine frontier. It was the time of the wheat-harvest, when the people of the town were abroad in the valley reaping the fruits of their fields. They beheld the ark advancing with great gladness; and when the kine stopped of their own accord, near a great stone, in a field belonging to one Joshua, the Levites who were present detached them from the car, and offered them up in sacrifice upon that stone before the ark. And the stone being thus consecrated by sacrifice, the ark was removed from the car and deposited thereon. The five lords of the Philistines, who
Monumental Pillars in Syria had followed the car to the borders of Bethshemesh (which was twelve miles distant from Ekron), and who had stood witnessing these proceedings, now returned home, well convinced that it was the hand of the God of Israel by which they had been smitten. The ark had been in their hands seven months.
ELEAZAR GIVEN THE HOLY ARK
The adventures of the ark, and its constant exposure to their sight, begat in the Bethshemites a familiarity toward it, inconsistent with the respect due to Jehovah, and which it was highly necessary to repress. When therefore their familiarity went so far that they ventured to raise the cover of the ark, to gratify their curiosity with a view of its contents, sixty of their number--principal persons of the place--were smitten with death. On this the people cried, with great consternation, “Who is able to stand before this holy God, Jehovah? and to whom shall he go from us?” They decided to invite the people of Kirjath-jearim to take the ark away. They did so, and deposited it in the house of Abinadab “upon the hill.” This person set apart his son Eleazar to take the charge of it--to preserve it from pollution, and to keep all things clean and orderly about it. Thus it remained about eighty-two years. Why it was not returned to Shiloh does not very clearly appear. Probably no command on the subject was given; and from the experience which the Israelites now had of the jealousy with which its sanctity was guarded, they were afraid to remove it with out express orders. Besides, at this time the people were again far gone into idolatrous practices, which made them comparatively indifferent about the ark; and it is not unlikely that the reaction of the sentiment of astonishment and grief with which its loss had been regarded, did much to impair that veneration of which it had been the object. Add to this that they had been without the ark for seven months, in the course of which they had accustomed their minds to the want of it, and had learned to regard it as less essential to them than it had before seemed. The tabernacle still remained at Shiloh, which continued to be the seat of the appointed ministrations, until it was removed, in the reign of Saul, to Nob, probably to consequence of the destruction of Shiloh in the Philistine war (1 Samuel 14:3; Jeremiah 7:12-14).
For their idolatries and alienation, the Hebrews were punished by twenty years continuance (including the seven months of the ark's absence) of their subjection to the Philistines.
SAMUEL GIVEN CIVIL GOVERNMENT
It is usually stated that Samuel succeeded Eli. He was then little more than twenty years of age; and although, as his years advanced, he doubtless acquired much authority among the people from the influence of his character and position, there is no evidence that it was any other than that which prophets usually exercised. It rather appears from the text that it was after the twenty years of further servitude to the Philistines, that Samuel was publicly called to assume the civil government.
SAMUEL CALLS FOR DEDICATION TO GOD
At the end of these twenty years the people “lamented after the Lord,” or repented of the sins by which they had alienated themselves from him, and were disposed to return to their allegiance. Samuel then came forward in his prophetic character, and promised them deliverance from the Philistines, if they would put away the strange gods--the Baals and Ashtaroths (representing the sun and moon), and devote them selves to the exclusive service of Jehovah. His directions were followed; and he then convened an assembly of all Israel at Mizpeh, here they held a solemn fast and humiliation for their sins, and poured out water before Jehovah, as expressive of their despondency or grief. And to testify their good intentions for the future, the prophet himself was there invested by them with the authority of a “judge.”
THE PHILISTINES ATTACK ISRAEL
The Philistines took umbrage at this great assembly in Mizpeh, which, they rightly judged, boded no good to the continuance of their dominion. They assembled their forces and marched to that place to disperse the congregation. The people, not being prepared for war, were filled with alarm on the approach of their enemies, and besought Samuel to cry to Jehovah for them, that he might save them from the hand of the Philistines. Samuel did so with great earnestness; and he was in the act of offering up a lamb as a burnt-offering, when the Philistines drew near to battle. The prayers of the prophet were then answered by a terrible storm of thunder and lightning, by which the enemy were alarmed and confounded, while the Israelites, recognizing the sign, were inspire inspired with sudden and indomitable courage. They fell impetuously upon the force they had so lately dreaded, and slew vast numbers of them, chasing the remainder as far as Betchcar. In memory of this great victory, Samuel set up a memorial-stone, and gave it the name of Ebenezer (the help-stone), saying, “Hitherto Jehovah hath helped us.”
PEACE IN REGION UNDER SAMUEL
This very brilliant victory broke the spirit of the Philistines for many years. They were obliged to restore all their conquests from the Israelites; and, for many years to come, they kept carefully within their, own territories, and abstained from any hostile acts against the Hebrews. Their example was followed by the other neighbors of Israel, which hence enjoyed the felicity of a profound peace during the entire period of Samuel's sole administration.
SAMUEL AS JUDGE
This excellent judge administered justice regularly to the tribes in his annual circuit, which he took to the places of sacred stones at Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and constantly at his own place of abode at Ramah, where he built an altar to Jehovah. This was probably by the divine permission or direction, at least for the present, as God had not yet given any declaration where the ark was to be fixed.
SAMUEL'S SONS
The sole administration of Samuel lasted twelve years; dating it, as we do, from the end of the Philistine servitude, and not from the death of Eli. Near the close of this period, when the prophet was “growing old and gray-headed,” being sixty-four years of age, he appointed his sons, Joel and Abiah, to act for him at Bethel and Beersheba. But they walked not in the steps of their father. “They turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.”
ISRAEL WANTS A KING
This misconduct of his sons, with his own advancing age, and the seemingly unsettled state in which the government would be left at his death, were among the causes which at this time induced the elders of Israel to resort to Samuel at Ramah, and to demand of him that a king should be appointed to reign over them, as in other nations.
ISRAEL WANTS REGULAR JUSTICE
The causes which we have just stated, together with the regular administration of justice to which Samuel had accustomed them, occasioned the demand, it would seem, at this particular time; but there were deeper causes which would unquestionably have brought them to this point ere long, if it had not now. These causes have been well discriminated by Jahn.
ISRAEL WANTS UNITY
This able writer justly refers the frequent interruptions to the welfare of the Hebrew state under-the judges to--“1. The effeminacy and cowardice of the people; and, 2, to the disunion and jealousy of the tribes, who never assisted each other with the requisite zeal and alacrity. But as this effeminacy arose from the vices of idolatry, and their cowardice from a want of confidence in Jehovah; so the disunion and jealousy of the tribes, though selfishness was the immediate cause, arose from a disposition to neglect their divine king, and not to consider themselves as the united and only people of Jehovah. This disposition; if it did not originate from, was at least very much heightened by the multiplication of deities. Thus both these causes of their misfortunes owed their origin to idolatry, that great cause of all their calamities, so often mentioned in the sanctions of the law. Thus the people, by increasing their gods, enervated themselves, and prepared for themselves those sufferings and chastisements by which they were again to be brought back to their King, Jehovah.”
ISRAEL WANTS PROTECTION FROM THREATS
He proceeds to observe that “These causes of national misfortune were all in operation at the time of Samuel, and threatened to produce after his death still greater calamities. The tribes beyond the Jordan had formidable enemies in the Ammonites and the southern tribes in the Philistines, while the northern tribes stood aloof from the dangers of their more exposed countrymen. The latter seems to have been the principal reason why the rulers in general assembly requested a king. The tribes in southern Palestine and beyond the Jordan were the most earnest for this change in the government; they feared that the death of Samuel would leave them without a supreme magistrate, and that the nation being again disunited, they should be left to their fate. The degeneracy of Samuel's sons, who had been appointed subordinate judges, or deputies, increased their apprehensions. They, therefore, strenuously insisted on their demand. “Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations.” They had reason to hope that a king invested with supreme authority might be able to unite the power of the whole nation and protect each tribe with the collected strength of all; that under him the affairs of government would be more promptly administered and necessary aid more readily afforded; that if he were a man devoted to Jehovah, he could more effectually repress or prevent idolatry, and thus place the welfare of the state on a more solid foundation. They might imagine themselves justified in this request as Moses had taken it for granted that the nation would eventually have a king, and the same thing had been promised to their great progenitor Abraham. It conduces greatly to the honor of the Hebrews that they attempted this change in their constitution, not by their own power, but in accordance with the principles of the theocracy; they requested it of their king, Jehovah, by the intervention of a prophet, and they effected it without bloodshed--a manifest proof that the time of the fudges was neither what is usually understood by a 'barbarous' nor an 'heroic age.'”
SAMUEL WARNS OF DANGERS
But as all the objects which they desired to realize were attainable under the theocracy, were they but faithful to its principles and engagements; and as the unseen king, Jehovah, would necessarily be obscured by a subordinate, visible monarch, he, by means of Samuel, gave the rulers to understand his disapprobation of their request; and at the same time represented to them the burdens they would have to bear under a king, especially how easily he might be led to imitate other oriental monarchs, and to disregard the law of Jehovah.
The picture which was then drawn by Samuel exhibits in a lively manner the character of the monarchies which at that time existed in the east, and enables us to ascertain that, whatever changes may have taken place in particular states, the monarchical principle as it then existed has been preserved to this day in its full vigor in the east. This is so true, that there is no royal usage mentioned by Samuel which may not be illustrated and explained from the modern sovereignties of that part of the world. The statement must have seemed the more effective from the implied contrast to the mild and gentle character of that service which the Lord, as king of Israel, had required. Samuel reminded them that their kings would soon fall into the state of other monarchs, to support which the heaviest exactions upon their persons and estates would become necessary. He would take their young men and employ them as charioteers and horsemen, and even (according to the Egyptian custom) as runners before and about his chariot. A standing army would deprive them of the valuable services of their young men; and if this were not enough, the king of a future day would “take them to till his ground and to make his instruments of war and the furniture of his chariots.” In like manner the daughters of Israel, who should marry and bring up children; would be largely taken to minister to the luxury of the court as “confectioners and bakers.” Nor would he much scruple to take the chosen and best of their male and female slaves, as well as their laboring cattle, and “put them to his own work.” And then to support his expenses, the heaviest exactions would be necessary, and although the kingly tenth were already appropriated to Jehovah, the divine king, not the less would their human king exact his kingly dues; thus, in fact, rendering their burdens greater than those of any other nation. A clear intimation was also given them of the danger to which their landed possessions would be ultimately exposed under the form of government which they so much desired. For the expression, “He will take the best of your fields, and of our vineyards, and of your olive-yards, and give them to his servants,” manifestly refers to the fact that, inasmuch as their true king, Jehovah, was the sovereign proprietor of the soil, and as such had long before distributed the whole in inalienable estates among the people, whatever human king they might have, would necessarily stand in the, then and there, peculiar position, being only a civil governor, and not, like the neighboring king, also the territorial sovereign; and that hence, wanting the means of providing for his family and servants which other kings possessed, he would be tempted to avail himself of all kinds of pretences to dispossess them of the lands which they held from their divine king. “His servants ye will become,” concludes the prophet. “And ye shall cry out in that day because of the king that ye have chosen: but Jehovah will not hear you in that day.”
ARISTOCRACIES END IN MONARCHIES
The purpose of the people was, however, too firmly fixed to be shaken even by this discouraging representation. An acquiescence in their demand was therefore reluctantly conceded, probably, as Jahn conjectures, “because the desired change was requested of the invisible King in a lawful manner, through the mediation of his prophet, and because, in the present disposition of the nation, it might be effected without bloodshed. If the remark of Polybius be in all cases true, that 'all aristocracies and democracies terminate at last in monarchy,'[253] this change must have taken place in some future time, and perhaps might have been attended with civil war.
[253] Hist. lib. v. 6-7
RULES FOR ISRAEL'S KING
“By this alteration of the constitution the theocracy was indeed thrown somewhat into the shade, as it was no longer so manifest that God was the king of the Hebrews. Still however, as the principles of the theocracy were interwoven with the
Runners attending a Chariot fundamental and unchangeable laws of the state, their influence did not entirely cease, but the elected king was to act as the viceroy and vassal of Jehovah. On this account Moses had already established the following regulations (Deuteronomy 17:14-20):
“1. That the Hebrews, whenever they adopted the monarchical form of government, should raise only those to the throne who were chosen by Jehovah himself. As monarchs (called kings of kings) were accustomed to appoint sub-kings, or viceroys, in the several provinces of their dominions, so was the king of the Hebrews to be called to the throne by Jehovah, to receive the kingdom from him, and in all respects to consider himself as his representative, viceroy, and vassal. On this occasion the will of Jehovah was to be made known by a prophet, or by means of Urim and Thummim, and the viceroy elect was to prove himself an instrument of God by protecting the commonwealth against its foes. The succession of the royal house was to depend on the will of God, to be made known by his prophets.
“2. Moses had likewise ordained that the new king should be a native Israelite. Thus foreigners were excluded from the throne, even though they should be proposed by false prophets; for, being heathens, they might transgress the fundamental law of the state by the introduction of idolatry; or, at least, it might be difficult for them to rule in all respects as the vassals of Jehovah. This regulation had reference merely to free elections, and was by no means to be understood; as it was explained by Judas of Galilee (Acts 5:37) and the Zealots during the last war with the Romans, that the Hebrews were not to submit to these foreign powers, under whose dominion they were brought by an all-directing Providence. On the contrary, Moses himself had predicted such events, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel earnestly exhorted their countrymen to surrender quietly to the Chaldeans.”
SAUL ELECTED KING
Upon such conditions the choice of a king was permitted, according to law; and in the year 1110 B.C., 538 years after the exodus, the first election took place.
Saul, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, went forth about this time with a servant to seek some strayed asses belonging to his father. For three days the search was fruitless; and then finding himself near Ramah, the stated residence of Samuel, he resolved to go and consult him; for it was known to all Israel that nothing was hidden from the man of God. According to the still subsisting custom of the East, no one could, with: the least propriety, present himself before a man in authority, and still less before a person of so sacred a character as Samuel bore, without some present, however small, in token of his respect and homage. But although the toil and travel-stained stranger who appeared before the prophet could only lay before him the worth of seven-pence halfpenny in silver, he was received with particular notice and honor; for it had been specially revealed to Samuel that on that day and at that hour the destined king of Israel would present himself before him. The prophet assured Saul that his father had found the asses, and began now to be anxious about his son. Nevertheless, he urged him to stay with him over the night, and partake of a feast which he had provided; at the same time conveying to him a slight intimation of the splendid fortunes which were in store for him; to which, with modest self-withdrawment, Saul replied, “Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Wherefore then speakest thou so to me?” Part of this must be attributed to the Oriental forms of self-detraction; for although Benjamin was certainly the smallest of the tribes-as it had not recovered the serious blow inflicted by aft the other tribes-it appears from the history that the family of Kish was of some consideration in Benjamin.
In consequence of the intimation he had previously received, Samuel had against this time prepared an entertainment, to which thirty principal persons of the place had been invited. Samuel conducted the stranger to the room in which these guests were assembled, and led him to the corner seat of honor; and when the meat was served, directed the most honorable joint-the shoulder-to be set before him.
SAUL ANOINTED KING
Being summer, the bed for Saul was made on the house-top; and before he lay down, Samuel communed with him there, probably to ascertain his sentiments and character, and to acquaint him with the true nature of that form of kingly government which he was destined to establish. Early in the morning the prophet called Saul to depart, and walked forth with him. After a time Samuel directed the servant to pass on before; and then the prophet, desiring Saul to stand still, that he might show him the purposes of God, produced a vial of oil, and poured it upon his
A Meeting near Mount Tabor head, thus anointing him “captain over the Lord's inheritance.” He then kissed him, and to confirm his faith, proceeded to tell him all the incidents that would occur to him during his journey home, and to encourage him, under the sense he entertained of his own inferior claims to such a distinction, assured him that on the way, and through the divine influence, the needful qualifications should grow upon him, so that he should seem to receive another[254] heart and to become another man.
[254] Another, not new; a distinction which, from the Scriptural acceptation of the word new, together with the after conduct of Saul, it may be important to note.
SAUL ENCOURAGED BY INCIDENTS
On his way home all happened to Saul which the prophet had foreshown; and some of the incidents are too illustrative of the manners of the time to pass unnoticed. In the plain of Tabor he was met by three men who were proceeding to the place of sacred stones in Bethel, to worship God there. One of them carried three kids, intended as a sacrifice for each of their number; another had three loaves of bread; and the third a leather bottle of wine, all evidently intended to be used with the flesh of the kids in an offering-feast. They gave Saul the salutation of peace--such as travelers give each other by the way--probably the usual “Peace be unto thee!” which is no other than the common Salam aleikoom of the modern East; and they gave him two of the three loaves of bread which they had with them.
SAUL AMONG THE PROPHETS
As Saul went on to Gibeah in Benjamin, which seems to have been called “the hill of God,” either because there was here a “high-place” consecrated to the worship of God, or because it was the seat of a “school of the prophets,” or a kind of college where young men were instructed in the duties of religion, in the knowledge of the law, in psalmody, and other religious exercises. Or it may have been so called for both these reasons, for both existed. As Saul drew nigh he perceived a company of these prophets returning from the high-place where they had been to worship; and as they went they sang the praises of God to the sound of the psaltery, the tabret, the pipe, and the harp. As they drew nigh the Spirit of God came upon him, as Samuel had predicted, and he became as another man. He joined the prophets, and sang the raises of God with them. And when those to whom he was known (for this was in his own tribe and neighborhood) witnessed this sudden endowment of the untaught husbandman they were much astonished, and said one to another, “What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” Whence this last expression passed into a proverb, applied to one found in society with which his previous habits had not prepared him to mingle. It may be seen, however, that this incident would serve in a very conspicuous manner to direct attention to the person and character of Saul.
SAUL PROCLAIMED KING
Samuel, in parting from Saul, had appointed a future meeting at Gilgal, to which place of sacred stones he convoked all Israel for the election of a king. As on other occasions, the choice of God was to be manifested by lot, which would also tend to prevent jealousies and the suspicion of partiality on the part of Samuel. In the usual manner of successive indications, the tribe of Benjamin was taken by the lot from the several tribes; then the family of Matri from the families of that tribe; then the house of Kish from the family of Matri; and, lastly, Saul from the household of Kish. But Saul was not to be found. Well assured of the result, he had not formed one in the assembly, but had, from modesty, kept himself apart among the baggage. When his retreat was discovered, he was led forward into the midst of the congregation; and the mass of the people observed with complacency that the elected king was of most noble presence, in the full prime of life, comely and tall, being higher by the head and shoulders than any of those among whom he stood. On such a man, in a rude age, when personal qualities are the most valued, the suffrages of all men would have centered, regarding him as pointed out by nature for rule and dominion. And so far did this feeling operate even on Samuel, that with evident pride that, since there must be a king, the divine choice had fallen on one who must seem in the eyes of all men so well qualified to dignify his high office, he thus proclaimed him to the people: “See ye him whom Jehovah hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people.” And the people, responding to that feeling, raised at once the shout of recognition, “Long live the king!”
In concluding the present chapter, we are reluctant to withhold from the reader the very interesting survey which Jahn has taken of the office of the judges, and of
A Musical Procession the condition of Israel under their administration. This survey is embodied in the ensuing paragraphs, but having modified several passages to suit them to the views which we have ourselves developed, we abstain from giving them the form of a direct quotation.
JUDGES WERE CIVIL LEADERS
From what has been already said respecting the judges and their achievements, we can ascertain, with a tolerable degree of certainty, the nature of their office. Most of them, indeed, had been at the head of armies, and delivered their country from foreign oppression: Eli and Samuel, however, were not military men. Deborah was judge before she planned the war against Jabin; and of Jair, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, it is at least uncertain whether they ever held any military command. Judges are mentioned in the Mosaic law, in connection with the high-priest, as arbiters of civil controversies, without any allusion to war. (Deuteronomy 17:9.) In like manner, the judges who were appointed over Tyre after King Baal were certainly not military officers, for the city was at that time tributary to Babylon. The command of the army can therefore be scarcely considered as the peculiar distinction of these magistrates. But as in ancient times the duties of a judge were reckoned among the first and most important duties of a ruler, so the Hebrew judges appear to have been appointed for the general administration of public affairs, and the command of the army fell to them as the supreme executive officers. In many cases, it is true, military achievements were the means whereby men elevated themselves to the rank of judges; but our inquiry is, not how the office was obtained, but for what purposes it was instituted. It may, however, be proper to recollect that Jephthah and Samuel, and, for aught that appears, Jair, Elon, Ibzan, and Abdon, were raised to this office by the free, unsolicited voice of the people.
JUDICIAL OFFICE
The office of these judges or regents was held during life, but it was not hereditary, neither could they appoint their successors. This arrangement might seem to be attended with the disadvantage that at the death of a judge the supreme executive authority ceased; but on consideration it will appear that these civil functions devolved on the high-priest, or rather were inherent to his high office, and were called into operation in the absence of any person more especially appointed to exercise them. And, without this, the apparent disadvantage would be more than counterbalanced by its preventing a degenerate heir or successor from giving to idolatry the support of his influence. This authority was limited by the law alone; and in doubtful cases they were directed by the sacred Oracle (Numbers 27:21). They were not obliged in common cases to ask advice of the ordinary rulers; it was sufficient that they did not remonstrate against the measures of the judge. In important emergencies, however, they convoked a general assembly of the rulers, over which they presided and exerted a powerful influence. They could issue orders, but not enact laws; they could neither levy taxes nor appoint officers, except perhaps in the army. Their authority extended only over those tribes by whom they had been elected or acknowledged; for, as has been before remarked, several of the judges presided over separate tribes. There was no salary attached to their office, nor was there any income appropriated to them, unless it might be a larger share of the spoils, and those presents which were made to them as testimonials of respect (Judges 8:24). They had no external marks of dignity, and maintained no retinue of courtiers, though some of them were very opulent. They were not only simple in their manners, moderate in their desires, and free from avarice and ambition, but noble and magnanimous men, who felt that whatever they did for their country was above all reward, and could not be recompensed; who desired merely to promote the public good, and chose rather to deserve well of their country than to be enriched by its wealth. This exalted patriotism, like everything else connected with politics in the theocratic state of the Hebrews, was partly of a religious character; and those regents always conducted themselves as the officers of God; in all their enterprises they relied upon him, and their only care was that their countrymen should acknowledge the authority of Jehovah, their invisible King (Judges 8:22, et seq.; comp. Hebrews 11). Still they were not without faults, neither are they so represented by their historians; they relate, on the contrary, with the utmost frankness, the great sins of which some of them were guilty. They were not merely deliverers of the state from a foreign yoke, but destroyers of idolatry, foes of pagan vices, promoters of the knowledge of God, of religion, and of morality; restorers of theocracy in the minds of the Hebrews, and powerful instruments of divine Providence in the promotion of the great design of preserving the Hebrew constitution, and by that means of rescuing the true religion from destruction.
PERIOD MOSTLY PROSPEROUS
By comparing the periods during which the Hebrews were oppressed by their enemies with those to which they were independent and governed by their own constitution, it is apparent that the nation in general experienced much more prosperity than adversity in the time of the judges: their dominion continued four hundred and seventy-two years; but the whole period of foreign oppression amounts only to one hundred and thirty-one years, scarcely a fourth part of that period. Even during these years of bondage the whole nation was seldom under the yoke at the same time, but, for the most part, separate tribes only were held in servitude; nor were their oppressions always very severe; and all the calamities terminated in the advantage and glory of the people, as soon as they abolished idolatry and returned to their king, Jehovah. Neither was the nation in such a state of anarchy at this time as has generally been supposed. There were regular judicial tribunals at which justice could be obtained; and when there was no supreme regent, the public welfare was provided for by the high-priest and the ordinary rulers of the tribes. (Rth_4:1-11; Judges 8:22; 1 Samuel 4:1.) These rulers, it is true, were jealous of each other, and their jealousies not infrequently broke out into civil war; but the union of the state was never entirely destroyed. They were not always provided with arms (Judges 5:8; 1 Samuel 13:19); but yet, when united under their king, Jehovah, they gained splendid victories. They were not sufficiently careful to repress idolatry, but they never suffered it to become universally predominant. The sacred tabernacle was never entirely deserted and shut up, nor was it ever polluted by the rites of heathen superstition.
These times would certainly not be considered so turbulent as barbarous, much less would they be taken, contrary to the clearest evidence and to the analogy of all history, for an “heroic age,”[256] It is thus characterized by Heeren and other writers. if they were viewed without the prejudices of preconceived hypothesis. It must never be forgotten that the book of Judges is by no means a complete history. It is, in a manner, a mere register of diseases, from which, however, we have no right to conclude that there were no healthy men, much less that there were no healthy seasons; when the book itself, for the most part, mentions only a few tribes in which the epidemic prevailed, and notices long periods during which it had entirely ceased. Whatever maybe the result of more accurate investigation, it remains undeniable that the history of the Hebrews during this period perfectly corresponds throughout to the sanctions of the law; and they were always. prosperous when they complied with the conditions on which prosperity was promised to them; it remains undeniable that the government of God was clearly manifested, not only to the Hebrews, but to their heathen neighbors, that the fulfilling op the promises and threatenings of the law were so many sensible proofs of the universal dominion of the divine King of the Hebrews; and, consequently, that all the various fortunes of that nation were so many means of preserving the knowledge of God on the earth. The Hebrews had no sufficient reason to desire a change in their constitution, since all that was necessary was that they should observe the conditions on which national prosperity had been promised to them.