Книга первая. Самуил и Саул и их время

Chapter 1. The Judgment of the High Priest Eli - the Birth and Youth of Samuel After Samson's death, the position of the people of Israel remained the same. All his heroic deeds were not able to overthrow the heavy yoke of the Philistines, and only irritated them even more against the Israelites. But they had great moral significance, awakening the fallen spirit of the people, who finally began to increasingly come to the conviction that their misfortunes would not end until they themselves were reborn spiritually and first of all overthrew the yoke of unbelief and internal division that weighed on them. And so, a step towards this internal revival was that after the death of Samson, the position of judge was given to the person who, by his position, more than anyone else could contribute to the spiritual uplift and unification of the people, namely the high priest Elijah. The very appearance at the head of the people of the high priest, about whom during the troubled period of the previous judges history is completely silent, indicates the awakening of the religious spirit among the people, and the combination in his person and the position of a civil ruler or judge clearly testifies to this. The people of Israel finally realized that their main strength was in religion, and precisely in faith in the true God, and by combining the position of judge with the position of the supreme servant of religion they wanted to show their loyalty to the Supreme King of Israel. Only one religion with its shrine could unite the people among themselves into one integral state, capable of finally throwing off the yoke of idolaters. The high priest-judge lived, of course, at the tabernacle, which, since the time of Joshua, had always been in Shiloh, a place located about thirty miles north of Jerusalem. Lying on an elevated valley, closed on all sides by mountains covered with gardens and vineyards, Shiloh was, due to its central position in the country, the most convenient place for a national shrine. But general depravity also affected this shrine. The people gathered in masses for sacrifices in the tabernacle and for celebrating holidays, but many customs were already mixed in, borrowed from the surrounding idolaters, and religious festivals were often accompanied by the same dancing, the same public revelry and debauchery, as was the case around pagan temples and temples. In order to cleanse religious life of this impure impurity, a strong character was needed, and, unfortunately, Eli did not possess it. His very high priesthood did not have sufficient justification, since he was descended not from Aaron’s eldest son Eleazar, but from his last son Ithamar. But at the same time he was weak by his very nature. True, we see him already in old age, and his reign, as far as one can judge, was generally distinguished by dignity and meekness, which established some external order in the life of the people; but he did not have the firmness that was required from the ruler of such a dissolute people. And when the infirmities of old age were added to the weakness of his character, he turned out to be so weak that he was not even able to curb the extreme self-will and terrible sacrilege of his own adult sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who, with their impudent and shameful behavior, set not only a bad example for the people, but also alienated them from the tabernacle. The elderly high priest grieved over this behavior of his sons, and even reprimanded them, but they did not listen to the voice of their father, “for the Lord had already decided to put them to death.” But when, in this way, the judgment of God was being prepared over the house of the elderly high priest, one youth grew up at the tabernacle, to whom the providence of God determined to transfer leadership of the destinies of the people. This is precisely Samuel, the son of Elkanah and Hannah, from Armathem, in the tribe of Ephraim. For his great destiny, he was prepared, so to speak, from his very birth, which took place under remarkable circumstances. Elkanah was a Levite from the family of Kohath, and he lived with his small family in the city of Armathema, which was later known as Rama or, more famously, Arimathea. The exact location of this town is unknown. He was apparently located within the tribe of Benjamin, but so close to Mount Ephraim, which formed the dividing line between the tribes of Benjamin and Ephraim, that in the biblical chronicle he is called belonging to the latter. Elkanah was a fairly wealthy man and enjoyed an influential position, lived on his own land and had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah, from whom the second was probably taken even when all hope of having a son by the first was abandoned. Although, according to the original biblical establishment, marriage was undoubtedly meant to be monogamous, nevertheless polygamy was not prohibited in the Mosaic legislation, and those who adhered to polygamy did not find themselves in direct violation of any formal decree. Like slavery, polygamy existed and was quite widespread even before the legislation of Sinai, and the legislator found it possible to tacitly recognize the existing fact, trying only to subject it to wise restrictions. But the punishment for such a deviation from the primitive institution lay in the very peculiarity of such a bigamous state. Elkanah's peaceful and blessed home was often marred by the rivalries of his wives. His first wife was probably Anna, "grace", whose name recalls the sister of the Carthaginian queen Dido, the aged prophetess in the church (Luke 2:36) and the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was a pious, loving and selfless woman, one who, according to human reasoning, would be most capable of raising children well; but she had to endure the hard fate of barrenness. No matter how difficult and shameful this fate was, which forced the once fiery Rachel to frantically shout to her husband, Jacob: “Give me children, or I will die” (Gen. 30:1), Anna, thanks to her meek and calm character, endured this difficult lot with worthy patience. Desperate to have children with his first wife, Elkanah took a second wife, Peninnah, the “pearl,” and had numerous sons and daughters with her. Conceited in her fertility, treating with contempt the one who did not have such happiness, and jealous of her for the love with which her husband treated her, Fennana did not miss the opportunity to express her mockery and reproach to Anna, which she did both in her home and in public. Elkanah was a religious and sensible man, and, treating Anna with complete sympathy, he not only did not show disdain for her, but on the contrary treated her with complete love, revealing unusual signs of respect. These feelings were strengthened in him even more at the sight of the tears that Anna often shed. Often seeing her in tears, her husband consoled her with gentle words: “Anna! Why are you crying, and why don’t you eat, and why is your heart grieving? Am I not better to you than ten sons? Taking advantage of such sympathy from her husband, Anna finally learned to patiently endure her grief and recognize in this the special Providence of God, which tested her just as he once tested her great predecessors, Sarah and Rachel. It was Elkanah's custom, as a pious man, to strictly observe the law, so that all male Israelites would be present annually at the celebration of the three great annual festivals at the tabernacle. According to this law, they had to appear before the Lord on the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. In these troubled times, this law, as one might think, was not fulfilled with particular care, and in view of this, the piety of Elkanah stands out all the more clearly, who not only himself went to these holidays in Shiloh, but also took his wives with him. And there, in the face of the Lord, the feeling of grief overwhelmed Anna even more strongly, and she prayed to the Lord even more fervently to remove the shame of dishonor from her. On one of these visits, Anna especially zealously prayed for the granting of children to her, and one day, probably having received a new insult from her rival Fennana, after the usual festive feast, she went to the sanctuary, and then in a frenzy began to pray to the Lord. In order to strengthen her prayer, she made a vow, saying: “Lord (Almighty God) of hosts! If You will consider the sorrow of Your servant, and remember me, and will not forget Your servant, and will give Your servant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord (as a gift) all the days of his life, and he will not drink wine or strong drink, and no razor will touch his head” (1 Samuel 1:11). Her prayer was enthusiastic and lengthy, so that the elderly high priest Eli, who was sitting right at the entrance to the sanctuary, involuntarily drew attention to the praying woman. The high priest, accustomed to seeing all kinds of debauchery and popular revelry around the sanctuary, naturally thought that he saw before him one of the victims of intoxication. Therefore, he turned to her with reproachful words: “How long will you be drunk? Sober up from your wine (and go from the presence of the Lord).” But Anna was even more depressed by this remark and said: “No, my lord; I am a woman grieving in spirit, I have not drunk wine or strong drink, but I pour out my soul before the Lord; Do not consider your servant a worthless woman, for out of my great sorrow and out of my sorrow I have spoken hitherto.” Seeing his mistake, Eli said to her with sympathy: “Go in peace, and the God of Israel will fulfill your request, what you asked of Him.” Elijah’s last remark was like a ray of life-giving light for Anna’s darkened soul, and from that time on she became cheerful and cheerful. With her believing heart, she came to know the great truth, later proclaimed by the Savior of the World: “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and it will be done for you” (Mark 11:24). This is exactly what happened to Anna. The Lord heard her prayer, she conceived and gave birth to a son, and, in fulfillment of her vow, named him Samuel, “for,” she said, “I asked him from the Lord God of Hosts.” But then the time came when a vow had to be made over the child, namely his dedication to service in the tabernacle. The establishment of a Nazirite was no longer a new phenomenon at that time. Although we do not have historical evidence of the existence of Nazarenes before Samson, we can reasonably think that Nazariteism already existed before Moses, and that he, in his laws, only sanctioned this institution and subjected it to certain precise restrictions. It arose from that religious zeal which, not content with performing the ordinary duties of piety, strives for stricter methods of self-sanctification, when not only the soul, but also the body is sanctified. The Nazirite vow was threefold: the one dedicated to God was to abstain from any intoxicating drink, not to cut his hair, and to avoid any ritual defilement through touching a dead body, even the body of his closest relatives. Such a vow, made by the parents, undoubtedly should have had a tremendous influence on the subsequent life of the child. Separated from the conditions of everyday life, placed above his peers, especially dedicated to God, the Nazirite seemed destined for some special higher goals, and directed his entire life towards achieving this goal, without being entertained by any extraneous interests. Anna, making her vow, dedicated her son to lifelong service in the tabernacle, and thereby planned the path for greatness and glory for her child. And so, when happy Anna arrived in Shiloh, she again stopped reverently before the sanctuary, but no longer depressed by grief, as she had been two years ago, but radiant with joy, which she poured out in a prayer of thanks. She brought her child to the high priest Elijah, and addressed him with fiery words: “Oh, my lord! May your soul live, my lord! I am the same woman who stood here with you and prayed to the Lord: I prayed for this child; and the Lord granted me my request, what I asked of Him; and I commit him to the Lord all the days of his life to serve the Lord.” The high priest favorably accepted her proposal; in memory of this, established solemn sacrifices were made, and young Samuel became a minister of the sanctuary. At the same time, Anna’s prayer of gratitude was expressed in an enthusiastic song, remarkable in that its individual sounds subsequently burst out with the same enthusiasm from the lips of the blessed Ever-Virgin when she rejoiced at her great joy. Anna prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; My horn is exalted in my God; My mouth is opened wide against my enemies, For I rejoice in my salvation. There is no one so holy as the Lord; For there is no other besides You; And there is no stronghold like our God. Do not multiply arrogant speeches; Do not let insolent words come out of your mouth; For the Lord is a God of knowledge, The bow of the mighty is broken, But the weak are girded with strength. Even a barren woman gives birth seven times, And the one with many children is exhausted. The Lord kills and gives life, Descends to the underworld and raises up, The Lord makes poor and makes rich, From the dust He raises the poor, Raises the beggar from clay, And the throne of glory gives them an inheritance; For with the Lord are the foundations of the earth, And He established the universe on them. He watches the feet of His saints, And the lawless disappear in darkness; For man is not strong by strength. The Lord will wipe out those who argue with Him, It will thunder upon them from heaven. Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, And let not the mighty boast of his strength, And let not the rich man boast of his wealth, But he who does not want to boast, let him boast in that That he understands and knows the Lord). The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, And He gives strength to His king, And he will exalt the horn of his anointed” (1 Samuel 2:1–10). This enthusiastic song serves as one of those manifestations of inner religious zeal, which more than once burst from the most inspired lips in the Old Testament. These were precisely the triumphant songs of Miriam during the passage through the Red Sea, of Moses on the borders of the Promised Land, and of Deborah after the triumph over the enemies of the chosen people. Due to the special enthusiasm of these songs, they contain together a sublimely prophetic and messianic meaning. This is precisely the inner meaning of Anna’s enthusiastic prayer. With her spiritual eye she saw far beyond the present, and, in gratitude for the favor shown her, she recognized the divine economy in the government of the world and the promise of future favor, not only to individuals, but to all her people. He who cared for the poor and needy and raised the lowly to a high position, will be the patron of Israel and will exalt His depressed people at this time. The mercy that befell her personally will serve as a guarantee of God’s mercy for all of Israel; her own deliverance from the grief that depressed her was for her a prototype of the salvation accomplished by God in the history of the whole world. In her prophetic delight she foresaw a great change in the condition of the chosen people; government by chiefs and judges will have to give way to a more stable and firm form of government. Knowing from the promises made to the patriarchs, and from many sayings and allusions in the Pentateuch, that Israel was destined to be a kingdom, she sings of the king whom God will one day give to his people, who will unite them and govern them, and to whom the Lord will give strength and success. And in this monarch she foresaw the Anointed of the Lord, someone greater than David and Solomon, namely the Messiah. She expressed her hope for the fulfillment of the promises associated with the royal dignity in Israel, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe establishment of which was now beginning to arise in the hearts of the people; but the Spirit who spoke through her allowed her to foresee a more glorious fulfillment than was usually expected by the people, and we, in the light of later history, can read in her significant words a prediction of a great future, namely, the coming of the King Messiah and the glory of His Kingdom. It was in this light that the ancient Christian church looked at the enthusiastic song of Anna 2. The church fathers generally look at Anna as a prototype of the church, and in her words they see a prophetic omen of the triumph of Christ. And the Jewish interpreters held the same opinion, which is then fully confirmed by the use made of this song by Zechariah and the Blessed Virgin Mary in the new testament. Such songs became the historical property of the people, passed down orally from generation to generation, used in public worship, over time were committed to writing and entered into the sacred books by inspired writers, thus forever capturing the most worthy expressions of the religious life, hopes and aspirations of the faithful sons of Israel. When the dedication ceremony was over, Elkanah and his wives returned to their home in Ramah, leaving little Samuel in the care of Eli. The grief that had once darkened this small family was now eliminated, and life flowed smoothly and peacefully within it. Over time, Anna had several other children, so that the music of the tender babble of three sons and two daughters, sweet for a mother, was constantly heard around her. One Jewish legend, with a kind of poetic justice in mind, tells how the birth of each of Hannah's children was accompanied by the death of one of Peninnah's children; but this legend, obviously bearing the imprint of later egoism, hardly penetrates sufficiently into the depths of Anna’s mental state, and with greater plausibility one can believe that Anna would have been much happier if her happiness had not been disturbed by grief for her former rival. The later life of these children of hers remained outside the bounds of sacred history, and absolutely nothing is known about them. One might think that the famous Anna the prophetess later belonged to such women, and the widows and deaconesses of the ancient Christian church were, perhaps, a natural continuation of this institution. For them to help in the actual liturgical parts of the service is incredible; their duties, in all likelihood, were limited to some women's work, boiling sacrificial food, cleaning vessels, caring for children and cleaning, decorating and repairing various curtains in the sanctuary. We know that in subsequent times, when idolatry was established in the Promised Land, there was a special order of women who wove curtains for Asherah, the image of Astoreth (2 Kings 23:7). And this was probably already a distortion of the original institution of female ministers at the tabernacle. But if women had care for the bodily needs and physical education of Samuel, then his mental and religious education was under the no less careful care of the high priest Eli himself. If his upbringing, as one might think, was carried out in the same order as it usually followed in subsequent times, then one can assume that he was early taught to read and write, was instructed in the law and studied the most important events of Jewish history, becoming acquainted with the great exploits of his ancestors. Many parts of the Pentateuch were learned by heart, and the child was encouraged to ask for an explanation of the meaning of various institutions at the festivals he was witness to. He, of course, was instilled with the deepest respect for the words of the law, so that the famous words of Philo are applicable to him, more than to anyone, that “looking at their laws as the inspired broadcasts of God, and being edified in them from early childhood, the Jews bear the image of the commandments in their very souls” 3 . Such an upbringing, based entirely on religion and morality, must have fallen on fertile soil, since Samuel’s soul was already predisposed in this direction. It is safe to believe that the pious Anna, during the three years of her own upbringing of her son, managed to plant in him the seeds of piety, which were to blossom magnificently later. In general, Samuel by his very nature was receptive to all that is good, so that it was not difficult for him to adapt to the task of his exceptional position, and he joyfully served the Lord, fulfilling the duties assigned to him. There were undoubtedly many other children being raised in Shiloh, but Samuel, even from childhood, differed from his peers by his very position as a Nazirite. Being ordained for lifelong service in the sanctuary, he wore special clothing - a linen ephod, like a priest's or Levitical one, and in it he could take part in religious services. His pious upbringing was further facilitated by the fact that pious Anna, although she dedicated him to the service of the tabernacle, naturally did not leave him with her maternal care, and carefully monitored the development of his mind and heart; and she had every reason to thank God that her child was quickly growing up for that high destiny, a presentiment of which she had already expressed in her song of gratitude. The high priest Eli also soon appreciated the extraordinary talents of the child, and always kept him close to him, and this is all the more so since he saw with increasing sorrow the deteriorating behavior of his own sons, and more than once had to think about who would control the fate of the people after his death. The behavior of his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, indeed became increasingly shameful and ugly. They were people, one might say, irreligious, dishonest, greedy and dissolute. In contrast to their pious and believing father, they lost all faith in God, and were only concerned about their own profit and having a good time. According to the Law of Moses, a certain part of the sacrificial offerings was provided to the priests for payment, and the remainder of the animal was usually returned to the donor for consumption by himself, together with his family and the Levite who lived in the vicinity. This establishment was completely natural and legal, so that it was subsequently confirmed by the Apostle, who directly commands that “those who serve the priests eat from the sanctuary, and those who serve the altar take a share from the altar” (1 Cor. 9:13). The law defines exactly which part went to the benefit of the priests. But the greedy sons of Eli were not content with this legalized portion, but tried to seize more than they should have. Without waiting until the sacrifice was solemnly consecrated by burning the fat on the altar, as the law decreed, these wicked priests sent their slaves to take the parts that belonged to them even before the sacrifice was performed, and thus robbing God, dishonored the ritual worship. In addition to the legal part, they even seized what undoubtedly belonged to the bringer himself. Moreover, when, at the end of the sacrifice, the sacrificers and their families were boiling the remaining parts of the sacrifice for the usual feast, the rude slaves of Hophni and Phinehas came with long iron hooks or forks, and shamelessly lowered them into cauldrons, pans, frying pans or pots, pulling out everything they could grab (1 Samuel 3:14). Such unscrupulous and predatory actions could not go unnoticed. The requirements of the law were well known to the people who visited the sanctuary. At the sight of such actions on the part of people, who should serve as an example of humility, legality and piety, the people were extremely indignant, so that many, as a result, stopped making sacrifices. But in general, such an example was extremely disastrous for popular morality and religion, so that religious festivities increasingly turned into pagan festivities, accompanied by all kinds of revelry and debauchery. And this was again facilitated by the wicked sons of Eli, who even went so far as to seduce women who came to the sanctuary, which especially happened during the grape harvest, when all kinds of round dances and dances were usually held. Despite the general corruption among the people, already at that time the emergence of parties of stricter people began to be noticed, who began to look with very dissatisfied eyes at the state of things. Zealous for the restoration of religion and piety among the people, these serious people grieved exceedingly in their hearts that the source of corruption came from the very sons of the high priest. In order, if possible, to correct the evil, they turned to the elderly high priest and told him in detail about all the wicked deeds of his dissolute sons. They demanded that he use his authority to influence his sons and even punish them. But their claims had little success. Always cold and apathetic, Elijah, in his old age, became even more inactive and motionless, so that for the best he preferred to calmly look at what was happening around him. He limited himself to a few words of warning and reproach to his sons, but did not take any more energetic measures to curb them. “Why do you do such things,” he told them, “for I hear evil things said about you from all the Lord’s people. No, my children, the rumor that I hear about you is not good, do not do this; you are corrupting the people of the Lord.” And then, in support of his words, he cited an ancient proverb, which could show them more deeply the danger of them insulting religion and profaning their sacred dignity. “If man sins against man, they will pray to God for him; If a person sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him? That is, in the case of a crime between people, God, as a mediator, can resolve the matter with his just judgment; but when a person sins against God, then who can then intercede for the sinner? The dispute can then only be resolved by a verdict against the culprit, a verdict followed by punishment from the hand of the Lord. But this reprimand was too mild to influence the hardened conscience of dissolute young people, and therefore it had no significance. Hophni and Phinehas have already reached that terrible state when the Holy Spirit has withdrawn from them, and the sinner is left to his own fate. “They did not listen to the voice of their father; for the Lord has already decided to put them to death.” Sin, according to the will of God, itself entails its own punishment; it hardens the heart, drowns the conscience, kills faith, drags the sinner into the abyss of wickedness and makes repentance impossible unless some special miracle happens. These are its natural consequences; but they are always in agreement with God’s assumptions, in due subordination to His moral economy in the World. The sons of Eli grew up in centuries of debauchery and corruption, and, allowing their inclinations to be completely influenced by the influence of their surroundings, in their turn further contributed to the strengthening of these inclinations. Perhaps the mysterious law of heredity was reflected in them and the evil character of one of their ancestors manifested itself - a character that did not find counteraction in careful education. It is possible that they lacked the tender guidance and sympathy of their mother; the naturally weak character of the father was not able to control their spirits predisposed to evil from childhood; Official duties, moreover, could completely occupy the time and thoughts of the judge, so that he did not often have to delve into his family circumstances, observe the inclinations of his young sons, choose the right associates for them, and even in childhood suppress the beginnings of evil. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that the evil grew enormously and threatened with dire consequences. Since Elijah himself was weak to resist the development of evil, God at that time sent him a special prophet to help him, who addressed him with strong warnings. Soon after Samuel was admitted to be raised at the tabernacle, the “man of God” appeared to the high priest and addressed him with the following speech: “Thus says the Lord: Did I not reveal myself to the house of your father, while they were still in Egypt, in the house of Pharaoh? And have I not chosen him from all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, that he should go up to My altar, that he should burn incense, that he should wear the ephod before Me? And have I not given to your father's house some of all the sacrifices of the children of Israel that were burned by fire? Why then do you trample underfoot My sacrifices and My grain offerings, which I have commanded for My habitation? And why do you prefer your sons, fattening yourself with the firstfruits of all the offerings of My people Israel? Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: Then I said, Your house and your father’s house shall walk before Me forever. But now the Lord says: Let it not be so, for I will glorify the one who glorifies Me, and the one who dishonors Me will be put to shame. Behold, the days are coming in which I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house (ever); and you will see the misery of My habitation, even though the Lord does good to Israel, and there will not be an old man in your house all the days. I will not take you all away from My altar, to trouble your eyes and torment your soul; but all the descendants of your house will die in middle age. And this is the sign that will follow your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: they will both die on the same day. And I will appoint for myself a faithful priest; he will do according to My heart and according to My soul; and I will make his house strong; and he shall walk before My anointed always. And everyone who remains from your house will come to bow down to him for a piece of silver and a piece of bread, and will say: number me in some Levitical office, so that I can have food” (1 Sam. 2:27-36). In this prediction there is a clear reference to Samuel, who was henceforth clearly intended for religious service to his people. It announced to Eli that the high priesthood in his family would cease, as indeed happened later, when the high priestly office again passed to the senior line of the Aaronic high priesthood, namely to the family of Eleazar; but at the same time, one cannot help but see here an indication of a greater servant of religion than Samuel or the descendants of Eleazar. The very terms of prophecy point beyond the immediate future, the promises contained in them are greater than any that could be realized in an ordinary person. A simple transfer of the high priesthood from one line to another more worthy, and the limitation of the eternal priesthood promised to the first Phinehas (Num. 25:12, 13) by some outstanding faithful representative of the line, would hardly have been expressed in such enthusiastic words. We must look further, and it is known that the Jews themselves were inclined to see here a prediction about a more majestic future, about the divine Samuel, about the priest who abolished the high priesthood of Aaron, specifically about the Messiah, as the high priest who abides forever. Here again it can be noted that the prophet, like Anna in his prayer, also had in mind the exercise of royal power in Israel. A faithful priest will walk with God's anointed forever. But if this prediction in its original sense indicated that Samuel and his successors would be the main leaders of spiritual and religious life in a state ruled by an anointed king, then undoubtedly it also pointed to the Messiah, in whom the royal office was united with the high priestly office. When the wicked sons of Eli were fulfilling the measure of their iniquity, and in the distance the echoes of the approaching storm were already heard, preparing to break out over the house of Eli, the boy Samuel served the Lord, “coming more and more in age and in favor with the Lord and with people.” So twelve years passed 4, and the boy’s piety finally made him worthy of the terrible revelation of God. Given the general decline of religious and moral life at that time, God rarely revealed himself to his people through the prophets; but now, in view of the approaching execution of the terrible judgment on the house of Eli, God was pleased to choose Samuel as the instrument of declaring His judgment. Samuel was a good, pure and holy youth, and his heart and conscience recognized everywhere the presence and power of God; but he still knew nothing about Him as a personal God, as one who clearly revealed His will, giving commandments and warnings except through secret inspiration in the heart. Hitherto his activity had usually been divided between the care of the sanctuary, in such duties as were imposed on him, and the service of the aged high priest Elijah, whose weakness of vision and the increasing infirmities of old age made him largely dependent on the help of others. Samuel for example. they had to lock and open the door of the tabernacle, light the seven-branched lamp of the sanctuary on the south side of the sanctuary, to the left of the entrance and opposite the table of showbread. The lamps in this lamp were lit every evening, then extinguished, refilled and supplied with pure olive oil every morning. The high priest slept in the room adjacent to the tabernacle, and Samuel was constantly close to him, so that he could always hear the voice of the high priest when he had to call him for something. One night, when the boy was lying on his bed and the time was approaching dawn, he was suddenly awakened by a voice calling him by name. Thinking that it was the high priest calling him, he stood up and approached him, awaiting orders. But the high priest was surprised at this, since he had not called him, and when the same thing was repeated again, he realized that it was the voice of God, and ordered Samuel to prepare to listen to the divine revelation. And indeed, when a voice was heard for the third time: “Samuel! Samuel!”, then the boy, following the instructions of the high priest, answered: “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.” And then the Lord, calling the youth to the highest position of His prophet, told Samuel a terrible revelation about God’s judgment over the house of Eli. “And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a work in Israel, which shall make both his ears tingle when he hears it. On that day I will do for Elijah all that I have spoken about his house; I'll start and finish. I declared to him that I would punish his house forever for the guilt that he knew how wicked his sons were and did not curb them. And therefore, I swear to the house of Eli that the guilt of the house of Eli will not be atoned for by sacrifices or grain offerings forever.” It was a terrible revelation to a young, inexperienced youth! It was a great honor for his piety, and at the same time it was the line at which his adolescence ended and spiritual maturity began. From now on, Samuel had to learn the responsibility and caring of mature age. The youth, naturally, was extremely embarrassed by such a revelation, and did not know what to do, how to inform the elderly high priest about such a terrible revelation. When morning came, he got up, tired from excitement and a wonderful vision, and, according to custom, opened the door to the sanctuary to serve the elder. At the same time, he did not tell him anything about what happened, because he was afraid of inflicting a serious wound on the high priest, whom he loved and revered. But Elijah's spirit was already in trouble. He had a presentiment that something extraordinary had happened, and, judging by the boy’s outward concern, he saw that he was hiding something from him. Being sure that the Lord had made some kind of revelation to Samuel, Eli had a presentiment that this revelation concerned himself, and could not calm down until it was fully communicated to him. “What did you say?” Eli said, “Do not hide it from me; God will do this to you, and will do even more if you hide from me anything from all that has been said to you.” Then Samuel told Elijah a terrible secret. Eli listened to her in complete silence and met her with dull hopelessness, saying only: “He is the Lord; whatever He pleases, let Him do.” In the mouth of another person, such words could mean the deepest faith and hope; but in the mouth of Ilya, they, however, show submission to the will of God, at the same time they reveal in him a certain ease of attitude towards important subjects. Notwithstanding this twofold warning, he made no determined effort to stop the abuses; although well-timed severity and decisive measures could have averted the destruction of his house, he left everything to continue as before; he did not have sufficient strength to fight the prevailing evil, and, as if in hopeless despair, he left everything in the hands of God, preparing to endure with patience whatever might happen. Hophni and Phinehas, being willful, stubborn and arrogant people, had remained too long unbridled in their bad life, and now resolutely ignored the weak reproaches of their father. Moreover, they had a powerful party on their side. All the youth brought up under bad influence, who indulged in freethinking, debauchery and all kinds of pleasures, were on their side and did not strive for anything better. The elderly high priest did not have the courage to go against this strong party, he covered his inactivity with the cloak of patience and, considering himself completely powerless to heal evil, he resolutely turned a blind eye to it. There would still be enough time for correction, since the sentence was not to be carried out immediately after its pronouncement; Samuel still needed to achieve full maturity and become an authorized prophet of the Lord. But the high priest fell into complete inactivity. And so, as the influence and glory of Eli faded under the influence of these trials, the glory of Samuel increased. “And all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was worthy to be a prophet of the Lord.” The previous ministers of the sanctuary turned out to be unfaithful, and the Lord raised up a new prophet, who was distinguished by piety, obedience, loyalty and high talents. From now on, from time to time, the Lord revealed himself to Samuel, now in a vision, now letting him know about Himself in a separate voice and in other various images, and often he was able to utter words of wisdom, reproach and warning. In the midst of open corruption, he acted as a righteous and courageous witness of true religion and morality, and everything he said received extraordinary significance, since all his words were fulfilled. He was guided not by experience, not by insight, not by sound reasoning, but by the inspiration of God. Israel could not help but see that this holy youth was guided by a higher hand, and soon the whole people began to recognize his influence, so that from the northern borders to the southern border of the earth it became known to everyone that Samuel was honored to be the prophet of the Lord. Even in this disorderly time of division and general corruption, the news of such great mercy of God quickly spread among the people of Israel, and all the godly people of the earth rejoiced to hear that God had thus visited His people. Calling Samuel a prophet, the sacred historian, however, does not say that the ability to predict is necessarily associated with this name. The ability to predict the future, however, was often given to the prophet under certain circumstances; but it did not embrace the entire essence of his position, but constituted only part of his service. The prophet is the mouthpiece of God; he receives certain divine revelations and communicates them to his compatriots, those for whom his ministry is assigned. The gifts he received were not intended for his own elevation or edification, but for the good of the people. His calling to office was internal, dependent on divine election and on his own receptivity. The Spirit of Jehovah descended on him, giving him revelation and the right to communicate it. The prophet is thus told the advice of God, and he must in turn reveal this secret, whether the people will listen to him or not. Full consciousness of this inner calling encourages him in the fulfillment of the commission given to him, elevates his moral capacity and makes him ready to receive further revelations. Being not just a predictor or a herald, but an apostle of righteousness, the prophet exhorts, reproaches and condemns; he reinforces his instructions by pointing to the past, and warns and confirms his revelation by foreshadowing the future. The insight communicated to him from above gives him the opportunity to take a spiritual look at the present and the future; he sees the inner side of events, of which other people have only a superficial understanding, and thus is able to communicate wise advice and avoid surprise. But all this is not the product of human genius, wisdom or everyday experience, but the result of communication with heaven and the Word of God. This was the inspiration of Samuel. His call to the prophetic office entailed other responsibilities. It was this special calling that later authorized him, amid the general decline of the priesthood and ritualism, to make sacrifices and support the worship of Jehovah. When he performed these priestly duties, it was by no means an unlawful intrusion into the priestly ministry on his part; he had extraordinary authority from God, who continued to appear to him from time to time in Shiloh. How much he himself was aware of the significance of his service at this time is unknown; Undoubtedly, his consciousness in this regard was revealed gradually. As the revelations became more frequent and important, the conviction grew in his soul that since the revival of the Israeli people required a special transformer, he was destined to be this transformer and to become the head of this great movement towards revival. A great crisis was approaching in the life of the people. In order to retain its possessions and maintain its position among the surrounding nations, Israel had to represent itself as a holistic force in the face of its enemies, a force cemented by the unity of religion, interests and statehood. In recent years, the entire life of the people has tended toward disintegration and disunity. Not a single tribe had a prominent position among the people and, so to speak, undisputed hegemony; the most powerful cities were in fact completely independent communities, and disunion became the common rule throughout the country. After the death of Joshua, there was no one person at the head of the people, but the elders were in charge of the administration, as representatives from all the tribes, meeting in some middle point, like Shechem. Here they consulted among themselves and from here they sent deputations to ask the advice of the high priest, who alone had the opportunity to learn the will of God through the Urim and Thummim. As a result, the importance of the high priestly office was very great, and the morality of the people and the course of public affairs largely depended on his character and energy. But when national unity collapsed and the desire for selfish independence took the place of patriotic feeling, the power of the elders lost all meaning, and with the decline of the influence of the priests, religion and morality fell. By the end of the time of the judges, there was absolutely no general patriotic feeling among the Israeli people; the tribes were self-governing states that held their allotments with their own forces, absorbing native peoples into themselves, or expelling them with a strong hand, or, conversely, submitting even to the Canaanites, whom they were not able to deprive of their former possessions. Mutual rivalry between some tribes also contributed to the weakening of national unity. The disunity was then increased by the attachment which each family felt to its own settlements, without paying any attention to the interests of the neighboring settlements. Having become an agricultural people, the Israelites began to rely all their national well-being in the security of their individual personal possessions, and were more concerned about protecting their herds, fields and productions, which could be threatened by invasions of local enemies, than about uniting into one common force to counteract the dangers that threatened the existence of the whole people. The judges, as we saw above, were dictators who appeared, according to need, in individual districts, and their influence was therefore limited to a certain area. When the danger passed, they returned to their previous occupations, and neither the judge nor the people cared about the public welfare. In order to awaken a sense of unity among the people, it was necessary for the onset of some extraordinary dangers that would really threaten the death of the entire people, and such a danger happened precisely in the time of Samuel, although it is impossible to accurately determine its time. This danger was now threatened by the Philistines, who, growing stronger and stronger, finally decided to finally conquer the entire promised land in order to become the sovereign rulers of the country. The individual exploits of Samson, whose activity partly, apparently, coincides with the reign of Eli, did not have a decisive significance for ridding the country of these enemies and only temporarily stopped the further spread of the Philistine conquest. After him, the Philistines actually conquered a significant part of the country and imposed an extremely heavy yoke on the Israeli people, which could have strangled them and forever deprived them of hope of regaining their freedom. But this yoke at the same time served as the beginning for deliverance from external enemies and at the same time for the internal revival of the people. Chapter 2. Captivity of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines and its return When the yoke of the Philistines became unbearable for the Israelites, they rebelled against their oppressors. But this uprising was obviously only an outburst of despair and, as a result, was carried out without any proper plan, advice or reasoning. Moreover, nothing is known even about the people turning to ask for the will of God for this, nothing is heard about prayer and sacrifice, which would sanctify the beginning of this undertaking. Driven out of patience by their slavish state and seeing in the prophetic spirit of Samuel a sign that the Lord had visited his people, and relying entirely on their carnal weapons, the people gathered their strength and camped near the place which, in memory of the victory that subsequently took place here, was called Aven-Ezerg, that is, “stone of help.” The Philistines, who had already heard in advance about the movement taking place between the Israelites, in turn advanced their armed forces, and were now located nearby, precisely in a place called Aphek, that is, “fortress.” Since there were many places with this name, it is difficult to accurately determine the location of this last one; but it was located near Ebenezer, the location of which is precisely determined and which lay between Mizpah and Shen (1 Sam. 7:12). Mizpah, according to the first book of Maccabees, lay opposite Jerusalem (1 Mac. 3:46), and it is identified by the latest explorer (Robinson) with Nebi-Sambel, the most prominent hill, about seven miles north of Jerusalem. Sen or Ga-Shen is probably the newest Deir-Iesin, located not far from here. Afek can perhaps be seen in Wadi Fuqin, nine miles west of Bethlehem, although this would apparently be too far to the south. We know nothing about the details of the ensuing battle. Its results were extremely significant. The Israelis were immediately and brutally defeated, leaving four thousand dead on the battlefield. Everyone felt that this was a serious blow, and, on returning to the camp, the leaders formed a council of war to discuss the causes of the disaster and take the best measures to improve the matter. They had enough time for such reasoning, and they were not in immediate danger, since their camp was fortified and their communications were still open. Neither Samuel nor the sons of Eli were with the Israeli army, and the discussion of the matter was entirely in the hands of the elders. They, apparently, were confident of victory, and were extremely amazed that victory remained on the side of the enemies. They couldn't help but think that this could only happen because God had withdrawn his help from them. How can they ensure His help in the future? In any case, no longer hoping to hold out against the enemy on their own, the Israelis resorted to God’s help and, to ensure it, decided to bring the greatest shrine to the army. “Let us take from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord,” said the elders, “and it will go among us and save us from the hand of our enemies.” They remembered how the Jordan River parted before the ark and gave the people passage along its bottom; they also remembered how the walls of Jericho fell while the Ark of the Covenant was being carried around them; They also remembered many of the miracles performed in the presence of the shrine, and therefore decided to take advantage of its miraculous help this time. An embassy was immediately sent to Shiloh, which was not far from here, and asked the clergy in charge of the shrine to take the “Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts, sitting on the cherubim,” and carry it to the camp. Here, precisely between the cherubim, was the visible seat of the invisible King of Israel, and He, according to the elders, was supposed to support his glory and the glory of his people Israel. In this case, when the Ark of the Covenant was raised, the ancient hymn, which usually accompanied the movements of the Ark of the Covenant, had especially full application: “Arise, O Lord, and Your enemies will scatter, and those who hate You will flee from Your presence!” (Num. 10:35). And so, with due reverence, the raised shrine was solemnly carried by the Levites appointed for this purpose, and, accompanied by two priests, the wicked sons of Hophni and Phinehas, finally arrived at the camp of the Israelites. The appearance of the people's shrine immediately raised the spirits of the Israeli army, from whose joyful rejoicing “the earth groaned.” The Philistines, having heard such extraordinary and enthusiastic cries, seeing such excitement in the enemy camp, sent spies to make sure what was the matter, and when they heard that a mysterious shrine had been brought to the army of the Israelites, they were confused and afraid, so that sad exclamations were heard in their camp: “Woe to us! who will deliver us from the hand of this mighty God? This is the God who struck the Egyptians with all sorts of plagues in the desert,” as terrible, but not entirely clear rumors reached them. But despondency still did not take away their courage. Whatever the danger that threatened them, they did not succumb to it without resistance. Their rude nature, it is true, trembled at the thought that their venerable Dagon would not be inferior in power to the Israeli shrine, which had performed such amazing miracles in former times; but with their characteristic courage they decided to test the comparative power of the gods. For them, the upcoming battle was a fight for the honor of their god, and they reinforced each other’s courage with the words: “Be strong and be courageous, Philistines, so that you will not be enslaved by the Jews, as they are enslaved by you; be courageous and fight them.” A battle ensued, and the Philistines, fighting with courage and energy, inflicted such a defeat on the Israelites that the latter fled in disorder, losing thirty thousand killed. In vain did the Israelis concentrate with desperate courage near the holy place of the people: everything was lost! But the most terrible thing was that the most sacred thing of the people, the Ark of the Covenant, was taken captive, and both sons of the high priest were killed in its defense. Never before had such a calamity befallen a people since they left Egypt. The sacred monument, which was made, at the command of the Lord, exclusively by the hands of their great prophet Moses, who guided them during all their wanderings in the desert, led them to victory, contained the presence of Jehovah, was now lost to them! It was a terrible omen! It meant that the mercy of God completely abandoned the Israelites, that the sins of the priests and the people laid a dividing line between them and God, that they could no longer turn for help to the One whom they had so shamefully abandoned and insulted. Their glory disappeared, their political independence perished, and only hopeless slavery lay ahead in the future. The terrible news quickly spread everywhere. On the very evening of the defeat, she had already reached Shiloh. One desperate fugitive, a Benjamite (whom an ancient, but insufficiently based, tradition identifies with Saul), ran into the city with his clothes torn and dust on his head, as a sign of unspeakable grief. The appearance of this messenger spoke for itself, and the terrible secret became known to everyone. At that time, the elderly high priest “sat on a seat by the road by the gate and looked, for his heart trembled for the ark of God.” But the population fell into terrible confusion, and “the whole city groaned loudly.” The ninety-eight-year-old high priest in alarm asked the messenger, who seemed to stand silently before him, not having the strength to tell the terrible secret: “What happened, my son?” - “And the messenger answered and said: Israel fled before the Philistines, and a great defeat occurred among the people, and both your sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died, and the ark was taken.” The elder could not bear the last news: as soon as the messenger mentioned the ark, “Eli fell from his seat and fell backwards at the gate; broke his back and died; for he was old and heavy.” The wife of the murdered Phinehas, from the terrible news, had a premature birth; when the women around her wanted to console her with the joyful news of the birth of her son, she was inconsolable and, dying, cried not about her dead husband, but that “the glory had departed from Israel; for the ark of God was taken,” in sad remembrance of it, she gave her son the name Ichabod, that is, “disgrace.” And indeed, this terrible disaster threatened not only disgrace, but also complete destruction of the people. God Himself had now abandoned him, and with the ark of the covenant not only his glory but also his political existence departed from him, after which slavery and complete destruction from his triumphant enemies were to follow. When the burial of Eli and the wife of Phinehas, who presented a striking example of piety and religious patriotism in this dark and gloomy time, was completed, and when despondency had already somewhat weakened, it was found necessary to take measures to provide for the tabernacle and the accessories and decorations contained in it. The Ark, however, was lost; but in the tabernacle there were still many valuable accessories, which were dear to the people due to their sacredness, antiquity and memorable use. These were the various curtains, the great brass altar of burnt offering, the altar of incense, the laver, the shewbread, and the golden lampstand. In addition to these, there were many other less valuable items used during worship in the sanctuary, among which were also the robes of priests, musical instruments and copies of the law and chronicles. All this had to be moved to some safe place before the Philistines reached Shiloh. That they were ready to continue their victorious movement inland, all the way to Shiloh, is quite probable, and therefore it was extremely necessary to take these precautions. What role young Samuel, who was about twenty years old, played in these events is unknown. Although still too young to act as a leader, he undoubtedly helped with his divinely guided advice and assisted in the execution of prudent measures. The tabernacle, with all its appurtenances and the national records contained in it, was removed to some neighboring place where it could be safer from desecration. If danger threatened there, then it was transferred again, and after various such changes, it was finally placed in Nob, a place located in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem, so that some identify it with the northern peak of the Mount of Olives, and others with Mizpah in the tribe of Benjamin, where in subsequent times Samuel held public meetings. There it still stood many years later, precisely during the reign of Saul (1 Samuel 21:10). Having lost the Ark of the Covenant, she also lost her main glory, so that the people no longer looked at her as the only place where sacrifices could be made. From here we see that altars were erected in other cities, such as. Rama, Mizpah and Gilgal; but where the tabernacle was located, some of the priests still lived and supported the usual worship, although it was deprived of its main honor and, however, continued to represent a solemn protest against the wickedness and oblivion of God. Severed from the shrine, which was mainly the purpose of the very construction of the tabernacle, it then never acquired its former significance, and the reverence that surrounded it was more a historical fact than an actual one. As soon as the tabernacle was removed from Shiloh and its priests fled to various places for safety, a terrible storm broke out over the city and threatened it. The Philistines, carried away by their unexpected success and convinced that their gods were more powerful than the gods of Israel, immediately marched on Shiloh. The city was defenseless, since the disheartened and scattered Israelites did not even try to offer any resistance. Although the sacred historian does not give any further details, we know from random indications that the city was sacked and destroyed, and the inhabitants, young and old, were all subjected to severe massacres. This terrible destruction to which Shiloh was subjected was never forgotten subsequently and for a long time served as the subject of moral teaching. “Come,” the prophet Jeremiah later exclaimed, “to My place in Shiloh, where I first appointed My name to abide, and see what I have done to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel” (Jer. 7:12). And the psalmist, pointing to this defeat of Israel and the disasters that followed, also said: “God heard and was inflamed with anger, And he was greatly indignant against Israel; the tabernacle in which He dwelt among men; And He gave His fortress into captivity, And His glory into the hands of the enemy. And he put his people to the sword, And he was angry at his inheritance. And they did not sing marriage songs to his maidens, His priests fell by the sword, And his widows did not weep” (Ps. 77:59–64). A terrible silence of desolation settled in the place where the praises of Jehovah were once heard and solemn hymns were sung by the praying people. In these ruined streets no more marriage songs were heard, and not even a funeral cry was heard. Deathly silence reigned over him. From its ruins Shiloh never again rose sufficiently to be of any importance, so that it was bypassed by Jeroboam when he chose the site for his idolatrous sanctuary. Such was the fate of Shiloh; but what happened to the ark of the covenant? Captured by the victors, he was taken by them to one of their nearest cities as a victory trophy. In the eyes of these idolaters, the outcome of the battle was a proof of the superiority of their god over the God of Israel, and, in their opinion, Israel, having lost her shrine, was now forever deprived of heavenly protection. Wanting to secure for themselves forever the fruits of their victory, as well as to take home the plunder, the Philistines withdrew with their forces, and triumphantly took the ark of the covenant from the battlefield of Aphek to their great city of Azoth. It was one of the five main cities of the Philistine country. At that time, it lay on the seashore, although its newest remnant, Ezdud, due to the shoal formed by the sand, now lies about five miles from the shore and is in danger of being completely covered with sand within a few years. It is located on a low circular hill, slightly southwest of Jerusalem, from which it is located about thirty to five miles. The strength of his position is indicated by his very name, meaning “strong,” and his strength is confirmed by the rebuff that he put up in 635 to Psamettikh, the king of Egypt, who unsuccessfully besieged him for 29 years 5 . The main deity of this city was Dagon, whom the Philistines idolized as a symbol of fertility or a productive force, just as the Canaanites generally idolized a similar force in Baal. In the images that have survived from him, he represents a figure with the head and arms of a man, but with the body of a fish. Inscriptions dated 2000 BC were found in Ur, which contain his name. From Babylon this cult spread to other parts of Asia; in Assyria, Dagon was idolized as a fish god, and the priests dedicated to serving him wore clothes made from fish skins. In one of his inscriptions, Nebuchadnezzar mentions that he dedicated several decorations to the church of Dagon 6 . Such a deity clearly indicated the maritime enterprise of the population, and naturally could serve as an object of worship in such a coastal city as Azoth. His wife was Athergatis, or Derketo, who is identified by some with Astarte, and who had a special church at Ascalon. Considering their last victory the triumph of their patron god, the Philistines wanted to mark this great event with some visible and clear sign. To humiliate Jehovah and force the God of the Hebrews to show respect to their triumphant god, they placed the ark in the church of Dagon. Such a custom was not unknown among the Assyrians. So Tiglath-Pilezer I, who reigned around this time and spread his conquests from Babylon to Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea, mentions in his chronicles how he brought twenty-five images of gods as trophies from Kirga and other northern regions, which he placed in the church of Sala, the wife of Assur. At the same time, he adds: “I dedicated them to the gods of my country Anu, Bir and Istara in my city of El-Assur” 7. Likewise, on another occasion, attributing the capture of Samson to the intercession of heaven, the Philistines, as is known, brought the blind hero to the church of Dagon, in Gaza, to mock him in the presence of their idol. Subsequently, when Saul and his sons fell in the fatal battle of Gilboa, the Philistines sent news of this to the church of their idols, and hung the weapons of the slain king in the church of Ashtoreth. In the present case, however, the matter turned out to be completely different from what the Philistines expected. They, it is true, defeated Israel, but did not defeat the God of Israel, and they soon had to receive practical proof of the insignificance of their idol, which was subjected to extreme humiliation. It was necessary in the interests of true religion that Jehovah should show His glory, and that the pride of the heathen and their false opinion should suffer due punishment. They had to learn that the Israelite God is above all gods, not a simple local deity, but the One Ruler of heaven and earth. The sacred ark of the covenant, with solemn cries, was brought into the gloomy church of the idol and placed in front of the very image of this imaginary god. The priests performed the usual rituals, locked the doors and left the ark in the church for the night. But what was their amazement when the next morning, opening the doors, they saw a strange and terrible sight before them. Dagon, prostrated before the ark, like a man pleading with a king, or a captive humiliatingly groveling at the feet of his conqueror, lay before the ark. The idol lay face down and was in a terribly humiliated position. Not wanting to accept such a bad omen and deciding not to see anything supernatural in this strange event, the priests tried to look at it as a simple accident. They lifted Dagon from the ground and placed him back on the pedestal. As if pointing to this, the prophet Isaiah subsequently sarcastically said: “They lift him onto their shoulder, carry him, and put him in his place, he stands, does not move from his place; they shout to him, he does not answer, he does not save him from trouble” (Is. 46:7). The priests, of course, at the same time could not help but have a deeper thought about the real reason for the event itself, but they left the ark of the covenant for another night in the church of Dagon, hoping that this would not happen again. But when the next morning they opened the doors of the church again, they saw the same thing with even greater horror, and now they could no longer consider such an event an accident. Their idol was not only again thrown to the ground in front of the ark, but also terribly mutilated. The head and hands of the idol were separated from the body and lay at the very threshold, where the feet of the uninitiated could step on them, and only one part of the idol remained intact, namely the fish tail with which the figure ended, as if to convince these idolaters that their god falsely took upon himself a human head, the emblem of reason, and human hands, the emblem of activity, and now, deprived of them, found himself in his true ugliness and powerless, in the form of a shapeless fish. How strong the impression made by this circumstance was can be seen from the custom that arose from here and continued to exist until later times. From that time on, not a single priest or admirer, at the entrance to the church of Dagon, dared to step on the door threshold, so as not to desecrate with his feet the place where the remains of the imaginary god lay. Although forced to admit the defeat of their deity in the presence of the supreme power of Jehovah, the Philistines, however, did not abandon their devotion to Dagon. This was their national god and, as a result of the misfortune that befell him, they considered themselves obliged to worship him with even greater zeal. In their opinion, he was capable of human passions and with petty malice could take revenge for any neglect of himself. The destruction of his image did not entail the abolition of the cult or the undermining of confidence in his patronage; what happened to his image may not have concerned God himself personally. With his help, they won a great victory, the damage caused to the idol was easy to correct, and if the God of Israel is unable to do more for his people than to overthrow the image of Dagon, then this is not yet a great misfortune, and they could be satisfied with their latest success. Thus they reasoned in their idolatrous blindness. However, in order to remove the source of such great trouble for Dagon, the Philistines took the ark of the covenant from the church and placed it in the city. But disaster began to haunt the Philistines wherever this Israeli shrine appeared. In the city itself, various diseases appeared, namely, some painful growths on the inhabitants of the city itself and its environs, and mice multiplied within the country, so that great despair settled in the city. What exactly this disease that affected the Philistines was is unknown, but in any case, similar facts are known in history. Herodotus tells a legend that the Scythians, having robbed the church of the heavenly Aphrodite in Askelon, were punished by inflicting on them some mysterious disease, which could be the same as, of course, in this Case. A later Jewish historian, pointing to these events, says: “soon, then, divine Providence visited the city of Azoth and its environs with a plague. The people were dying from dysentery, the most painful disease that caused unspeakable suffering, relieved only by death, because the insides of the sick decomposed, and all the food substances that the sick ate were thrown away undigested and rotten. In addition, whole swarms of mice spread, seemingly growing out of the ground, which destroyed all vegetation, sparing neither trees nor works of any kind” 8. As for the attack of mice, this fact also finds corresponding examples even in modern times. Thus, one recent follower says: “The short-tailed field mouse, as naturalists call it, is found in abundance throughout western Asia and must have great reproductive power, since it has many enemies. At night an owl hunts for her, and during the day, along with other birds of prey, a hawk, which, rushing across the sky, instantly rushes at her and carries her to its nest; the tireless little ferret climbs into her hole, successfully fights with her and exterminates her cubs, and yet, despite all this, the mice do not shrink at all. You see them on all cultivated lands; they run across the fields, diligently accumulate grain for the winter, squeal cheerfully from time to time; sitting on their hind legs in order to get a better look at you, they wait for you and then, when you approach, quickly scurry into their holes. This animal is capable of multiplying so much that at times it causes significant damage to crops, and farmers are generally more afraid of the devastation they cause than the damage caused by moles. One completely reliable friend told us that in 1863, while on the farm of an acquaintance, in the western part of Asia Minor, he saw around noon the devastation caused by a huge number of these mice crossing the field, like a mass of young locusts, whole fields, with waving grain and barley, disappeared in an incredibly short time, and as for the vineyards and mulberry trees, they were completely gnawed from roots and died as a result. The annual harvest of the farm, consisting of 105 acres, which promised to be unusually large, was then completely destroyed; Neighboring farms were similarly damaged” 9 . Seeing the cause of the disasters that befell in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant and feeling the hand of Jehovah on themselves, the inhabitants of Azoth wanted to somehow get rid of this mysterious box and, thus, be freed from the harmful consequences for themselves. There was confusion in the city and cries were heard: “Let the ark of the God of Israel not remain with us; for His hand is heavy both on us and on Dagon our God.” But this national trophy was not so easy to dispose of. The government of Philistia was in the hands of a union council consisting of the heads of each of the five allied cities. Without the decision of this council, nothing could be done. The Azothans brought the matter before their elders, at the same time expressing their determination not to retain this terrible symbol any longer. The elders, not believing what the people were saying, and not wanting to part with such an important sign of victory, decided to wait. In their opinion, either the cause of the present disaster was not at all the Ark of the Covenant, or the Azotians themselves for some reason incurred the wrath of Jehovah, or even the god of their city was weaker than the God of Israel; under other circumstances and in another place, these strange events might not have happened. As a result, they sent the ark to the city of Gath, where there was no longer a church of Dagon. This famous city lay about 18 miles southeast of Azoth, and therefore was closer to the borders of Israeli possessions. Its actual location has not yet been determined. Thomson places it in Beit Jebrin, which he considers to be ancient Eleutheropolis and near which are the remains of ancient ruins now known as Khurbet Get, that is, the ruins of Gath. Another explorer (Potter) identifies it with the remarkable conical hill now known as Tell es-Safi, which guards the entrance to the valley of the oak (Elah) and must always have been of great importance. Rising in solitary majesty from the valley, this hill presents a natural stronghold, inaccessible from the north and west, where it presents a white precipice several hundred feet in height, affording easy defense from other sides. It was to this city that the ark was sent in the hope of dispelling the despondency that it had caused in Azoth. But the same disasters followed here too. The inhabitants of Gath were immediately struck down by some disgusting disease and died in large numbers. The God of Israel, according to the psalmist, “smote His enemies in the rear, and gave them over to eternal shame” (Ps. 77:66). But not yet taught by this bitter experience, the Philistines moved the ark to the third of their allied cities, namely to Ekron 10, 18 versts northeast of Azoth and 13 versts from the sea. This place, now called Aqir ("barren"), is described by Robinson as follows: "Aqir lies on an eminence, on the north-western side of the Wadi Rubin, and as we moved closer the path led through well-cultivated gardens and fields of the richest soil, all the time along a low-lying strip covered with vegetation and all kinds of fruits." This city was the northernmost of the five Philistine cities, and was located on the northern border of the tribe of Judah, and the other four cities lay even within the very limits of the territory of this tribe (Joshua 13:3; 15:11, 47). Eusebius and Jerome describe it as a Jewish village, between Azoth and Jamnia (Jebneh) to the east, that is, to the east in a straight line between these places, and this is exactly the actual position of Akira in relation to Ezdud and Jebneh at the present time” 11. Having been placed in Ekron, the ark turned out to be even more destructive for the inhabitants than even in Ashdod and Gath. These fans of Beelzebub (See 2 Kings 1:2) had it even worse than the fans of Dagon. And each further movement of the ark brought more and more disasters and punishments to the ill-fated Philistines. It is not surprising that the Ekronians energetically rebelled against the presence of such a fatal gift in their city, and in despair shouted: “They have brought to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.” They demanded that the ark be removed, since they were fully convinced that it was precisely the cause of the disaster that befell them. They demanded that the rulers or elders gather in council and decide how best to get rid of the disaster that had befallen them and remove the ark to its own place. “Send away,” they said, “the ark of the God of Israel; let him return to his place, so that he does not kill us and our people.” Such an insistent request is very understandable: “for,” says the biblical historian, “there was mortal terror throughout the whole city; the hand of God was very heavy upon them (when the ark of the God of Israel came there). And those who did not die were smitten with growths, so that the cry of the city went up to heaven” (1 Samuel 5:10–12). Despite all these circumstances, the rulers of the Philistines were still unwilling to part with so great a trophy of their victory and thus truly acknowledge the superiority of Jehovah. This mysterious box belonged to them by right of conquest; placed in his church, it would be a permanent sign of triumph, and could reward many years of defeat and humiliation. But, in view of the general protest, they did not dare to hold him to their own responsibility, and finally, with extreme reluctance, they came to the conclusion that he should be returned to the Israelites. The whole question now was how to make this return. They turned to priests and soothsayers for advice on this subject. Obviously, knowing very little about the religion of the Israelites, they had very false and low concepts about the God of Israel. The Jews were not a proselytizing people, and did not at all have that missionary spirit that distinguishes the Christian Church. The Philistines may have lived for centuries in close proximity to them, and yet were completely unfamiliar with their religious doctrine and worship, and had only very inaccurate information about their past history. Priests and soothsayers have always played an important role in solving such difficulties as now befell the Philistines. So, Pharaoh, amazed at the miracles of Moses and Aaron, called his wise men or magicians to his aid; Nebuchadnezzar, struck by his mysterious dream, also called upon the magi, astrologers, spellcasters and Chaldeans to explain the dream to him. The prophet Ezekiel mentions three forms of prophecy (Ezek. 21:21, 22), and they, apparently, were common to all eastern peoples, and in times of decline were adopted from their neighbors even by the Israelites. The first method was what the Greeks called velomancy, that is, divination through arrows. It was produced in various ways. Sometimes an arrow was thrown into the air, and omens were sought in the direction in which it fell; sometimes they wrote names on the arrows, which were then placed back in the quiver, and removed from there by the blind man. The second method was very common among the Arabian tribes, and consisted of the following. Three arrows were placed in one vessel; on one was written: “my God commands me”; on the other - “my God forbids me,” and the third remained without an inscription. Then the vessel was shaken until one of the three arrows fell out, and if the first one fell out, then this was interpreted in the sense that the upcoming task had to be completed; if it was the second, then it had to be avoided, and if an arrow without an inscription fell out, then the vessel had to be shaken again until one of the inscribed arrows fell out. The third method was to observe the entrails of sacrificial animals. There were many other ways in which, under important circumstances, they tried to find out the future. But there is no need to describe them. In any case, no matter what method the Philistine soothsayers resorted to, they, having consulted on this matter, gave an answer that, having the character of a higher revelation, at the same time coincided with the desires of the people. They declared that the ark should be returned to its owners, and in support of this revelation they pointed to the past history of the Israelites. “Why should you harden your heart,” they said, just as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? Behold, when the Lord showed His power over them, they let them go, and they went on their way.” By this they made it clear that if their advice was not accepted, even greater disasters could befall the Philistines. At the same time, they also offered some propitiation to the offended Deity, which they now for the first time recognized under His own name - Jehovah 12. According to their advice, it was necessary to make some kind of offering in propitiation for the guilt in which the Philistines were involved. This merciful sacrifice was to consist of special objects corresponding, in number, to the cities and rulers of the Philistines, namely, “five golden growths” and “five golden mice”, i.e. gold items representing the disasters experienced by the Philistines. The people were in such an excited and confused state that it was enough just to point it out, and the matter was ready. Significant offerings flowed from everywhere, with the intention of appeasing the terrible alien God, and the number of golden mice even far exceeded the required amount. The peculiarity of this offering is in some respects similar to a custom widespread among pagan peoples and partly practiced to this day. This custom consisted of dedicating an offering to the church, which represented or expressed a special favor received in response to prayer. There were numerous examples of it. Thus, sailors, having escaped from a shipwreck, brought images or their clothes to the churches; sufferers, having been cured of illnesses, dedicated images of the healed parts. Theodoret mentions that Christians in the 4th century had the custom of bringing gold or silver hands, feet, eyes to churches, in gratitude and remembrance of the healings that took place through prayer in these parts. This custom continues to this day 13 . These propitiatory offerings, on the advice of the soothsayers, had to be placed in a special box, specially made for this purpose, and placed on a new cart, next to the ark. This last circumstance, i.e. the use of the cart, which had never before been used for other lower purposes, in turn indicated the feeling of reverence awakened among the Philistines by the ark of the covenant. This cart itself was probably a semblance of one of those carts or single-wheeled carts that are still used in these countries. They had strong wooden wheels, fastened with an iron spike and rotating on a wooden axle that moved freely under the cart. The ark along with the offerings was placed in such and such a cart, and two “first-born” cows were harnessed to it. Undoubtedly, like the new cart, the use of first-bred cows was determined by the special reverence of the Philistines, since such animals were usually chosen for sacrifice; but there was also another thought in mind. By this, the Philistines hoped to ascertain whether the disasters that struck the people were accidental or supernatural. Such first-time cows, being exposed to the yoke for the first time, were naturally stubborn and restless, especially since the calves were also taken away from them and locked up at home. It was quite natural to expect that, left to their own devices, these cows would quickly return to their calves. The priests and soothsayers apparently made an experiment, expecting that the event itself would show that the opinion that the disasters that befell the people had a miraculous source in the ark of the covenant was unfounded. If, they thought, the animals, left to themselves, follow their maternal instinct and return to their barns where the calves were locked, then it will be clear and obvious to everyone that the whole matter is a simple accident; but, if, on the contrary, the heifers calmly and directly carry the cart to the borders of Judah, then, in any case, according to the priests, they will be under the guidance of a higher divine power, and, therefore, the disasters that struck the Philistines were a direct punishment from Jehovah. Thus they subjected the God of Israel to a special test and provided him with a new opportunity for the manifestation of his Providence. The closest Israeli city to Ekron was Bethshemesh, located at a distance of twenty-two miles in a southeast direction. The name of this city means "house of the sun", and it was the site of a famous church during the reign of the Canaanites. It was not visible from Ekron, since it was covered by an intermediate elevation, but after this elevation the road, for several miles, goes straight, being completely visible from this Jewish city. Its ruins are located in the immediate vicinity of the newest village of Ain Shems, that is, the “source of the sun,” excellently located on the rounded top of a low ridge, having the Surar wadi to the north and another smaller wadi to the south. Wadi Surar lies between Ekron and Bethshemesh, and, when Robinson visited it, it was bordered by "well-cultivated gardens and fields of rich soil, being generally a low-lying strip, covered with vegetation and all kinds of excellent fruits." The cart, with its sacred cargo, was taken out of the city and the heifers were launched without any driver. The cows, as if guided by some higher order, moved straight towards Bethshemesh. The Philistines watched them with anxiety as they climbed to the high ground and then headed towards the Israelite city. It was already the month of May, and the entire population of Bethshemesh was in the fields, reaping the wheat harvest. The approach of the strange chariot involuntarily attracted everyone's attention. Since they soon found out what was the matter, everyone was overwhelmed with extraordinary joy; the work was suspended, and everyone, leaving their field guns, rushed to look at the miracle that had taken place. Joyful cries were heard across the fields: the lost and mourned shrine was returned to the people, the Lord was still merciful to them. Meanwhile, the cows continued to move slowly forward until they arrived in the field of a certain Jesus (a man who bore the name of the great leader who carried the ark of the covenant into the Promised Land), and they themselves stopped there at a rock that rose above the soil and was long after considered a place that received special holiness as a result of this circumstance. Bethshemesh was a priestly city, and priests and Levites lived in it, familiar with the regulations of the law. They joyfully accepted the people's shrine, turned the rock into an altar, chopped up the cart for firewood and sacrificed cows to the Lord, who had shown such great mercy. The Ekronians watched all this from afar, and then returned to their borders with amazement. Not content with just a formal sacrifice, the Bethshemites demonstrated their joy with other offerings. Under the direction of the priests, and in the presence of the ark of the covenant, which had made the place a sanctuary, they offered burnt offerings and thanksgiving offerings, accompanied by the usual sacrificial festival. The excesses allowed at this feast, together with the general rejoicing, caused some of the people to forget the due reverence for the material image of the co-presence of the Divine. The priests did not cover the ark with a sacred veil, as commanded in the law (Num. 4:5, 19, 20), and both themselves and others, without due reverence, opened the sacred ark, which even the Philistines did not dare to do, and examined its contents. The Lord, who so famously defended his honor among the pagans, did not want to leave such sacrilege unpunished on the part of his own people. Whether the Israelites lifted the golden lid of the ark simply out of blasphemous curiosity, in order to look at the famous tablets of commandments and other monuments of their stay in the wilderness, or whether they wanted to see if the Philistines had damaged these sacred utensils, is unknown; but whatever their motive, in any case it was a grave sin to treat the greatest shrine of God in this way. Regarding this, there were the strictest regulations in the law; Only priests could open the ark of the covenant, and any stranger who dared to look into it was subject to death; even the Levites themselves could not “look at the shrine when they cover it, lest they die” (Num. 1:50, 51, 4:20). With such decrees it was intended to accustom the people to proper respect for the shrine of God. And so, when the jubilant Israelites violated this decree, a great defeat occurred among the people, and (fifty thousand) seventy people were beaten 14 . According to the Greek translation, among those killed were the sons of a certain Jeconiah, who were most outstanding for their lack of reverence for the shrine, as a result of which, as this text says, “the sons of Jeconiah, among the men of Bethshemesh, did not rejoice because they saw the ark of the Lord.” This, perhaps, indicates that they, fearing that the presence of the ark would not bring upon them the same disasters that struck the Philistines, therefore reproached the people for receiving it so joyfully; As a result, the beating fell mainly on them. Whoever these dead were, in any case, the death of so many people in a small town was a very great and terrible disaster. They painfully realized their sinfulness and, in view of their great sorrow, were ready to cry out with the widow of Sarepta: “What is the man of God to me and to you? You came to me to remember my sins and to kill my son” (1 Kings 17:18); or with app. Peter, when he, amazed at the miracle of Christ, exclaimed: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Matthew 8:34). The Bethshemites said in horror: “Who can stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom will He go from us? Seeing Jehovah's dwelling in the ark, they wanted to pass it on to others. About seven versts southeast of Bethshemesh, on a hill rising a thousand feet above Ain Shems, was another Israelite city, which was once, before its conquest by the Israelites, a famous sanctuary of Baal. This was the city of Kiriath-Jearim, that is, the “city of forests,” now identified with Khurbet-Yerma, a ruin on a densely covered ridge among bushes and a thicket of mastic tree and hawthorn, to which the name Herma is still attached, corresponding to the later form of Arim, which replaced the original Jarim (1 Ezra 2:25). This ruin is only about five miles away from the large valley it overlooks. It lies near a ridge of low hills and high mountains of Judea and bears all the signs of an ancient city. Since Shiloh was no longer a suitable shelter for the sanctuary, the Bethshemites turned to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim with a request to accept from them the ark, which turned out to be such a disastrous gift for them. The inhabitants of this last place, probably after consulting with Samuel, willingly yielded to their request. They set out and brought the ark along an ancient, still existing road that runs north of the present ruin and leads straight to Beth-shemesh, along the outskirts of the Ismaine valley. After the ark was transported, it was placed in the house of a certain Abinodab, located on the top of a hill. Kiriath-jearim was not a Levitical city, but Abinodab may have been a Levite. There was, however, no priest in this place, and as recent experience had shown the danger of sacrilegious treatment of the shrine, the son of Abinodab, Eleazar, was consecrated as the keeper of the ark, that is, not for the purpose of performing priestly duties or performing sacrificial worship to Jehovah, which would be completely illegal, but for the purpose of protecting the shrine from sacrilege and seeing to due reverence for it. A special place on the hill was prepared for the ark. One later traveler (Conder), who explored this place with the aim of identifying it with the biblical narrative, found that this rock was carved in exactly the same way as in Shiloh. After mentioning “a bold spur running northward from the southern ridge, and distinguished by a small natural tower or rocky platform rising above a group of olive trees, below which again there are thicket-clad mountains,” he continues: “but the most curious feature of the area is a rocky platform, which bears all the signs of an ancient “high place” or central sanctuary. This platform measures about fifty feet from north to south, by thirty feet from east to west; its surface, apparently leveled artificially, rises about ten feet above the surrounding soil. The slopes on the sides seem to be generally natural, but the base of the hill was dug out on three sides, with roughly hewn blocks of stone fitted to the base of the wall. In the east, this wall consisted of a rock three and a half feet high, seven feet thick. Besides this there is another outer platform, about ten feet wide, which can be seen to the south and south-east, and there is also a series of steps three feet wide, each step being one foot high and one foot wide, and leading up to this lower platform in the south-east corner.” Thus, after seven months' captivity among the Gentiles, the ark returned again to its own land, and there it remained quiet for many years, until afterwards King David carried it to Zion, which joyful event was sung in the one hundred and thirty-first psalm, where, indicating that in its journey from Zion to Kirjath-jearim, the ark passed by the tomb of Rachel, the psalmist says: “Behold, we heard about him in Ephrath, They found him in the fields of Jearim." Ps.131:6. Chapter 3. Samuel as Judge and Prophet The destruction of the sanctuary in Shiloh marks an entire epoch in the history of the chosen people, because from this very time that important revolution began to take place in the religious and moral life of the people, which led to the transformation of the internal life of the people and its political revival. For twenty years after the defeat at Aphek, Israel groveled helplessly at the feet of its Philistine conquerors. True, these latter were forced to return the Ark of the Covenant to its original owners, but they retained dominance and oppressed the Israelites in every possible way. There was no high priesthood; there was no longer any center left to which pious people could flock to worship Jehovah; the sacred ark was separated from its sanctuary, the tabernacle; there was a danger of the complete fall of all religion and hopeless enslavement to the pagan yoke. But Samuel, whom history lost sight of for a while, was put forward to satisfy the urgent needs of the time. The former judge Samson could accidentally inflict cruel blows on the people's enemies, could humble them, showing what one strong hand, strengthened by the inner consciousness of divine help, can do; but now, to restore Israel to its lost glory, something else was needed, different from these random exploits. Samuel saw that individual efforts to rebel, manifested in certain areas and at various intervals, were useless and could only lead to even greater oppression. He knew where evil actually lay, he knew that under the moral government of Israel, prosperity depended entirely on religion, that national deliverance must be preceded by national repentance, and he would apply all the forces of his great mind to achieve a religious and moral revival. The fame of him as a prophet had already spread throughout the country. No matter how young he was, the depressed and oppressed Israelis were already inclined to listen to his advice. His frequent revelations were known everywhere, and the influence acquired so early naturally paved the way for the general recognition of his judging. The latter was a natural result of his prophetic office and was under his direction and management. We do not know whether he had any part in the erection of the tabernacle at Kiriath-jearim; but it is clear that he himself then and subsequently, for twenty years, made his native Rama his main residence. During this period he married and became the father of two sons, whom he named: one Joel, that is, “Jehovah my God,” and the other Abijah, that is, Jehovah my father,” thus expressing his piety in the very names of his children. But family ties did not at all deter him from fulfilling his intended goal. As a Levite, a Nazarene and a prophet, he had all the qualities to command respect and act as a teacher. A life of piety and self-denial, consistently pursued in all respects, well known to all the people, entailed an authority which could not but be recognized by all actual Israelites. During the twenty long years that lay between Samuel's youth and middle age, he worked hard to achieve his goal. He had a great task ahead of him, and he devoted himself entirely to it. The evil that brought the people to their present disasters was the wickedness of idolatry. The people abandoned the Lord, remained in wickedness, completely forgot the law of Moses, and grave disasters were only a direct consequence of these iniquities. In the Promised Land, images of Philistine deities were installed, which were now idolized instead of Jehovah or together with Him. In the places where the priests of the Most High God stayed and where the established sacrifices were made, the people built temples containing images of Baal and Astarte, and there they performed the disgusting idolatry of their pagan conquerors. A false peace had established itself among them, dulling their spiritual faculties and inducing them to walk in the ways of their pagan neighbors. The Philistines undoubtedly demanded respect for their religion as evidence of submission. The weakness of human nature, the laxity of morals sanctified by such a religion, the tendency to put up with what seemed inevitable, the fear of worse suffering in case of opposition - all this represented a serious obstacle to any change for the better; Samuel had to fight against all this. He was par excellence a man of prayer; his love of intercession was a prominent feature in his character. His communication with God supported him throughout this difficult period. At Ramah, where his influence was very strong, he erected an altar and worshiped Jehovah with such faithful Israelites as he could find around him. Gradually he gathered a small circle of students and friends, and expressed to them his views, desires and aspirations. Here he founded the first node of that prophetic school, which, starting small, continued to exist until the end of Jewish history, and had such an enormous influence on historical events and the character of the people. Persistently and persistently, he continued to pave the way to the hearts of his compatriots. With unflagging zeal, he constantly wandered between them, moving from one end of the earth to the other, persistently reproaching and admonishing. He reminded them of ancient glory, poured into their hearts long-forgotten ideas so dear to their ancestors - namely, ideas about the special Providence caring for them, about the graces and guidance bestowed on them, he proved that prosperity depends entirely on obedience, and that punishment inevitably follows any violation of the commandments of God. Often in danger from the Philistines, who, of course, knew that turning to Jehovah meant rebelling against them, meeting with opposition and obstinacy from the wicked Israelites, who were content with their slavery and did not want to rebel to regain their independence, Samuel continued to fulfill his mission throughout all these years, never losing sight of his intended goal and trying to make the Israelites recognize their sinfulness, recognize the justice of their punishment and make themselves worthy of renewed protection of God, with a complete and heartfelt appeal to Jehovah. Finally, after these long preparations, the matter seemed to be sufficiently ripe for a change to be made; the people have learned a lot from their historical life; poverty and oppression forced him to repentance; the people themselves discovered the source of their misfortunes, and at the same time saw where the only salvation was. Then Samuel, who had long acted in secret and to whom the people were already accustomed to turn for advice and support, suddenly appeared openly, like a leader sent from above. Israel “cryed out to Jehovah,” lamented over its past sins and again turned to the Lord, on whose divine help it placed all its hope. And now Samuel, not only with private reproaches or secret admonitions, but openly came out with an indication of the path for revival. He set only one condition as the true and only sign of sincere contrition, namely, that they must openly renounce idolatry and, thus, be prepared to endure the consequences of this feat. If, he exclaimed, “you turn to the Lord with all your heart; then put away the foreign gods and Ashtoreth from among you, and set your hearts toward your Lord, and serve Him alone, and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines” (1 Samuel 7:3). The Israelis responded cordially to this call; all the people became agitated; as if under the influence of some common impulse, they courageously decided to put an end to the humiliating idolatry that had hitherto captivated them; they destroyed the churches and smashed the idols. Such behavior was tantamount to open indignation against the Philistine oppressors. It showed what a wonderful influence Samuel had, how deeply his fiery appeal influenced the people, so that the latter, almost unarmed and completely undisciplined, without any great leader at their head who would confidently lead them to victory, decided to go out to fight their cruel enemy and defeat him. But now the Israelis had to place their hope not only in their carnal weapons. In order to prepare them for the great feat, Samuel called them to perform repentance and prayer. From that time on, he decisively acted as the leader of the people. He now called a great assembly at Mizpah in order to inspire the people to war by performing a solemn service. The name Mizpah, meaning "watchtower", was given to many heights in Palestine; but actually here we mean that wonderful hill, the highest in central Palestine, which, towering 500 feet above the surrounding country and almost 3000 feet above sea level, lies about seven miles north of Jerusalem and is now known as Nebi Samvil. If this is the same place as Nobah, then it was chosen as the site of this great meeting, not only because of its elevated position, which made it safe from unexpected attack, but also because the tabernacle was located there. It is remarkable that at the top of this hill, as at Shiloh and Kiriath-jearim, there is a level platform, about five or six feet, cut out of the rock, on which, undoubtedly, some building for the sacred tabernacle was erected. “The view from this place, usually identified with Mizpah, is very distant. It embraces Mount Gerizim and the spur of Carmel in the north; Jaffa, Ramla and a vast strip of coastal plain in the west; Jebel Fureidis (the so-called Frank's Mountain), the distant Djewala Mountains, the city of Kerak, Jebel Shigan (the highest point in the Promised Land) are visible to the south and southeast; a larger expanse of Trans-Jordanian flat hills, with a partly undulating outline, stretches to the east and northeast” (Konder). In propitiation for the past and in dedication for the future, the people, under the leadership of Samuel, performed two solemn rites. First of all, the people fasted, fulfilling the rite prescribed by the law for the great day of atonement, confessed their sins, lamented their souls and humbled themselves before Jehovah. This general fast was accompanied by another rite, not hitherto mentioned, but practiced from time immemorial on the Feast of Tabernacles. Namely, they “drew water and poured it out before the Lord.” Subsequently, this ritual was performed on each of the seven days of the holiday, when it was the priests who left the church, accompanied by the Levitical choir, to the source of Siloam and there they scooped water into a golden vessel, which they poured onto the altar as a libation during the morning sacrifice (cf. Isa. 12:3; John 7:37, 38). Was not this rite, so long maintained and so often mentioned by rabbinical writers, established precisely in memory of this great national revival, in remembrance of the reconciliation of an unfaithful people with God? It is remarkable that after the return from Babylon, this Feast of Tabernacles was solemnly celebrated by the whole community (1 Ezra 3:4-6), and then again, in the time of Nehemiah, the people gathered to hear the reading of the law on precisely this same holiday; so, apparently, this holiday was found to be the most convenient occasion for proclaiming a great national movement. The spilling of water was explained in various ways. During church service, it was a memory of water flowing from a rock, and served as a prototype of the outpouring of St. Spirit. In this case, it is explained, in connection with the fasting that accompanied it, as a sign of self-denial, just as David refused to drink water from the source of Bethlehem, but poured it out before the Lord (2 Sam. 22:16); others see in it a sign of repentance, a complete renunciation of sin, since the water was, as it were, a symbol of tears, or, being poured onto the earth, it figuratively washed the earth from defilement by idolatry; or, finally, it could depict the pitiful state and helplessness of the people, showing that they were like water spilled on the ground, which can no longer be collected again 15. Samuel, having called this assembly, acted as a prophet; but from now on he had to perform another position. The people recognized his power over themselves; he saw in him a man who was capable of becoming his ruler in public and state affairs, and here, in their full assembly, the Israelites, with general approval, elected him as their judge. A more worthy choice could not have been made. It is true that Samuel was not a warrior, was not a brilliant commander who, having the experience of many battles, could lead them to victory; but he was strong in prayer, strong in faith; he had the prudence of calm wisdom, knew his countrymen perfectly, understood exactly how much he could rely on them and how he could influence them. In this judicial dignity, he took the necessary measures to form them into a more or less coherent force, so that they could withstand the attack that was inevitable. The Philistines, of course, did not fail to notice that among the people under their control there was a strong movement towards rebellion. The general destruction of their idols and this great assembly at Mizpah were events whose significance could not be misunderstood. As a result, they quickly began to take vigorous measures. They gathered all their forces in order to suppress the uprising in the bud. Each city sent out its own detachment, and the army, which seemed insurmountable in its power, moved towards Massifah. The Israelites became despondent, but did not lose courage. Samuel's confidence inspired them with hope for divine help; he reminded them how, through the prayer of Moses, the Amalekites were defeated, how the Lord fought for Israel during the lifetime of their fathers, and they decided to meet the attack and leave the issue to the will of God. They turn to Samuel, asking him (this “son of prayer,” “man of prayer”) to pray to God to deliver them from the hands of the approaching enemy. And Samuel immediately acted as an intercessor. He cried out to God in fervent prayer, and, taking one lamb from his breasts, he offered it as a burnt offering to the Lord. He could have performed this sacrifice even without belonging to the family of Aaron, since he was, so to speak, a supernumerary priest, who was entrusted with filling the place of the regular priesthood in this abnormal state of affairs. God establishes certain orders and people are obliged to obey these orders; but he does not so bind himself to these institutions that he can never again act independently of them. It is possible, as we saw above, that the tabernacle was at Mizpah; in this case, the sacrifice could be performed in a designated place, although not by an ordinary priest; but, be that as it may, the prophet had the right to erect altars and kill victims in other places and generally be a mediator in communication with the Almighty. As the smoke of the sacrificial lamb (the image of the self-dedication of a dejected people) rose to heaven and Samuel's loud cry of prayer resounded in the air, the Philistine army approached, and the Israelites, from their exalted camp, moved towards the enemy. Their half-armed and undisciplined forces could hardly hold their own against the war-hardened Philistines. But the Lord fought for Israel. The voice of God responded to the voice of the prophet, and the biblical historian sees the clear help of God in what followed. A terrible thunderstorm broke out over the pagan army, instilling fear and confusion in them, and Samuel, like a skilled commander, took advantage of this moment to courageously move his people against their enemies. With irresistible courage, the Israelites rushed from the hill, broke through the battle line of the Philistines, and under this rapid onslaught the latter trembled, panic spread through their ranks, and they, forgetting about all opposition, began to flee in horror before the Israelites. Jewish tradition also tells about another circumstance that further contributed to this victory. “God upset the ranks of the Philistines with an earthquake; the ground shook under their feet, so that there was no place on which they could stand in safety, and they fell helplessly either to the ground, or even into some of the chasms that opened up beneath them. A very great beating followed. The Philistines fled into the deep valley, now filled with a stream rushing along its rocky bed, and were closely pursued by the victorious Israelites, who did not fail to take advantage of the weapons scattered by the terrified enemy. The pursuit ended only at Bethhor, the present Ain Karim, “the source of the vineyards,” a Philistine fortress that lay on one ledge, halfway to the eastern mountains. Here the small remnants of the pagan army found refuge without fear of further attack. For a long time afterwards, the Jews stood with delight over this victory, and the son of Sirach remembers it in triumphant lines: “Samuel, the prophet of the Lord, was beloved by his Lord, a judge of the people according to the law of the Lord, and the Lord looked upon Jacob. By his faith he was a true prophet; and in his words the fidelity of the vision was revealed. He cried out to Almighty God, when his enemies were pressing him from everywhere, and he sacrificed a young lamb, and the Lord thundered from heaven; and He made His voice audible with a great noise, and destroyed the leaders of Tyre and all the princes of the Philistines” 17. In memory of this great deliverance and in view of the need for divine help in the future, Samuel erected a larger stone on the spot where the victory took place, and called it Ebenezer, “stone of help,” saying: “The Lord has helped us to this place.” This was the same place where 20 years earlier the Israelites suffered a severe defeat, which ended with the captivity of the Ark of the Covenant. According to the definition of the sacred historian, it lay between Mizpah and Sen (“tooth”), as one pointed rock was called. This latter is identified with Deir Yesin (which retains its name to this day), a place located five miles west of Jerusalem and two and a half miles north of Bethhor. The solemn erection of this monument shows what an important transformation Samuel accomplished and what kind of spirit he inspired in his compatriots. Over the following centuries, every pious traveler could read on this monument what exactly was the guiding motive of his actions and the basis of any national success: “our help in the name of the Lord, who created heaven and earth.” This victory was accompanied by some immediate consequences. The Philistines were weakened for a time and made no further attacks on the Israelites. The national spirit of the Israelis was completely revived again; They not only retained their borders, but even recovered all the cities and surrounding areas between Ekron and Gath, which had been captured by the Philistines during their oppressed state. The Amorites, who lived in the vicinity of Joppa and took the side of the Canaanites, now also found it more profitable for themselves to side with Samuel and surrender under the protection of the Israelites (1 Sam. 7:14). This success of Israel at Ebenezer was not a mere isolated victory, but a sign of that new spirit in Israel which animated the people throughout the life of Samuel, and also during the reigns of David, Solomon and other great kings. Petty rivalries disappeared and gave way to a great desire for national unity. In individual tribes, the people now no longer strove for the glory and well-being of one or another tribe, but for the glory and well-being of all Israel. The former Canaanite idolatry, which had so corrupted and humiliated every nationality, was largely rejected and destroyed among the chosen people, and the pure religion of the Lord of hosts was no longer entrusted only to the care and protection of the tribe of Levi, which showed itself not entirely worthy of the commission entrusted to it. The Levites still officiated in the sanctuary, and the chosen family of Aaron, in the family of first Ithamar and then Eleazar, alone wore the jewels and the sacred robe of the high priest; but in religious matters the power of the priestly tribe never again occupied a supreme position in the promised land. Since the time of Samuel, a new sacred order emerged, namely the order of the prophet, whose exact duties in relation to ritual worship were not defined, but which was recognized by the people as the legitimate intermediary of communication with the true King of Israel. The blow dealt to the rule of the Philistines was generally so strong that the sacred historian, writing a little later after this event, could enter into his chronicle the triumphant words: “So the Philistines were pacified, and they no longer went into the borders of Israel; and the hand of the Lord was upon the Philistines all the days of Samuel” (1 Samuel 7:13). Thus, peace was established in the Promised Land, which made it possible for Samuel to freely fulfill his high calling. The former judges were for the most part simple warriors and generals; Having fulfilled their office and freed their people from one or another enemy, they usually retired to private life, never undertaking any more effective transformations. Samuel, meanwhile, was neither a commander nor a military leader. The incident just related was, so far as is known, the only one in which he acted as a leader in war. His calling was higher, namely to educate his people for the implementation of theocratic rule and to live, as it were, under the eyes and under the direct control of Jehovah. He did not quite succeed in achieving this goal, because he could not raise his fallen compatriots to the point that they could acquire such a sublime view; but he worked hard to achieve this goal, and abandoned it only by the express permission of God. We have already seen how he tried to achieve the realization of his thought, what measures he took to establish his influence among the people and to spread in them the true consciousness of his great destiny. The esteem in which he enjoyed, and the great services he rendered to the people, made this difficult task easier for him, and he endeavored to extend his personal influence to all his countrymen generally, at least in the southern part of the country, by annually visiting some of the most famous places in religious matters, making sacrifices there, and performing his office as a civil judge. From his residence in Ramah, he usually went to the ancient, associated with great memories, Bethel, where the Lord twice appeared to his great forefather Jacob and where the headquarters and altar of Abraham stood. From here he then traveled to Gilgalah in the Jordan Valley, the site of the first camp of the Israelites after their entry into the Promised Land, about five miles east of Jericho, and now known as Tell Giljulie. This has been a sacred place since time immemorial. Its very name, meaning “circle,” indicates primitive stone monuments of some ancient religion, although Joshua gave this name a new interpretation, bringing it into connection with the memory of the setting of twelve stones that served as a monument to the miraculous crossing of the Jordan. From Gilgala Samuel visited Mizpeh, and then again ended his circuitous journey at Rama, where he undoubtedly had some hereditary property. But he did not limit his judicial visits to these famous places; he often went to other places at certain intervals in order to sort out complaints, punish crimes, or perform worship 18. In Shiloh he established proper worship, although it is not clear that, having built an altar there, he moved the tabernacle there. It is possible that the priests from the clan of Ithamara considered it their own property and transferred it from one city to another, without encountering any opposition from Samuel. Despite the strict rule of the Mosaic Law, which commanded that all sacrifices be offered only in front of the ark in the designated place, altars were also erected in other places, such as. Gideon in Orpah and Manoah in Tzor (Judges 6:24; 13:19). In Migan there is evidence that before the construction of the tabernacle, worship on the high places was permissible, and it was prohibited only after that. After the destruction of Shiloh, it became temporarily permissible to offer sacrifices in various high places, and this permission continued until the construction of a new tabernacle in Jerusalem. Samuel's sacrifices at Ebenezer, Ramah, and other places were apparently sanctified by God; the pretext for the sacrifice in Bethlehem, on the occasion of the anointing of David, was even especially inspired by the Lord himself (1 Samuel 16:2). Now that the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant were separated from each other, and there was no definitely appointed house of God, the Mosaic decree was temporarily abrogated, and what would have been a crime at another time and after the building of the church, in this troubled period was allowed, or at least tolerated. The favorable acceptance of the sacrifices from the hands of Samuel at the same time shows that the Aaronic priests were not considered at that time as unconditional and exclusive servants of religion, and that God, by special authority, allowed the prophets to perform priestly actions. While serving as a people's judge, Samuel, through his tireless activities for the good of the people, acquired enormous influence over the people, such influence as no ruler had ever enjoyed since the time of Moses. Being at the same time a Levite, a Nazarite, a prophet and a judge, he concentrated in his personality both spiritual and civil power among the people, and, as an ardent zealot for the faith of the fathers, he decided to use this influence for the good of the people, and not only in the present, but also in the future. To this end, he, himself a prophet and teacher of the faith, came to the idea of ​​founding an institution that could forever serve as a source of teaching and enlightenment for the people and from which enlightened zealots of the faith could emerge. Such an institution appeared in the form of prophetic schools or so-called “hosts of prophets.” Prophets, as special heralds of the will of God, appeared before Samuel, but they did not yet bear the high title of prophets in the proper sense of the word, but were simply called “seers,” “men of God.” Only Samuel began to be called in the proper sense a prophet (nabi), and after him all those who followed him. Even earlier, during the time of the judges, when the religious and moral decline of the people reached its greatest proportions, “people of God” appeared in places, who, with their revealed word, tried to awaken the conscience of the people, awaken the spirit in them, or reproach them for wickedness. But by the time of Samuel, many such zealots had already appeared, and it was from them that Samuel founded the correct “hosts of prophets,” which formed something like religious brotherhoods or schools. Although in St. Scripture tells us very little about the external and internal life of the brotherhoods, but it is still possible to get some idea about them. Those who belonged to them were called “sons” or “disciples,” and their head was called “father.” Most of them were young people, a sign that the younger generation, as the most sensitive to good moral influences, most likely responded to Samuel’s call. They lived in communities, enjoyed communal contents, ate together, wore a special robe that distinguished them, with a leather belt, walked in whole hosts or crowds, and were so numerous, at least in later times, that cases are mentioned where the prophets gathered in groups of a hundred or more people (1 Kings 18:4; 22:6). The main schools were in Samuel's hometown of Ramah, then in Bethel and Gilgal, but smaller schools existed in other cities. Individual communities were under the supervision and care of the elder and most famous prophets, to whom the "sons" or "disciples" showed due obedience and respect, and some of the members of the communities even waited on them when the elder prophets and teachers had to be on the side. The elder prophets or teachers, in turn, took care of the welfare of their “sons”, and there are cases such as. The prophet Elisha once, during a famine, fed at least a hundred people and, after the death of one of them, gave his widow the opportunity to pay the debts he had left (2 Kings 4). The source of support for the brotherhoods was, at least in some cases, ordinary labor in agriculture and cattle breeding, as well as general craft activities, for which someone was accustomed and capable. But at the same time, they also accepted those offerings that were given to them by outsiders who sought their edification, consolation and enlightenment. Admission to the brotherhoods, apparently, was free: everyone was accepted who, in their life, was more or less capable of doing the work that was the task of these brotherhoods. The main purpose of their founding was to promote the ongoing movement towards the restoration of the true faith and the revival of the religious and moral life of the people. In accordance with this goal, the main subject of study in prophetic schools was the law of God, and not only in its letter, but also in spirit. At the same time, they studied religious rituals and sacred music. The latter was one of the distinctive features of the “hosts,” the prophecy of which was accompanied “with psalms and timbrels, pipes and harps,” which was especially capable of attracting the people. Community life, under the beneficial religious and moral influence of the elder prophets, was able to strengthen the characters of the “sons” of the prophets, and from them emerged those valiant men who fearlessly spoke the bitter truth to the powers that be. Inspired by selfless zeal for the true good of the people, they were fearless champions of the true religion and acted as decisive defenders of it in any danger that threatened it. Their activity developed and strengthened as the historical life of the people progressed, and over time they became formidable avengers for any violation of religion, truth and justice, and with their tireless preaching from that time on they did not cease to awaken the conscience of the people and their rulers, and thereby supported in them the spirit of true religion and good morality. The best years of Samuel's life 19 were spent in these works on spiritual education and public management of the people. But as the weight of the years fell on Samuel’s shoulders, and the people increasingly looked to him for advice and help, he found that he was not able to single-handedly fulfill all the duties that lay upon him. As a result of this, he attracted his two sons to help him in his judicial affairs, and made them, as it were, his governors in the south of Judea, in Beersheba, on the Philistine border. This appointment shows how great his authority was. I. Flavius ​​states that his influence also extended to the north, since, according to his testimony, one of the sons of Samuel was appointed judge in Bethel. It is difficult to understand how this great religious and statesman could know so little of the character of his sons when appointing them to such high positions. Elijah's example might have warned him against such a mistake. In any case, it is easy to imagine with what grief the great elder judge was struck when rumors reached him soon after that his sons “deviated into self-interest, took gifts and judged incorrectly.” In view of Samuel's strict character, it is obvious that this behavior of his sons was not the result of his paternal weakness towards children, as was the case with the high priest Eli. Most likely, this was a victim of his selfless social activities, which completely absorbed his strength and attention and deprived him of the opportunity to properly raise his children, and this circumstance served as a direct reason for an important revolution in the history of the Israeli people. The time of the judges was a time of anarchy and the disasters associated with it, since, due to the lack of firm power, the people lost political power and constantly suffered defeats from neighboring peoples who had strong royal power at their head. Seeing now that even the sons of such a pious and wise ruler and judge as Samuel were incapable of ruling the people, the Israelites gathered for a meeting, and the elders decided to ask Samuel to install a king over them who would “judge them like other nations.” This desire of the people was not illegal, but was provided for in the legislation. The wise legislator of the people, Moses, foreseeing with his prophetic glance the future fate of the historical life of his people, gave in advance a law that determined the circle of royal power. “When you come to the land,” he said, “which the Lord God will give you, and you take possession of it, and settle in it, and say: I will set a king over me, like the other nations that are around me; then set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose” (Deut. 22:14, 15). But the elderly judge reacted unfavorably to this request, and not only for the sake of his unworthy sons, but mainly because the desire of the people was expressed without first asking the will of God. Obviously, the people, approaching Samuel with this request, did not sufficiently weigh the importance of this matter. He asked for a ruler who would govern him like other peoples, and thus seemed to forget that his special advantage was to differ in his governance from other peoples, and not only not to imitate these peoples, but to be a model for them in everything. The Israelites, obviously, did not fully understand the great idea of ​​\u200b\u200bgovernment by God, according to which they were supposed to be exclusively subjects of the one heavenly King Jehovah, were to be governed only by Him, through those special rulers whom He called and who were under His special leadership. Actually, the principle of monarchy was by no means rejected by the Law of Moses, but only according to this law the Israelites had to obey the heavenly Monarch, and not the earthly one. Such rule was given to them as a visible guarantee for the great truth of monotheism entrusted to them, and to preserve this truth they were isolated from the rest of the World in St. earth; to constantly remind them of this truth, they were assigned only one place of public worship, and they had to constantly feel their complete dependence on God in everything, so that Jehovah constantly punished them for their crimes, and Jehovah gave them deliverance from external disasters. Their only head and leader was to be one, invisible God. But the people never fully understood this great idea; she was too sublime for his stiff-neckedness and demanded for herself a stronger faith than he was capable of. Like their ancestors in the desert, who, not trusting the invisible God, shouted to Aaron to “make them a god who would walk before them,” they needed some tangible ruler and leader; they forgot how God ruled them, fought for them and supported them when only they were faithful to Him. Although they were not mistaken in the very belief that in time they would have to be ruled by a king, as evidenced by the law and various prophecies (such as and the song of Anna), however, they clearly sinned by asking for exactly the kind of king that the pagans had. The king they needed was not just a warrior, but a representative of Jehovah, who would act in everything under supreme leadership, and by his own obedience to the law of God, and by establishing this obedience among his subjects would gain the favor of the Lord. Naturally, in view of all this, Samuel listened to this request with sorrow. But his wounded feelings did not make him unjust or alien to all prudence. He submitted this matter to the decision of the One Whose he was a servant, and turned with a question to the Lord, and his question was answered: “Listen to the voice of the people in everything that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, so that I should not reign over them. As they did from the day on which I brought them out of Egypt until this day, leaving Me and serving other gods, so they will do to you. So listen to their voices; just present to them and declare to them the rights of the king who will reign over them” (1 Samuel 7:8–9). Samuel acted in accordance with this instruction, and it is not superfluous to pause here to point out the self-denial of this true patriot. The ideal for which he had lived and worked was now suddenly shattered and overthrown; the theocratic government to which he had devoted all his energies was now undergoing an extremely important change; Jehovah's subjects seemed to rebel and betray their allegiance; the people he loved and saved apparently no longer wanted to trust the wisdom and power of their supreme King - and, despite all this, Samuel did not grumble; he accepted the new state of affairs with rare self-denial, thought only about how to arrange all this as best as possible for his people, devoted all his efforts to making this transition as correct as possible and turning it towards improving the religious and socio-political life of the people. “Samuel,” rightly says Ewald, “is one of those few great men in history who, in critical times, by the strength of their character and invincible energy, terminate the previous form of the great existing system, first against their own will, but then, convinced of its inevitability, devote themselves to serving it with all the strength and willingness of their nature and then introduce a better form with happier results, despite personal suffering and even oppression. What motivates him to action is not some new truth that goes beyond the first Mosaic principles; but he cheerfully and vividly perceives these principles as his own, and in his time it was a great necessity not to let such truths fall into oblivion. These truths, which had reached intense vitality in his own spirit, he had the strength and self-denial to embody again in the life of his century, and to organize the entire life of the people according to them in such a way as was only possible under the conditions of that century. Being rather a man of bold and indefatigable energy than of thought and reasoning, Samuel at first gave himself entirely to the established system and made use of all the forces and existing institutions contained in it, striving for the strengthening and revival of his people, giving even to his mature years, by the brilliance and superiority of his spirit, perfection to all those orders over which his influence extended. Here, contrary to his own assumptions and expectations, the conviction suddenly dawns on him that the entire existing system has become hopeless, and that the people can only be saved by a completely new device. And at this moment, which was to decide the fate of entire centuries, he is truly a hero who can sacrifice his former convictions and all the honors of his position in order to give the people what they lack, and even take all measures so that the change that has been accomplished may actually bring the fruits for which the people hoped. Although at first he was a conscious opponent of the new institution that the people asked of him, Samuel, however, from the moment he recognized the necessity of this revolution, became the most devoted and most useful organizer of the new institution. Thus, Samuel appears to be the spiritual hero of two completely different periods, being equally famous in both, but especially happy in the second, during which he not only lived, but which he, so to speak, created, namely, a period not only of fermentation, but also of progress, in which the good seed he had sown could grow and prosper. If the visible deeds of David are greater and more brilliant than those of Samuel, there can be no doubt that the splendor of David's glory would not have been possible without the less glorious, but accompanied by much greater influence, exploit of Samuel, and that all the greatness of the subsequent century should be attributed to him, as its real culprit. Although the order which Samuel had maintained and cherished in his life and work was now about to change, yet the great elder-judge, in his selfless patriotism, did not express a word of personal reproach, but simply proceeded to carry out the command of God and to establish a new institution in the best possible way. First, he fully informed the people of what the Lord had told him, then he explained what the consequences of appointing such a king as they desired could be, what his rights should be and how he could use them. From these reports they could not help but learn that a very great responsibility was imposed on the people, and that in time they might even repent of having abolished the gentle and just rule of Samuel and preferred the rule of an unlimited king to communal government. “These will be the rights of the king who will reign over you,” Samuel said to the people in a solemn assembly: “he will take your sons, and put them in his chariots, and make them his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots; And he will make them commanders of thousands and captains of fifties, and they will till his fields, and reap his grain, and make him weapons of war, and his chariot implements. And he will take your daughters to make ointments, cook food and bake bread. He will take your fields and your vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. And he will take a tenth of your crops and your vineyards and give them to the eunuchs and his servants. He will take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his business. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will be his slaves. And then you will groan at your king, whom you have chosen for yourself; and the Lord will not answer you then” (1 Samuel 8:11–18). This speech paints a vivid picture of the usual character of the government of kings in the east. Such a warning might cause the people to delay their decision and think carefully about what they were striving for. The elders did indeed subject the matter to a new discussion, but their meeting ended only with a renewal of the previous request. They again came to Samuel and, repeating their request, said even more insistently: “No, let the king be over us; and we will be like other nations: our king will judge us, and go before us, and fight our wars.” Any protest after this was useless, and then the Lord told Samuel to satisfy the desire of the people and install a king over them. The desire to have a king was caused in the people of Israel by the final consciousness of their inability to self-govern according to those lofty principles of government that were set out in the legislation of Moses. During the time of the judges, the entire life of the people, both religious and moral, and state-social and family, came into disarray. Although worship continued to be performed mainly at the tabernacle, sacrifices were also made in other places, which easily led to the development of superstition and directly to deviation into idolatry. In the absence of a firm authority to monitor the implementation of the laws, morality, to the great regret of some pious people, fell further and further. The self-will and predation that prevailed everywhere increasingly weakened the strength of the people, which was taken advantage of by the Canaanites, who plundered the kingdom of Jehovah with impunity. This condition was all the more difficult because during this time the enlightenment of the Israelis had advanced significantly. In the person of the prophets, worthy teachers appeared who, teaching the people the law of God, awakening in them the consciousness of its highest purpose and showing how far reality did not correspond to it, kindled patriotism in them and forced them to look for an outcome from a disastrous situation, which outcome was imagined to them only in the establishment of firm royal power. Chapter 4. Saul's anointing as king When the decision of the people to have a king found final approval on the part of the supreme King of Israel, the prophet Samuel did not have to wait long for further instructions to carry out this matter. Circumstances, apparently completely accidental, but clearly revealing the hand of Providence in this very accident, soon brought him face to face with the man who was destined to be the first king of the chosen people. In the town of Gibeah, in the tribe of Benjamin, lived the family of a certain Kish, who had an only son, Saul. The genealogy of Kish is very vague, partly due to the Jewish custom of omitting family links and partly due to the terrible extermination of the Benjamites during the period of the judges, when many of the tribal records were probably lost. This family was not rich and earned its daily bread through agricultural work, which the father himself did together with his son and a few servants. But it was generously endowed by nature and was distinguished by external greatness and beauty, and at the same time by insurmountable courage, tempered in the fight against enemies. And so, one day this family’s working donkeys disappeared. This loss was very significant for the poor Kish, and to find them he sent his son, Saul, who at that time was already middle-aged, along with his servant. In an unfenced and not densely populated country, it was not easy to find these lost animals even for two experienced people. The servant who went with Saul was not a slave in the proper sense of the word, but a trusted and close person. If tradition correctly considers him that Doik the Edomite, who subsequently mercilessly carried out Saul’s cruel order to kill the priests in Nob (1 Sam. 22:18), then he was well acquainted with the customs of these animals, and he could well be trusted in finding lost donkeys. Leaving Gibeah, Saul and his servant first crossed the chain of mountains of Ephraim, going to the tribe of Benjamin, and then headed towards Ramah or Mizpah. This journey was quite long and tiring, and despite this, they could not find the lost donkeys anywhere. They spent three whole days searching, and Saul, who was generally distinguished by strong affections, began to think about the anxiety that such a long absence could cause his father and family, and therefore suggested that the servant return home, although their search was not crowned with success. “Let’s go back,” he said to the servant, so that my father, leaving the donkeys, will not worry about us” (1 Sam. 9:5). The servant, however, did not want to return home without completing the assigned task, and he noted to Saul that there was an opportunity to try his luck before returning home. He specifically advised going to the nearest city, where, in his words, there was “a man of God, a respected man; whatever he says comes true”; will he show them where to look for their lost donkeys? Saul agreed, but at the same time expressed regret that he had nothing to pay the “seer.” Going to some great person without a corresponding gift is unheard of in the east; and we know from the contemptuous allusion of the prophet Ezekiel to “a handful of barley and pieces of bread” 21 that false prophets always received payment from the people they deceived for their false predictions. The messengers who asked Balaam to help Balak also came to him with gifts; Jeroboam's wife, who went to consult with the prophet Ahijah regarding her son's illness, took with her a gift of bread and honey. There is no need to suppose that Samuel took payment for his advice, like the pagan soothsayers; most likely, Saul, worried that he had nothing to pay the seer, was guided only by current custom. The difficulty in this case regarding payment was resolved by the servant, who remarked that he had a fourth part of a shekel of silver, and would willingly sacrifice it for the message received. It is impossible to determine what exactly this amount is with the newest money. In any case, we can assume that a shekel at that distant time was about 80 kopecks or one ruble; but since there was little silver at that time and the value of money was comparatively higher, then, of course, the purchasing power of this money was much higher than it is now. Interpreters believe that the shekel was divided into four parts by a cross and, if necessary, was actually broken. The fourth part of the shekel thus separated was about 20 or 25 kopecks and could be considered a fairly significant payment at that time. Be that as it may, the difficulty now disappeared, and they went to the city where the “man of God” lived. The seeker of donkeys thus went to the prophet who was to give him the kingdom. The biblical narrator does not say what city it actually was, but in all likelihood it was either Ramah or Mizpah, where Samuel arrived at that time for a sacrifice. When they approached the city, they met girls who had gone out to draw water and asked them: “Is there a seer here?” They answered them and said: “Yes; here he is ahead of you; just hurry up, for today he has come to the city, because today the people's sacrifice is on high. When you come to the city, you will find him before he has gone up to that height for lunch; for the people will not begin to eat until he comes, because he will bless the sacrifice, and after that those who are invited will begin to eat. And so, go, now you’ll find him.” Preparations were apparently taking place in the city for a public celebration, which was combined with a sacrifice. The sacrifice was usually performed at some “height,” i.e. on the top of the hill where the altar was erected. Samuel, as a prophet, usually said a prayer of thanks during the sacrifice, blessed the victim itself, after which the eating of the sacrificial meat began. As Samuel was thus preparing for the sacrifice, he received a divine inspiration that on that day he would meet the man destined by God to be king of Israel. Forewarned in this regard, he made all the necessary preparations for such a great occasion. In order to give the sacrifice and the subsequent celebration as much solemnity as possible, he invited thirty of the most important elders of the city to gather at the height, and then set aside the best part of the meat for the noble wanderer. At the appointed time, the prophet went outside the city in order to emerge from the gates and ascend to the heights. Suddenly he sees before him a man of very impressive appearance and remarkable beauty; involuntarily drawing attention to this man, he involuntarily thought whether this was not exactly the man who was destined to be a monarch over the chosen people. His indecision was immediately eliminated, and the voice of God spoke in his soul: “This is the man about whom I told you; he will govern my people." At this very moment, Saul approaches Samuel and, not knowing who he is actually talking to, asks him if he can tell him where the seer’s house is. “I am a seer,” answered Samuel, “go ahead of me to the heights; and you will dine with me today, and I will send you away in the morning, and I will tell you everything that is in your heart.” Having thus prepared the involuntarily amazed wanderer for the great event, he, at the same time, in order to arouse in him confidence in his prophetic insight, which penetrated into the secret thoughts of the heart, added: “And don’t worry about the donkeys that have been missing for you for three days; they were found." Then Samuel added some mysterious words, hinting that some great change was about to happen to Saul. The message was made with some ambiguity, but in any case it showed that there was something extraordinary in them; it was the prophet who added: “And who has all the lust in Israel? is it not for you and for all your father’s house?” That is, in other words, Samuel wanted to say to Saul: why should you worry about donkeys, or bother about some insignificant farm on Mount Ephraim? Something much higher will have to occupy your thoughts, because to whom will all the best in Israel belong? Is it not for you and not for your father's house? (1 Sam. 9:20) Such a prediction, together with a mysterious hint, extremely amazed Saul, since until then he had never been engaged in anything like this, no such dreams had ever disturbed the calm flow of his life, and he could hardly even attach significance to the words of the prophet or see in them anything more than the hyperbolic saying of a kind seer. Therefore, he modestly answered him: “Am I not the son of Benjamin, one of the least tribes of Israel? And is not my tribe the smallest among all the tribes of the tribe of Benjamin? Why are you telling me this?” The tribe of Benjamin had not yet fully recovered from the cruel beating to which it had been subjected several years before, and the Kish family, although comfortable in land holdings, was not of great importance; how could a member of such a tribe become the subject of such great promises? Samuel did not give any answer to this question from the perplexed Saul. He awakened in him high thoughts, put great aspirations in his mind and limited himself to this until the time came for the event itself to take place. Meanwhile, he led Saul and his servant into the room where dinner had been prepared and where those already invited had gathered. Saul was given a place of honor, not only as a wanderer, but precisely because of that high destiny that the seer already knew about. The servant who accompanied him was also shown every respect, as the companion and servant of such an important person. Then Samuel offered him the best part of the meat, the one that I. Flavius ​​calls the “royal part” 22. This was precisely the shoulder with all the fat that was not burned on the altar. If it was the right shoulder, it was that part which generally belonged to the priest, and could only be granted to the layman by the authority of the prophet, who had the power to change the usual rites. Such an offer was a sign of the highest honor. When the cook, who was preparing dinner, brought the portion assigned to Saul and laid it in front of him, Samuel remarked: “This is left, put it in front of you and eat; for for this time it was reserved for you, when I called the people together.” When the dinner was over and the guests had gone away, Samuel invited Saul with him to his house in the city, begged him to postpone his return home until the next day, and then, in order to better talk with him, invited him to the roof of the house. These flat roofs in the east have always been a favorite place of rest, not so much because of their privacy as because they were the best places to carry on conversation without being disturbed by strangers. Here the elderly Samuel had the opportunity to become fully acquainted with Saul, but this time he had not yet fully revealed his goal to him, postponing a more complete announcement about it until tomorrow; but he could explain to the future king his view of the situation of the people and the country, and tell about his long-term efforts to improve matters; could also point out to what religious and political decline the people had reached, how they were unable to provide more or less significant resistance to their enemies, how they needed an active and strong leader who, obeying the commandments of the Lord and devoting himself entirely to His service, could act as a deliverer of the people. In a word, in his conversation, Samuel could fill the soul of his listener with pious ambition and instill in him the desire to become an instrument in accomplishing the great work ahead of the revival and strengthening of the people; could set before him the great principles of the government of God, which had been so sadly forgotten; could also point out those means that alone could meet the needs of the crisis being experienced. Saul had hitherto felt no interest in public affairs; He was engaged only in ordinary household affairs in his father’s house and thought little at all about the general destinies of his country. During his alienated life, he knew nothing of the religious or political movements taking place among the people, and therefore it was necessary to awaken in him the highest aspirations and noblest hopes, lest a fuller announcement of his future fate should find him completely unprepared. After this deeply important conversation, a bed was prepared for Saul on the roof, and he was left there for solitary reflection on everything that had happened. “During a large part of the year,” says Thomson, “the roof is the most pleasant place to be in an Oriental house, especially in the morning and evening. They usually sleep there in the summer, where only the miasma does not make it dangerous. This custom is very ancient. Saul, young and strong, but tired from his long journey in search of the donkeys, could not find a better place to sleep than on this roof.” 23 Very early the next morning, he was awakened by the elder prophet, who invited him to prepare for the journey and expressed his readiness to see him out of the city. It was an honor that surprised Saul even more, who was already extremely embarrassed by the extraordinary reception he received from the seer, and by the vague hints about future fate that he heard from him. As soon as they had left the city and were now alone in the open field, Samuel suggested that Saul send his servant ahead, so that he could privately communicate to Saul the word of the Lord that he had for him. It was a solemn moment, for which all previous circumstances and actions served as preparation. What a chain of so-called accidents led to this moment! The accidental loss of several donkeys, Saul's departure in search of them, the servant's idea to consult the seer, the presence of Samuel in the city, Saul's meeting with the prophet, the feast to which this stranger was invited - all these events, apparently trivial and accidental, were all instrumental in the execution of the intended will of God. Without making any further explanation, the aged prophet suddenly stopped and ordered his young companion to stand before him. Then he took a vessel from his bosom, one of those long narrow-necked vessels from which the contents slowly flow in drops. This vessel was filled with the consecrated oil used in the anointing of the high priest, and the prophet poured the oil “on Saul’s head and kissed him.” The Jews had the custom of anointing rulers even before this time, as can be seen from the famous parable of Jotham (Judges 9:8), in which trees were gathered to anoint themselves a king. Subsequently, it became customary to perform this ceremony upon the accession to the throne of a new dynasty, or in general, where the inheritance turned out to be controversial. This is how David, Absalom, Solomon, Joash, Joahaz and Jehu were subsequently anointed; but under ordinary circumstances princes were not anointed at all, the anointing of their legitimate predecessor being considered a sufficient authority for them, and the title "anointed of God" was applied to all legitimate kings, whether they were formally anointed with the sacred oil or not. This ceremony was of very great importance. It meant that all the highest offices were concentrated in the anointed person; the anointing sanctified and distinguished him from all the people around him, gave him greatness and holiness, which no one had yet possessed among the people, and made his personality inviolable, so that a crime against him was already considered a betrayal of the Lord, whose vicegerent he was considered. Having thus designated Saul for the throne, Samuel kissed him as a sign of respect and devotion. All this, both the anointing and the extraordinary respect on the part of such a highly revered judge and prophet, of course, greatly amazed Saul, and he, rather with astonished eyes than with his tongue, asked what it all meant. And then Samuel, in explanation of his actions, answered him: “Behold, the Lord anoints you as the ruler of His inheritance (in Israel, and you will reign over the people of the Lord, and you will save them from the hand of their enemies who surround them).” Israel was the special heritage of Jehovah, as it is called in the law and writings of Moses (Deut. 9:26, 29; 32:8ff.), and therefore no one could become king over it without a special higher calling. But since Saul still could not sufficiently believe in his such a high destiny, Samuel, in order to assure him of the reality and truth of everything that happened, that it was the anointing performed on him that took place by divine command and that the great destiny ahead of him was not just a dream, gave him three signs, from which he could verify the truth of his destiny. The first sign was that near the tomb of Rachel, near the borders of Benjamin, he would meet a man who would inform him that the missing donkeys had been found and that Kish was already very worried about the long absence of his son and was grieving for him. The location of Rachel's tomb is well known, and tradition places it one and a half miles north of Bethlehem. This first sign, by its fulfillment, was supposed to confirm the message given earlier by the prophet and strengthen Saul’s faith in the high destiny that was foretold by the words and actions of the prophet. From here on, he became a new man, filled with new hopes and goals, eager to meet the fate that awaited him. Then two other signs were given to Saul: “And you will go further from there, Samuel told him, and you will come to the oak grove of Tabor, and three men will meet you there going to God, to Bethel: one carries three kids of goats, another carries three loaves of bread, and the third carries a bottle of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, and you will take it from their hands.” All this also happened as Samuel had predicted. Finally, the third sign was to happen over Saul already close to his own house in Githah, on a hill. In this place he will meet a host of prophets descending from on high, and they will prophesy. This is exactly what happened. When he approached the appointed place, a whole crowd of students actually came out of the prophetic schools founded there by Samuel, accompanying their procession with music and psalmody. Among the musical instruments used by the prophetic disciples were the psalter, that is, a harp without a third side, consisting of ten strings, played by hand, and having a very low tone; a tympanum or tambourine, a pipe or reed instrument, like a clarinet, and a harp of eight or nine strings, which were played with a plectrum, a small bone stick used instead of fingers. These four musical instruments were often used on ceremonial occasions, as was subsequently mentioned more than once when reporting on the celebrations of the dissolved Israelites (Is. 5:12). Now when Saul met this host, saw their enthusiasm, heard their exciting music, his heart was strangely stirred; The Spirit of God came upon him, and he involuntarily succumbed to the charming influence of these enthusiastic songs and praises that came from the lips of the prophets, “and he prophesied among them.” This event was so unusual for everyone who knew Saul before, when he, apparently, was not distinguished by any particular religious zeal, that everyone among the people said to each other: “What happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also a prophet? The change in him was so profound that the last expression even became part of a proverb (“food and Saul to the prophet”), used to express amazement at the sight of any extraordinary and amazing phenomenon. They obviously did not understand, nor could they understand, the reasons for this extraordinary change in Saul's condition. But one resident, more insightful than the rest, took a deeper look at this matter and remarked: “You are surprised what happened to the son of Kisov. But what does the prophetic gift have to do with kinship? Who is the father of those other prophetic disciples? Is prophecy a hereditary gift? If they received their ability from God, then didn’t the same thing now happen to Saul?” 24. So the spiritual transformation carried out by St. The spirit in Saul's heart began to become clear to the people around him. When this temporary enthusiasm passed, it left a certain feeling in the soul, which could no longer be satisfied by anything other than further communication with God. New forces were now at work in Saul, new feelings and inclinations were stirring; he wished to be left alone for quiet reflection and prayer. Therefore, before returning to his home, he went to that high hill, which had just before been abandoned by the prophetic host, and remained there for some time in calm solitude. Some think that a feast was held there in a special sanctuary, and that Saul went there with the purpose of being present at it, and there he met his uncle, who began to question him about everything that had happened. But it is much more likely that he climbed to this height for a religious purpose, since otherwise, if there was a feast there, the prophets themselves would rather go there, and not descend from the mountain, as was in reality. Only after this did he go home and was greeted with great joy by his father, who, as a man of an extremely calm and unpretentious character, was too pleased with his found donkeys and his returned son to make any further inquiries about his adventures during the journey. But his uncle, probably either Ner, his father’s brother, or his cousin, later the famous Abner 25, was of a completely different character. Having heard about Saul's meeting with Samuel and about the honor shown to him in front of a whole assembly of guests, as well as noticing a change in Saul's behavior and customs, he turned to him with detailed questions. But Saul did not satisfy his curiosity. He did not say a word to him regarding the kingdom promised to him. He probably knew enough about the character of Abner to see that his relative would immediately take measures to fulfill the great promise given to him, and this would go contrary to the inspiration of the prophet and would not be consistent with his own modesty. Therefore, he did not tell any of his relatives about his secret. Before dismissing Saul after the solemn anointing, Samuel gave him clear instructions, adding that in all other respects he should be guided by circumstances and act according to the inspiration of the Spirit. “When these signs,” said Samuel, “come to you, then do whatever your hand finds; for God is with you." Then, Samuel made some orders in order to prepare for the further proclamation of Saul as king. He, by the way, ordered him to go to Gilgala, where he himself promised to come to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. The matter was about the liberation of the promised land from the Philistines, who, despite the defeat they suffered, did not completely abandon their rule over Palestine and, having retained some areas, even had their own security garrisons at various points. But now the time has come for the open election of the future gift. Private appointments and secret anointing had to be complemented by a solemn act in the eyes of all Israel. The king had to be chosen in the great assembly of the people by lot, which was considered the usual way of ascertaining the will of the Most High, and for this purpose Samuel, as the most influential person in the country, summoned all the people to Mizpah, which, since the time of the great sacrifice before the defeat inflicted several years before on the Philistines, had become the main place of such meetings. In order to give special solemnity to this meeting and to receive an indication of the will of God, the mysterious Urim and Thummim were brought there either by the high priest himself, or, if this position was vacant, by the priest who temporarily replaced him. When everyone had gathered, Samuel stood up and addressed the people with a speech. He reminded them of everything that the Lord had done for them in ancient times, how He saved them from the hand of their enemies and from all their oppressors; but deliverance was always conditioned by their obedience to His laws and recognition of dependence on Him. Now they wanted to have a king who would lead them against their enemies and deliver them, in addition to such a condition; they obviously leaned towards secular politics and wanted to have a monarch and a military organization, like the surrounding nations, and in some way free themselves from all religious restrictions. Thus, they were, in essence, found to be unworthy of the blessings of a true theocracy. “Now,” Samuel said with sorrow, “you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your troubles and your sorrows, and you said to Him: Set a king before us.” They had enough time to fully consider this step, and since they finally decided to insist on it, now God deigned to their request and allowed them to proceed to electing a king. The election had to be done by lot. This method of election was very common among the Jews, as well as other nations. It consisted of the following: the names of the persons to be elected were written on tablets, which were placed in a special vessel or urn; then the vessel was shaken until all the planks fell out except one. The remaining tablet with the name written on it was considered to be the one to which the will of God indicated. This is how the scapegoat was chosen, this is how the plots of the promised land were distributed among the various tribes, this is how Achan was discovered, illegally appropriating part of the Jericho spoils, and, which is very remarkable, the ap was subsequently elected in the same way. Matthew. The high importance attached to this method of election is evident from such passages of St. Scriptures like Proverbs. 16:33 “The lot is cast upon the earth, but all its decision is from the Lord.” In the present case, the people were distributed among their tribes and their families or thousands; the die was cast, and it fell first on the tribe of Benjamin, then on the tribe of Matri, and in it on Saul, the son of Kish. Saul himself, however, was not present: out of modesty, he remained in the baggage train. Having learned about this, the people ran and took him from there. And so” “he stood among the people, and was from his shoulders above all the people.” Admiring the courageous appearance of the newly elected king, Samuel said to the people: “You see who the Lord has chosen: there is no one like him in all the people. Then all the people exclaimed and said: Long live the king!” The people of Israel welcomed the embodiment of their political ideal in the newly elected king. Indeed, Saul was the personification of the people themselves, their virtues and shortcomings. His good qualities lay mainly in his majestic appearance, which especially endeared the people to his favor; and his inner qualities, the qualities of his mind and heart, had to gradually work out and develop into obedience to the will of God. The anointing had already enlightened his mind with the Spirit of God, but in his activity he himself had to show awareness of the height of his calling, and with good works he had to justify his election, like the people themselves, who, having been chosen from the outside, could become the truly chosen people of God only through obedience to the commandments of God and the law of Moses. To what extent Saul justified his election in obedience to the will of God, this was to be shown by his future activities; but since the people were pleased with the election, Samuel explained to the people the rights of the kingdom, that is, the rights and duties of the king, wrote them down in a book and placed them in the tabernacle, along with other monuments of the historical life of the people. Having accomplished this great work, Samuel dissolved the meeting and returned to his home. Saul did not immediately begin his new duty; he showed no indecent haste in seizing the helm of government, but calmly returned home to Gibeah and devoted himself to his usual occupations, waiting for a favorable moment to show himself worthy of his exaltation. He returned, however, not alone. The best and bravest of those who were present at the meeting went with him, accompanying him with all possible honor and bringing him gifts, according to Eastern custom. These people, as the most aware of the importance of the change that had taken place in political life, rallied around the new king in order to prepare with him for the upcoming struggle and serve as his advisers for the good of the people. But if everyone was aware of the need for this change in popular government, then not everyone was equally willing to accept the duties and burdens necessary to establish and maintain a new institution, and some were even ready to mock the whole event and even mock the chosen one himself as incapable of carrying out the task assigned to him. At the same time, as happens in any case when one great chosen one is nominated from among the people, various envious people were not slow to appear who would not be averse to offering their own personality in place of the chosen one. Perhaps some ambitious people from such large tribes as Judah and Ephraim were envious of Saul, as a representative of the most insignificant of all tribes, namely Benjamin, and therefore they contemptuously and mockingly said about Saul: “Should he save us?” But although such mocking expressions and together with the refusal to bring gifts were tantamount to rebellion, Saul, however, with rare humility did not pay any attention to this mockery and acted as if he knew nothing about it. This was extremely prudent of him. If he showed that he hears these mockeries and, however, does not pay any attention to them, then he would immediately be accused of cowardice; on the other hand, if he punished the dissatisfied, it would be considered cruelty on his part and could lead to an internecine war, the results of which would be extremely disastrous. However, these unworthy ambitious men had no reason to doubt Saul's military abilities. The tribe of Benjamin has always been the most warlike tribe among the people of Israel, and retained this character until later times. It proved its courage and endurance in the terrible defeat it suffered during the time of the judges. From subsequent evidence it is known that the warriors of this tribe were superior to all others in the art of throwing slings and arrows; some of them acted with equal dexterity with both their right and left hands, which gave an extremely greater advantage in battle. Therefore, the dissatisfied were driven by nothing more than simple envy and base rivalry. And soon an event occurred that proved how wrong they were in their opinion about the military abilities of Saul, who soon had the opportunity to prove with what zeal he cared for the good of the state and had enough talents to fully justify his election by a brilliant feat. Chapter 5. The first exploit of Saul and the denial of Samuel An opportunity soon presented itself that gave Saul the opportunity to justify his gift. After his election to the throne, Saul, with purely patriarchal simplicity, went to his hometown of Gibeah and there continued to engage in agriculture. But then a rumor reached him about an attack by the Ammonites on the Trans-Jordanian tribes, accompanied by extreme cruelty. The Ammonites occupied one part of the Trans-Jordanian country and were generally a wild, predatory people, descended from Lot and closely related to the Moabites, although they did not take part in their civilization and the refinements of social life. About a hundred years ago, Jephthah inflicted a severe defeat on them, which calmed them for a long period; but the Israelites at that time did not take enough advantage of this victory; They did not take advantage of the favorable opportunity to complete their conquests and strengthen their moral and political strength, so the Ammonites, apparently, again managed to recover from the defeat they had suffered and again began an offensive movement, attacking the Trans-Jordanian tribes and treating them with their usual barbaric cruelty. If you believe I. Flavius ​​26, they captured many cities and enslaved their inhabitants, and generally weakened the Trans-Jordanian tribes so much that they did not have the courage to rebel against the yoke that oppressed them. Those who rebelled and were captured during the battle, saved their lives only under the condition of depriving them of their right eye, to which measure the Ammonites resorted in order to make them incapable of war in the future, since the other, left eye was usually covered with a shield, which, during the battle, the soldiers held in front of them. The Ammonites were generally known for their outrageous cruelties and unbridled predation. The prophet Amos, several centuries later, testified to their cruel nature. “For three crimes of the sons of Ammon,” he says, “and for four I will not spare them, because they cut up the pregnant women in Gilead to enlarge their borders” (Am. 1:13). The king of the Ammonites at this time was Nahash, probably the father of the king of the same name, whom we will hear about later in the time of David. He now turned his arms against the Gileadites and attacked their chief city of Jabesh-gilead, considering this moment favorable for avenging the ancient defeat, since the judge Samuel was burdened with years and, as far as he knew, no one had yet taken his place. Jabez, a city then belonging to the half-tribe of Manasseh, stands on the outskirts of Wadi El-Jabis, a hollow meandering near Mount Gilead, about ten miles south of Pella. Its location is marked by several ruins known as Ed-Deir, that is, “monastery,” a common name often given by the Arabs to ruins for which they have no traditional explanation. It had been devastated and destroyed several years before for not joining the other tribes during the famous internecine war against the Benjamites (Judges 21:8ff.), but by this time it had already managed to recover and again became an important city. It occupied a strong position and could not be taken by a sudden attack, but the inhabitants had no hope of successfully resisting the attackers for a long period; they had no hope in God and only wanted to achieve the best possible conditions in order to surrender to the enemies. Their alienated position and lack of unity among the people made them incapable of a united movement in self-defense, and the little Ammonite despot could oppress and mock them in every possible way. His claim to this country, a claim which his predecessors had already made (Judges 11:13), they had not the courage to dispute. And so, they sent a deputation from their city, which begged Naas to accept the conditions under which the city agreed to serve him. Naas, despising this miserable people and wanting to take revenge on Israel for the humiliation that his people had previously suffered, proposed the condition already mentioned above. “I will make an alliance with you,” Nahash the Ammonite proudly said, but in order to gouge out the right eye of each of you, and thereby bring dishonor on all Israel.” This was a terrible condition, but the people had already fallen so far into soullessness and impotence that they were ready to submit to this barbaric condition; the ambassadors only asked for seven days for reflection, hoping during this time to send those sent to the other tribes of Israel with a vague expectation that some means would be found to get rid of this disaster. Nahash agreed to this last condition, not out of any noble feeling, of course, but because he saw little hope of taking the city during this period, and, knowing nothing about the recent events that took place beyond the Jordan, he considered himself completely secure from any courageous attack from the Western Israelites. He was all the more ready to agree to this request because the news sent about this everywhere could only serve to publicize his triumph and his contempt for his enemies. Only a month had passed since the election of Saul, and news of this event had not yet reached the Gileadites, so that when sending ambassadors to ask for help, they had not yet addressed the king, but addressed the entire people, “all the borders of Israel.” First of all, as was natural, the ambassadors went to the tribe of Benjamin, which was closest to them and because of which they had suffered so cruelly in the past. Since they alone refused to take part in the merciless beating of the Benjamites and gave them their maidens in marriage, when the Benjamites were threatened with complete disappearance, now, in gratitude for this, they expected help in their current terrible state. Without wasting valuable time, the ambassadors soon arrived in Gibeah and, knowing nothing about the new state establishment, laid out their case before the people in general. The people listened to the sad news with sympathy and took their cause warmly to their hearts, so that “the whole people raised a cry and wept.” But what could he do? He was not yet accustomed to seeing in his king a leader to whom he could resort in all needs; the people had been so long in a state of disunity and disorder that they did not even know where to look for help in the present case, and, being unable to provide help, not understanding their position as a people enjoying divine protection and already having a center of unity and organization, they only limited their sympathy for the Gileadites to impotent lamentation. Saul, meanwhile, continued to peacefully engage in his agricultural labors and, already being king, was in no hurry to seize the reins of government into his hands, and with them the responsibilities associated with this new position. The Israelites, accustomed to communal government, still had little understanding of the duties, power and privileges of the king; and it was much more prudent in Saul's own interest, especially in view of the declared opposition on the part of the disaffected party, to wait for a favorable circumstance to present himself at once before the eyes of the people as their chosen ruler. Guided, undoubtedly, by the advice of Samuel, he remained in the humble position of a farmer, and only secretly occupied himself with thoughts about the arrangement of his future position. He did not raise any permanent army; even those brave men who had joined him at first now returned home, declaring their readiness to join him again when voluntary recognition of the king’s power or other circumstances made their service desirable, especially since the king himself did not seek power and patiently waited for the moment that would call him to action. And this circumstance has now presented itself. Everyone knows the excellent Roman story of how the ambassadors whom the Senate sent to summon Quintius Cincinnatus to save his country by accepting the office of dictator found him plowing in his humble field, and how, after completing his great deed, which brought him out of obscurity, he again returned to his agricultural work 27 . The same thing happened now with Saul. Saul, after a hard day's work in the field, was driving his tired oxen home and suddenly heard a strange cry in the city - that cry that even now the inhabitants of the east raise in times of trouble, since the silent suffering of the more apathetic peoples of the north is unknown in these hot countries. Hearing the cause of this general lamentation and learning of the disgrace that threatened all Israel, Saul burned with sincere indignation. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, as Samuel had predicted; God was with him, filling him with power and strength, as He had once inspired His judges. Anger at the threatened insult was a righteous and, as it were, inspired feeling, which prompted Saul to immediately take measures for the release of his suffering brothers. It was a fiery zeal for the honor of the true God, and it awakened new forces in the soul of the young king, aroused the high qualities of selfless courage that had hitherto been hidden in him and gave him the opportunity to take the most effective measures possible. Instantly transformed into a hero and a king, Saul boldly steps forward, takes charge of the matter, and issues orders with speed and authority, as a man entitled to universal obedience. Recalling, perhaps, the action of that Levite, who cut his disgraced and tortured concubine into twelve pieces and sent them to all the borders of Israel (Judg. 19:29), Saul immediately killed his oxen, with which he plowed, cut them into pieces, handed over these bloody parts to special messengers and ordered them to be carried throughout the whole country with the severe order that “this will be done to the oxen of him who does not follow in the footsteps of Saul and Samuel.” Here he puts himself first, as the person to whom the supreme power has been granted, and adds the honorable name of Samuel to show that he acts under divine guidance, and to influence those who treated him with disdain and did not even recognize him as a king at all. By this he seemed to be saying: let those who do not feel called to follow Saul follow Samuel. If you have come as one man to punish the crime of the tribe of Benjamin, then arm yourself now, one and all, to avenge this cruel insult inflicted on all Israel by your ancient enemy. The mention also of Samuel in this matter proves that he continued to exercise a high office not only as a prophet, but also as a leader, jointly with the king, whose monarchy was limited to the theocratic principle of government. The threat that those who do not obey the call will have their oxen destroyed, with its comparative moderation indicates the limited power of the newly installed king, who could not yet control the lives of his subjects with his own power. But the loss of oxen could be ruin for a hardworking farmer, and the fear of such ruin could successfully promote the influx of people under the banner of the king. A similar military sign was not unknown in other countries. Ewald points out the custom that existed in Norway of sending a military arrow from tribe to tribe to call the people to arms. According to Walter Scott, something similar existed among the Scots. “When a famous chief intended to gather his clan for some occasion, he usually killed a goat and, making a cross from some light wood, put its ends into the fire and extinguished this fire in the blood of the animal. This was called the fiery cross, and also the cross of shame, because disobedience to this symbol entailed dishonor. This symbol spread with incredible speed throughout all the districts under the jurisdiction of this commander, as well as among his allies and neighbors, if danger threatened them; and at the sight of the fiery cross, every man from sixteen to sixty years of age was obliged to immediately go, in his best armor and equipment, to the place of conscription. Anyone who did not appear was subjected to punishment at his extremities with fire and sword, which were emblematically indicated by bloody and scorched signs on this warlike banner” 28. This terrible news, sweeping through the tribes of Israel, made a deep impression everywhere. The fear instilled by the Lord also gripped all the people; all the Israelites were afraid of disobeying the commanding call; in the energetic action of Saul they recognized the hand of God, responded to the call with zeal and began to gather in masses under the banner of the king. Uniting for the first time under the leadership of their king, all the people went into the field to rid one of their cities from shame and disaster. The whole earth was animated by the same feeling. By threatening Gilead, Nahash also threatened the independence of Israel in general. A common danger united the scattered tribes. They now recognized their responsibility to repel the Ammonites, realized that they had a mission to destroy idolatry, and they were even given special instructions in relation to both this people and their bad allies, the Moabites. “An Ammonite and a Moabite, the law says, cannot enter into the congregation of the Lord, and the tenth generation of them cannot enter into the congregation of the Lord forever. Do not wish them peace and prosperity all your days forever” (Deut. 23:3, 6). And so the Israelites of the surrounding areas gathered in huge numbers at the appointed assembly point in Bezek. This was a place in the tribe of Manasseh, located about 25 versts north of Shechem (Nablus). Now this place is most likely identified with Ibzik, lying on the outskirts of the hills, just opposite Jabez, about 20 miles northeast of Nablus. There was also another city or district of the same name, the capital of Adoni-Bezek, the remains of which can be seen in the newest Bezka, about 10 miles southeast of Lydda (Judges 1:4, 5); but this city was too remote from the scene of action to be considered identical with this Wezek. It was here that people gathered from everywhere. Saul reviewed the crowd and there were 330,000 of them, of which 30,000 belonged to the tribe of Judah, and the remaining 300,000 to all other tribes. Such a huge number of troops shows that there was, so to speak, a universal recruitment of everyone capable of arms, what could now be called a militia. The mention of the tribes of Israel and separately of Judah gave rise to some critics to consider this passage an addition by a later editor, who lived after the division of the kingdom and was inclined to favorably treat the northern tribes to the detriment of the southern ones. But this assumption is completely unfounded. Alienation between the northern and southern tribes already existed before the time of David and Rehoboam, and in ordinary consciousness this alienation was usually represented by the division of the entire people into Israel and Judah. The final disintegration was only the completion of a previous disunion, traces of which can be seen already at a much earlier time. The small number of men of Judas is due to the same reason. Their forces were probably occupied with some other, their own business, for example. fighting the Philistines, who could attack their own possessions; but as one recent researcher notes, “Judah always stood apart until a king belonging to this tribe was elected. It was only then, precisely in the time of David, that this tribe first began to show an active interest in the national welfare, and its enormous possessions and numbers made it so powerful.” At that time, the tribe of Benjamin was also included in the name Judah, while at present it was considered among the tribes of Israel. Asa could muster 300,000 warriors belonging to his own tribe, and 280,000 from Benjamin, and even in the best times of the prosperity of the northern kingdom, Israel never outnumbered the tribe of Judah by more than double 29 . To assemble such a huge militia, animated by a common zeal to meet a common danger and punish an enemy who threatened to insult the entire people, was still a relatively easy matter; but much more difficult was the task of organizing this huge militia and turning it into something resembling a regular army. They probably didn't have a lot of weapons. The Philistines, as you know, more than once deprived the country not only of all weapons, but even of the methods of preparing them, taking locksmiths and blacksmiths into captivity. In the present case, each of those who appeared could arm themselves only with what he had at hand, and one can think that most of them were armed only with such agricultural tools as scythes, ox goads, stakes, etc. In ancient times, many victories were won with such weapons. At the sight of this armed assembly, the dormant spirit of belligerence, which distinguished the members of the tribe of Benjamin in general, manifested itself in Saul, and he, having reviewed and counted those gathered, divided them into hundreds and fifty, separate detachments and platoons, placed special commanders over them, and he himself became the head of all. Having done all this and keeping some of the Gilead messengers near him in order to have in them faithful guides on the shortest route, he released the rest with joyful news to their compatriots about the approaching deliverance. All these preparations took almost a week, and when everything was ready, Saul sent a solemn message to the inhabitants of the city of Jabesh: “Tomorrow help will come to you when the sun warms up.” Relying on divine assistance and the justice of his cause, Saul here expresses full confidence in the success of his arms, and the messengers, seeing his confidence and encouraged by the large military assembly at Bezek, on their return to Jabez, inspired the inhabitants with the same courage. Those sent to reach their city had to pass through the camp of the Ammonites, taking advantage of the freedom of passage that was contemptuously given to them by the proud Naash. But at the same time, they wisely kept silent about what happened in Bezek, especially since no news about it reached the Ammonites. For their part, in order to further blind their enemies as to the state of affairs, and thus make an attack by Saul even more unexpected to them, the inhabitants of Jabesh sent false news to the besiegers, that, having abandoned all hope of deliverance, they were now ready, after the expiration of the time allotted to them, to submit to the cruel condition proposed by Nahash. “Tomorrow,” they sent to say, we will come out to you, and do with us as you please.” These words are in fact very ambiguous and, like the ancient oracle, could be interpreted in a double sense. While the Ammonites took them in the sense of an intention to surrender, the Gileadites actually meant: “We will indeed come out, but we will come out against you with weapons in our hands, and you will do what you can, and not what you want.” Bezek was about 30 miles away from Jabez along the most direct road. Since an undisciplined militia, if it moved en masse, would be thrown into disorder by its very numbers, Saul wisely divided it into three companies, so that each company could move by a different road to its destination and make an attack from three different sides. Setting out on a vigorous march that same evening, he reached the outskirts of Jabesh when it was already dark, and yet the enemy still knew nothing of what was happening, and despised the Israelites too much to take any special precautions in their camp. Stopping for a while to reinforce his army, Saul, imitating the tactics of the great judge Gideon, decided to attack from three sides. It was already the morning watch, the last of the three watches into which the Jews divided the night, and probably around five or six o'clock in the morning, when the enemy army was in deep sleep. Taking advantage of this circumstance, the king suddenly moved his huge army towards the sleeping enemy; At the same time, the inhabitants of Jabesh themselves came out, and with their united forces attacked the Ammonites, they began to carry out a terrible beating. Having been struck by such a sudden attack, the Ammonites, in horror and in terrible disorder, rushed to flee in all directions and were so ruined that “not two of them remained together,” and during this confusion their king himself fell 30. The beating and persecution continued until noon, and the victors stopped this bloody work only when the exhausted and exhausted members refused to serve them any longer. This great and timely victory immediately brought Saul to his royal position as head and leader of the people. Now enthusiastically recognizing the ability of their chosen king, and grieving that among the people there might be men who had once challenged his authority and mocked his claims, the Israelites surrounded Samuel en masse, who had accompanied the young king on this campaign and helped him with their influence and advice, and demanded the punishment of those who had once said contemptuously: “Shall Saul reign over us?” They now persistently demanded immediate execution for such dissatisfied people, approaching the king himself with this request. But the king generously answered: “On this day no one should be killed; for today the Lord has accomplished salvation in Israel.” This answer was extremely political and prudent. If Saul had yielded to the popular demand and been carried away by a natural feeling of vengeance, then dire consequences would have quickly followed from this. The rivalry between the tribes would intensify and would find a basis for itself in this circumstance; Extreme enmity would have arisen between them, and Saul himself would have been severely reproached for having begun his reign with bloodshed and low reprisals. By his prudent moderation he saved his country from all these disasters, just as by his military skill he delivered it from the shame that threatened it. But there is more to his answer than this. Here he showed his best side. He gratefully acknowledged the hand of God in recent events, and only attributed his victory to it. Under the impression of success and confidence, supported in him by the consciousness of divine assistance, he rose to a high level of generosity and piety. Unfortunately, these virtues were only temporary and transitory and did not have a firm basis in his heart and his character. Some temptation was enough for him to discover other sides to his character, but now, in any case, he showed himself to be a wise ruler and a pious, kind man. After this glorious victory, which so brilliantly justified the election of Saul, Samuel saw that the most favorable moment now presented itself for establishing the kingdom in the hands of Saul and for renouncing his own judgeship in favor of a new king. Therefore, he invited the people to gather at Gilgal, the famous sanctuary of Benjamin in the Jordan Valley and in the area closest to Jabez-gilead. How many memories were associated with this place! It was here that the ancestors of the people, upon entering the Promised Land, spent their first night; Twelve stones were placed here, which existed back in the days of bl. Jerome, as if forming an eternal monument to the miraculous crossing of the Jordan; here the rite of circumcision was performed, which remained unperformed during the wanderings in the desert, and thus the reproach of uncircumcision was removed, and here the first Easter was celebrated in the Promised Land. When the Israelites, gathered around the altar, looked at the venerable monument of past events, they could not help but feel their dependence on supernatural help and on Jehovah's unceasing benefit to them. Since some of them, at the first election of Saul in Mizpah, expressed their dissatisfaction and refused to recognize his power, Samuel now decided to “renew the kingdom,” that is, to proclaim the monarch by the general vote of the people amid prayers, sacrifices and general popular fun. “And the people went to Gilgal, and there made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal.” The “renewal of the kingdom” consisted in the unanimous confirmation of the previous election; it was equal to the solemn coronation of sovereigns of modern times; the people recognized the supremacy of the king and expressed their determination to defend and obey him; the tsar was no longer supposed to lead a private life, but was supposed to take up the helm of government and discharge the duties of a sovereign. Samuel, as one might think, again informed the people of the laws of the kingdom, and both the king and the people swore to obey them. All this was done before the Lord, that is, as one might think, in the presence of the ark of the covenant and the high priest with its mysterious Urim and Thummim, or simply with due solemnity, accompanied by religious worship and sacrifice. This event, under the impression of Saul’s recent brilliant victory, should have aroused extreme enthusiasm among the people, so that after the divine service and peaceful sacrifices, the people were extremely happy, being pleased with the final entry into the path of a new, more comfortable state life. “And Saul and the Israelites rejoiced there greatly.” When, therefore, this great work was accomplished, and the important desire of the people was fulfilled, Samuel was ready to resign his office as a judge, in order to act only as an adviser to the king and a mediator in intercourse with God. But first of all, he wanted to review his previous activities, and once again show the people the mistake he made in insisting on a change in the form of government, as well as the great truth that their well-being depends on the behavior of the king and his subjects in relation to God. To this end, in a solemn meeting, speaking together with the newly elected king, he addressed the people with a speech that was supposed to make a considerable impression. “Behold,” said Samuel, speaking to the assembled Israel, “I have listened to your voice in all that you have spoken to me, and I have appointed a king over you. And now the king walks before you, and I am old and grey, and my sons are with you; I have walked before you from my youth until this day. Here I am; bear witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed: from whom I took an ox, from whom I took a donkey, whom I offended, and whom I oppressed, from whom I took a gift, and closed my eyes in the matter, and I will restore it to you.” Such a speech by the elder, deeply revered by the people, made an extremely strong impression on the people, and the people unanimously answered that no one had ever experienced any injustice or insult from Samuel. In order to confirm their testimony in the honesty and justice of his rule, Samuel again solemnly addressed the people, calling God as a witness: “The Lord is witness against you, and His anointed witness this day, that you have found nothing behind me.” Recognizing this evidence of the complete justice of Samuel in his government, the people at the same time condemned themselves; he obviously had no reason to be dissatisfied with his rule and did not have sufficient reasons to rush into a change of rule. Then, once again pointing out that in choosing a king, the people were in some way acting against their invisible King Jehovah, Samuel said: “The Lord is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron, and who brought up your fathers out of the land of Egypt. Now stand up, and I will plead with you before the Lord for all the good deeds that He showed you and your fathers” (1 Samuel 12:1-7). Then, the elder reminded the people of outstanding events from their history. Jehovah precisely made Moses and Aaron what they were, raised them to their high positions, and, acting as King of Israel, raised them to the degree of free national life, leading them out of Egypt. Based on historical facts, Samuel showed how often, when the Israelites were punished for their sins through oppression at the hands of powerful enemies, the Lord listened to their cry of repentance, and raised up special heroes to deliver them from disasters; never left them without help and management; never gave them any reason to need any other ruler; was always true to his promise, as is proven by their annals. The series of these glorious deeds began with the great proof of divine love for them during the exodus from Egypt and the settlement in Canaan. When they settled in the promised land and, because of their three idolatries, which were an indignation against the invisible King, were enslaved by their enemies, then always, with any new repentance, the Lord provided them with His protection and His protection. At one time they were cruelly oppressed by the Canaanites, from the invincible and cruel Sisera, but when they turned to the Lord, He sent them Deborah and Barrack for deliverance, and Sisera ingloriously died at the hand of a woman. Then, during subsequent disasters, again brought on by their own guilt, the Lord raised up other deliverers for them, such as Ehud, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson 31 . Yes, they must not forget that even under Samuel himself they won a great victory over the Philistines and got rid of their cruel rule, and “lived safely.” But, despite all this, they, fearing for their fate in the future and hearing about the impending invasion of the Ammonites, did not turn to Samuel himself and to the Lord, but decided to install a king over them. And now, having finally completed this change in government, they must firmly adhere to the laws and regulations. “If you fear the Lord, and serve Him, and listen to His voice, and do not resist the commandments of the Lord, and both you and your king who reigns over you follow the footsteps of the Lord your God, then the hand of the Lord will not be against you. And if you do not listen to the voice of the Lord and begin to resist the commandments of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you, as it was against your fathers.” The people were obviously inclined to explain their misfortunes in the past not by their unfaithfulness to Jehovah, but by the shortcomings of their government; the prophet now gives them a more reasonable lesson and warns that their well-being even now, despite the establishment of royal power, will depend entirely on their own behavior. Their fears and dissatisfaction arose from insufficient trust in God. They loudly cried out for a change in government, when they should first of all correct their lives and their behavior, since no external structure in government can ensure prosperity without the internal fulfillment of the will and law of God by the people. If they want proof of the truth of this, let them look and see how the Lord confirms the warning of his servant. It was the time of the wheat harvest, lasting from the beginning of May until June, when rain is completely unknown in Palestine. But now, in order to show the people their sin in doubting the ruling Providence of God and to teach them the truth that the judgment of God always falls on the wicked, Samuel stood up and cried to the Lord, and the Lord heard his cry, as a result of which a strong thunderstorm swept through, accompanied by heavy rain. The Israelites were always inclined to see special omens in such phenomena inconsistent with the time of year. On the present occasion, under the impression of Samuel's touching speech, they were decidedly overcome with fear, because this unusual rain storm occurred in answer to Samuel's prayer, and their conscience was struck by the consciousness that they deserved the wrath of God. Their hearts were filled with fear, and they, trembling from the thunder of heaven and fearing for their lives and for their property, turned to Samuel with a prayer, confessed their great guilt in demanding a king for themselves and asked him to intercede for them. “Pray,” they cried, for your servants before the Lord your God, so that we do not die; for to all our sins we added another sin when we asked for a king.” Then the touched Samuel answered the people: “Do not be afraid, this sin was committed by you; but do not deviate only from the Lord, and serve the Lord with all your heart, and do not follow the footsteps of insignificant gods who will not bring benefit and will not deliver, for they are nothing. The Lord will not abandon his people for the sake of his great name; for it pleased the Lord to choose you as his people. And I also will not allow myself to sin before the Lord in order to stop praying for you, and I will guide you on the good and straight path. Only fear the Lord, and serve Him truly with all your heart; for you have seen what great things He has done to you. But if you do evil, both you and your king will perish” (1 Samuel 12:20–25). Chapter 6. The reign of Saul and the first rejection Brilliantly declaring his royal abilities, Saul, after his first exploit, acted as a real king, and first of all began to form a knot of standing troops. At this time there came a break in hostile relations between the Israelites and the Philistines, and although the latter occupied some more points in the land of Israel, they did not actually attack the Israelites. Saul saw that his undisciplined countrymen could not entertain any hope of success against this powerful enemy. He decided to completely free the people from the pagan yoke, to which Samuel encouraged him with his advice; but, like a wise commander, he approached this matter with due caution. Taking advantage of the large gathering of representatives of the tribes in Gilgal and their unanimous recognition of him as king, he began to assemble an army of brave and skillful warriors who could not only serve as his security detachment, his bodyguards, as was necessary for him in his royal position, but could also form the basis for a whole military system and prepare the entire people for the art of war. This time, releasing the rest of the people, he limited himself to forming a security detachment of 3,000 people, of whom he left 2,000 under his own supervision, and placed a detachment of a thousand people under the command of his son, Jonathan. Here for the first time this valiant but ill-fated prince appears on the stage of history, the friendship between whom and David represents one of the most touching phenomena in biblical history. Pleasant in appearance, brave to the point of courage, skilled in the use of military weapons, quick on foot like a mountain deer, straightforward, faithful, loving, Jonathan fully deserved the name of the most perfect example of an Israeli warrior. The trust that the king showed him when entrusting a detachment under his command was fully justified by him, and he led his small detachment very skillfully, carrying out his father’s plans with happy courage. The very position chosen for these two detachments showed a lot of familiarity with strategy. A brief description of the area best explains Saul's tactics. Beginning to the west of Ai (the newest Gaian, a ruin lying near the village of Geir-Divan, which even now shows the remains of a huge tombstone erected over it by Joshua), there is a large valley, eighteen miles long, and rounding Ai from the east, it descends to Jericho. The path along it, despite the mountainous nature of the terrain, is extremely smooth, and it, passing through an undulating area and descending more than 2,000 feet, comes to the very shore of the Dead Sea. A similar strip leads east to Bethel. This valley is now called Wadi Suwainit, i.e., “valley of the small thorn tree,” and in ancient times was the main road from the east to the hilly areas of central Palestine. About three versts from its beginning, the valley becomes a narrow neck, with vertical steep slopes hanging over it, up to 800 feet in height. Approaching from the south, this great gorge is at first completely invisible; but following a road descending steep slopes, you come to a kind of promontory, from which you can see what was previously closed to you, that is, the passage itself, looking very majestic with its steep cliffs on both sides. On the southern side of this gorge stands Gibeah Veniaminova, lying on a rocky hill, with caves under houses and arable land to the east. If you look across the valley, these rocky hills on a white limestone rock appear deserted, and on the opposite, that is, northern, side, much lower than Gibeah, there is a small village of Mikhmas (Muk-mas), lying on a kind of saddle, to which an open valley rich in grain fields adjoins at the back. About a verst and a half to the west of the village, the rock is crowned with a platform descending behind to a hill with a round top. Bethel lies about six miles to the north, and the gap is occupied by a chain of hills called “Mount Bethel.” In Michmash, located less than a mile and a half north of where the valley begins to narrow, and on some other heights in the surrounding area, Saul stationed his two thousand detachment of selected soldiers in order to observe the movements of the Philistines if they decided to move south. Jonathan and his detachment settled in Gibeah, the homeland of his father, where he could count on the support of his family and friends and, perhaps, on the help of a wise adviser and leader Abner, his closest relative, who with his wisdom stood out in the family of Kish and now, with the rise of Saul to the kingdom, moved more and more forward, until, finally, he occupied the high position of Saul’s chief adviser in military and state affairs. For some time, both sides, having put forward, so to speak, pickets, vigilantly watched one another, but refraining from hostile actions. Finally, the ardent Jonathan, tired of inactivity and inwardly irritated by the daily spectacle of the great column erected by the Philistines on the nearest hill as a sign of their supremacy, could not resist the temptation to take a step that would immediately inspire his countrymen and show the enemy that the Israelites were capable of fighting for their independence. With the knowledge and tacit consent of his father, he suddenly destroyed this monument and was ready for all the consequences of this act of his 32. These consequences were undoubtedly serious, although not entirely unexpected. The Philistines, having heard from their patrol detachment about what had happened, saw in this matter the beginning of an uprising. Saul also did not remain idle after this and, with his characteristic energy, addressed the people with an appeal to make immediate preparations for war. Alarm rang out throughout the country. “Saul sounded the trumpet,” and his call: “let the Jews hear”! spread throughout all the tribes. This trumpet sound was well known to the Israelis, and it was heard more than once at critical moments in the historical life of the people. So, Gideon used a similar trumpet to gather his compatriots to fight their enemies, and, even earlier, the sound of silver trumpets usually convened meetings and directed the movements of the people in the desert (Judg. 6:14; Num. 10:2 et seq.). The news of this event aroused extreme rage among the Philistines. They already looked with strong suspicion at the election of the Israeli king; the subsequent victory over the Ammonites and the glory acquired by Saul through this warned them of danger, which became even more threatening due to the fact that Saul gathered around him a detachment of brave warriors. Therefore, they immediately began extensive preparations for war, and Saul, so as not to be overwhelmed by the large number of the hostile army, descended into the valley of Suveinite, which, as we have seen, represented a convenient route to the plain of Jordan. He stationed himself at Gilgal, the ancient headquarters of Joshua's army and the most sacred place in all the land, and called upon the people to join him there. His call, however, was not answered quickly or with particular zeal. Either as a result of cowardice, or as a result of some inexplicable lack of confidence in their leader, the Israelites did not flock to the standard of Saul in especially large numbers, and before he had assembled a more or less significant army, the Philistines had already entered the field, and he was absolutely unable to confront them with his available forces, since the Philistines, apparently desiring to deal a decisive and final blow to the revived power, the Israelites came against them with a huge and terrible army with its strength 33. When Saul retreated from Michmash and Bethel, the Philistines occupied these points and, holding the passes in their hands, blocked the way for reinforcements coming to the king from this side. The northern part of the district, which occupied the territory of the tribe of Ephraim, was occupied by the Philistines without any resistance. The Israelites were struck with horror and, as in the time of the judges, fled to the mountains and caves, seeking refuge from the enemy. This complete flight of the Israelites before the Philistines showed what a formidable enemy the latter were for them, having dominated Palestine for so long. The horror was further intensified by the fact that one of the goals of the Philistine invasion of the land of Israel was to capture as many captives as possible, whom they sold in their slave markets, earning a lot of money from the sale of this living commodity to merchants from neighboring rich countries - Egypt and Phenicia. Some of the Israelis, not even relying on the sufficient inaccessibility of caves and mountains, crossed over the Jordan, seeking refuge in the free steppes beyond the Jordan. Even those who had already gathered around Saul in Gilgal were far from reliable and clearly revealed their cowardice, so Saul had to strain all his strength and all his influence in order to keep the collected soldiers under his banner, many of whom were already fleeing. Some years before, when Saul was first ordained to his kingship, Samuel had solemnly foretold to the young king that a great crisis was about to occur in his life at Gilgal. It was there that the liberation war was supposed to begin, and before it began it was necessary to make a sacrifice, which the prophet himself promised to perform. Being only a servant of Jehovah, Saul should not have undertaken any important exploits without the consent and advice of Jehovah's herald. When Saul arrived in Gilgal, he was ordered to wait seven days for the arrival of the prophet, and not to do anything until the religious service was performed and the prophet explained to him how to act. This command was clear and expressive. During the time that had passed since the communication of this command, Samuel had undoubtedly reminded the king of his duty and insisted on strict obedience. But now the time has come for testing. Saul was in Gilgal; a very important moment had come in his life; he had to show his trust in the Lord and calmly obey His servant, and all would be well. But Saul did not do this. In a state of anxiety, he awaited with increasing impatience the arrival promised by Samuel. Day by day his position in Gilgal seemed more and more dangerous; his camp on the open plain could not withstand the enemy attack; his route to retreat into the mountains could be cut off at any time; New news constantly came about the movement of the Philistines forward; the dispirited army increasingly fled and dispersed, and even a significant part of his own chosen detachment left him in this danger. Being in extreme confusion and wavering between the desire to get down to business as quickly as possible and the order of Samuel, Saul did not know what to do: should he, in inactivity, wait for Samuel to be slowed down by his arrival and see how his army would completely scatter and how, thus, all hope of successfully resisting the enemy would perish, or should he act at his own discretion before time was completely lost? He put off the decision until the very last moment; but when the seventh day dawned and the prophet still had not come, he finally decided to act on his own. Seeing that his army would not fight if the mercy of God was not guaranteed to him by offering a sacrifice, he, therefore, decided to immediately make a sacrifice and, taking advantage of the presence of the priest Ahijah in the camp (See 1 Samuel 14:3), made the sacrifice. But as soon as the first part of the sacrifice was completed and the smoke from the altar was still rising to heaven, so that the sacrifice of peace had not yet been brought, Samuel himself unexpectedly appeared on the scene. His slowdown depended either on the difficulty of walking the straight path in sight of the enemy, or he deliberately delayed in order to test Saul’s faith and patience. In any case, towards the end of the seventh day he suddenly appeared in the face of the impatient king. Always having respect for the great prophet to whom he owed so much, and desiring to do him public honor, Saul went out to meet him with humble greetings. Samuel looked around him, and seeing the smoking altar and the remains of the victims, he asked with obvious displeasure: “What have you done?” Saul, seeing Samuel’s displeasure, confusedly answered, “I saw that the people were running away from me, and you did not come at the appointed time: the Philistines gathered in Michmash; Then I thought: Now the Philistines will come against me in Gilgal; and I have not yet asked the Lord, and therefore I decided to offer a burnt offering.” But this justification was not sufficient in the eyes of the prophet, and he answered him: “You acted badly because you did not fulfill the commandment of the Lord your God that was given to you.” By committing this arbitrariness, Saul committed a greater crime than can be thought from the modern point of view. He clearly proved by this that he relied less on higher help than on the strength of his army. Such self-will constituted a great crime. In the Israeli monarchy, the main principle was the subordination of civil authority to the will of God, in the person of prophets and priests. By violating this principle, Saul violated the main condition of his election to the kingdom, since he declared an unlawful desire to act not as a representative of the supreme King, but as an unauthorized independent ruler. He claimed to unite in his personality not only independent civil royal power, but also religious, priestly power, and such a union of them in one person, on the one hand, could give excessive weight to royal power to the detriment of the priesthood, and on the other hand, the priesthood itself would lose its independence, becoming subordinate to civil power. This act of Saul immediately showed that his further activities would go against the will of God, that, carried away by political interests, he was ready to neglect religious ones. Therefore, Samuel solemnly reproached him and, as a warning, told him that by this illegal action he had shaken the stability of his reign. If Saul had risen to the height of his calling at this critical moment, which required the highest trust in the Lord, then as a reward for this, “the Lord would have established his reign over Israel forever.” But since he did not discover this proper faith in himself, now, said Samuel, “your reign cannot stand; The Lord will find a man after His own heart, and the Lord will command him to be the leader of His people, since you have not fulfilled what the Lord commanded you” (1 Samuel 13:13, 14). And so, extremely upset by what happened, the elderly prophet sadly leaves the willful king, not without hope that he will still realize his error and with timely repentance will avert the fate that threatens him. Samuel knew that God's sentences, like His promises, are conditional, that they do not suppress the free will of man, but depend in their execution on the behavior of people. Therefore, with sorrow, he returns to his home in Ramah, stopping only for a while on his way at Gibeah in order to encourage the people and the small band of soldiers gathered there and convey messages from the king to his son, Jonathan. These messages were that Jonathan, at the first opportunity, would join his father’s detachment with his forces, so that with their common forces they could provide the greatest possible resistance to the enemy. Meanwhile, Saul's army was decreasing; he gained absolutely nothing by his disobedience; the very purpose of his unauthorized sacrifice was not achieved, the dispersion of the people was not stopped, and when he needed to set out from Gilgal, out of his entire army he had no more than six hundred people. Nevertheless, some action had to be taken, and Saul, leaving Gilgal with his small detachment, fortified himself in one strong place in the town of Gibeah, which, as we have seen, was located on the southern side of Wadi Suwainit, three miles east of Rama, from where it was possible to observe the tactics of the enemy stationed against him in Michmash, and to block the path of his troops in case they tried to penetrate into the area of ​​the tribe Veniaminova. Here Jonathan joined him with his troop of chosen warriors. This movement was deft and showed the art of a prudent military leader. We do not know why the Philistines did not crush Saul's insignificant army on the plain of Jordan, where their cavalry and chariots would have had free space for their actions and where the Israelites could have offered them no resistance. Why they then allowed their enemies to retreat without any harm to the stronghold of Gibeah and strengthen themselves there is equally incomprehensible from a military point of view. Probably conscious of their own superiority, the Philistines treated their opponents with extreme contempt and, recognizing themselves capable of crushing them at any time, did not consider it necessary to contact them until it came to delivering a decisive blow. Meanwhile, they turned all their attention to the devastation of the country, which remained defenseless from their troops. Keeping a camp at Mikhmas as their headquarters, they sent out separate detachments of marauders in different directions; since there was no opposition to them, as a result of this the people were subjected to terrible oppression. The biblical historian carefully notes the very course of these predatory expeditions. The south alone was protected by the presence of Saul's forces, while the rest of the country was at the complete disposal of the enemy. So, one detachment of these lightly armed Philistines headed to the city of Ophrah, located near Ai, seven miles northeast of Bethel, twenty miles from Jerusalem and now represented by the village of Tayibe, standing on a prominent eminence. From this city one wadi descends to the Jordan Valley, but which was later followed by a Roman road. The second detachment moved west, towards Bethhoron, present-day Beit-Ur, a place famous due to the victory of Joshua over the king of the Amorites (Joshua 10) and located on the main passage from Philistia into the interior of the country. The third detachment carried out its devastation as far as the Jordan Valley in the southeast, in the so-called “Valley of Zeboim.” Quite a significant amount of time passed in such predatory raids, perhaps a year or two. By the end of this time, the condition of the Israelites had become completely hopeless. The Philistines had long had a policy of disarming the peoples they conquered. It is known that Judge Samegar, who at one time liberated the Israelites from the Philistines, had to act against them, for lack of weapons, with an ox goad; and in the history of Samson's exploits there is also no mention of swords or spears that would have been used by him or those around him. The Israelites, it is true, obtained a considerable supply of arms from their enemies after the successful battle of Ebenezer; but this weapon was again taken from them by the Philistines, when fortune turned to them again. The same fate befell the spoils acquired from the defeated Ammonites. It seems to have been the custom of the Philistines to go around conquered lands at certain times, collect tribute, collect weapons, plunder villages, and erect monuments to commemorate their victories in various places. At the time described, they not only deprived the Israelites of all means of defense, but, as had happened before, they took with them blacksmiths and armorers, so that the biblical writer, speaking about this time, directly states that at that time “there were no blacksmiths in all the land of Israel; for the Philistines were afraid lest the Jews should make sword or spear” (1 Sam. 13:19). It got to the point that even to repair their agricultural tools, their plows, sickles, scythes and axes, the Israelites had to turn to the nearest Philistine settlements, and this turned out to be so difficult and humiliating that many of them preferred to leave their tools without correction rather than go to the Philistines for this matter. In view of all this, only a few of the Israelites could have sufficient weapons, and in any case were completely unable to meet the enemies with equal weapons in their hands, since the latter were not only excellently armed with swords and spears, but also protected by impenetrable armor. It is very possible that the Israelites had bows and arrows, the use of which they were famous for, and the Benjamites could have been armed with slings, the dexterity of which they were distinguished among all the people. But such weapons could have very little value against warriors protected by breastplates, helmets and metal shields, so they could have little hope of a successful fight against their opponents, and as a result were forced to take only a defensive position and, with the consciousness of their powerlessness, watch as the people were subjected to plunder and all kinds of humiliation and oppression. Seeing the complete powerlessness of the Israelites to prevent their invasion, the Philistines moved even further and moved from their camp in Michmash to one hill somewhat closer to Gibeah, so that they could more easily take over the Israelites if they decided to make any offensive movement. The Philistine camp, according to the description of I. Flavius ​​34, who was well acquainted with this area, was located on a very steep hill, which, having three peaks, ended in a long, narrow spur and was protected by cliffs that almost completely surrounded the camp. “Just such a natural fortress,” says the newest researcher, Lieutenant Conder 35, “is located east of Mikhmas, and it is still called a fortress among the local villagers.” It is a “mountain ridge rising with three rounded skeletons above a sheer cliff, ending in a narrow strip to the east with cliffs below, and has an open valley behind it, and to the west a saddle-shaped area, on which Mikhmas itself is located. Opposite this fortress to the south is a rock of the same height, seemingly impregnable”: in a word, the area corresponds precisely to the description given by the biblical narrator, saying that there “was a sharp rock on one side and another rock on the other” (1 Samuel 16:4). The southern rock was called Sene, and the northern rock was called Botsed, that is, shining. The valley which Lieutenant Conder describes runs almost straight to the east, and is thus almost constantly in shadow on the south side during the day. The contrast between this dark, cool color of the south side and the reddish or brown hues of the northern rock, crowned by the dazzling whiteness of the upper chalk layers, is striking and picturesque. To observe the movement of the Philistines, Saul occupied the northern end of the hill of Gibeah, 36 where, under a pomegranate tree at Migron, he raised his spear as a sign of his command. Here he vigilantly watched the enemy and, being too weak to begin an offensive movement, waited for a more favorable opportunity. But there was one brave man in his army who could not patiently endure such inactivity, and his impatience increased every day. It was brave Jonathan. He could no longer endure the daring enemy boasting of his superiority, and inspired by patriotism and the people's memory of the exploits of the ancient judges Gideon, Othniel and Samson, he decided to try to inflict some desperate blow on the enemy, or, if he failed, to die. He did not tell his father anything about his intention; did not even ask advice from the high priest Ahijah (the great-grandson of Eli), who was in the army with the Urim and Thummim, but, directly relying on the help of the Most High and on his own courage, he undertook one of the most courageous feats known in antiquity. Looking at the Israelites as an undisciplined, unarmed rabble of cowardly people who had nothing to fear, the Philistines naturally did not keep guards with particular strictness and were little prepared to counter any unexpected attack. Jonathan saw this from his high position in Gibeah and decided to take advantage of it. He communicated his intention to his squire, a youth animated by the same courage and inspired by the same faith in divine protection as himself. Having made all sorts of further preparations, Jonathan directly turned to his armor bearer, saying: “Go, let us go over to the detachment of these uncircumcised; maybe the Lord will help us; for it is not difficult for the Lord to save through many or few.” The squire immediately agreed to take part in this enterprise with his master and share the danger that could threaten him. But, before setting out on business, Jonathan, according to the custom of his age and country, wanted to receive God's blessing for this enterprise against the enemies of the true religion. Like Abraham's servant, Eleezer of Damascus, when he went to carry out his commission to arrange the marriage of Isaac (Gen. 24), or like Gideon, who wanted to receive assurance that God really intended to save Israel by His hand (Judg. 6), Jonathan, with his complete trust in Providence, also wanted to receive some decisive sign to sanctify his undertaking. Such a desire arose from a strong conviction that Israel was the people of God, and that, when undertaking a struggle against the enemies of true religion, every person considered it best to ask God’s permission for this. They chose the following experience as a sign of this confirmation of God’s will. Jonathan and his armor bearer were to cross to the Philistine side of the valley, and when the Philistines saw them, they were to observe what the first words would be spoken to them. If the Philistines say, “Stay until we come to you,” then this will serve as a sign of failure of the enterprise, and it will have to be left unfulfilled; if the Philistines say, “Come up to us,” then this is a sure sign of success and that the Lord will deliver the enemy into their hands. And so, the brave Jonathan, together with his armor-bearer, set off on a dangerous undertaking. Having descended from the steep cliffs of the Seine, they arrived at the valley and, having crossed it, began to climb the opposite cliff of Botsets, and then began to await the fulfillment of the sign. It was not chosen without military skill. If the Philistines had shouted to them to wait until they came, it would have shown that they were careful, vigilantly watching everything around them and could not be attacked with impunity; but if they tell them to come up to their camp, it will be proof that they are careless and too contemptuous of the Israelites to take any precautions against a surprise attack. It was early morning, and the Philistines finally noticed these two lone warriors who were crossing the valley and heading straight towards the enemy camp. Perhaps they had already climbed some distance to the steepest slope, which rose up to about sixty feet, before the Philistines discovered them. Noticing them, the Philistines mockingly shouted: “Behold, the Jews are coming out of the ravines in which they hid,” and then added: “Come up to us and we will tell you something.” The Philistines obviously wanted to express their mockery of these, in their opinion, insane Israeli soldiers. But for Jonathan this call was a sign favorable to the enterprise, and he immediately said to his armor-bearer: “Follow me; for the Lord has delivered them into the hands of Israel.” Jonathan and his armor bearer had to climb a steep slope, and the Philistines could easily destroy them by throwing blocks of stone on top of them; but they treated them only with good-natured contempt and watched with curiosity what they would do next. And so, in this way, the young brave men climbed the rock without hindrance and appeared before their enemies, armed with their deadly bows. According to the testimony of I. Flavius ​​37, as soon as a favorable response was received from the enemy, Jonathan and his armor-bearer disappeared from the sight of the Philistines and went around to the other side of the rock, which was left unguarded. Having climbed it, they entered the camp from the opposite side and found the Philistines sleeping in imaginary safety. Be that as it may, the brave warriors, having climbed to the top of the Philistine camp, rushed at the enemies with amazing courage and began to hit them with spears, slings and stones. The squire was a very worthy assistant to his master. The Philistines, puzzled by the surprise of this attack, offered only very little resistance, and in a few minutes twenty enemy corpses were evidence of the strength of the attack and the courage of the Israelites. Such unprecedented boldness immediately spread panic among the Philistines; they could not even imagine that two people, without any help, would dare to attack an entire garrison; they could not help thinking that these two warriors were only skirmishers of the whole army and, therefore, without offering further resistance, they fled in confusion towards the main camp, spreading horror there too. Panic spread to the marauding troops roaming the surrounding area, and they also fled. The confusion increased even more from the admixture of foreigners in the Philistine army, so that, with the horror that overwhelmed them, they ceased to distinguish friend from enemy, and indulged in mutual self-destruction. “And there was terror in the camp, in the field, and among all the people; the advance troops and those who devastated the land were in awe (and could not fight); the whole earth trembled, and there was great terror from the Lord.” The sentries of Saul's troops in Gibeah could clearly see what was happening in Michmash, and could even partially hear the cries of the fighting coming across the valley. With extreme amazement they saw signs of struggle in the enemy's camp, the flash of weapons and the confused movement of the disorderly masses back and forth, and immediately reported this strange event to Saul. Immediately seeing that the matter here concerned some feat of his own soldiers, the king ordered an immediate roll call of his troops, and during this roll call the absence of Jonathan and his squire was immediately revealed. Then it was necessary to take action. Saul immediately ordered the high priest Ahijah to bring the ark of the covenant and reinforce his soldiers with his presence. A cry of inspiration was heard throughout the Israeli army, and it moved towards the enemy. But the enemy was now no longer able to offer any active resistance. There was terrible confusion in his camp: the Philistines and their allies were beating each other, so that the Israelites could only inflict the final defeat on their formidable enemy. In addition, the Israelis also received unexpected reinforcements. Perhaps some of the allies who served with the Philistines took advantage of this opportunity to turn their weapons against the Philistines themselves; in any case, it is certain that many of the Israelites, who also probably served as slaves for the Philistines, openly went over to the side of their compatriots, and thereby plunged the Philistine army into even greater disorder. Without thinking any more about opposition, the Philistines fled. The news of this event quickly spread everywhere; the villagers, who had fled to their homes and ravines at the approach of the Philistines, now emerged from their places of refuge and joined the victorious army. In disorderly confusion, the enemy fled through the valley, past Beth-aven, the pale desert east of Bethel; without stopping there either, he turned to the west - first to the upper Bethhoron, then, along a steep slope, to the lower Bethhoron, with the goal of reaching his country through the Aialon Valley. It is a wide and beautiful valley, running in a north-westerly direction across a range of hills and then running south-west across the great western plain. Aialon itself, the remnant of which now appears in the village of Ialo, stood on the slope of a long hill bordering the valley from the south. Along this wadi, the pitiful remnants of the Philistines, completely disheartened, suffering from wounds and exhaustion, as a result of fleeing over a space of thirty miles over rocky and dug-up soil, finally reached their own land, having lost their weapons, all the looted treasures and supplies. Thus, just as the Lord once delivered the Israelites at the Red Sea, so He saved them now from the hand of their enemies, and gave them a great victory, during which 60,000 Philistines died! 38 But one circumstance happened that made this victory less complete than it could have been. The army of the Israelites, reinforced by the tide of villagers and the Israelites from the Philistine camp, reached up to 10,000 people, and Saul, wanting to take advantage of this numerous force, as well as speed up the pursuit of the enemy, foolishly took an oath from his people that he would not eat food until the evening. Apparently Saul was so preoccupied with the thought of avenging the long insults the Philistines had inflicted on him and his royal power that he forgot the human frailty of his soldiers and the limits of human endurance, and threatened with death anyone who, only before the end of the day, ceased military affairs and stopped for rest or reinforcement. The consequences of this foolish vow showed themselves in the weakness and reluctance of his followers, who, from extreme exhaustion, were unable to continue the pursuit with due perseverance. Their path lay through the forest, where honey was found in abundance, since wild bees build their honeycombs in rocks and hollows of trees, and often there is so much honey that, especially under the influence of the heat of the day, it pours out of the honeycombs and falls to the ground. Canaan, as we know, was a land flowing with milk and honey, and travelers say that even today, in more convenient places, huge swarms of bees are found there 39 . The Jews were extremely fond of honey and consumed it to a large extent instead of food; but on this occasion no one dared to touch him for fear of breaking the oath they had taken. Meanwhile, Jonathan was not there at the time when his father took this unreasonable oath from the people, and he did not hear anything about it; therefore, having reached the forest and seeing before him a means of reinforcement, he, “stretching out the end of the stick that was in his hand, dipped it in honeycomb and turned it with his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened.” But one of his companions, seeing what he had done, and embarrassed at the thought that the king’s son had violated the general curse, remarked to him about this, saying: “Your father cursed the people, saying: Cursed is whoever eats food today; the people are tired of this.” Hearing about this, Jonathan, judging by the general fatigue of the troops, expressed extreme indignation and said: “My father has troubled the land; Look, my eyes brightened when I tasted a little of this honey. If the people had eaten today from the spoils that they found from their enemies, would not the defeat of the Philistines have been greater?” The pursuit continued all day, moving from city to city and, as we have seen, reached the Aialon Valley, which was already far from Mikhmas. Finally, the extreme fatigue of the army deprived it of the opportunity to further pursue the Philistines, although the latter, in order to facilitate their escape, abandoned all their supplies of provisions and the cattle that were with them along the way. And when the sun set and the vow lost its power, the people, extremely exhausted by hunger, greedily attacked this prey, the sheep, oxen and calves, and left by the Philistines, and, not observing the requirements of the law, greedily satisfied their appetite with animal food, without even subjecting it to proper preparation. Since blood was considered life and was mysteriously associated with the rite of purification, the law gave very strict regulations regarding the slaughter of animals for food. Each animal was considered a kind of peace offering, and taking its life was like a solemn act of sacrifice. According to the law, it was necessary to kill him with extreme caution by cutting his throat with a sharp knife, without tearing; the blood could not be eaten at all, but it had to flow to the ground and then be covered with earth 40. In their extraordinary famine, the people erred in more than one respect. He did not wait until the corpse was completely free of blood, and, having killed the animals, greedily grabbed pieces of meat and ate them with blood, while the law directly says, “whoever eats blood, his soul will be cut off from his people.” Some were so hungry that, without waiting for the meat to be properly cooked, they even ate it raw. At the same time, the Israelis violated another very remarkable regulation, which was intended to maintain the tenderness of feelings and instill in them the height of the relationship between parent and child. Contrary to the law, which prohibited killing a cow and her calf on the same day (Lev. 22:28), they, in their ruthless greed, indifferently killed both together. These violations of the law could not pass without due reproach. Some of the Levites who accompanied the army came and reported to Saul about everything that had happened, and he, although he himself was the culprit of this crime, as a result of the rash prohibition he issued, immediately recognized the gravity of the people’s sin and took measures to ensure that the letter of the law was fulfilled. “You have sinned,” he angrily shouted to the people, and in order to eliminate further violations of the law, he ordered a large stone to be placed on which animals could be killed, in accordance with the law. At the same time, Saul built an altar of thanksgiving to God for the victory and offered sacrifices on it. This was the first public confession he made of his obligations to the God of the host of Israel. He won other victories, but did not think to attribute his success to divine help. In his gratitude for the present unexpected happiness, he introduced that custom, which was followed by the kings of subsequent times, namely the custom of erecting an altar to Jehovah in memory of great national victories. In order to take full advantage of his victory, Saul decided, after a temporary rest for the people, to begin pursuing the enemy again at night. He was aware that his own rash vow had greatly retarded the fulfillment of this intention, and now he wished to correct his mistake by launching a new and unexpected attack. The people, strengthened by their coarse food and ready to follow wherever they were led, willingly agreed to this proposal. Having rested a little, the army rose from the place around which the camp fires were blazing, took up arms and prepared for the further march. But the high priest intervened. He did not become infected with the king’s passion and with courage, gaining strength from the consciousness of a just cause, asked him not to start a new enterprise without proper confirmation of the will of God. Saul did not deny the reasonableness of this proposal, and through the Urim and Thummim he asked two questions: “Should I go after the Philistines? Shall we deliver them into the hands of Israel?” But, to his utter amazement, there was no answer. When the astonished Saul turned to the high priest for an explanation of this strange phenomenon, the high priest explained to Saul that the reason was that during the previous case, the spell proclaimed by the king had been broken. The astonished king knew nothing about what had happened to Jonathan, and now having learned about the violation of the oath, and seeing in its violation partly an insult to his royal majesty, he exclaimed: “Let all the leaders of the people come here, and find out, and find out who is guilty now. For as the Lord lives, who saved Israel, if it happens to Jonathan my son, he too will certainly die.” And so, without any investigation of the matter, without sufficient reflection, Saul again made an oath that was supposed to lead to the death of his own son. Struck by the king's horror and anger, the people did not answer him a word, although many of them knew who was threatened by this oath. Since there was no answer to Saul’s previous question, the king decided to reveal the culprit by drawing lots. The blame had to lie either with himself and his son, or with some warrior from his army. Confident both of his own innocence and that of Jonathan, the king ordered the people to stand on one side, while he and his son took a place on the other side. Then he turned to God in prayer and said: “O Lord, God of Israel! (why did You not answer Your servant now, whether it was my fault or my son Jonathan’s, O Lord God of Israel) give a sign (if it is in Your people Israel, give it sanctification”). And so the lot was cast, and, to the amazement of the king, it fell on the side where he stood with his son. The lot was cast a second time, and it fell on Jonathan as the culprit. With terrible anger, Saul turns to his son with the question of what he sinned that God turned his face away from him. Jonathan, who meanwhile had already learned that the reason for the silence of the divine Urim and Thummim was precisely the violation of the vow he had committed, admitted what exactly he had done: “I tasted a little honey with the end of the stick that was in my hand; and now, I must die!” In the Syriac translation, the last words are in the interrogative form: “Shall I really die for this?” - as if Jonathan was complaining about his cruel fate. But its expression rather means extraordinary self-denial and submission to one’s fate. Although his crime was initially committed out of ignorance, he, however, did not at all think about avoiding punishment. He was absolutely convinced that his father's vow, however ill-considered and disastrous, must be fulfilled. Josephus, always trying to elevate his heroes in the eyes of his Roman friends, puts into the mouth of Jonathan a speech expressing complete self-denial. “I ask you not to spare me, my father,” he said to Saul. It will be sweet for me to suffer death to satisfy your oath and after such a glorious victory; because my greatest consolation will be to know that I leave the Israelites victorious" 41 . No matter how sad it was for Saul to see such terrible consequences of his rash vow, he did not want to deviate from the oath he had once made, and was ready to carry out the spell. “Let God do this and that for me,” cried Saul, and do even more; You, Jonathan, must die today!” But this should not have happened: the young life of a glorious warrior should not have ended so prematurely. He had another job to do before he could meet his sad end. The people, amazed by everything that was happening, had hitherto remained silent and completely submitted to Saul; but when it came to the point that Saul’s rash vow was to lead to the death of the bravest young man, to whom the people, and even the king himself, owed the victory they had just won over their worst enemy, the people unanimously rebelled against this. The Lord showed that he gave his strength and help to Jonathan in his heroic deed. So is it really possible to now blame someone whose cause was approved by God? A unanimous murmur of protest rang through the camp, and the people said to Saul: “Shall Jonathan die, who has brought such great salvation to Israel? Let this not happen! The Lord lives; neither will a hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God today.” Saul, struggling between doing what he considered his duty and the protest of the people, was finally forced to yield to the people, and Jonathan was saved from the dire consequences of his mistake. The king admitted that the blame for this whole matter lay mainly with himself; He listened to the advice of Ahijah and stopped pursuing the Philistines, thus leaving the enemy, although defeated, but not so weakened as to deprive him of the opportunity to make attacks in the future. Thus, the king’s self-will and impatience largely darkened the bright triumph of the Israeli people over their worst enemy. Chapter 7. The final rejection of Saul and the anointing of his successor Saul's reign was entirely occupied by wars. As soon as the defeat of the Philistines and their retreat into their own land freed the king and his dominions from this powerful enemy, and the people, emerging from their hiding places, flocked again to their places of residence and concentrated around the king, Saul immediately began to form a regular army and turned his whole attention to strengthening and securing his government. At a time when personal courage and dexterity in the use of arms were the main conditions for success in military enterprises, and tactics and strategy were in a primitive state, it was extremely important for the king to have around him a detachment of experienced warriors who could always be relied upon to carry out his plans with perseverance and skill. It was precisely these people that Saul now recruited, and when he met someone who stood out for either physical strength, or proven courage, or extreme dexterity in the use of a spear and bow, he enlisted him in his service. In these ways he gathered for himself a strong army and laid the foundation for that military power which enabled Israel not only to retain her own possessions, but in later times, like one of the great eastern monarchies, to extend her conquests far beyond the borders of her land. Saul's position at that time was quite difficult. Enemies surrounded him on all sides. Feeling that the new monarch was a capable commander and that, if left free, he would transform his people into a powerful state, the neighboring tribes attacked him and used all possible efforts to overthrow or weaken his rule. With their last victory, the Philistines were only suspended in their conquest and humbled for a while. Their power was still formidable, and they were one of the most dangerous enemies Saul had to fight. Saul owed his victories to his courage, energy and skill. The biblical narrator does not give any details about many of the wars in which his entire public life took place. From the brief outline he gives, we see that Saul fought with all the nations whose countries are adjacent to St. earth. The Moabites and Ammonites harassed him from the east; the Edomites, always remaining irreconcilable enemies of Israel, attacked from the south; in the same direction were the Amalekites, the war with whom is described in greater detail, due to the important consequences that it entailed. From the west, now, as always, the Philistines, who were beginning to advance again, threatened, and from the northeast, the kings of Sowa, a country stretching from Damascus to the Euphrates, tried to extend their conquest to the northern parts of Palestine. Saul successfully repulsed all these enemies; once acquired freedom was never lost by the people; Israel no longer groaned under the heavy pagan yoke, and, calm in its allotments, had time and opportunity for internal development, which Samuel promoted with his schools of prophets. The biblical historian, leaving aside the time of prosperity and success, turns his thoughts to a darker scene; leaving detailed accounts of wars and battles to civilian writers, he deals only with events that reveal the character of the king and are of moral significance. Thus, leaving the heroic military exploits of Saul and the great deeds of his strong and powerful warriors to oblivion, he talks in detail only about the wars with the Amalekites and Philistines. The first of them led to the final rejection of the king and to an irreparable rupture between him and Samuel, and, therefore, is of great, although very sad, importance. The Amalekites occupied the Negeb, i.e. a country lying south of Palestine, where they led a wandering life in the Sinai desert, grazing their flocks in the green wadis of this peninsula. This was the first enemy who attacked the Israelites shortly after they crossed the Red Sea, when he was severely defeated. For this treacherous attack, God determined to destroy them completely. Having happily completed that battle, Moses erected an altar in remembrance of this victory, and called it Jehovah-Nissi, that is, “The Lord is my banner,” adding: “The Lord’s war is against Amalek from generation to generation” (Ex. 17:15), and then the command was given that when the Israelites are finally settled in the Promised Land, they do not forget to “blot out the memory Amalek from under heaven" (Deut. 25:19). The time to take the long-delayed vengeance has now arrived. The Amalekites fully deserved their punishment. It was a cruel, bloodthirsty, nomadic tribe. Like predatory nomads, they continually attacked Palestine, robbed and killed, and then quickly retired on their horses into the desert, so that after a while they would again make a similar predatory raid. They did the same at the time in question. Seeing that the Israelites were completely occupied with the war with the Philistines, they, under the leadership of their predatory king, who bore the general name Agag, made destructive and bloodthirsty raids on the southern districts of Canaan. Meanwhile, after the defeat of the Philistines, a considerable time had passed, and Saul's means had increased so much and his military forces had become so strong that he was now able to carry out a dangerous undertaking and bring it to a successful conclusion. Now it was he who was commanded to completely exterminate the Amalekites. At the same time, by the way, it was also about testing Saul himself: will he fulfill the command of the Lord? He had already sinned once in this regard in the first years of his reign, and was punished by the threat of depriving his offspring of the throne. Now came the second test. His character was already completely developed, he had already fully experienced the power and significance of the supreme leadership of God, he knew his own strengths and weaknesses: will he now, without hesitation, show complete obedience to the divine command, and will he prove his legal capacity to be the king of a theocratic state? For this purpose, Samuel came to Saul, prefacing his message by reminding the king that he was not appointed by himself, but was anointed by Jehovah to reign over the people of God and that therefore he had a special responsibility towards God and his people. With these preliminary remarks Samuel caused the king to pay special attention to the message that was then made to him. The message was made in unconditional words and was as follows: “Now go and smite Amalek, and destroy all that he has; (do not take anything for yourself, but destroy and confuse everything that he has); and do not give him mercy, but put to death from man to woman, from child to suckling child, from ox to sheep, from camel to donkey” (1 Samuel 15:1-3). The sentence was terrible. If modern humanity is outraged by such wholesale beatings and devastation, then the people of that time looked at such events in a completely different light. The Amalekites themselves were hopelessly corrupt; their continued existence as a people contributed only to further corruption, and therefore they deserved total extermination, and the Israelites were the instrument of God in carrying out such punishment. Like a pestilence, a famine, or a storm, they carried out the commands of God. In carrying out His commands, they eliminated all tenderness and regret and, considering themselves executors of God's sentence, washed their hands in blood without the slightest hesitation or remorse. At that ancient time, human life was generally not valued as highly as it is now; the nations were not then embarrassed by the shedding of their own or someone else’s blood, if this was caused by circumstances, and when the command came from the invisible King of Israel, then there should have been no hesitation in its execution, even if it entailed the most cruel and bloody consequences. From these circumstances the people should have learned a lesson about how disgusting human sins are to God. In moral government, established by earthly rewards and punishments, such harsh lessons were absolutely necessary, and the power of these lessons was realized all the more when the people themselves, who were supposed to benefit from these lessons, had to carry out the appointed vengeance with their own hands. Moreover, this wholesale extermination of a tribe or tribe was not some kind of unheard-of cruelty: it was a fairly common thing, the soul of the people was accustomed to such ideas and did not feel any shudder when carrying out the command. Just as an earthly king, making such an order, would act only in the usual way, so the King of Israel, when He suggested the destruction of the Amalekites, defended only His truth, as is characteristic of Him. This century was harsh and required harsh lessons adapted to the current moral state. More lenient measures would not be sufficient to achieve the intended goal. Saul was not averse to obeying the divine command given to him by Samuel. He had long been alarmed by these predatory nomads, was not unfamiliar with the curse pronounced on them in the time of his ancestors, and was glad to take the opportunity once and for all to put an end to their further raids. However, the task was not easy - to destroy an entire nomadic people, who would hardly agree to give an opportunity for a decisive battle and whose movements were faster and more unexpected than the movements of a regular army. Saul made great preparations for the campaign. He gathered his forces in the northern point, in Telkim, which lay on the southeastern border of the tribe of Judah and, perhaps, identical with Dullam, the main seat of the Dullam Arabs. 10,000 people from the tribe of Judah, which was most threatened by predators, and 200,000 from the remaining tribes responded to his call. A separate roll call of these two detachments again indicates some alienation between the northern and southern tribes, which was already mentioned above. Such an army, large even according to the latest reckoning, was not, however, too large for the intended task. The Amalekites were not city builders; they rarely even had any permanent residence, and their construction never went beyond fortifying their camp with a circular wall. The remains of such buildings are still found in the districts where this tribe is known to have lived. Saul and his army headed to one of these Amalekite camps (the city of Amalek), and there, in the bushes of a dry wadi, they set up an ambush. Finding that some Kenites were living there, he warned them to leave so as not to suffer the fate assigned to the Amalekites. The Kenites, descended from Abraham and related to Moses through his wife Zipporah, were always on friendly terms with the Israelites. They were a peaceful, pastoral people, and they willingly took into account the warning, retiring for a while to another place, safe from the meeting of hostile troops. The biblical narrative does not give any details about the war, but the campaign was a complete success. In all the meetings between the Israelites and the Amalekites, Saul won victories, the enemy fled from him and left huge booty for the victors. “And Saul smote Amalek from Havilah to the region around Sura, which is before Egypt.” This geographical definition indicates the vastness of the trek. In Gen. 25:18 This is how the boundaries of the land of Israel are generally determined. Havilah was a place, not yet discovered to this day, in the south of the tribe of Judah, in the desert, and Sur, meaning wall, is either that wall that was built by the Egyptians to protect their northeastern border from the raids of the nomadic tribes of the desert and stretched from Pelusium, past Migdol, to Iroopolis, or in general that wall-like limestone mountain range that stretches south of Suez and, due to its remarkable shape, is called by the Arabs Jebel Er-Raha (“mountain of the palm”). Thus, the devastation of the Israeli troops extended from the southern border of the tribe of Judah to the border of Egypt, so that they could capture numerous enemy camps with all the wealth of booty and captives contained in them. In accordance with the preliminary command, everything captured from this sworn enemy of the people was to be subjected to merciless destruction and extermination. Saul actually applied this punishment without any mercy to all the Amalekites who fell into his hands, and to all the less valuable livestock. Undoubtedly, many of these hardened desert dwellers fled, both due to the very difficulty of capturing them, and due to the weakening of the persecution when the Israelites captured the herds into their own hands. But even beyond this, the terrible command was not carried out in all its severity. Saul himself spared the life of even the king of Amalek, either in the hope of receiving a rich ransom for him, or in order to enhance his triumph by displaying such a noble captive to the people. This king is called Agag, but this is probably only the official or general name of the Amalekite kings, just as Pharaoh was the general name for the Egyptian kings 42 . The strict command was not fully implemented in other respects. The warriors, in their greed, could not part with such rich booty that fell into their hands. For the shepherd people, the temptation to take advantage of the captured flocks was irresistible, as a result of which, with Saul's permission, they took advantage of the best of the sheep, oxen and lambs, justifying themselves with the thought that the spell was sufficiently fulfilled by the destruction of people and everything that turned out to be more or less worthless among the flocks. But in doing so, they violated the direct command of God. To leave and appropriate for oneself what was doomed to complete destruction meant violating a sacred duty and, as it were, depriving God of what rightfully belonged to Him. This violation of the command by Saul was revealed to Samuel, who was in his home in Ramah. He received a higher message telling him that Saul had turned from the path of following the Lord, that he was striving to be independent of the divine will, and was beginning to act as the absolute ruler of the people of Israel. And at the same time the divine voice added: “I regret that I made Saul king; for he has turned away from Me and has not fulfilled My word.” This was an extremely sad message for the aged prophet. He not only grieved over the unworthiness of the one whom he loved so much, but at the same time he was indignant that his dedication to satisfying the desires of the people and his voluntary self-denial led to such a sad result. Saul was a man chosen under his leadership, solemnly and publicly anointed by him to serve the people, a man who, one might say, was chosen by God, and he so easily violated a clear and positive command, without revealing in himself either the reverence or obedience in which he should have served as a model for the people! The most dangerous and saddest thing was that such an incident could give the enemies of the Israeli people a reason to reproach the God of Israel. Truly, the prophet could grieve, seeing such pitiful fruits of all his labors and, apparently, the complete destruction of the assumptions of Jehovah himself. But such a feeling should not have led the prophet to complete forgetfulness of his duty. Throughout the night, until dawn, Samuel prayed to the Lord for the erring king, asking that he be brought to the path of repentance and again receive the mercy that he had now lost. But it was all in vain. There was not the slightest thought of repentance in Saul's heart; prosperity and power hardened his heart and strengthened in him a sense of proud independence, so that there could be no forgiveness for him. Samuel was foretold of the fate that would befall Saul, and he had to convey it to the erring king. Meanwhile, Saul returned from the campaign, bringing with him his rich booty. To glorify his victory as much as possible, he went to Carmel (now Kurmul), where he erected a monument to himself, on which was an inscription about the victory over the Amalekites. Similar monuments were in the custom of the eastern kings, and the Moabite monument, erected in Divon by Mesa, the king of Moab, in memory of the success of his uprising against the Israelites, became especially famous. Similar monuments are found in Egypt. Having thus celebrated his triumph, Saul went to Gilgal, which was located 22 versts from Rama, and Samuel went there to see him. When he arrived there and the king was informed about him, the latter came out to meet him and greeted him with the usual respectful words: “Blessed are you of the Lord!” Then, either to forestall any objection to his recent violation of the command, or being so blinded by self-importance that he no longer saw his offense, Saul calmly and self-satisfiedly declared to Samuel, as if even expecting the congratulations and approval of the prophet: “I have fulfilled the word of the Lord.” This was partly true, but not entirely. He fulfilled this task only to the extent that it was pleasant for him, and did not fulfill it in the form as he was commanded. Such a statement was already refuted by the voices of animals that were not exterminated and were in the camp. As a result, the aged prophet, with sad irony, asked him: “What is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” Saul could not avoid this direct question; These animals were brought from the Amalekites and formed part of the spoils doomed to destruction; he should have confessed to his wrongdoing, but he essentially places the blame on his army. It seemed to insist on leaving the best of the herd; but all this was done supposedly with the best intentions, precisely in order to sacrifice to the Lord, whom Samuel serves so ardently and who (as Saul seemed to hint) is too demanding in his demands. He did everything that could be reasonably required: “the rest, he says, we destroyed.” In this entire explanation, hypocrisy and a low tone of morality appeared very clearly. Such a justification indicated a sad decline in faith and reverence in God's anointed. The people always obeyed him without any resistance. How easily he could have used his power to suppress their desire to violate a strict command! To blame one's own greed and disobedience on one's subjects was an act unworthy of a king, low and deceitful. As a result, Samuel did not want to listen any longer. He had to tell him the verdict, that verdict, the reversal of which he had been praying for the whole night, and these feigned apologies, unfortunately, showed him how it became necessary to carry out this sentence. “Wait,” cried Samuel, “I will tell you what the Lord told me at night.” And when Saul arrogantly answered him: “Speak!”, Samuel turned to him with the words: “Were you not little in your eyes when you became the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed you king over Israel?” Having thus reminded Saul of how he had been elevated from insignificance to the high dignity of a king, and that, by virtue of this very exaltation, he should constantly show obedience to the will of God, Samuel then proceeded to explain to him the important offense that he had now committed. He was commanded to exterminate the Amalekites, whose harm to the people of Israel and their wickedness before God doomed them to complete destruction: “Why did you not listen to the voice of the Lord, and rushed to the prey, and did evil in the sight of the Lord?” But even after this explanation, Saul still did not admit his guilt. Either he knew little of the importance of the law which he had broken, or he wished to show that, as a king, he had no one above himself and could carry out his affairs without any external suggestion, but he again repeated his former apology, apparently not paying attention to the sentence that fell on the manner of his action from the side of the Heartman, and wishing only to justify himself before Samuel: “I listened to the voice of the Lord, answered Saul, and went on the way where the Lord sent me, and brought Agag, king of Amalek, and Amalek he destroyed.” It is true that the people retained some of the spoils for themselves, and took the best of the cursed goods from the sheep and oxen, but all this was done in order to make a sacrifice to the Lord God. Seeing how stubborn Saul remained in his self-justification, Samuel did not listen to him any longer. He interrupted this justificatory speech by proclaiming that majestic view, which was subsequently persistently and constantly preached by the prophets and which was preached by the Savior Himself, namely, that external rites and sacrifices are not so pleasing to the Lord as obedience to His voice. The excited prophet was seized in his indignation by the spirit of enthusiastic prophecy and uttered a sublime poetic speech, which shows the full height of his religious views, and at the same time reveals how Saul in his religious and moral views stood below his calling: “Are burnt offerings and sacrifices Just as pleasing to the Lord How is obedience to the voice of the Lord? And obedience is better than the fat of rams. For disobedience is the same sin as magic, And curse is the same as idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, So that you will not be king over Israel." 43 This solemn sentence struck Saul with horror. Does he really belong to the same category as idolaters and people who practice magic? And is it really possible that the power to which he is already so accustomed and with which he has already brought significant benefit to the people will be taken away from him? No matter how much he had fallen morally, however, he could not bear this sentence without trembling. He shuddered at the words of the prophet and in extreme excitement exclaimed to Samuel: “I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your word.” These words sounded repentant, but in reality there was no such repentance in the heart. Saul was alarmed by the turn of affairs, fearing that he was in danger of being deprived of power, but even admitting his guilt, he tries to somehow soften and belittle it, immediately declaring that he did not act freely and was afraid of the people, to whose desires he only yielded. But such an apology further revealed his unsuitability for his position. He had to use his power to suppress such illegal desires. He was to serve as a model of obedience to the law of God and support it with all the forces of his power. How could he occupy the position of king among the chosen people when he put his popularity above duty? He obviously did not yet feel any contrition for his three and grieved only for its consequences, both present and future. Saul saw that this open breach between himself and the great and highly revered prophet would diminish his authority and bring him irreparable harm; therefore he asked Samuel not to leave him at this dangerous moment. Apparently, more fearful of Jehovah's servant than of Jehovah himself, he turned to Samuel with the request: “Now take away my sin from me, and return with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” But Samuel was deaf to his request and answered him: “I will not turn back with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you, so that you should not be king over Israel.” Having said this, Samuel turned away from the king to move away from him. But Saul, wanting to achieve his forgiveness, held him so tightly that he even tore off the hem of his robe, to which Samuel added: “just as you tore off the hem of my robe,” so now the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you and will give it to your neighbor, who is better than you.” Saul had previously been deprived of the right to pass on the throne to his descendants, but now he had lost his own right. Samuel did not yet know who exactly the person was who would succeed Saul, and, therefore, used the general title “neighbor”; but this “neighbor” will be more obedient than Saul, and, confirming these words, he added: “And the faithful of Israel will not speak a lie, and the faithful of Israel will not repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent.” God's intention remains unchanged. The election of Saul and the duration of his reign were conditional, his rejection was unconditional and final. Despite, however, the irrevocability of this sentence, Samuel finally yielded to Saul’s insistent request and agreed to hide the gap between them from the eyes of the people, remaining present at the solemn sacrifice. The Prophet did not mean to create anarchy and completely turn his face away from the king before a successor had been appointed. He saw that to completely reject Saul's request and thus humiliate the monarch in the eyes of his people would mean to give new strength to the partially existing discontent and to support the antagonism that was already noticed in relation to Saul. Therefore, Samuel abandoned his intention and took part in the solemn worship service together with Saul. But he had one more duty to perform before leaving this meeting. He had to show that, by being present at this service, he in any case did not approve of the violation of the divine command, and had to prove this by an act that would tangibly show everyone the great importance of the whole matter. Agag, the wicked king of a wicked people, was to be put to death. Saul, in his ill-conceived mercy, spared his life; but he didn't have to live. The spell must have taken its toll on him. Samuel now ordered him to be brought to him. Agag was brought, chained hand and foot, and when he was placed in the presence of the king and the stern prophet, then, although he knew that such a great national festival was celebrated in honor of the victory, and therefore, in all likelihood, his own life would be sacrificed at the festival, however, he had not yet abandoned all hope of deliverance and with some confidence remarked: “Of course, the bitterness of death has passed?” But he was wrong. Samuel answered him: “As your sword deprived your wives of children, so let your mother, among wives, be deprived of her son,” and, having said this, he cut Agag in pieces with his own hand. Such an act on the part of the prophet seems so contrary to modern concepts and inconsistent with the character and office of the prophet that many believe that Samuel simply gave the order for the execution of Agag, and the execution was carried out by others. But there is nothing in the literal text to support such an opinion, and we have no right to introduce into the sacred record interpretations that are based only on our preconceived opinions. From what is reported about this event, we see that Samuel, excited by all the circumstances of the case and for a time gifted with extraordinary strength, killed Agag with his own hand. So he carried out the spell, did what the king had not done, and removed from the people the guilt brought upon him by Saul for breaking the oath. Thus, he gave the necessary example to that harsh age of unwavering obedience to the commandments of God, and left for all times the lesson that God’s work must be done completely and no one’s own thought should influence the belittlement or limitation of the proper fulfillment of His commands. Having thus restored the rights of Jehovah, Samuel separated from Saul and returned to Ramah, abandoning the affairs of state and devoting himself exclusively to the education of young prophets and citizens and laying the national welfare on firmer foundations than popular love or royal caprice. The previous relationship between him and the king was completely broken. Saul was no longer a theocratic king to whom a prophet would convey the word of the Lord and who would live and act under his leadership. Saul was still in reality a king, but his kingdom belonged entirely to the real world; he moved further and further away from God and now no longer had any communication with God. Samuel's reproachful words at Gilgal were very unpleasant to him; Saul never from that time sought an opportunity to consult Samuel. Already earlier in Michmash, he had begun the battle without asking his advice, and did not invite him to be present at the solemn thanksgiving sacrifice in memory of the victory over the Amalekites. But Samuel still kept close to the king, despite various misdeeds on his part. Now, finally, he was forced to completely abandon it. He never wanted to see him again for the rest of his life. True, they met each other again in one of the prophetic schools, but this meeting was not intentional and during it nothing happened between them. However, Samuel never forgot Saul. He loved him for the hopes he had previously given, for his high noble qualities, for his valiant services to the people, and now he mourned his fall, as a father mourns the fall and death of his beloved son. Perhaps he also saw in his suspicion and unbridled self-will the signs of that terrible illness that darkened the last years of Saul's life, and the good aged prophet mourned him not only as a king who was thus deprived of all his great future, but simply as a man whose future was threatened by all kinds of trials. Mourning in absentia the king who had been so unsuccessfully anointed by him, Samuel grieved not only personally for the king, but also for his entire people. He did not yet know who would occupy the throne, and he was afraid that the rejection of the current king would not lead to a weakening of all power in the state and would not again establish that disunity and that political weakness from which Saul had delivered the Israelites. And so, as a result of this, he did not stop turning to God in prayer for a better arrangement for the fate of the people. In answer to his prayer, the elderly prophet heard the voice of God, bringing him out of his sorrowful inactivity and commanding him to go and anoint a successor to the rejected Saul. He was to take a vessel of sacred oil and go to Bethlehem, and there anoint one of the sons of Jesse, a well-known resident of that city. He was not told who exactly should be anointed, and he had to act in his choice so that everyone could see that this election came from God, and that no personal feelings were mixed in with it. Bethlehem, located about 18 miles from Rama, was not one of those places that Samuel visited during his circuit judicial tours, and the families living in it were probably not familiar to him, and therefore, he was also unfamiliar with David. But this embassy was very dangerous. Samuel, of course, was not a man who would succumb to fear or hesitation when he had to perform a duty, and yet he was not immune to a certain fear. “How will I go? Samuel said, “Saul will hear and kill me.” The jealousy and suspicion that had marred the last years of Saul's life had already begun to appear in him, and from the time of his rejection they developed rapidly. Moreover, being in reality still a king, Saul would naturally have looked upon the anointing of another in his place as an act of treason, which, in his view, might justly entail the penalty of death, and although he probably had too much respect for the aged prophet to treat him so cruelly, he could, however, subject his freedom to restrictions, expel him from the country, or generally subject Jesse himself and his family to bloody vengeance. Samuel's fear, therefore, was not unfounded, and he was told how he could avoid the danger and at the same time carry out his mission successfully. He had long been in the habit of visiting various localities for the purpose of making sacrifices, which, given the abnormal state of religious affairs, when the ark of the covenant was separated from the tabernacle, was permissible for him as an authorized prophet of God. Now he was inspired from above to use this custom in order to hide his true intention from the suspicious eye of Saul. He was to take a heifer from his herd and go to Bethlehem, declaring that he was there to sacrifice to the Lord. Then, he had to invite Jesse and his sons to the sacrificial festival that would follow, and then God would show him how to act in the matter of the anointing itself. The purpose of Samuel's visit to Bethlehem may thus have seemed, at least in the eyes of the people, to be a simple matter of an ordinary sacrifice. If he had some other intention, which did not concern the people at the present time, then he was by no means obliged to reveal it. And so Samuel, keeping in the depths of his heart the secret of the assignment given to him, went to Bethlehem. This visit was extremely unusual. The prophet had never been to this place before, and the elders of the city were extremely alarmed at the sight of the solemn procession of the prophet with a heifer and a long vessel in his hands. “Is your coming peaceful?” the elders asked him with concern. Did he come to them to investigate some crime? Or is this unexpected arrival not in some connection with the rupture that, as they could hear, had recently occurred between him and the king? Why did he choose their insignificant city for his visit? Samuel quickly allayed their fears and announced that he had arrived for the sacrifice, ordering them to cleanse themselves and prepare to attend the celebration and the feast that would follow. This invitation was especially addressed to Jesse, the chief elder of the city, and to his sons. When the sacrifice was made, before the invited guests sat down to the feast, which was to take place a little later, Samuel went to the house of Jesse and ordered all his sons to be presented, awaiting God's indication of the one whom he would have to anoint. He apparently told Jesse nothing about the purpose of this performance and acted in a mysterious manner, calculated rather to excite than to satisfy curiosity. When he saw the son of Jesse, Yelgava, distinguished by his majestic and beautiful appearance, he involuntarily thought: “Surely this is His anointed before the Lord!” But he had to be unconvinced of this, because the voice of God told him: “Do not look at his appearance, at the height of his growth; I rejected him; I don't look the way a person looks; For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Then, after Jelgab, six other sons of Jesse were presented to Samuel, but not one of them was chosen, although they were all distinguished by their beautiful appearance, strength and masculinity. Feeling somewhat confused and unsure how to proceed in this predicament, Samuel asked Jesse if all his sons were there. Jesse replied that he had another, youngest, son, who was now in the field tending sheep. Samuel immediately ordered to send for him, and when the youngest son appeared to the prophet, he turned out to be completely different in appearance from his other brothers. He was still a teenager, “fair-haired, with beautiful eyes and a pleasant face.” He was nothing striking in his appearance, was no more than average height, very simple in his shepherd’s attire, with a stick in his hands and a knapsack over his shoulders. But in his beautiful eyes the fire of inner greatness shone. Living for months at a time among his herds and the surrounding nature, from childhood he learned to delve into himself and draw inspiration from his own richly gifted soul, excited by the sounds and beauties of his native nature. His solitary position among the beasts of prey early taught him to brave such bloodthirsty predators as lions and bears, and developed in him a strength and courage that surprised even his elder brothers. But most of all, the shepherd's life with its leisure developed his spiritual life. His native mountains, completely covered with vineyards and olive trees, delighted his spirit with their beauty, and he poured out his sublime feelings in the wondrous playing of the harp, which was the inseparable companion of the young shepherd. This young shepherd was God's chosen one. As soon as Samuel saw him, a divine voice inspired him to anoint David. Samuel took the vessel of oil and, without making any further explanation, actually anointed David in the presence of his brothers. What those around us actually thought about this is unknown. Undoubtedly, neither David nor they saw in this an immediate consecration to the kingdom; the high destiny to which this young man was called was not yet mentioned at all, and he returned to his usual activities, as if nothing had happened to him. This anointing may have appeared to his brothers as a simple sign of appointing the boy as an assistant in the performance of a sacrifice, or in the sense of enrolling him as a student in a prophetic school. But in any case, it had an internal effect on David himself; The Spirit of God came upon him and rested on him from that time; his character developed in all directions, and divine influence was revealed in those high and noble qualities that he began to manifest to an even greater extent from that time. Having completed his errand, Samuel returned to Ramah. But what happened to the rejected, although not yet deposed, Saul? The biblical historian describes his condition in terrible words: “The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.” Whether Saul really became possessed, or whether he was simply overcome by mental illness is unknown. In ancient times, any mental illness, epilepsy, etc. was attributed to the direct influence of the spirit of malice, but undoubtedly God sometimes actually allowed the evil spirit to have a certain influence on the bodies and souls of wicked people. Saul's condition was considered a punishment sent to him from above. Considering all known circumstances, we can come to the following conclusion. The severe reproaches of Samuel, the deprivation of the kingdom both of himself and of his descendants, the feeling of insult, the proud self-will that did not want to submit to any external reproach, and the restless expectation of the appearance of some rival to the throne - all this greatly influenced Saul and made him gloomy, suspicious and irritable. He gave himself up entirely to such feelings; fits of despondency became more and more frequent in him, and he was less and less able to resist them; dissatisfied with himself, he made no effort to improve; every year and every day the evil increased, until, finally, his soul finally broke down, and he became, to a certain extent, truly insane. When these attacks of insanity became more dangerous, those close to Saul began to worry and began to think about how this illness could be alleviated. In such cases, the influence of music was considered especially useful and beneficial. Aesculapius used it in the treatment of the mentally ill, and in general in the ancient East it was considered one of the best means for calming an indignant and alleviating a dejected spirit. Consequently, they advised Saul to look for some skilled harp player who could ease his soul with his sweet sounds and restore him to peace and tranquility. And this led to Saul's first meeting with his future successor, David. Possessing a gentle soul and devoting much of his time as a shepherd to music, David improved so much in the art of music that he acquired widespread fame, so that the king’s entourage pointed to him as the one most capable of dispelling the gloomy thoughts and heavy melancholy of Saul with his sweet playing. And so, indeed, the young shepherd was invited to the palace and, when necessary, played for the king. He was about 18 years old at that time. The king was extremely pleased with the young musician’s playing. He always treated with love the promising young men whom he usually enlisted in his army, and now he had the idea that David might eventually become not only a skilled musician, but also a good warrior. For his part, David fulfilled his duty with love and enthusiastic enthusiasm, although he had to perform this duty so rarely that he had the opportunity to go to his hometown for a long time and continued to engage in his shepherd business. One incident, however, brought him closer to the king. The restless Philistines at this time again began to make invasions of the land of the Israelites, in order to subjugate them to their yoke. It is not known what actual circumstances forced them to undertake this new attack, but in any case they set out with a large army and, taught by bitter experience, no longer relied only on their strength, but also resorted to strategic art. Having invaded the possessions of the tribe of Judah, they concentrated their forces between Succoth and Azek, in Ephesus-Dammim. These areas have now been identified to a reasonable degree of satisfaction. Succoth, the present Shuveike, lies, as it were, on a natural terrace, two versts above the valley of Elah, that is, terebinth or oak, in a hilly area, 24 versts southwest of Jerusalem. Azek, the present Deir El-Aspek, is located in a more open area, below Wadi Surar, 2 versts north of Sokhoea, on the main road from the Ela Valley. About two versts to the south is Veit-Fazed, that is, the “house of bloodshed,” indicating the very place of the Philistine camp, that place with the ominous name Ephesus-Dam-mim, that is, the “limit of blood,” which was so called because it was the scene of frequent and bloody clashes. Saul set out with his army to counter the enemy and camped near the Elah Valley, in Wadi Sund, on one of the low rocky hills covered with small mastic bushes, with which these hills abound even now. Between the two hostile armies lay a wide, open valley, rich and fertile, but divided along its entire length by a considerable ravine in the middle, the presence of which sufficiently explains why the opposing armies, being close together, were unable to engage in proper battle. The newest researcher, Conder 44, says that this pothole is like a deep trench formed by a mountain stream, which flows violently here in winter, although it dries up in summer. This bed, in some places up to 20 feet wide, with steep vertical sides up to 10 or 12 feet deep, was completely impassable in certain places. Both banks of this ravine are strewn with round pebbles, very suitable for a sling. When, therefore, both hostile armies were face to face, against each other, the Philistines decided to resolve the matter by a duel, usual in antiquity, and for this purpose they put out from their midst one famous fighter, namely Goliath, from the city of Gath, which was considered the city of the ancient giants of the Anakim (Joshua 11:22). Goliath offered to solve the matter of war by single combat with him. This warrior was a formidable enemy. According to the biblical narrator, he was “six cubits and a span” tall, that is, 4 arshins and 14 vershoks, or in other words, 11 feet 4½ inches. Such growth of the Philistine giant is truly extraordinary; but history knows many examples of very gigantic people besides Goliath. So Pliny says that during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius, an Arab came to Rome who was 9 feet and 9 inches tall, and during the reign of Augustus in Rome there was one man even taller than him. In Berlin in 1857, a giant was shown that was even taller and almost equal to Goliath. In England, the giant John Middleton, from Lancashire, born in 1578, is also famous: he was 9 feet and 3 inches tall and was distinguished by extraordinary strength. His portrait is still preserved in Oxford. Goliath was given even more formidable greatness by his monstrous weapons. He was clad from head to toe in military armor: he had a copper helmet on his head, and he himself was dressed in scale armor, so that the weight of his armor was five thousand shekels of copper 45. He had copper knee pads on his knees, and a huge copper shield hung over his shoulders. The very shaft of his spear was of enormous size, and his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron. All these weapons were so heavy that he had to have a squire with him. Such a terrible enemy terrified the Israelis. Having emerged from the midst of the Philistine army, he began to revile the Israelites in every possible way and suggested that one of them should come out in single combat with him. Like the heroes of Homer, he began to boast of his own courage and mock the cowardice and insignificance of his enemies: “Why did you go out to fight? He shouted in a thunderous voice to the Israelites. Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a person from yourself and let him come to me. If he can fight me and kill me, then we will be your slaves; if I defeat him and kill him, then you will be our slaves and serve us.” Then, not limiting himself to this proposal, he began to shout at the Israelis: “Today, he said impudently, I will disgrace the Israeli regiments; give me a man and we will fight together.” When such a proposal was made by the Philistines, Saul and his army, at the sight of the giant coming forward, fell into despondency, and no one dared to engage in single combat with him. The question concerned a matter too important for the combat to be entrusted to any ordinary person, and yet among the Israelites there was no one who could take upon himself the defense of the cause of the people of God. The king himself, by his very dignity, could not accept this challenge; Jonathan's life was considered too precious to be allowed to be exposed to danger in such an unequal struggle. In such a predicament, Saul, however, did not turn to God or His high priest for advice, but for forty whole days he had to endure the insulting ridicule of Goliath, not knowing how to answer them. In order to arouse hunting and courage in the army, Saul even made a big promise, namely, offering the one who would fight the daring Philistine and kill him, great wealth, his daughter in marriage and all kinds of rights and benefits to his family. Despite this brilliant award, no one, however, volunteered, since life seemed more precious to everyone than any reward. But when the Israeli army had to endure all sorts of insults from the enemy, David happened to visit the camp. His father, Jesse, instructed him to bring several gifts to the camp for the brothers who were in the royal service. “Take,” he said, “an ephah of dried grain and ten loaves of bread for your brothers, and take it quickly to the camp to your brothers.” At the same time, Jesse did not forget to give gifts to the military commander: “and take these ten cheeses, he added, to the commander of a thousand, and inquire about the health of the brothers, and find out about their needs.” When David arrived in the Israeli camp, with him again the Philistine giant, according to custom, stepped out from his ranks and with a thunderous voice began to mock the cowardice and cowardice of the Israelis. This amazed David greatly, and he asked what it meant. He was told that this giant “comes out to reproach Israel. If someone had killed him, the king would have given him great wealth, and would have given him his daughter in marriage, and would have made his father’s house free in Israel.” When David found out what was the matter, his young soul could not tolerate such reproach against the army of the living God, and he began to seethe with uncontrollable courage. In the desert, he slayed the lions that attacked his flock; with the help of God, he decided to slay this lion that was reproaching his people. He volunteered to fight Goliath. His decision was reported to Saul, but the king, seeing the homely young man before him and considering him more capable of playing the harp than engaging in single combat with a terrible giant, rejected his offer, and only David’s enthusiastic confidence and courage forced him to agree to accept the challenge. “The Lord, who delivered me from the lion and the bear,” David said to Saul, “will also deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” In order to give David some kind of warlike spirit, Saul offered him his armor; but they were too large and heavy for David, and he decided to fight Goliath with his shepherd's weapons. And so, when the gigantic Philistine, as usual, came out to mock the Israelites, a young man in simple shepherd’s clothing, with a staff and sling in his hand and with a knapsack over his shoulders, separated from the ranks of the army on the opposite bank of the valley. He boldly descended into the valley and, having collected smoothly washed flint stones most convenient for slinging, he stood in a warlike position before the gigantic enemy. Such an opponent could seem to Goliath only as a mockery of him, and he, in arrogant indignation, only noticed that he was not a dog for some boy to go against him with a stick in his hands and stones. “Why are you coming at me with a stick and stones? Goliath shouted menacingly, am I a dog? When David boldly answered him that he was not a dog, but worse than a dog, Goliath burst into abuse at him, cursed him with his gods and shouted for the despicable shepherd to come closer to him, and Goliath, without a humiliating struggle for himself, would give his body to the birds and beasts to be devoured. To this terrible curse and mockery, David modestly answered the Philistine: “You come against me with a sword, and a spear, and a shield, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have reviled. Today the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will kill you, and take off your head, and will give your corpse and the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. And the whole earth will know that there is a God in Israel. And this entire crowd will know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for this is the Lord’s war and He will deliver you into our hands.” Enraged by such speech, Goliath moved his terrible spear and headed towards David. At this very time, David, with a well-aimed and accustomed hand, threw a stone from his sling, and the stunned giant fell to the ground, and David, jumping up to him with the speed of a doe, cut off his head with his own sword. The Philistines, amazed by such a miraculous feat of the young man, fled in confusion, pursued by the Israelites. There could be no question of a proper battle here, and the Philistines fled towards their country to hide behind the mountains, some fleeing to Gatha, and others to Ashkelon. The entire camp became the prey of the Israelites, who received rich booty. The carnage was quite large; according to the testimony of Josephus, thirty thousand Philistines were beaten, and twice as many were wounded. There is no need to believe that all this happened in one day, but one can think that the matter continued even for several months and was accompanied by several other campaigns, the final results of which are conveyed in the Bible. At the end of the fight, David was brought to Saul and brought in his hands the huge head of Goliath, as a terrible trophy of his victory. Such a feat naturally forced the king to ask in more detail about the origin of the young hero, to whom, according to his promise, he was supposed to marry his daughter. David told him that his father was Jesse, a Bethlehemite. Saul treated the young man extremely kindly and elevated him to the position of his armor bearer or adjutant. The spoils obtained after the death of the slain giant were given to David. He took the weapons home to Bethlehem, and subsequently placed these trophies in the tabernacle in the city of Nom. The head of Goliath was preserved as a permanent monument to the power of faith in Jehovah. Subsequently, it was preserved as a landmark in Jerusalem, when this city became the capital of the kingdom. At this meeting between Saul and David there was a man present who could appreciate even more fully the valiant character of the young victorious man, and rejoiced at his success. It was Jonathan, the brave, noble and generous son of Saul. When David answered the king’s questions and discovered extraordinary modesty, courage, sublime faith and wisdom, an extraordinary love for this young man flared in Jonathan’s heart, so that, in the words of the biblical narrator, “Jonathan’s soul clung to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” The friendship that began in this way never weakened, never darkened for a single moment. It continued to exist unchanged throughout the rest of Jonathan's life. For David himself, his victory over Goliath was one of the turning points in his life. She ignited the poetic spirit in him, and he sang this event on his mellifluous harp in the famous psalm: I was the least among my brothers And the youngest in my father's house; My fingers have tuned the psalter. And who would tell my Lord? The Lord Himself heard me. He sent His messenger, And he took me from my father's sheep, And He anointed me with His anointing oil. My brothers are beautiful and great; But the Lord was not pleased to choose from them. I went out to meet the foreigner, And he cursed me with his idols, But I, having snatched his sword from him, beheaded him, And he delivered the children of Israel from reproach. 46 Chapter 8. Saul's envy and his persecution of David The war with the Philistines did not end with the defeat inflicted on them on the occasion of the death of Goliath. The hostilities continued for several months, and during this time David, through his exploits, increasingly gained favor and love from Saul and his people. He carried out all the assignments given to him so wisely and successfully that Saul entrusted him with the position of one of the commanders of his army. But soon one circumstance happened that aroused the tsar’s jealous suspicion, which never calmed down, but was always ready to turn into open violence, especially when the tsar suffered from attacks of his illness. At the end of hostilities, Saul, together with David and the army, solemnly returned home, pleased that for a time he had restored the complete triumph of Israel in Palestine. David especially contributed to this unprecedented success with his military skill and personal courage, proven on many different occasions. The people clearly understood this and openly recognized the greatness of his feat as the conqueror of the giant Goliath. His fame thundered throughout the country and grew rapidly over time, so that it soon threatened to even eclipse the glory of the king himself. When they finally returned from the campaign, women from the cities passed by the army came out to greet them with songs and dances, and other signs of national joy. They came out with cymbals and triangles, and while performing their usual solemn dances, they sang antiphonally a victory song composed by folk art, the main refrain of which was the words: When Saul heard this refrain that was offensive to him, a dark suspicion sank into his soul towards the young hero. He did not forget that he, in essence, through the lips of Samuel, was dethroned, and someone else, more worthy of him, was appointed to take his place. More than once he had to reflect with gloomy dissatisfaction about this upcoming future, and he suspiciously looked for signs by which he could find out about his successor who was going to take over. Years have passed since this fateful message was made to him, and, however, the passage of time did not diminish his fears for the future. This foretold deprivation of the throne weighed heavily on his soul and increased his gloomy disposition. But what if this homely shepherd hero is the king, destined by Jehovah to take the place that Saul lost due to his unworthiness? This favorite of the people could really become a rival who could deprive both himself and his family of the throne. David acted as a fighter for Israel when all the mighty warriors of the king's army retreated in horror; this young man showed extraordinary success in all battles and won the hearts of everyone with whom he met; his glory was so enthusiastically sung in the country that the people, in their victory song, recognized him ten times more worthy than the king and the head of the people. In any case, the folk song greatly upset Saul, this refrain was extremely unpleasant for him, and he gloomily remarked: “They gave David tens of thousands, and me thousands; all he lacks is a kingdom.” From that time on, he began to treat David with mixed feelings of hatred and love. The former generosity that he showed towards his enemies in his early years was destroyed in him by years of suspicion and discontent, and the evil mood to which he gave himself up at times completely suppressed in him all former love for his young friend and sweet singer, and left nothing in its place except a feeling of insidious envy and malicious jealousy. When he gave himself up to such evil suspicions and was constantly tormented by the thought that the people were clearly elevating this insignificant shepherd above him, he began to be tormented even more strongly by that evil spirit that had already darkened his soul. This was God's permission, and the evil spirit was allowed to dominate the king and carry out the divine sentence over his soul. Saul was left to his own devices, and evil reigned undeniably in his sick soul. His natural mind was weakened by this morbid passion, and a new phase of madness developed in him. Having been at first only gloomy, sad and suspicious, he now began to become violent and bloodthirsty; human-murderous inclinations began to gain more and more dominance in his soul; his speeches became incoherent. Acting like a man with a will stronger than his own, he "went wild in his house"; Inspired by an evil spirit, he uttered words the meaning of which he himself did not understand, and which to those present seemed truly like the rage of a madman. When the king’s dangerous mood became especially strong, those close to him did not hesitate to resort to the old means of calming the king’s soul, and called David. And David, with his usual skill, played on his sweet harp, but now without his usual success. The evil spirit in Saul was already too strong, already had too free control of his soul, to run away from the sounds of sweet music. The music lost its power for him, but the harp player himself still did not want to leave the performance of his position, nourishing even the slightest hope of being of benefit to the raging monarch, although he could not help but realize that this raging was partly caused by the presence of David himself. And then one day, driven to an extraordinary frenzy, Saul began to wave his spear, which he wore as a symbol of his royal power, threatening to throw it at David as he ran his fingers over the harp. Twice he aimed his deadly weapon at the musician, and twice he held back his deadly hand, since either David moved away from his presence in time, or his entourage managed to calm the enraged king in time. But this assassination attempt by the king only contributed to David’s even greater glory and, in turn, only increased Saul’s pain. He saw the hand of God in all this; but his conviction, instead of leading him to reconciliation with present circumstances and to the recognition of the futility of any attempt to eliminate the youth who had served him so well and faithfully, made him hate him even more and fear him even more. David himself did not leave the palace; he looked at the hostility revealed by the king as a sign of the painful state of his soul, and did not take revenge for it. Saul, however, even in moments of a healthier state could no longer endure the constant presence of a man whom he considered his rival and whom he recognized himself powerless to harm, while at the same time being unable not to recognize the high qualities that had gained David the love of the whole army. Therefore, he tried to somehow remove this constant source of irritation from himself and entrusted David with command over a thousand-strong detachment of soldiers, to whom he entrusted various military expeditions. In the position of such a military leader, the latter acted so well that he had extraordinary success in everything; Israel and Judah, both the northern and southern tribes, joyfully surrendered to his guidance, and everyone loved him. Saul was unable to prevent such successes of David, but they further poisoned the soul of the king, who became more and more enraged from impotent anger. Hearing praises of David everywhere, Saul himself, in turn, tried in every possible way to belittle his exploits, considering them only an accident favorable to him, and at the same time found it possible to break even his royal word. The king promised to give his daughter in marriage to a warrior who would defeat the Philistine giant Goliath; he, of course, felt the obligation to fulfill this promise, but he hesitated with it, and when he finally decided to fulfill it, he conditioned this fulfillment on the fact that David would perform several more exploits, and, moreover, those that, as Saul secretly hoped, could lead to the complete destruction of David. So, he offered David his eldest daughter Merov, but on the condition that he would make several more campaigns against the Philistines, hoping that David’s selfless courage, especially under these circumstances, would serve as his death. In any case, he secretly thought: “Let not my hand be on him, but the hand of the Philistines be on him.” David, of course, willingly accepted this commission, although he immediately expressed his unworthiness to be the king’s son-in-law: “Who am I and what is my life,” he said to Saul, “and my father’s family in Israel, that I should be the king’s son-in-law?” Nevertheless, he carried out all the instructions given to him exactly, to Saul’s great regret. When the time came for the fulfillment of the promise, Saul found it possible to again break his royal word, and, instead of marrying his daughter to a brave hero, he gave her in marriage to a certain Adriel of Mehola, who, perhaps, as a rich man, offered the king a great gift in return for this honor. David could not help but feel offended by such a preference for him by a rich man who had not declared himself anything for the good of the people, but his grief was softened by the fact that Merah, in essence, did not love the former shepherd, and, on the contrary, he enjoyed the love of Saul’s second daughter, Michal, who openly showed her love for the young hero. When this was reported to Saul, he took advantage of this opportunity to somewhat atone for his unworthy act in relation to David, and decided to give this daughter of his to him, however, with the intention of again conditioning the fulfillment of the promise on some assignment that could serve as the death of David. David now knew from experience the king’s dislike and his insidious plans, and therefore, when he was informed about Saul’s decision to give his second daughter to him, the young hero was not particularly happy about this news and sadly remarked: “Does it seem easy to you to be the king’s son-in-law? I am a poor and insignificant person." Nevertheless, he had to accept this proposal, and Saul conditioned his fulfillment on the fact that David would perform a new feat in relation to the Philistines. Perhaps the war with the Philistines was still going on at this time, but besides this, in that age of disordered international relations, it was always possible for a party of warriors to make an invasion of the enemy’s land and cause some kind of devastation in it. David was instructed to make an invasion of the Philistine land and, as a proof of his courage, as a condition of marrying the king's daughter, to perform the dangerous feat of circumcising one hundred Philistines. Such a feat naturally required not only courage, but also special cunning, and of course, most of all, it exposed David’s life to danger, which is exactly what Saul had in mind. With his usual agility, David with a detachment of soldiers made a brave raid on the border region of Philistia, and before the time appointed for the accomplishment of the feat had passed, he returned to the court, bringing with him, as material evidence, the circumcision of not even one hundred Philistines, as was stated in the condition, but two hundred. After such a feat, Saul had no choice but to fulfill his promise, given in such a solemn and open atmosphere, and therefore he really gave his daughter Michal to David, and the young shepherd of Bethlehem thus became the king’s son-in-law. But this new connection between them only further intensified Saul's irrational hatred. He had no doubt that the Lord assisted David and protected him in all dangers, or even if he did not recognize the work of God here, in any case he looked at David as one of those happy people who are successful in everything and against whom it is useless to act with deceit. David's close relationship with the king further strengthened his influence, so that even the king could not oppress him openly. In addition, the very consciousness that Michal loved her husband and was ready to use every effort to protect him from the evil tricks of her king father, even more hardened Saul’s feelings and poisoned his entire state of mind. How different all this would have been if the unfortunate king had reconciled himself to the situation given to him and recognized the hand of God in all these circumstances! The person who was subsequently appointed to take his place was admitted into his family; a change of dynasty under such circumstances would have no meaning; his daughter's husband might naturally be chosen as his successor, and thus he might reconcile himself to the good will of the people, satisfy the love of his son and daughter, and bind David himself to himself with bonds of gratitude and love. But Saul persisted in his evil hatred, and David’s constant success only fanned the flame that was devouring his heart, and as a result, “Saul began to fear David even more, and became his enemy for life.” He began to openly pursue the people's favorite and his secret successor, and from here began a series of amazing adventures of David, with which Providence gradually prepared him to take the throne. This was a difficult school of testing, in which David’s conviction was to be strengthened that the fate and life of man are in the hand of God, and even the king with all his army, being deprived of God’s help, becomes more defenseless and helpless than the last slave. Saul was now completely overcome by his dark passions. In his jealous hatred he lost all self-control; he even dared to speak openly to Jonathan and his associates about his intention to kill David at the first favorable opportunity 47 . He could no longer endure the success of his young heroic son-in-law, his dangerous popularity, and clearly suspected in him an intention to lay claim to the throne and found a new dynasty. He tried to convince himself and his associates that David’s death was an absolute necessity, a precautionary measure that, sadly, must be taken for important reasons of state. Depressed by gloomy fears, he suppressed all the best feelings in himself, became close to the thought of crime, so that nothing could stop his bloodthirsty plans any longer. But David had a friend at court who saw his danger and warned him against it. The valiant Jonathan, the noble son of the evil king, knew that there were many such shameless courtiers at court who, after such a statement from their sovereign, could very easily assist him in eliminating such a person so unpleasant to him. Therefore, animated not only by love for his friend, but also by true patriotism, Jonathan warned David about the danger threatening him and asked him to hide for a while until he learned the real intentions of his father and tried to turn him away from his evil intention. Then, taking advantage of the first opportunity, Jonathan calmly spoke to the sick-hearted king, reminded him of David’s services and the great joy that he himself felt as a result of the young man’s success, and, in conclusion, begged him not to incur guilt in shedding innocent blood. Saul could not resist such a request from his beloved son and, still retaining a remnant of his former noble feelings, bowed to these convictions, and even swore an oath that David’s life would be spared: “As the Lord lives!” Saul exclaimed, “David will not die.” This promise was made solemnly, so that Jonathan was completely confident in the sincerity of his father and joyfully informed David that the king had obviously changed his intentions and began to reveal his former favor towards David. As a result of this, David indeed, after a temporary removal, again returned to the palace and took up his previous position. This reconciliation continued for some time, and David even again entered into those close relations with the king in which he had been before the king's last outburst of anger. But a new incident again aroused dormant jealousy in Saul and, moreover, to an even greater extent. The Philistines again raided the land of Israel, and in the battle with them David again showed his usual courage, which gave him even more popularity among the people and army. This new exploit immediately aroused all his evil feelings in Saul and brought them to the highest degree. He did not make the slightest attempt to suppress evil thoughts within himself; on the contrary, he seemed to encourage and nourish an evil feeling in himself and completely surrendered to the power of his dark passions, so that the biblical narrator again declares that “an evil spirit from God attacked Saul.” This terrible fit of madness was a direct punishment for his unrepentance and hardness of heart. When he was thus suffering from this terrible mental illness, David again appeared to him with the goal, if possible, of calming the king’s raging spirit with his sweet music. But Saul’s illness had already become so severe that such mild remedies had no effect on him. On the contrary, at the sight of David playing, a gloomy thought flashed through Saul’s soul that now his mortal enemy was near him without any weapons, and, therefore, was in his complete power; Should he not take advantage of this circumstance and immediately deal him a fatal blow? In a terrible frenzy, he grabbed a spear standing near him and, completely surrendering to bloodthirsty desire, threw it at the musician, trying to kill him outright. David, however, with his keen eye could already have noticed in advance the dangerous excitement of the king and his strange movements and, therefore, managed to dodge the blow that threatened him in time, so that the spear rushed past him with a squeal and pierced the wall. After this, David had no choice but to flee, and Saul, seething with impotent rage and new failure, in turn took measures to catch David and put him to death. Fleeing from the threatening danger, David secretly retired to his own house, and thinking that the king, who suffered from momentary surges of rage, could already repent of his action, imagined that he was now safe. Meanwhile, Saul ordered that David's house be surrounded by guards so that he could be killed at night. Josephus believes 48 that Saul had the intention of seizing him and putting him on trial as a traitor, while also taking measures to condemn him to death; but in the current state, when the ill-fated king had already lost all self-respect and completely surrendered himself to the power of his bloodthirsty envy, he could hardly think about any formal legal proceedings, but simply wanted to get rid of his enemy with his own tyrannical power. The position of David, surrounded by the servants of the bloodthirsty king in his very home, was extremely difficult, and he sought consolation in prayer to God, his only patron, and poured out his grief in a fiery psalm: Deliver me from my enemies, my God! Protect me from those who rise against me, Deliver me from the workers of iniquity; For behold they lie in wait for my soul; The strong are gathering against me, Not for my crime and not for my sin, Lord, Without my guilt they run and arm themselves; Move to my aid and look. They have the power, but I resort to You, Spend them so that they are not there, Let them come back in the evening They howl like dogs and walk around the city, And I will sing of Your power, And from early morning proclaim Your mercy; And a refuge in the day of my trouble. My strength! I will sing your praises; My God, who has mercy on me 49. The fiery prayer was heard, and David’s hope for God’s help was justified. Perhaps, thanks to Jonathan's message, Michal learned of the danger threatening her husband's life, and, since the doors of the house were carefully guarded by guards, she resorted to a special means of saving David, and by lowering the rope from the window, she gave David the opportunity to escape in such an unnoticed way. But having given David the opportunity to leave safely, Michal resorted to another means in order to somehow slow down the persecution. She sent to tell the guards that David had become very ill the previous night and was now lying in his room sick and unable to move, and, in order to give credibility to her story, she made a humanoid figure on the bed, which was supposed to represent her absent husband. The deception was discovered, of course, but not before it had served its purpose. Meanwhile, the royal fugitive, seeing that the royal court could no longer serve as a place of quiet residence for him, went to his old friend and adviser Samuel, who still lived in Ramah. The prophet, although he withdrew from public activities, nevertheless continued to use his former influence and could not only give David good advice in his sad situation, but could also offer a refuge where, in peace and prayer, David could console his troubled spirit and find reinforcement for future trials. In the neighborhood of his home, Samuel erected several buildings that served as a school for the prophetic students, whose studies he supervised. Here the prophetic disciples lived together and were engaged in educating and preparing themselves for the great work ahead of them among their people. Accepted into this community, David felt safe for some time, and there, in the host of prophets, with singing and music he relieved his soul, tired of persecution, preparing at the same time for his future activities as an enlightened king. But this calm did not last. Saul was soon informed where David had found refuge, and the king, not paying attention to the sanctity of his refuge, sent envoys to arrest him. But this intention of the king was destroyed by a higher power than the king himself could have at his disposal. When the messengers arrived in Ramah, and precisely to the place of David’s stay in Nawaf (as the buildings of the prophetic school were called), no attempt was made on the part of the prophetic students to prevent their approach and, on the contrary, everything was solemn and peaceful. The messengers entered the public room and saw an extraordinary picture before them. Before them was a host of pious disciples, who formed a large harmonious choir; a whole mass of enlightened prophets, already in adulthood, were actively engaged in teaching their students, and at the head of all was the highly revered Samuel, already in old age, but still active and alive - and all of them, at the entrance of the king’s messengers, sang a song of praise to God, fearlessly meeting the armed envoys of Saul. Struck by all this unusual spectacle for them, the messengers stopped in bewilderment and then themselves succumbed to the influence of the enthusiastic songs of the prophets. Forgetting about their assignment, they joined the prophets and themselves began to prophesy. When news of this reached Saul, he sent other messengers to carry out his will, but the same thing happened this time, and even the third time. The Spirit of God, present among the prophets, turned out to be too powerful for even the most devoted servants of the king to resist. Enraged, Saule finally decided to go to Rama himself. He had long ago suppressed all movements of conscience in himself, nothing could arouse better feelings in him, and he even decided to violate the sanctity of the residence of the prophets, to invade their refuge with his own person and personally lay hands on his mortal enemy. Consequently, he immediately moved from his residence at Gibeah and went to Ramah. Having reached one place that had long been indicated by tradition, but which is now difficult to determine exactly, namely the great spring in Sepha, Saule began to ask the neighboring inhabitants where exactly Samuel and David were now located. He was informed that they were in Nawaf, in Rama, and he went straight there. But when he approached this sacred place, a completely unusual thing happened to him. As soon as he entered Nawaf and heard the sounds of prophetic songs familiar to him, his gloomy soul brightened, the spirit of malice departed from him, and the Spirit of God descended on him again. In an incomprehensible passion, he threw off his royal robes and, remaining only in his undergarment, rushed to Samuel and, in extraordinary enthusiasm, sang and prophesied. But what exactly could have influenced the king’s spirit so much at such a time? Even if we don’t see anything supernatural here, in any case this change is very remarkable. The excitement from which Saul had suffered for so long ended in a condition that could hardly have been expected. Of course, he could have been influenced by the very thought that he would have to meet here with his old friend and leader, Samuel, whom he had so deeply offended and with whom he had been in complete estrangement for several years; and, since with this thought a feeling of vengeance was also bubbling in his soul, the struggle of these opposing feelings should have led Saul into extraordinary excitement. Then, the very sight of Samuel at the head of the school of prophets, the sweet sounds of music, once so familiar to his ears, reminded him of that earlier period of his life when he himself was excited in a similar way. It seemed to him that he had returned to those former happy days of his life, when he had been under the sacred influence of Samuel; this memory seemed to revive him; overwhelmed by uncontrollable excitement, he completely surrendered to this native feeling and “prophesied before Samuel, and all that day and all that night lay undressed,” as if exhausted and depressed by the excess of his feelings. But was this extraordinary excitement the same sign of his test as the one that accompanied his election to the kingdom? Or was this not the last merciful attack of St. Spirit in his heart, His powerful influence to arouse in the hearts of the king the best feelings that could lead him to repentance and correction? In any case, the change in the external state of the king was obvious to everyone, and it served as a reason for repeating and confirming the proverb that had already been compiled earlier: “Is Saul really one of the prophets?” If it had already seemed extraordinary to everyone that such a little religious and unprepared man as Saul should find himself among the prophetic host, then it seemed all the more miraculous now that a man who was clearly under the domination of an evil spirit and came to Ramah with hostile intentions, trying to carry out his bloodthirsty plan even in this sanctuary, now experienced a surge of divine influence and prophesied. And from all these circumstances, both he himself and his followers could draw an instructive conclusion for themselves that God holds the hearts of people in His hand and guides their will, that the Lord did not want to allow the death of David, and that, trying to achieve it, Saul went against the will of God. David, therefore, was once again miraculously delivered from the bloodthirsty rage of the king, and he sang this deliverance in a special psalm: How do you say to my soul: Fly away to your mountain like a bird? For all the wicked have drawn the bow, They put their arrow to the bowstring, To shoot in the darkness at the right in heart. When the foundations are destroyed, The Lord is in His holy church, The Lord, His throne is in heaven, His leaders test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous And the wicked and violent He will rain down on the wicked, Burning coals, fire and brimstone; And the scorching wind is their share from the cup. For the Lord is righteous and loves righteousness: His face beholds the righteous 50 . Saul's soul, however, had already become so coarse that he succumbed to higher influences only for a time and in moments of frenzy. When the extraordinary excitement that gripped Saul passed, he forgot about the lesson given to him; This extraordinary warning did not leave a deep mark on his will and only hardened his heart even more. The event in Rama, together with Saul’s extraordinary frenzy, which lasted a whole day, made it possible for David to escape this time from his irreconcilable enemy. He hurried to his friend Jonathan and consulted with him what he should do under the present circumstances. True, perhaps, as a result of the intercession and intercession of Samuel, the king somewhat weakened his hostility towards David and even showed an inclination to reconcile with him, so that David was able to visit the court again; but he had no confidence in the future, and in any case, his life depended entirely on the whim of this tyrant, fickle in his feelings. Jonathan, however, tried to believe himself and wanted to convince his friend that his father’s last action should be attributed only to an attack of his illness, and that when he came to his senses again, all danger disappeared. David, however, was not convinced by this. The king did not enter into any personal relations with him, did not assure him of a change in his feelings towards him, and David was naturally afraid to appear in his presence again, remembering the previous attempt on his life. In order to be sure of the king’s real mood, David, through his friend Jonathan, decided to make an experiment in this regard. Knowing Jonathan's love for David, Saul, of course, could hardly have informed his son about his plans for David's life; but his mood could be known in another way. At the beginning of each month the day of the new moon was, by law, observed as a religious festival by all the pious Israelites, and in the palace of Saul there was usually a great civil festival, a great feast, at which the whole royal family and the chief representatives of the state were present. David, as the king's son-in-law and commander in his army, obviously also had to be present at this feast. If now, in the event of his absence, Saul looks at this favorably, then we can conclude that he is not in any particular danger; if, on the contrary, the king is very angry at his absence, then this will be a sure sign that the recent event has not changed the king’s feelings, and that he has not yet abandoned his extreme measures. In this way, the question of the king’s attitude towards David could be finally resolved. Saul returned from Ramah in a calmer mood than he had been in before. The usual New Moon festival arrived, heralded by the sound of trumpets, and he celebrated with the usual sacrifices. A regular feast was held at court, which lasted two whole days. All the great dignitaries of the state were present in due order. The king occupied a place of honor at the front wall of the chamber, Jonathan was opposite him, and Abner sat next to him. Saul immediately noticed that David's place remained vacant, but made no remark on the occasion, thinking that there was some good reason for his absence. But when David did not appear at the feast on the second day, Saul became suspicious that there was probably some special reason that kept him from being present at the royal table. He turned to Jonathan, as the man most likely to know of David's movements, and asked him why this "son of Jesse," as he mockingly called him, alluding to his low birth, was not present at the feast during these two days. Jonathan answered, as it had been previously agreed between him and his friend, that David had been recalled by his elder brother to attend the public sacrifice in Bethlehem and asked permission to attend it. Such an apology, whether it was true or not, was at any rate very plausible. But to Saul's suspicious character such an apology only increased his displeasure and enraged him, because it deprived him of an opportunity which he evidently intended to take advantage of. At this feast, surrounded by his friends and supported by the courtiers, who, of course, were glad of David’s absence and hoped to take advantage of this opportunity for his complete death, the king intended to finally carry out his bloodthirsty plan. So is he again deprived of this favorable opportunity and, perhaps, as a result of the treason and interference of his own son? Driven by this thought, Saul became extremely angry when he heard Jonathan's answer. “The son is worthless and disobedient! – he shouted in extraordinary anger. Don’t I know that you made friends with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to your mother’s shame? For as long as the son of Jesse dwells on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will stand. Now go and bring him to me, for he is doomed to death.” Such strong anger of Saul, however, did not frighten the valiant Jonathan, and he, thinking that it was still possible to calm the king’s anger with a meek answer, began to ask his father for the absent David, asking him why he should be killed, and what he had done that would deserve death in him. Then Saul, unable to restrain his feelings any longer, was overcome with complete rage. He felt that David was plotting against him, and a suspicion sank into his soul that Jonathan was also assisting him in this, perhaps jointly striving to deprive Saul of the throne he occupied. In a frenzied rage, he grabbed his spear and began to wave it in Jonathan's face, threatening to kill him on the spot. Jonathan could not bear such an insult, in the face of a huge gathering of guests, and such an offensive suspicion against his innocent friend. With strong and just indignation in his noble heart, he quickly got up from the table, left the dining room and no longer appeared at the feast. He had no choice but to inform David about the unfortunate outcome of the experiment they had planned. The next day, in the morning, Jonathan went out into the field at the time he had appointed for David, accompanied by one servant. In order to keep this meeting a secret, Jonathan instructed a servant to collect the arrows he had shot and take them to the city, while he himself went on a meeting with David, and an extremely touching farewell scene took place between the friends. “And they kissed each other, and they both wept together, but David wept more. And Jonathan said to David: Go in peace, and what we both swore in the name of the Lord, saying: The Lord be between me and you, and between my name and your seed, so be it forever.” The love between them was amazing, the kind that can only exist between two valiant and pure souls. They parted almost forever, and met each other only once more in their lives, after which fate separated them completely. Having parted with his friend, David went to the priestly city of Nob, where at that time the tabernacle was located, and the high priest lived with it. He arrived in the city hungry and exhausted, and in order to strengthen his strength, he, under the pretext of an important royal commission that required extraordinary haste, begged from the high priest Ahimelech the showbread and the sword of Goliath, which was kept in the tabernacle as a victory trophy, and thus took advantage of the supply of sacred bread, which, according to the law, could only be eaten by persons of the priestly rank. Unfortunately, one of Saul's most loyal and shameless servants, Doeg the Edomite, captain of the king's shepherds, was present on this occasion. It is strange that this stranger was in the service of the king of Israel and enjoyed his high confidence. And this is the first example of such a case in all history. It is not known what exactly was the reason for his appearance in Nomva. Perhaps he was a proselyte who wished to gain access to the society of the Israelites, and as a result received religious instruction there; or, perhaps, he made some kind of vow, or was engaged in some kind of ritual purification. Some think that he was there for an examination on the occasion of healing from leprosy, while others think that he committed some crime and lived there in solitude until he was cleansed of his sin by bringing legal sacrifices. But whatever the reason for his presence there, in any case, David immediately sensed the danger of being with a man whom he knew was a devoted servant of Saul and, therefore, could always report to the king about everything he had seen; therefore, he did not stop in Nomva, but sought refuge in another place. To more conveniently hide from Saul’s persecution, David even retired beyond the borders of his native country, and there, in the form of a simple wanderer, he stopped in the Philistine city of Gath. But even there the refuge turned out to be unreliable. Those close to Achish, king of Gath, began to express their suspicions about the stranger and said to him: “Isn’t this David, the king of that country? Was it not to him that they sang in round dances: Saul conquered thousands, and David tens of thousands?” In order to ward off this dangerous suspicion, David was forced to pretend to be insane, and when he was brought to the king, “he drew on the doors, threw himself on his hands, and drooled over his beard,” so that Achish lost all suspicion, and David, taking advantage of this, hastened to leave here in the wild cave of Adollam, where his parents and brothers gathered around him, who probably began to be persecuted by Saul, as well as all dissatisfied with the rejected king, so that up to 400 people gathered around David. Having placed his parents under the protection of the king of Moab, David and his companions again returned to the borders of their native country. Saul, meanwhile, was exhausted from impotent anger. But then he was informed that David and his people were in the forest of Hereth, a place now known as Harasa, lying on one of the spurs of the Hebron mountain range, about five miles east of Keilah, on the road between Adollam and Hebron. Hearing about this, Saul immediately set out in pursuit. But before setting off, he found it necessary to address the dignitaries and troops surrounding him with a special speech. Having ascended the mountain and sat under an oak tree in Gibeah, where, of course, a luxurious royal headquarters had been prepared for him, he, stepping forward with his spear in his hand, addressed the servants surrounding him with solemn words: “Listen, sons of Benjamin,” he said to them, “will the son of Jesse really give you all fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands and centurions, because you have all conspired against me, and no one revealed to me when my son entered into friendship with the son of Jesse, and none of you took pity on me, and did not reveal to me that my son stirred up my servant against me, plotting feats for me, as is now evident? The king's suspicion, obviously, was no longer limited to Jonathan, but extended to everyone around him. What could those close to him answer to these words? Those close to him, obviously, were in alarm, and fear crept into them that the gloomy mood of the king, manifested in such hostile actions against David and Jonathan, might eventually turn on them. In any case, their position was difficult, and they did not know what to answer the king. But when everyone was silent, the shameless Doik, who was here, saw the reception the high priest gave David in Nob, decided to get those close to him out of the difficulty, and in order to turn the king’s suspicion away from them, he directed it in the other direction, namely towards the high priest. Stepping forward, he said to Saul: “I saw the son of Jesse come to Nob to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, and he asked the Lord for him, and gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” This denunciation fully achieved its goal. Saul immediately had the idea that the high priest was in a conspiracy with David, and in his head, fogged with anger, a plan of terrible vengeance on the traitors was quickly drawn up. He immediately demanded that Ahimelech and the priests around him come to the king. This Ahimelech was the great-grandson of Eli, and inherited the high priesthood from his brother Ahijah, or even shared this office with him, one of them accompanying Saul, and the other remaining at the sanctuary. Nobah was located not far from Gibeah, and the priestly family that lived there, numbering 85 people, was soon brought to Saul. The angry king reproached Ahimelech for treason and sympathy for David in his evil plans, told him about Doik’s message that he allegedly assisted David, asking for God’s instructions for him, supplied the fugitive with sacred bread and even gave him a national trophy, namely the sword of Goliath. Ahimelech did not deny this accusation. He really acted as the king accused him, but he acted completely without any consciousness of guilt, without any malicious intent, and did not even know that he was thereby incurring Saul’s displeasure. David, he reported, the king’s own son-in-law, the most faithful of all his servants, the one who enjoyed the advantage of access to the king at all times, came to him in Nob under the pretext that he had arrived there on behalf of the king, as a result of which he wanted to take advantage of his advice and direction. In view of all these circumstances, the high priest said, he had absolutely no reason why he would refuse David such a request. As for the king's suspected conspiracy against him, the high priest resolutely refused to admit this accusation and insisted on his devotion to God's anointed. “No,” he said, “do not blame this, O king, on your servant and all my father’s house; for in all this matter your servant knows neither the small nor the great.” The innocence of Ahimelech and other priests was thus obvious, and the accusation brought against him turned out to be unfounded. But that’s not how Saul’s prejudiced eyes looked at the whole matter. In his opinion, both the high priest and all the priests around him were undoubted traitors and therefore should suffer the fate of similar criminals. Ignoring the self-defense of the high priest, he sternly and heartlessly told him: “You must die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house.” He considered them dangerous rebels, because, as he thought, they, in any case, secretly sympathized with David, which was proven by the fact that they did not inform the king about his movements; and not at all embarrassed by their sacred rank, he, on the contrary, found for himself in this regard a favorable opportunity by extraordinary severity to show others an example of what terrible punishment the king would subject to any traitor to his throne. Among the king's retinue in the east there is usually a whole detachment of walkers who always accompany him in all movements. Saul also had such walkers, and they were the most devoted of his followers. Having pronounced the death sentence on the innocent priests, the king ordered these walkers to be beaten. But this cruel, cold-blooded murder was such a terrible thing that it outraged even these shameless servants of the king. The cruel behavior of the king and his noticeable abnormal state had already managed to partially weaken discipline, and even his power was not able to force his servants to execute innocent servants of religion. They responded to the king's order with deathly silence. No one showed any readiness to carry out this bloodthirsty order. The high priest and his servants in their eyes were representatives of Jehovah, and even loyalty to the sovereign could not overcome their conscience, which was indignant against such a sacrilegious deed. But when all the king’s Israeli servants refused to fulfill such a command, the shameless Doik the Edomite emerged from among those around him. His conscience was completely alien to those feelings and perplexities that held the Israelis back. All his ambition consisted in being on the best possible terms with the king, indulging his passions, maintaining his own position and getting rich. And therefore, when Saul, irritated by the disobedience of his guards, ordered him to carry out a cruel command, he and his servants, foreigners like himself, immediately attacked the priests and, not embarrassed by their sacred clothes, subjected them to complete beating. Not even limiting himself to this unprecedented and insane cruelty, this ancient Nero extended his vengeance to the entire city of Nomva. Seeing traitors to himself throughout the city, he sent Doik there with a detachment, who beat the entire population in it, including women and children, and destroyed the city itself, so that only smoking ruins remained. Of the entire population of the city, only the son of the high priest, Abiathar, was saved, who, taking with him some priestly accessories (ephod), ran to David and told him about Saul’s terrible crime. Thus, without realizing it, Saul carried out God’s judgment against the house of Eli. It was a highly inhuman and extremely insane affair. All pious Israelites were horrified by this crime. Such a grim crime weakened the love for him even in his most devoted followers. It was difficult to justify such an act even by the king’s mental illness, because there was a certain correctness in the actions. Judging by himself, Saul could not imagine the innocence of David or the non-involvement of the priests in his plans. He, obviously, already had complete disdain for religion and its ministers and resolutely embarked on the path of enmity with God himself. He refused to recognize the successor chosen for him and not only was not enlightened by the trials that God sent him, but day by day he became worse, his moral character fell more and more, and his gloomy spirit became more and more bitter, so that all traces of philanthropy and justice disappeared in him. Hence, the only goal of all his efforts was to capture David, in whom he now clearly saw his rival for the kingdom - a rival who did not come forward with his claim only due to his weakness. Everywhere he sent soldiers to observe his movements, so that at the right opportunity they could catch him and pour out all their accumulated anger on him. Hearing about Saul’s terrible crime, David could only grieve that he had become the unwitting cause of such a disaster, and by giving refuge to Abiathar, he himself was forced to flee from the king who was overtaking him. David poured out his grief about everything that happened and about his unfortunate situation in a fiery psalm, in which the evil baseness of Doik is vividly depicted and at the same time, the sweet psalmist’s own feelings appear in all their nobility. “Why do you boast of villainy, O strong one? God's mercy is always with me. Your tongue invents destruction; You have it like a sophisticated razor, you insidious one! You love evil more than good, More lies than telling the truth. You love all kinds of disastrous speech, treacherous tongue. But God will crush you in the end, He will cut you off and tear you out of your home And your root is from the land of the living, The righteous will see and fear; They will laugh at him and say: Here is a man who is not in God And he hoped for the abundance of his wealth, Strengthened in his villainy! And I am like a green olive tree in the house of God, And I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will forever praise You for what You have done, For it is good in the sight of Thy saints" 51. Leading a wandering life himself and being persecuted by the king, David, however, did not miss the opportunity to defend his native country from his worst enemies. One day he was in the city of Keilah, located on the mountains of Judah, about ten miles east of Eleutheropolis, where he arrived with the goal of ridding this city from the attack of a predatory detachment of the Philistines. He liberated the city from enemies, but he himself almost became a victim of his generosity. Saul was immediately informed of David's whereabouts, and the king immediately ordered that the city be surrounded, and then personally went to that city to capture David. But before he could take proper measures, David left the city and withdrew from it, so that Saul was a complete failure. The ill-fated king, however, still consoled himself with the hope that providence had not yet completely abandoned him. After leaving Keilah, David then found refuge in the Ziph desert, about six miles south of Hebron. And here the last meeting between him and Jonathan took place. The devoted friend, despite the difficulty of his own position at court, never lost sight of David and, now taking advantage of the opportunity, once again decided to encourage the exile. Secretly sneaking into the forest to him, he consoled him, saying: “Do not be afraid, for the hand of my father Saul will not find you; and you will reign over Israel, and I will be second after you, and Saul my father knows it.” Here they made a covenant between themselves, strengthening it with a religious oath, and David remained in the forest, and Jonathan unnoticed again made his way to Saul’s headquarters. Among the inhabitants of Ziph there were several zealous adherents of Saul, and now they hastened to inform him about David's presence among them. Why they were hostile to David is unknown. Perhaps there was some old enmity between them and the family of Jesse, or, what is still more likely, they looked upon Saul as the rightful king, and, not wishing to discuss the claims of David, acted simply as loyal subjects and naturally wanted to assist the rightful king in the capture of a man who, in their eyes, was a rebel and a criminal. In any case, they informed the king, who was in Gibeah, that David was hiding with them in inaccessible places, in the forest, on the hill of Hachilah, ten miles east of Ziph, which is clearly visible from him, and twelve miles southeast of Hebron. It is a desolate, exposed area, consisting of limestone ridges, furrowed by winter streams, crossed by wide valleys and completely; devoid of any vegetation or even springs. It was in this impassable desert that David and his 600 followers found refuge, and the Ziphites, who knew this area well, offered their services to lead Saul’s army to pursue the fugitive. In his desperate state, Saul used every help and rejoiced at every proof that he still had sincere sympathy for him and that he was not left alone in his struggle with the enemy. “Blessed are you of the Lord,” Saul graciously answered them, for taking pity on me. Go, make sure again, scout out and look out for his place, where his foot will be, and who saw him there, for they tell me that he is very cunning. And look out and inquire about all the hiding places in which he is hiding, and return to me with sure news, and I will go with you, and if he is in this land, I will look for him in all the thousands of Judas.” And so, indeed, the king, rejoicing at this new opportunity to overtake his mortal enemy, set off in pursuit of him. But David had his own accomplices who informed him of everything that had happened, and he immediately moved to another place and stopped in the Maon desert. Saul followed him into this desert. The Maon desert, now called Main, was located only about ten miles from Zif. Here, hot on the heels of Saul's troops, David was in dire danger of being caught. This area was carefully explored and described by Conder, who writes: “between the ridge of El-Kola (Gahila) and the neighboring Maon there is a large neck called the “valley of the rocks,” a narrow but deep chasm, which can only be crossed in a circular path of several miles, so that Saul could completely see David, while at the same time not being able to grab him.” Seeing David before him, Saul divided his forces so as to take over the enemy and cut off any possibility of escape. Thus, although Saul had to make a circular detour of several miles in order to get around the neck from some end, David’s salvation was in any case very doubtful. But at that moment, when the fate of the future king of Israel seemed decided, one of those events happened that people call an accident, but which in reality constitute the work of the wise providence of God, leading the passions and plans of people to the fulfillment of the advice ordained from above. A messenger suddenly ran to Saul, bringing news that the Philistines had raided the neighboring district, and urged him to hasten with all his forces to repel the enemies. This matter could not be neglected. Private enmity had to recede into the background before public necessity. With extreme reluctance, Saul abandoned his pursuit of David this time and moved with his troops to repel the foreign enemy. But having successfully repelled the enemy, Saul again began to pursue David. The latter, meanwhile, as the Ziphites reported, retired to the vicinity of Engedi, a warm spring located near the middle of the western shore of the Dead Sea and lying 500 feet above its level. This spring flows forth in abundance from a narrow barren area of ​​limestone, and, rushing down from the rocks, spreads everywhere a rich vegetation, so that, as a result of this irrigation, an oasis is formed, which presents one of the most striking pictures of this otherwise barren region. The rocks surrounding the spring, rising 2,000 feet above the level of the sea, as well as those that stretch towards the shore, are dissected by all kinds of potholes and abound in caves, which even now are used by shepherds for sleeping, as they were used by the shepherds of the time of David. Taking with him a detachment of three thousand soldiers, Saul followed his rival into this wild rocky country. Here all the benefits were on David’s side, and if the king had had to deal with a more shameless and fierce enemy, then he would have ended his ill-fated life here and would have paid with death for his cruel persecution of the innocent young man. It happened that one day, following a fugitive, Saul, out of necessity, entered one of those caves, the darkness and coolness of which present a refreshing contrast to the brilliance and heat of the surrounding rocks. But in this very cave David was hiding with part of his followers. They, as those who were inside the cave, could completely see everything that happened at the entrance to it, while for those entering from the outside the inside of the cave was shrouded in impenetrable darkness. Saul thought that this cave was completely empty, or, even if he heard some whisper or movement, he could imagine that it was one of the shepherds who usually climbed into these caves to rest, and therefore did not pay any further attention to them. Meanwhile, the fugitives, with extreme amazement, saw that the king himself had entered the cave. They immediately recognized him and whispered about this to David, and even encouraged him to take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of the cruel persecutor once and for all and thus take advantage of the kingdom that was promised to him by the prophet. If David, even for one moment, had ever harbored a feeling of vengeance against the king, he could very easily have succumbed to this temptation. But although he had the deadly sword of Goliath in his hand and his followers were ready to immediately attack Saul, he himself refrained and restrained others from doing so. No matter how cruelly Saul himself treats him, in any case he is God’s anointed, and therefore his personality is sacred. With unprecedented magnanimity for those barbaric times, David spared the life of his dangerous rival, but at the same time he wanted to show that the king’s life was really in his power, and thereby prove his own innocence of any intention or attempt on the king’s person and refute the slander of the courtiers, who, maliciously interpreting his motives, fanned the already fiercely burning fire of hatred in the king’s heart and enmity. Entering the cave, Saul took off his robe and laid it next to him, and David, quietly creeping up to him, imperceptibly cut off the edge of this outer garment. Saul, suspecting nothing, put on his mania again and left the cave. David's companions were bitterly indignant at their leader for his untimely leniency towards his enemy; but, far from the feelings that animated them, he was tormented by his conscience even for the fact that he did not treat the greatness of the king with due respect and harmed the royal mantle. When the detachment moved on, and Saul was almost alone behind him, David came out of his cave and loudly shouted to him: “My lord, the king!” Hearing this familiar voice, Saul stopped and looked around. To his amazement, he saw David on the rocky platform, who bowed to him on the ground and, humbly declaring his obedience, tried to prove to him that he was by no means a rebel against the legitimate authority, but a man who recognized in the monarch a person to whom he must obey and show all respect. Then, David turned to Saul with touching words: “Why do you listen to the speech of people who say: Behold, David is plotting evil against you? Today your eyes see that the Lord has delivered you into my hands today in the cave, and they told me to kill you; but I spared you, and said: I will not lift up my hand against my master, for he is the Lord’s anointed. My father! Look at the hem of your robe in my hand, I cut off the hem of your robe, but I did not kill you. Find out and make sure that there is no evil or deceit in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, and you are looking for my soul to take it away. May the Lord judge between me and you, and may the Lord take revenge on you for me, but my hand will not be on you, as the ancient parable says: from the wicked comes lawlessness. And my hand will not be on you. Who did the king of Israel go up against? Who are you chasing? Behind a dead dog, behind one flea. Let the Lord be the Judge; and he will judge between me and you. He will examine and sort out my case and save me from your hand” (1 Samuel 24:10–16). Saul listened in deep emotion to this speech of David, who so unexpectedly appeared before him. The amazing generosity of David, who did not take advantage of such a favorable opportunity to get rid of the king who was so cruelly persecuting him, deeply agitated Saul. Despite all his madness and cruelty, more humane feelings still glimmered in him, which at times triumphed in him even over evil passions. And now, at the thought of his miraculous salvation, Saul was positively carried away by mixed sensations and, raising his voice, began to cry. Part of his former love for David was resurrected in his soul, he turned to him with tender words and said: “Is this your voice, my son David?” His words were interrupted by involuntary crying, and then, having recovered, he continued: “You are more right than me; for you repaid me with good, and I repaid you with evil; You showed this today by treating me kindly; when the Lord delivered me into your hands, you did not kill me. Who, having found his enemy, would let him go on his way? The Lord will reward you with goodness for what you did to me today.” Then, repenting of his madness and already humbly recognizing David as his future successor, Saul asked him only that he would not uproot his descendants and destroy the name of his father. The generous David immediately made this promise, and they parted. Saul, having temporarily revived his better feelings, returned to Gibeah and stopped the persecution, although David, unable to rely on the tyrant’s fickle disposition, continued to hide in the mountainous country, where he had found refuge before. This whole touching event served as a theme for David for a sublime psalm breathing with hope in the mercy of God: Lord, my God! In You I trust; Save me from all my persecutors, Let him not, like a lion, snatch away my soul, Tormenting when there is no deliverer. Lord, my God! If I did anything If there is untruth in my hands, Who was with me in peace - I, who saved even the one Who became my enemy for no reason: Then let the enemy pursue my soul, Let him drive my life into the ground, And my glory will be thrown into dust. Arise, O Lord, in Thy wrath Move forward against the fury of my enemies, Wake up for me in judgment Let the wickedness of the wicked cease, For you test hearts and bellies, I praise the Lord according to His righteousness, And I sing to the name of the Lord Most High! 52 Chapter 9. The Death of Samuel and Saul The persecution initiated and persistently carried out by Saul against his future successor so completely absorbed the attention of the sick soul of the king that he was no longer concerned with the affairs of the state and they naturally fell into significant disorder. The morality of the people, not finding any support for itself in the example of the king, weakened, the spirit fell, and everything threatened with destruction. The only moral support for the state continued to be the elderly prophet Samuel, who, although by this time he was no longer in work, nevertheless, with his influence, continued to support the moral spirit of the people as much as possible. But then the moment came when the great prophet and organizer of the kingdom of Israel had to leave his earthly career. Spreading in detail about the activities of Samuel, the biblical writer reports on his death and burial in only one verse. “And Samuel died; and all the Israelites gathered together and mourned for him, and buried him in his house in Ramah” (1 Sam. 25:1). The Prophet by this time had already reached an advanced age; his work was done, and the time had come for his future reward. Although in recent years he lived in almost complete solitude and did not take any part in public affairs, nevertheless, his death was felt everywhere as a public disaster, and all the Israelis, forgetting their rivalry and discord, and remembering only the great benefits he had shown to the people, his immaculate life, his personal piety, gathered unanimously to pay him funeral honors. “His moral superiority,” says I. Flavius ​​53, “and the respect with which he was treated are proven by the long mourning that accompanied his death, and the care with which everyone tried to give his funeral rites the proper splendor and solemnity. He was buried in his hometown of Rama, and the people mourned him for many days, looking at his death not as the death of some stranger or wanderer, but as a death in which everyone felt a close participation. He was a righteous man, of good character, and as a result, he was very pleasing to God.” Such a public funeral could hardly take place without Saul's consent; Perhaps the king even went ahead of others in showing honors to the already deceased prophet, whose advice he so sadly neglected during his lifetime. Some think that in a belated surge of jealousy Saul, feeling how much he had lost in the death of his old friend, tried to regain the mercy and favor of Jehovah by taking severe measures against various lawbreakers. Hence, they attribute to this particular time the overthrow of idolatry throughout the entire earth, the destruction of magicians and conjurers of the dead, and the slaughter of the Gibeonites as enemies of the Israelite religion. Samuel was buried in the courtyard or garden of his house in Rama, and, of course, not in the house itself, since this would make this very house ritually unclean. Muslim tradition points to the prophet's tomb on the prominent ridge of Nebi Samvil, where, on the basis of an ancient Christian church, a mosque was built. Bl. Jerome 54 assures that his remains were transferred in 406 to Chalcedon, at the mouth of the Bosphorus, and from there, according to the testimony of Callistus 55, they were transferred to Constantinople and placed with great solemnity in one church. There is nothing special at his original burial site. At a time when there were no proper cemeteries, any convenient place could serve as a grave. King Manasseh was subsequently buried in the garden of his home; Joab was buried in the same way, and the tomb of the Savior himself was, as we know, placed in the garden 56. The deceased great judge and prophet fully deserved great popular mourning. One only has to take into account what he was like in himself and what he did for the people. Standing out majestically among a depraved people during this rough, disorderly period of their historical life, the prophet acted as the champion of God, religion and enlightenment. Not since the time of Moses has such a famous figure spoken. A son of prayer, he was especially a man of prayer. His immaculate childhood was spent in the tabernacle of God, among the soul-elevating celebrations of worship, where he was prepared to receive heavenly inspiration. Separated from the outside world, alienated even from the influence of his family, he devoted himself entirely to God and his country; communicating with the invisible, he did not seek any other guidance except the will of God, no other law except the law of the Most High. Being completely absorbed in his communication with God, he was little influenced by external circumstances. From the very beginning he set out on the path of piety, he continued to follow this path until the very end; he set himself one great goal and invariably pursued it, without retreating from any difficulties and without succumbing to any personal impulses. His greatest strength was his prayer; in prayer was his refuge, his weapon and his help. Not only did he resort to God in all the great circumstances of his own life and the life of the people, in the face of powerful enemies, in the face of Saul’s shortcomings and sins, but in general at all times he indulged in prayer and in communion with God found peace, consolation and strength. But there was nothing mystical or sentimental in such prayer. Samuel's whole being was imbued with serious practicality, constant even movement towards a specific goal. If he sometimes lacked sympathy, if he was sometimes too cruel and inflexible in upholding the law, then this apparent insensibility arose not from the severity of his character, but from a deep reverence for justice, truth and piety. And if, as apparently sometimes happened, he was not particularly skilled in penetrating characters and could be carried away by appearances, then even in this respect his lack of acquaintance with human nature depended on the fact that his gaze was constantly turned to God and, thus, did not have sufficient opportunity to delve into the mental properties of people. But this life turned to heaven taught him to move away from everything low, unclean and sinful; she encouraged him to be inflexibly fair in all his actions, diligent in relation to every duty. During his long reign, no one ever complained of his decisions, not a single voice could be raised from all the people against his impartiality or integrity, so that he could, without fear of any contradiction, say: “I have grown old and grey; I have walked before you from my youth until this day. Here I am; bear witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed.” Such unconditional honesty gave him patience during any failures in his difficult life, when he had to work long and tirelessly, having only small external success. This is precisely what forced him to resort to such endless efforts to raise the moral level of his compatriots and to educate them to a higher life than what they usually led. With his lofty aspirations, he did not have enough time to think about himself. What can bring people closer to God, what can bring down the blessing of God and what is the will of Providence - these questions were the main questions of his life. That his own position might change as a result of the new order of things, that he might occupy a lower position, that some of his cherished goals might be defeated - he joyfully accepted all this, as soon as he was sure that such was precisely the will of God. There has never been a more self-loving person than Samuel. His heart burned with love for the Lord and His people, and whatever was best for the people, in that he found his greatest pleasure. This great heart, occupied with such lofty matters, had no place in itself for petty feelings. If the tsar could better lead and arrange the people at this critical moment in their historical life, then let the tsar be elected; and if he could be to the people what Samuel himself hoped to be, then God bless him. He sought only to ensure that everything worked out as best as possible, and, not paying attention to the fact that he himself would have to retreat into the background or lose his former importance, he freely gives his friendship to the elected monarch and by loving advice, severe reproach, solemn warning, constant participation proves his deep interest in the activities of the new king and his selfless desire to make his kingdom as successful as possible. He had to endure many sorrows, he had to make many sacrifices, he saw the destruction of what he loved, he was unhappy in his children, disappointed in his chosen king, disappointed in his countrymen; but, despite all these griefs, he constantly carried within himself a cheerful heart, constantly trusted in God, rising higher and higher in religious life, as the storms rose more and more menacingly against him, and, with every disaster that befell his head, he found a reason for fiery prayer and hope. Entirely devoted to prayer, he at the same time worked tirelessly and worked. He had a great task ahead of him, and he selflessly devoted himself to it. During the time of the judges, religion was greatly weakened in practical terms; the high ideal proposed by Moses was greatly reduced; the priests and Levites lost all authority and did nothing to uplift or unite the people. Unity was lost, and the people degenerated into a scattered rabble of tribes, each of which, pursuing its own interests, indulging in predation and forgetting about the purpose of the people, was even ready to completely renounce the covenant with Jehovah and descend to idolatrous rites and to the level of the surrounding pagans. Along with this degeneration and as a punishment for her unfaithfulness, Israel often fell under foreign yoke. The rude, undisciplined, poorly armed warriors of Israel were little able to withstand the well-armed and armored warriors of Philistia, who, thanks to the criminal negligence of the Jews, captured the entire seashore and were able to freely import weapons from Greece. In view of such circumstances, the purpose of Samuel's life was to instill courage in the people to restore their independence; but he saw that the first step in this regard must necessarily be a great religious transformation. This was the necessary preparation for any national struggle for freedom. His spirit was completely imbued with the idea of ​​government. The King of Israel was Jehovah, whose will was proclaimed to His subjects through the mediation of priests and prophets, and Samuel looked forward to the time when this great ideal would fully enter into the convictions of the people and become the basis of all social activity. He was thus faced with a very difficult undertaking. The degeneration of the priesthood, which he had witnessed since his childhood, the general decline in moral tone among the people, the inactivity of their natural leaders, and the general misery that was the result of oppression on the part of the triumphant pagans - all this could have plunged a less religious person into utter despair. Samuel, however, and under all these circumstances saw a power capable of leading his people out of this low state. All these trials taught the Israelites that without God they were nothing. What did their criminal infidelity bring them other than sorrow and all kinds of disasters? Shouldn't they be convinced from here that the only way to get rid of disaster is to take the path of repentance? Thus, the terrible defeat at Aphek and the destruction of Shiloh, that fatal blow that the chroniclers would like to completely erase from the national annals, forced the frightened people to turn to Samuel as the only hope of the country, and to recognize in this young prophet a worthy teacher and leader. Samuel took advantage of this confidence of the people for his benefit. Year after year, patiently, calmly, with full hope for the future, he labored among them, preparing them for the great upsurge, showing them where their main strength lay, teaching them the true religion, inspiring them with trust in God, who in his mercy never abandoned his inheritance. And so, when all the people, in complete trust, turned to him as a judge and intercessor, he led them to victory. Having thus secured comparative peace for a time, Samuel took full advantage of this circumstance to strengthen the foundations of theocratic government. But his hopes were destroyed by the demand for the establishment of the king's power. How did he react to this requirement? At first, being embarrassed, offended, feeling some indignation, he tried to turn the people away from this intention; but submitting the whole matter to the decision of the Lord and finding that such was His holy will, he immediately reconciled himself to this demand and only cared about protecting the king’s power with appropriate restrictions and choosing a worthy person for the new high position. Here his generosity is almost unparalleled. Disappointed in his highest hopes, having come to the conviction that his people were unworthy of the great appointment indicated to him, deprived of his position as the supreme leader of the people, he sincerely reconciled himself with this position and became the closest friend of the man to whom his power had passed. With fiery passion, but with firmness and constancy, he never deviated from the path of this sublime patriotism. And when he was forced to admit that the elected king, by obvious acts of disobedience, had revealed his unworthiness for the royal crown, when for the sake of the highest interests of religion and government he had to break all ties with the unworthy sovereign, then even after that he did not cease to pray for him, still continued to love this royal sinner and never openly opposed him; on the contrary, he supported his power, his authority, and tried only to make amends for the evil that he had committed. He found that the establishment of royal power was a historical necessity of the people, that the unity of the people and their correct development could be ensured only by firm power, and therefore he directed all his energy to achieve this goal. If the first king was unsuccessful, he could prepare another who would be a more worthy representative of God's rule. In David it was he who found a person from whom he could, through education, make an ideal king. If you look more closely into the historical circumstances of this time, it will be clear that Samuel founded a limited monarchy and gave full force to those laws of Moses, which were given to prevent the monarchy from degenerating into eastern despotism. The king had to observe certain rules and could never act in anything as an independent tyrant. Samuel used all the forces of his organizational activity to bring the people out of the mutual alienation, anarchy and barbarism in which they found themselves during the time of the judges, and to elevate them to the level of an enlightened and strong state under the leadership of a theocratic monarch who would rule by law, be obedient to the voice of God and assist the people in achieving their exalted purpose. But in order for the people to take advantage of the benefits of such an institution, they had to be educated and enlightened. Religion had to be restored in all its practical power; it was necessary to refresh the moral sense of the people by teaching the law and, in general, to introduce a certain enlightenment among the people. To this end, Samuel founded schools of the prophets, in which not only young men learned the rudiments of civil knowledge, true religion, and the best means of serving God in church and state, but also a special class of people was raised to fulfill the office of prophets - people who were to preach high morals, to act together with the priests and the monarchy in the management of state affairs and the eradication of all lawlessness. Along with his practical activities, Samuel was also a historian of his time, and he is credited with compiling the book of Judges and the first book of Kings up to the XXV chapter. The first of them vividly depicts the mood into which the chosen people fell during the period of the judges, and at the same time shows how the mercy and love of God for the chosen people manifested themselves in the darkest periods, always appearing ready as soon as the people came to their senses and repented of their sins. The first book of Samuel tells the story of the birth and life of Samuel himself, as well as the reign of Saul. Samuel's death was a severe blow to both David and Saul. David lost in Samuel his spiritual father, in whose person he found deep sympathy for himself in all the trials and tribulations he endured, an unshakable moral support in the most difficult moments of his exile life and a living guarantee of the fulfillment of the promise given to him. On the other hand, although Saul had long ceased to use the advice of the elderly prophet, nevertheless, he constantly retained deep respect for him in his soul, and the very thought of the existence of Samuel should have acted as a reproach of conscience in his soul. But although Saul, having heard about the death of Samuel, should have felt in his soul a strong reproach for all the injustice with which he treated Samuel and with which he so often insulted the elderly prophet, however, his death only for a short time forced the king to abandon his persecution of David, and then he again, with even greater fury, began his persecution, perhaps hoping that now, when David no longer found support for himself in prophet, it will be easier to destroy him than it was before. Having mourned the elderly prophet, David returned to the place of his former refuge in the Hebron district, where for some time he lived with his followers, doing what Arab sheikhs are still doing now, namely protecting grazing herds and possessions from predators and receiving maintenance as a reward for this. An incident that vividly depicts his wandering life dates back to this time. One of the most influential persons in the mountain city of Maon was a certain Nabal, a descendant of Caleb, the owner of large herds and rich estates in Carmel. Hearing that he had organized a year-long feast on the occasion of shearing sheep, David sent ten people from his entourage to him, who were supposed to congratulate him on the successful end of the year and remind him that he owed his safety to David’s protection, as a result of which he should properly reward him for this service. Even now, Arab sheikhs, usually wandering near cities and villages, never miss an opportunity, like this annual holiday of Navalov, to appear in person or send special messengers to remind the owners of their services as protectors and guardians of herds in the desert from predators. But this time David's messengers received a bold response. Nabal, who was distinguished by an extremely hot-tempered and unreasonable character, jumped up from the feast and boldly answered David’s servants: “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? Nowadays there are many slaves running away from their masters; Shall I take my bread, and my water, (and my wine), and the meat that I have prepared for my sheep shearers, and give it to people, of whom I do not know where they come from?” Such an answer could not but be offensive to David, and he, with the usual ardor of a man of the desert, immediately decided to take revenge for this insolence and ordered that all his confidants should arm themselves and move to punish Nabal. Fortunately for everyone, one of the shepherds, having heard about this, immediately hurried to Nabal's wife, Abigail, a kind and sensible woman, told her how David, who was probably well known to everyone as the conqueror of Goliath and the king's son-in-law, sent his servants from the desert to congratulate Nabal and how Nabal gave them a bold answer, calling David nothing more than a runaway slave from his master Saul, and between Thus, the shepherd added, David was like a wall and protection for the flocks, protecting them from enemies day and night, and at all times treating them friendly and mercifully. Knowing what could happen under such circumstances, Abigail immediately ordered the donkeys to be loaded with bread and wine, took five cooked sheep, five measures of dried grain, one hundred bunches of raisins and two hundred bunches of figs, and, sending this caravan ahead of her, she herself went after it, without at the same time saying anything to her husband. On the road, she met David, who was already walking with his squad to carry out his revenge, threw herself prostrate before him and begged him to forgive the stupidity and madness of her husband. With her prudence she saved her household. “Let my lord,” she said, “pay no attention to this evil man, to Nabal; for as is his name, so is he (mad). Nabal is his name, and his madness is with him. But I, your servant, did not see my master’s servants whom you sent.” David, in his usual gentleness, immediately succumbed to the requests of this kind woman and even thanked her for preventing him from getting to the point of bloodshed. “But as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, he kept me from harming you. If she had not hurried and come to meet me, then before dawn I would not have left Nabala urinating against the wall" 57 . Nabal, meanwhile, not knowing anything about what was happening, feasted like a king, “and his heart was glad; and he was very drunk." But this was his last joy. The next morning he learned about everything that had happened yesterday, and it struck him so much that he suffered an apoplexy and never recovered from it. Ten days later he died. But the beauty of Abigail, perhaps together with her wealth, captivated David’s heart so much from the very first time that seven days after Nabal’s burial, the rich and beautiful widow became his wife. Michal, the daughter of Saul, his first wife, was already at that time illegally taken and given by her father to another man, Phalti, from the village of Gallima, apparently located near Bethlehem, perhaps with the aim of transferring the dynasty to him; but David had already compensated for this temporary loss by marrying Ahinoam, from Jezreel, near Nabal’s estate, in Carmel. That he now married Abigail was a bad omen for his future world. As the first step towards polygamy, this marriage led to many disasters that befell him in the subsequent years of his reign. These marriages show that, despite the dangers to which David was still exposed, his influence and power were increasingly increasing. Hearing of his exploits and prosperous life in the desert, he was increasingly joined by brave and skillful warriors, and especially from that large class who, apparently, began to feel dissatisfied with Saul. But David's trials were not over yet. After a certain period of time, a fierce hatred of David was again awakened in Saul, and he, perhaps, having heard about the incident with Nabal, moved with a large detachment to capture and punish his enemy, but by doing this he only once again provided an opportunity for David to reveal his extraordinary generosity towards him. Relying partly on the reconciliation with the king that took place in Engedi, David, apparently, did not particularly pay attention to his plans and thought that he would already be left alone, and the more unexpected for him was the appearance of Saul again with armed force in this deserted place of his refuge. On his campaigns, Saul always had a detachment of three thousand warriors armed with pikes around him, always accompanying him on smaller campaigns. Arriving in the vicinity of Ziph, near which, according to the Ziphites, David was located, Saul spread his camp about ten miles east of the city on the ridge of Hachilah, away from the road that passed through the hills towards the south. David, of course, carefully followed all the movements of Saul and, now possessing sufficient strength so as not to fear a sudden and open attack from Saul, in turn camped on an even higher ground, so that he could observe everything that was happening below. Not wanting to believe that after all his promises, Saul himself would again come out against him with hostile goals, he invited two of his most faithful followers, Ahimelech the Hittite and his nephew Abishai, to make a more thorough reconnaissance of the royal camp. Ahimelech rejected this dangerous undertaking, but Abishai agreed, and with him, at nightfall, David, descending from the hill, approached the royal camp. The entire camp was plunged into deep sleep. The camp was, as usual, surrounded by various carts and chariots, as a defense against attack, but there were no guards standing anywhere to be seen. Taking advantage of this, David and Abishai easily penetrated into the very middle of the camp and found that Saul was sleeping deeply, and a spear, a symbol of his royal power, was stuck in the ground at his head. Abishai urged David to take advantage of this opportunity and immediately kill the king, but David, as before, refused to raise his hand against God’s anointed. But in order to show the king that his life was again completely in David’s hands and that he again spared it, he took his spear and a mug of water, which stood right there by the king’s bed, and took it all with him. Passing unnoticed among the sleeping soldiers, David calmly retreated again to the hill, from where he first viewed Saul’s camp. One might think that between these two camps there lay some deep ravine. Having thus separated himself with sufficient space from the dangerous enemy, David shouted in a loud voice to Abner, the commander of the detachment, and mockingly reproached him for the fact that he was poorly protecting his master the king. “You are not doing this well,” David shouted to him; As the Lord lives, you are worthy of death because you do not protect your master, the Lord’s anointed. Look where the king’s spear and the vessel of water that were at his head?” Saul, awakened by this cry, could not see anything in the darkness, but immediately recognized a voice that was well known to him. Having learned what was the matter, he was greatly amazed at this new case of David’s generosity and cried out to him loudly: “Is this your voice, my son, David?” And then David, having answered this question in the affirmative, began, as before in Engedi, to ask Saul why he was persecuting him and what evil he had behind him, and then added: “If the Lord has stirred you up against me, then let this be from you a fragrant sacrifice; if they are sons of men, then they are cursed before the Lord; for they have cast me out this day, that I should not belong to the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go, serve foreign gods.” Touched by such a reproach, Saul involuntarily admitted his guilt and said loudly: “I have sinned; return, my son, David; for I will do you no more harm, because my soul is now precious in your sight; I acted foolishly and made a lot of mistakes.” David ordered him to send one of his confidants to return the spear and the mug that had been captured by him, and then, reminding him of the retribution awaiting him and silently rejecting Saul’s offer, the insincerity and unreliability of which he had already so often experienced, he left this place, having, however, heard from Saul the last words that he had ever heard, and precisely words that sounded like an involuntary blessing and well-wishing from the outside. the ill-fated king: “Blessed are you, my son, David,” Saul said with sadness: “You will do the deed, and you will prevail.” Dejected by everything that had happened, Saul returned to Gibeah in a gloomy mood, and David, despairing of safety in the land of Judah, sought refuge outside the country, where the anger of his persecutor could no longer extend. Fearing precisely the further rage of the king, David another time sought refuge with the king of the Philistine city of Gath. But his position there was extremely ambiguous and difficult, since the king of Gath, Achish, having given him possession of the entire city of Ziklag, demanded from him hostile raids on his native land. When open war with the Israelites began, David was even forced to give Achish a direct obligation to provide him with military assistance, and was thus placed in the sad necessity of taking up arms against his own people. Only the suspicions of the military leaders regarding David's loyalty freed him from this difficult obligation, since the Philistines forced Achish to return David from the campaign, as a very unreliable ally in the war with the Israelites. Meanwhile, during his absence, the Amalekites attacked Ziklag and destroyed everything in it. This disaster so armed his very companions against David, who had lost all their property in the destroyed city, that they even wanted to stone him, and only his military success in the pursuit of the Amalekites restored the authority of David, who, quickly overtaking the predators, scattered them, returned the captives and, with the rich booty captured, satisfied his detachment for the losses he had suffered. But David's trials were quickly coming to an end. About two years had passed since the death of Samuel, and this time was enough for Saul to feel the full weight of the absence of the great and wise prophet, since he, in the depths of his heart, never ceased to revere Samuel who anointed him. His death undoubtedly showed his conscience even more clearly all his lies and crimes, which so deeply upset the elderly prophet and probably hastened his death. In him, despite the complete break with him, he continued to see some moral support for himself in extreme need. Now he was gone, and meanwhile the circumstances were becoming more and more threatening. The Philistines, from private attacks, decided to go on the right offensive in order to, taking advantage of the internal unrest in the kingdom of Israel, conquer it for themselves, or at least capture rich booty. In order to more accurately and decisively deal this blow to the Israelites, the Philistines moved with a huge army recruited from all their cities and from their allies. They haven't made a move like this for a long time. This was no longer a simple border war, but a formidable campaign heading towards the very center of the land of Israel. Heading north along the seashore, and reinforcing themselves with new troops during this movement, the Philistines then turned east and invaded the plain of Esdraelon, that famous plain that stretches from the Jordan in a northwesterly direction to the Gulf of Acre. Having crossed the plain, they camped on the slopes of little Hermon, or the present Jebel-Dugi, located on the eastern side of the plain, precisely in a place called Sunem, about five miles north of Jezreel, later known as the residence of that good woman who treated the prophet Elisha with hospitable cordiality (2 Kings 4:8). Saul, at the sight of such an invasion, was in a desperate situation, especially since during the past years, and especially since the death of Samuel, he had lost a lot in the opinion of his people, who no longer treated him with the same enthusiasm and therefore did not show special devotion to him. Nevertheless, he gathered all the forces possible and moved towards the enemy. Coming from the south, from which he was in no danger, he encamped on Mount Gilboa, on that mountain range that encircles the plain of Esdraelon from the south, arching like a sickle from the hills of Samaria. Here, precisely at the point where the valley is up to six miles wide, he took up positions just opposite the Philistine camp, from where, due to the greater height of his location, he could monitor all the movements of the enemy. But his position was extremely dangerous, he could be surrounded by enemies, because the Philistine commander, having sent a strong detachment to Aphek, to the rear of Saul’s army, could thus cut off any retreat to the south. Seeing before him a strong and well-armed enemy army and comparing it with his weak and unpatriotic army, Saul “was afraid, and his heart trembled strongly.” The enemy army was incomparably superior in numbers, weapons, and was especially terrifying in its cavalry and chariots, against which Saul was not able to put up anything appropriate. Moreover, even the thought that David and his detachment were in the enemy army naturally presented itself to Saul’s criminal conscience, and thus, helping the enemy, was striving for cruel revenge on his persecutor. He was, of course, mistaken about David, but in any case, all the disadvantages of the campaign were on his side, and he was in dire danger. Saul, already clearly aware of his rejection before God and his people, had a presentiment of the impending disaster and was in despair and fear. With an instant awakening of an echo of his former faith, he asked God about the outcome of the upcoming battle, but God did not answer his weak faith. Then the ill-fated king committed another great crime and resorted to superstition, turning to magic, with the help of which he wanted to find out his fate. It is difficult to say what kind of struggle must have taken place in the soul of the proud king before he could stoop to seek help in this dark satanic art, which was so expressly forbidden by the law of God and strictly prosecuted by his own decrees. To what depth of moral decline must he have fallen in order to finally resort to the idea of ​​taking advantage of the advice of hell, when heaven itself refused him this advice! In terrible despair, the king ordered his entourage to find him some sorceress. Such a sorceress lived in Endor, a city that lay at the foot of the northern slope of Little Hermon, about three miles from Shunem, where the Philistines stood. This woman possessed a strange magic, most closely resembling the ability of ventriloquism. Jewish tradition calls her the mother of Abner, which perhaps explains the fact that she was spared at a time when the sorceresses were exterminated; but there is no sufficient basis for such an assumption. Endor was one of those places from which the half-tribe of Manasseh was not able to expel all its former Canaanite inhabitants, and there still lived in it a mixed population, consisting of a large part of the Canaanites, who adhered to their former superstitions and which in this respect were imitated by their Israeli fellow citizens. Therefore, it was there that one could find wizards and sorceresses, adherents of black magic of all kinds. I. Flavius ​​conveys the opinion current in his time regarding these sorceresses: “ventriloquists of this kind, he says, call up the souls of the dead and with their charms predict the future of those who ask them” 58 . Deciding to learn about his fate in such an illegal way, Saul took all precautions to ensure that his visit remained secret; Therefore, taking with him only two trusted companions, who, according to legend, were Abner and Amessa, and dressed in simple clothes, he, at nightfall, set off on this dangerous journey. Endor was located about ten miles from Gilboa, and since the Philistines were camped just between these two places, the king had to take a circuitous route, go around the eastern spur of Little Hermon and take advantage of all the unevenness of the ground so as not to be noticed by the enemy guards. Arriving safely at the sorceress's dwelling and finding her at home, Saul immediately asked her to call someone from the dead to communicate the future. The sorceress at first refused to begin the magic, fearing punishment; but when the visitors swore that “there will be no trouble for her for this matter,” but a good reward will be given, the woman asked: “Whom should you bring out?” “Bring out Samuel to me,” Saul answered. The sorceress began her magic, and having begun her lamentations, she put fragrant herbs into the frying pan, producing thick smoke that completely enveloped her in the already dark room. As soon as she began her lamentations, she screamed in horror. something appeared that she herself did not expect, something so terrible and supernatural that even her heart, accustomed to all horrors, was horrified. She obviously only wanted to take advantage of the questioner’s gullibility and, through her ventriloquism, show him that she was in communication with a spirit; or, perhaps, possessing subtle clairvoyance, she was able to enter an ecstatic state and in this state answer the questions put to her. In any case, the vision that now appeared before her was completely unexpected for her. She immediately recognized the figure that appeared to her as the prophet Samuel and at the same time, to her even greater horror, she learned who her visitor was. Josephus says that Samuel informed her of Saul's presence; but it's incredible. It is much more likely that she recognized her visitor as the king by his majestic figure and regal bearing, because he demanded to summon the spirit of Samuel and that the prophet immediately obeyed his call; in her clairvoyance she learned more than she was capable of knowing in her usual state, and immediately understood what was the matter. Perhaps, also, in his extreme excitement, the king accidentally lowered the robe with which he covered his face, and the sorceress clearly recognized him as the king. This increased her fear even more. She apparently began to perform magical spells in the presence of the very monarch who so mercilessly put to death everyone who performed these spells. But the king reassured her, saying: “Don’t be afraid (tell me), what do you see?” He himself had not yet seen anything, but only heard the piercing cry of the sorceress. “I see,” answered the trembling woman, “I see, as it were, God emerging from the earth.” “What does he look like?” the king asked her. She answered him: “An old man comes out of the earth, dressed in long clothes.” During his lifetime, Samuel, apparently, always wore such a long robe, and now Saul, burning with impatience to talk with the prophet and hearing that the vision that appeared was an elderly man, immediately concluded that it was Samuel who had appeared, and bowed to him in reverence. In view of the conversation that followed, the question involuntarily arises whether Saul himself really heard Samuel’s voice, or whether in this regard he completely relied on the sorceress and listened only to what she herself conveyed to him. About the participation of the woman, however, nothing is said in the narrative, and one may well think that since the spirit appeared, of course, with the permission of God, Saul himself could conduct a conversation with him and hear the sayings of Samuel, whether they reached his external hearing or were perceived by him subjectively. The first assumption is more likely, since the biblical account is probably based on the report of two of the king's companions, who also heard the entire conversation. It is also not incredible that from that moment the very figure of Samuel became visible to Saul, although in vague, foggy outlines. Be that as it may, having shown all possible respect to Samuel who appeared, Saul stood up and then in fear heard the prophet’s voice from beyond the grave: “Why are you disturbing me so that I come out?” - “And Saul answered: It is very hard for me; The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has retreated from me and no longer answers me, either through the prophets, or in a dream, or in a vision; therefore I called you so that you could teach me what to do.” Then Samuel reproached him for his inconsistency in this regard. With the stern directness with which he was constantly distinguished during his lifetime, he indignantly asked the trembling king: “Why are you asking me when the Lord has departed from you? The Lord will do what he has announced through me: the Lord will take the kingdom out of your hands and give it to your neighbor, David. And the Lord will deliver Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines: tomorrow you and your sons will be with me, and the Lord will deliver the camp of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.” The terrible voice fell silent, but its words thundered with horror in Saul’s criminal conscience; Having heard this formidable sentence, he suddenly collapsed with his entire gigantic body to the ground and lay exhausted. His situation aroused extreme regret in the sorceress. She approached him and asked him to listen to her and take at least some food. He at first refused, but then, urged by his companions, finally rose from the ground and, in extreme exhaustion, sat down on a bench adjacent to the walls of the room, and the woman hurried to prepare him some food. At the same time, she acted all the more willingly because she not only saw his exhaustion and doubted whether he would even be able to return to his camp without reinforcement with food, but also, not without a second thought, believing that a person who ate her bread and salt would have no reason to betray her or punish her as a sorceress. Food in the east does not take long to prepare. Immediately the calf was killed and roasted, fresh bread was baked, and everything was quickly ready, so that Saul, busy gloomily thinking about what had just happened and heard, did not notice how all this time passed. Having quickly fortified himself with food, Saul, with his companions, set off on the return journey and safely arrived at the camp of Gilboa. Samuel's terrible sentence was not slow to come true in all its accuracy. Two days passed after this, and both enemy camps began to move, preparing for a decisive battle. The Philistines moved somewhat to the west, with the aim of finding more favorable ground for their cavalry and chariots and threatening the enemy position from its most exposed side. The Israelites, in turn, descended from Mount Gilboa and took a strong position near the spring at Jezreel, at the foot of the mountain. Jezreel itself, according to the research of Captain Conder 59, is located on a hill 500 feet high, and is now called Zerin. This place is very peculiar, “because while from the north and north-east the slopes of the mountain are very steep and rocky, from the south the rise is very gradual, and before the traveler going to the north, a valley with its two sources immediately opens, one of which (Ain-Jalud) flows from a sheer rock and forms a pond 50 fathoms in length with shady banks; and the other (Ain-Tubaun) is the famous spring of Tubaniya, in which the Christian crusaders “miraculously” ate for three days on fish, which even now lives in abundance in most of the nearby springs.” The Israelites settled next to the first of these springs, the so-called “Goliath Spring.” Here they were attacked by the Philistines, who moved towards them with overwhelming force. Weakened by a lack of discipline, oppressed by the consciousness of the superiority of the enemy, the Israelis were soon knocked out of their position and pressed against the mountain behind them, where, on its steep slopes, they strengthened themselves for the final resistance. The biblical narrative does not provide much detail about the battle, since its main purpose was to recount the other events of that fateful day. But in any case, we can imagine how the majestic figure of Saul, adorned with a royal crown framing his helmet, moved among the Israeli troops, inspiring them to courage, and how Saul was inseparably followed by his sons, showing miracles of bravery and courage. Meanwhile, the Philistines moved with even greater fury towards the hesitant Israel. A desperate scramble began. The sons of Saul, and among them the brave Jonathan, had already fallen under the blows of their enemies; but the enemy arrows, already overtaking Saul himself, began to shower him with a hail of arrows, “and he was very wounded by the arrows.” The cause was obviously lost, and the army fled in disorder. Death was obvious and inevitable. The proud king, however, does not want to die at the hands of the uncircumcised and, in complete despair, commands his squire to draw his sword and stab him. But the squire does not dare to raise his hands against God’s anointed, and then the ill-fated king commits the last crime in his life - suicide. Taking his heavy sword from the squire, he strengthened its hilt into the ground, and then rushed at him with all his might with his heavy body. The tip pierced his heart, and the king lay lifeless on the bloody spot. His example was followed by his faithful squire. And when night fell, no one was left alive from that brave detachment that had fought so courageously around their leader. It was a fateful day for Israel. The king and almost his entire household perished; the defeat was complete; in extreme horror, the remaining army fled, infecting the rest of the population with panic, who, having left their homes, rushed even beyond the Jordan, so that the Philistines calmly entered the abandoned settlements and indulged in robbery with impunity. Returning from the persecution, the Philistines the next day began to rob the dead and collect booty, as usual in ancient times. Only then did they understand the importance of the victory they had won. Among the heaps of the bravest warriors, they found the corpses of Saul and his three sons. Although the king was already deprived of all his royal decorations, he was, however, easily recognizable by his majestic figure, and, moreover, his very face was probably familiar to many among them. The news of his death quickly spread around, and it was proclaimed with joy and delight throughout all the cities of the Philistines. Respect for the corpse of the enemy was not a custom among the Philistines. They were afraid of Saul when he was alive, and now they took out this fear on him when he was already dead. They cut off the heads of him and his sons, stole all the weapons and equipment from their bodies, which they placed as trophies in the great church of Ashtoreth, in Ascalon; Saul's head was sent to the church of Dagon, in Ashdod, and other heads to other cities, and finally, having barbarously violated the bodies, they hung them on the walls of the city of Bethsan, the Canaanite inhabitants of which naturally rejoiced at the sight of such humiliation of their old enemy. This city, later known as Scythopolis and now under the name Beisana, occupied an advantageous position on a spur of a rock, rising on one side above the plain of Ezdrilon and on the other above the Jordan Valley, from which it was located about six versts. The river Jalud, which irrigates the eastern part of the plain of Ezdrilon, passes on its way to the Jordan just at the foot of this hill, forming the wadi Jalud, the great road between east and west, and flowing almost opposite the main Jordanian ford. On the slope of the Gilead hills, about thirty miles opposite Bethsan, lay Jabez of Gilead, the same city that Saul so courageously delivered from the Amalekites in the first years of his reign. The news of the terrible event that befell their compatriots, and of the mockery of the corpse of their king, painfully touched the heart of this grateful people. They immediately decided to show that they had not forgotten what they owed to the late king; his body should not have remained a subject of mockery for his enemies, prey for birds of prey and insects. As a result, the bravest people of the city, the very next night, crossed the Jordan, unnoticed, arrived at Bethsan, took four corpses from the walls and reverently carried them to their city. Since the bodies had already undergone decay and were extremely disfigured, so that it was no longer possible to perform the usual embalming on them at that time, they burned these bodies, and buried the burned remains under a tamarisk tree that towered near their city. And in order to show their grief, they fasted for seven days, crying for the king, as for a beloved and highly respected friend. A few years later, David carried these remains and buried them in the family tomb of Kish, precisely in Zel, in the land of Benjamin (2 Sam. 21:14). The news of the outcome of the battle of Gilboa soon reached David. One young Amalekite, seizing Saul's crown and wrist, hastened to David, hoping to please him with the news of the king's death, and, in order to increase his supposed reward, even falsely declared that he himself had pinned him. But David was horrified by this sacrilege and ordered the Amalekite to be put to death because he had raised his hand against the anointed king, and he and those around him bitterly mourned not only his friend Jonathan, but also the ill-fated king Saul. His grief was expressed in an inspired song: “Your beauty, O Israel, is stricken on your heights!” How the mighty have fallen, how the weapons of war have perished! Saul and Jonathan, amiable and agreeable in their lives, We were not separated in our death... Daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, Who dressed you in scarlet robe with ornaments... Jonathan is slain on your high places. I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan; You were very dear to me; Your love was for me higher than a woman’s love. How the mighty have fallen, the weapons of war perished!..” (2 Samuel 1:19–27) This song became historical, and the whole people learned to sing it. Thus ended the reign of the first king of the people of Israel. Saul's life falls into two periods, the first of which represents his life with God and the second his life without God. The first period therefore serves as a revelation of the best qualities of his soul - humility, trust in God, obedience to the will of God, followed by success and victories. And during this period he did a lot for the political rise of his state. The foreign yoke was overthrown, and the surrounding predatory peoples suffered severe defeats, forcing them to abandon the plunder of the kingdom of the chosen people. But in the second period, his worst qualities clearly took over - arrogance, arrogance, disobedience, which in turn was inevitably followed by troubles in internal governance, rejection, melancholy, superstition, defeat, despair and suicide. In all this, he was a mirror of his people and through his fate once again taught a deep lesson that the chosen people should place their strength not in man, even if he were a king, but only in God, who is their only helper and patron, and without Him they will inevitably become a helpless and pitiful prey to their wicked neighbors. This lesson was deeply imprinted on the soul of David, who was now free to act as king of the people of Israel. See 1 Sam. 1–3 chapters; W. Deane, Samuel and Saul, Their Lives and Times, from the Men of the Bible series. Aug. De Civit. XXII, 4; S. Cypr De Orat. Dom. 140. De Legat. ad Cajum 31, II, 577, Μ. Josephus, Antiq. v, 10, 4. Rodwell, Records of the Past, v, 117. Josephus, Antiq. I. 6, 1. Van Lennep, Bible Lands and Customs, 285. So according to Euro. text. In Greek and Russian - Askalon. 1 Sam. 5:10. Robinson, Researches, III, 23. 1 Sam. 7:2, “The Ark of the Lord,” that is, Jehovah. One curious Carthaginian monument of a religious nature is an image of two rats with an open hand between them. See Vigouroux, III, 434. The actual Hebrew text reads: “seventy men, fifty thousand men,” without any connection between these numbers. Putting the larger number first is completely contrary to Jewish custom; Joseph says that seventy men were struck by lightning, and in general it is difficult to think that fifty thousand people could fall in a small city. Therefore, most of the newest interpreters think that the number of those killed was seventy people, and the number fifty thousand is a later insertion that occurred as a result of the Jewish way of denoting numbers with letters. Josephus, Antiq. VI, 2, 2. The time of his birth and death is very difficult to determine, since the data for determining his chronology are very uncertain. From the chronicles of the Egyptian king Shishak or Susakim, we know that Solomon ascended the throne in 1018 BC; from this we can conclude that David reigned since 1058. The reign of Saul, according to the testimony of I. Flavius, lasted twenty years (Antiq. VI, 14, 9, where the words καὶ ειχοσι - and twenty - are an interpolation, since the true reading is as follows: “Saul reigned during the life of Samuel for eighteen years and after his death for two years”). Elsewhere (Antiq. x, 8, 4), I. Flavius ​​expressively states that Saul’s reign lasted only twenty years, so that his first anointing, therefore, took place in 1078 BC. About twenty years passed between the death of Eli and the battle of Ebenezer; Samuel was then already a recognized judge for twelve or fifteen years, and for eighteen years he ruled jointly with the king; and since, on the basis of the biblical narrative and other biblical data, it is clear that his death preceded the death of Saul by only two years, then, therefore, he died in 1060. The Battle of Ebenezer, which put an end to the forty-year Philistine yoke, took place around 1095. In the year of Eli's death, 20 years earlier, Samuel was probably about 20 or 25 years old. This, therefore, forces his birth to be placed in 1140, and the year of his death must be placed in the eightieth year of his age or thereabouts. Some of these data are only probable, but they are well founded and coincide with the undoubted facts and the biblical narrative. Ewald, History of Israel, II, 191 et seq. (English translation 1867) Ezek. 12:19 . Wed. Life 43:11; Number 22:7, 17; 1 Kings 14:3, Isa. 57:9. This, obviously, meaning lies in the words: “Who is the father of those?” 1 Sam. 10:12. This is much more likely. Wed. 1 Sam. 14:50, 51 and 1 Chron. 8:33. Livy, III, 26 et seq.; Pliny, Hist. Nat. XVIII, I; Dion, X, 24. Lady of the Lake, III, 1. 2 Par. 13:3; 14:8; 25:5, 6. Josephus, Antiq. IV, 5, 3; 1 Sam. 11:11. This is the reading of the Syriac translation and one Greek text, while in other texts and in Russian it is read “Samuel”. 1 Sam. 12:11 . In many translations (and, by the way, Russian) 1 Sam. 13:3 reads: “And Jonathan defeated the Philistine guard that was in Gibeah.” But the newest interpreters understand it differently, and they translate the word “Netzib” in the sense of a monument, and not a security detachment or garrison; for if the Philistines had occupied Gibeah, thus threatening the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, it is incredible that Saul would have stationed his army north of them and thus left his own territory without any defense. Ewald thinks that this word should be understood in the sense of “official,” and that this person means a special official appointed in Gibeah by the Philistines to collect tribute that remained with the Israelites. But such an assumption does not have sufficient grounds. According to the existing text, the Philistines had a huge army, including 30,000 chariots and 6,000 cavalry. But this number is so large that they usually assume some kind of mistake on the part of the copyist, because the proportion between chariots and cavalry here is unprecedented. And in all the lists of troops that have come down to us, the number of chariots is usually much less than the number of cavalry, and such a number of military chariots is a completely unheard of thing. Jabin had only 900 chariots, Pharaoh pursued the Israelites with 600, Solomon, at the height of his strength, had only 1,400 (Ex. 14:7; Judges 4:3; Kings 10:26. Compare 1 Chron. 18:4, 2 Chron. 12:3; 2 Macc. 13:2). Therefore, one can think that the Philistines actually had no more than 300 military chariots, or, at most, 3,000, especially since the very terrain of military operations was extremely inconvenient for using these chariots to their advantage. Tent Work, II, 112 et seq. It must be borne in mind that in the text there is a constant confusion between Gibeah Veniamin, Gibeah of Saul, and simply Gibeah (or Geva). Seventy translators in the present place read: “at the tip of the hill,” taking this word in the common sense. They obviously did not mean Saul's own city here. In general, it is incredible that the king left Jonathan in Gibeah and himself retired with his main forces to Saul’s Gibeah; and Mikhmas could not be seen from the latter place, while from Gibeah it is separated only by the space of the valley, so that everything that happens there could be clearly visible from the camp of the Israelites. The distance between Saul's Gibeah and Michmash (they are separated by many rocky valleys) was too great for Saul to arrive in time to properly assist Jonathan in his daring enterprise. Josephus, Antiq. vî, 6, 6. So Tristram testifies to this in his “Natural History of the Bible”. See also Biblical History, I, 975. Leo 3:17; 7:26; 17:10 et seq.; Deut. 12:6, 23. Balaam in his prophecy (Num. 24:7), speaking about Israel, says that “his king will surpass Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted,” obviously meaning by Agag the general name of the Amalekite kings. Sickle = 3 gold $34.40 Ps. 151:1–7. This psalm is not in the Hebrew text, and it was preserved in the Greek translation 70, from where it was translated in the Russian edition. In the Greek and Syriac texts of 1 Sam. 19:1 is understood to mean that “Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants about the death of David.” In the Synodal translation, this verse is read in such a way that it makes it possible to understand that Saul instructed Jonathan and his servants to kill David. Cont. Vigil, il, 243 (Patrology of Minya) 1 Sam. 21:18 ; 2 Par. 32:20 ; 1 Kings 2:34 ; In. 19:41. In her speech in which Abigail predicts to David that the Lord “will certainly build him a strong house,” she at the same time notes that “the soul of my master will be tied in the knot of life with the Lord.” It is remarkable that a similar expression is found among the Hindus. A righteous judge is called “tied in a knot of justice,” a young man in love is “tied in a knot of love.” Abigail wanted to say that David’s life would be under the constant protection of God. You might be interested in: