Обозрение четырех книг Царств

Elkanah, who had two wives, had no children by one of them. When he came to Shiloh to make a sacrifice, this wife prayed to God, then gave birth to Samuel and gave him to the house of the Lord forever, as she promised before she conceived him. Eli was then the high priest. The sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were dissolute and wicked youths who took parts of the sacrifices before they were offered to God. Eli blessed Hannah, and she had three more sons and two daughters, and Samuel prospered in virtue. Eli, hearing about the misdeeds of his sons - they even committed adultery - gave them a verbal reprimand; but they did not come to their senses. Elijah is foreshadowed of the destruction of his house and sons for the sins of the latter; and Samuel is informed of the inexorable wrath of God against the house of Eli, and he announces this to Eli. Foreigners enter into war with the Israelis and, having defeated them, put them to flight. And when the sons of Eli carried out the ark, they too fell in the war along with many others, and the enemies took the ark. Someone came and told Elijah about this. He fell from his chair, hurt himself and died. His daughter-in-law also died when she heard about this. The foreigners brought the ark into the church of Dagon, and it fell twice and was crushed. People were also stricken with ulcers on the back parts of the body. These were the Azotans; and their field was filled with mice. They send the ark to Gath; and here the inhabitants were amazed. They send him to Ascalon; and there the mortality spread. Then, on the advice of their soothsayers, they made golden likenesses of tumors and mice, and, placing them together with the ark on a chariot, harnessed the cows, whose calves were locked in a stable. The cows went straight to Bethshemesh. The people there accept the ark and make a sacrifice to God, before the eyes of the foreign princes. But since they did not willingly accept him, and the sons of Jehoiachin did not rejoice, a great defeat of the people occurred. Fearing, the inhabitants of Bethshemesh sent the ark away from them to the house of Abminadab. Then the Israelites turned to God, and in the war with the foreigners they defeated them, through the prayer of Samuel, and took the cities that they had taken from them. When Samuel grew old, and his sons did not follow his path, the Jews gathered together and demanded a king. Samuel was upset by this, but God said to him: “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they did not reject you, but they 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, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so will they do to you,” - i.e. what the king may require of them (1 Samuel 8:7–8). Samuel testified; but they demanded persistently. At that time the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, disappeared. His father sent him to look for them. Not having found them, he, on the advice of his companion, comes to Samuel to ask about them. God points him out to Samuel and says: anoint him king. Saul came and asked Samuel: Where is the seer? That was the name of the prophets. He answered that it was he himself, and led him to Wamu, where the people's sacrifice was being made; there he treated him and, going with him in the morning, poured oil on him from a vessel, kissed him and told him that he would rule over the people; then, showing him some signs, he sent him away, and Saul began to prophesy. Saul's relative asks him where he went. He replied that he was looking for donkeys. People gather in Mizpah; Saul is delivered by the king. The king of Ammon rebels against the inhabitants of Gilead; they send messengers to Saul; he came, fought with them and brutally defeated the enemies. A festival is held at Gilgal. Samuel speaks to the people; he asks: “From whom did I take an ox, from whom did I take a donkey” (1 Samuel 12:3)? After exhorting them to obey God, he prays and rain falls on the day of harvest. The people were afraid and confessed that they had sinned by demanding a king. Samuel again exhorts them to follow God's commandments. Saul defeats the foreigners. They, irritated, attack with great force. The Israelis take flight; Saul alone remains. He brings a burnt offering to God without waiting for Samuel, who ordered him to wait. Samuel comes, is upset by what happened, threatens Saul that the kingdom will be taken away from him and given to another, i.e. David. When Saul was sitting on a hill and there were six hundred people with him, his son Jonathan and his youth secretly attacked the enemies and killed several of them. Saul, seeing this and attacking the embarrassed enemies, brutally defeats them, and takes an oath that no one will eat anything until the evening. Jonathan, not hearing this, tasted the honey. Saul comes and asks God if he should pursue his enemies; God doesn't answer him. He realized that a sin had been committed among the people. When Jonathan was named, Saul was ready to put him to death, but the people saved Jonathan from his hands. Samuel tells Saul to defeat the Amalekites, curse them all, and spare no one. He did not listen and spared their king Agag and herds of small and large livestock. Samuel, coming and seeing this, became angry and said: “Are burnt offerings and sacrifices as pleasing to the Lord as obedience to the voice of the Lord? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to obey than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22). And at the same time he threatened to take away his kingdom. Saul forced Samuel to go with him; but he didn’t want to; then, being forced, he went. After this, Samuel, having ordered Agag to be brought to him, killed him with his own hands. From that time on he did not see Saul until the day of his death, but he wept for him. Then Samuel is sent by God to anoint David; he went and anointed. Then the evil spirit took possession of Saul, and they brought David to him so that he could sing and tame the evil spirit. When Goliath came to fight and everyone was in fear, David was sent to visit his brothers. Arriving at the camp, he asks what the reward will be for the one who kills this foreigner. They told him: the king's daughter will be given for him. He came to Saul and promised to kill the foreigner. He didn't believe it; but finally sent him without weapons, because he could not bear arms. David, throwing a stone at Goliath's face, knocked him down and, cutting off his head with his own sword, brilliantly emerged from the battle. Jonathan, seeing him, became attached to him with his soul, loved him very much and gave him gifts; but Saul began to envy him because the choirs of virgins sang: “Saul conquered thousands, and David tens of thousands” (1 Sam. 18:7). Saul threw a spear at David to kill him; but he ran away. The more David gained the love of everyone, the more Saul was annoyed; and, wanting to destroy him, promised to marry his daughter to him if he killed a hundred enemies; he killed and became the king's son-in-law. When another war came, David again distinguished himself; and Saul hated him even more and told his son Jonathan that he would like to kill David. He notified David and advised him to hide; When he appeased his father, he brought David to him. When war came again, David again differed and again ran away from Saul, who wanted to hit him with a spear. On the advice of his wife, he runs away from home. Saul sends to take him, but she says he is sick. Saul, having learned that he had run away, began to reproach his daughter and, having found out where David was, sent to bring him from there. Since the messengers did not return, but remained there and began to prophesy, Saul himself went. David comes to Jonathan and announces that Saul is making an attempt on his life. If you want, he says, to make sure tomorrow more precisely, then during lunch I will leave; then, if your father asks about the reason, say that, on the occasion of a sacrifice in the city, I asked permission to leave; if he endures this calmly, then I will not suspect anything bad; if he gets angry, then it is obvious that he is preparing intrigues and revenge against me. Jonathan did so, and Saul became so angry that he attempted to kill his son. Jonathan, jumping out from behind the table, went into the field and began throwing arrows - this was a conventional sign - and, running behind his youth to the place where David was hiding, he said: “Look, an arrow is ahead of you: ... run quickly, do not stop” (1 Samuel 20:37-38). David understood what these words meant and, after the youth left, he fell into the arms of Jonathan and cried; Jonathan advises him to flee and remember the conditions, which were that David would never deprive the house of Jonathan of mercy, either during his life or after his death. Then, upon returning from the war, Saul again began to pursue him and entered the cave where David and his entourage were. Although everyone advised David to kill Saul, he did not listen and did not allow those who wanted to do it. When Saul left the cave, David followed him, shouted to him and showed him both his anger and his justice. Saul began to cry. Then Samuel died. David sends to ask for gifts from Nabal for saving his flocks. He not only did not give it, but also insulted him in the face of those sent. David armed himself and went to kill him. Abigail, his wife, found out about this, and, taking the gifts, met David, and after many requests rejected him from this intention. After Nabal's death, she becomes David's wife. Saul, hearing where David is, again goes against him. While he and all his army were sleeping, David came with Abishai. This one advised to kill the enemy, but David did not listen, and taking a jug and a spear lying at his head, he walked away to a long distance and, shouting, woke up the military commander Saul and reproached him for his carelessness, for not guarding the king; showed the spear and the pitcher, and reproached Saul for persecuting a man who had done him no harm. Then David runs away to Achish, because he did not consider it safe to be near Saul. David received Ziklag from Achish, raided the enemies and acquired a lot of property and sheep. Then the foreigners gathered against the Israelites, and Saul questioned the ventriloquist. David was removed from the army of Achish because the princes of the foreigners did not allow him to go with them, fearing that he would betray their troops; he finds Ziklag burned, and does not find the women there, because they were carried away into captivity. Having asked God whether he should pursue (the enemies), and having received the answer that he should, he set off in pursuit. Having learned from an Egyptian servant where the enemies were camped, he attacked them unexpectedly, defeated them, took the booty and divided it equally between those who fought and those who remained with the baggage train. When the battle between the foreigners and the Israelites took place, Saul, Jonathan and his two other sons fell; Having taken Saul, the enemies hung him on the wall of Bethsan, i.e. Scythopolis. But the people of Jabez came and took him and Jonathan and buried him. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: