'The two Books of Samuel form but one in the Hebrew Canon. In the
Septuagmt and Vulgate translations they are called the First and Second
Books of Kings, and those which we call the First and Second Books of
Kings are termed the Third and Fourth Books of Kings. This diversity is
to be regretted; ancient histories should at far as is possible be
kept in their original form. There seems to be no adequate reason for
classifying these books, as they are classified in {119} our Bibles; for
they contain quite as much of the history of David as of Samuel. But the
impression prevailed that Samuel was their author; and as Protestants
in endeavouring to run counter to Roman Catholics, have magnified the
importance of the Old Testament exactly in proportion as they have
decried the use of reason, the translators have so arranged the Books
as to produce the most striking effect; and thus an individual existence
has been given to that which has none, but which really is only a part
of the whole. Yet, notwithstanding first, the separation of Samuel from
Kings, and then its division into two parts, the work bears on the face
of it the strong fact that it could not have been written by Samuel: for
the twenty-fifth chapter of the first book begins with the words:--'And
Samuel died!' Thus more than half of the whole was obviously composed by
a later writer. But we shall see by an examination of the book in
order that the whole of it owes its origin to a date later than that of
Samuel.' ( _Vide_ 'Hebrew Records.')
*Chapter i., v. 5, says that Elkanah gave Hannah 'a worthy portion.' The
Douay renders it 'But to Anna he gave one portion with sorrow.'
Verse 6. What 'adversary' is this? The phrase may possibly refer to
the other wife, but of this there is not the slightest evidence in the
wording of the text; sterility has been a subject of reproach amongst
the Jews, as also amongst the Arabs, and some other nations.
Verses 6 to 19. It is probable that in the country district, where the
family of Elkanah dwelt, that the barrenness of Hannah was a matter of
notoriety. The vow also could not fail to be divulged, and its apparent
success to create a great sensation. The superstitious people who traced
the hand of God in everything, would of course say that Samuel was his
special sift.
*Chapter ii., v. 5. 'The barren hath born seven.' If Hannah here
referred to herself, she must have spoken in the spirit of prophecy, and
even then must have erred in her prophetic dreamings, as by verse 21
she only appears to have had five children, and, excluding Samuel from
amongst those, it would still leave one short of the number.
Verse 8. What are these pillars upon which the world is set? How many
pillars are there, and upon what do they rest? Or is this an oriental
figure of speech not capable of a literal interpretation?
Verses 1 to 10. It is scarcely probable that Hannah the wife of a
country farmer composed this song--it is more likely to have been
composed by a Levite, or perhaps by the writer of the story.
Verses 13 to 16. 'This narrative presents various subjects of
instruction: at first it pictures the simplicity, or rather the
grossness of the manners of the times very analogous to the age of
Homer. This Hebrew people were mostly composed of rustics, living on
their little properties, which they had cultivated with their own hands,
as the Druzes do now. The only class, a little elevated, a little less
ignorant, was the tribe of Levi--that is, the priests, who lived idle,
supported by the voluntary, or forced offerings of the nation; this
{120} class had more time than means to employ the mind. This shows
itself here in the tone and style of the narrator, who, by his knowledge
of the duties of the priests, evinced himself a man of the craft. We
might compare this Levite to the monks of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, writing: their holy histories under the auspices of
superstition and credulity. In this relation we see the essential
character of the priest, whose first and constant object of attention is
the pot or kettle, on which his existence depends; and this reveals
the motives of all that display of victims and sacrifices which play so
great a part among the ancients.
'Until now I could not conceive the advantage of converting the courts
and the porches of temples into slaughter-houses. [ _Vide_ remarks on
page 67.] I could not reconcile the idea of the hideous spectacle of the
choking of sensitive animals, of the shedding of oceans of blood, of
the filthiness of entrails, with the ideas which we were taught of the
divine majesty, of the divine goodness that repels to a distance the
gross necessities which these practices suppose. In reflecting on that
which has just been noticed, I perceive the solution of the enigma. I
see that in their primitive state the ancients were as one; as are
yet the Tartars of Asia, and their brothers, the savages of America,
ferocious men, contending constantly against dangers, and struggling
with those necessities--the violence of which raises all the
sensibilities; men accustomed to shed blood in the chase, on which their
subsistence depended. In this state, the first ideas which they had--the
only ones they entertained of the divinity--represented him as a being
more powerful than themselves; but reasoning and perceiving like them,
having their passions and their character. The whole history shows the
truth of this.
'By this mode of reasoning, these savages thought that every unlucky
accident, every misfortune which happened to them, was the consequence
of the hate, the resentment, the envy of some concealed agent, of some
irascible secret power, vindictive, like themselves, and consequently
susceptible like them to be appeased by prayers and gifts. From this
idea originated the spontaneous habits of religious offerings, the
practice of which shows itself amongst all savages, both ancient and
modern. But, as in all times and in all societies, there were men more
subtle and more cunning than the multitude, there was soon found some
old savage, who, not entertaining this belief, or being undeceived,
conceived the idea of turning it to his profit. Supposed to possess
secret means, particular recitations for calming the anger of the gods,
genii, or spirits, and to render them propitious, the vulgar, ignorant,
and always credulous, especially when bound by fear, or stimulated
by desire, addressed itself to this favoured mortal. Hence a mediator
constituted between man and the divinity: hence a seer, a juggler, a
priest, as all the Tartars have, as have most savages and the negroes.
These jugglers found it convenient to live at the expense of others,
and perfected their art by causing delusions and deceptions. This it was
which gave birth to the sacerdotal phantasmagoria. At present, as these
physical means are understood, we perceive these {121} artifices in the
prodigies of the ancient oracles, and in the miracles of the ancient
Magi.
'At the time when the trade became advantageous an association of adepts
was formed, and the rules of the association became the basis of
the priesthood; but as these associations of divines, of seers, of
interpreters, and of ministers of the gods, employed all their time in
their public functions, and in their secret practices, it was necessary
that their daily and annual subsistence should be provided for by
a regular system. The practice, until then casual, of offerings and
voluntary sacrifices, was constituted an obligatory tribute; conscience
was regulated by legislation; the people led to the altar and the porch
of the temple the choice of their flocks, of their lambs, their beeves,
and their calves; they brought corn, wine, and oil. The sacerdotal
institution had the income, the nation had the ceremonies, the prayers,
and everybody was content. The rest does not require explanation; I only
remark that the division of animals into pure and impure appears to be
derived from their goodness for eating, or the disadvantage as injurious
or disagreeable when eaten. Hence the reason why the rank he-goat was
rejected in the desert; why the old tough ram was entirely burned; why
the measly and scabby hog was despised; but this is saying enough of the
kitchen of the priests of Israel.' (_Vide_ Volney.)
The priests of the Israelites are similar in some respects to the
priests of the Christian Church. The Jew-priest took all that he could,
if not by fair means then by force; our priests follow their example.
They have seized a poor old woman's family Bible to pay tithes; they
have pocketed tithes until unable to sign their names to the receipts
for their income, and then when nearly at the point of death, they have
bargained for a handsome retiring pension before they would resign their
priesthood; yet these are the men who 'lay up for themselves treasures
in heaven, where neither moth nor mot doth corrupt.' Voltaire says:--
'Priests in a state approach nearly to what preceptors are in private
families: it is their province to teach, pray, and supply example. They
ought to have no authority over the masters of the house; at least
until it can be proved that he who gives the wages ought to obey him who
receives them.
'Prayer is not dominion, nor exhortation despotism. A good priest ought
to be a physician to the soul. If Hippocrates had ordered his patients
to take hellebore under pain of being hanged, he would have been more
insane and barbarous than Phalaris, and would have had little practice.
When a priest says--Worship God, be just, indulgent, and compassionate,
he is then a good physician: when he says--Believe me, or you shall be
burnt, he is an assassin.
'The magistrate ought to support and restrain the priest in the same
manner as the father of a family insures respect to the preceptor, and
prevents him from abusing it. The agreement of Church and State is of
all systems the 'most monstrous.' (_Philosophical Dictionary_) {122}
Verse 22. The nation must have improved rapidly in morals when its
judges and priests were so extremely virtuous. It is instructive to a
devout believer to observe that the Church has not degenerated, and that
the priests appointed by God were as vicious as those since appointed by
the State.
Verse 25. 'Because the Lord would slay them.' What terrible cruelty this
seems to harden people's hearts in order to destroy them. But to whom
did God make known his intentions? Was it to one man only; to the priest
who repeated it? Have we not, then, good reason to attribute it rather
to the bearer of the message, to the self-styled interpreter of God's
will? It is clear that this could never come from a loving and just
God, but rather from a Jewish mouth, from the heart of a fanatic
and ferocious Hebrew, full of the passions and prejudices which he
attributes to his idol.
Verses 30 to 36. When the _immutable_ Deity decreed that the house of
Aaron should be his priests for ever, did he foresee the offences of Eli
and his children? If not, his attribute of foreknowledge is taken away;
if he did, then the whole story is absurd.
'In this account we have first a conversation divulged. But by whom? Eli
would not have boasted of it; it was the man of God who made it known.
What interest had he to prepare the minds for a change desired by many,
even by the greatest number? In his quality of prophet and preacher this
man of God must have known the successor announced. Might he not act
already in concert with him? His prediction is found to be in favour of
Samuel. Might not Samuel play a part in this affair? The axiom rightly
says:--He has done it, who had an interest to do it. Should it not have
been Samuel in this case? Observe that Eli was blind, and that any one
might have spoken to him, and he not have known the person. There is
here the management of knavery. Samuel is not impeached; but he is
arraigned. As to the prediction against the two sons of Eli on the
same day, it is evident how easy it was to the writer or copyist to
interpolate afterwards.' (_Vide_ Volney.)
*Chapter iii., v. 1. 'And the word of the Lord was precious in those
days; there was no open vision.' What this means I do not profess to
explain, but I take the opportunity of allowing Voltaire to deal with
the subject generally:--
'When I speak of vision I do not mean the admirable manner in which our
eyes perceive objects, and in which the pictures of all that we see are
painted on the retina. This matter has been so learnedly treated by
so many great geniuses that there is no further remnant to glean after
their harvests.
'My subject is the innumerable multitude of visions, with which so many
holy personages have been favoured or tormented; which so many idiots
are believed to have seen; with which so many knavish men and women
have duped the world, either to get the reputation of being favoured by
heaven, which is very flattering, or to gain money, which is still more
so to rogues in general. 'Calmet and Langlet have made ample collections
of these visions. {123} The most interesting in my opinion is the one
which has produced the greatest effects, since it has tended to reform
three parts of the Swiss--that of the young Jacobin, Yetzer. This Yetzer
saw the Holy Virgin and St. Barbara several times; who informed him of
the marks of Jesus Christ. He received from a Jacobin confessor a host,
powdered with arsenic, and the Bishop of Lausanne would have had him
burnt for complaining that he was poisoned. These abominations were
one of the causes of the misfortune which happened to the Bernese, of
ceasing to be Catholic, Apostolical, and Roman.
'I am sorry that I have no visions of this consequence to tell you of.
Yet you will confess that the vision of the reverend father Cor-delius,
of Orleans, in 1534, approaches the nearest to it, though still very
distant. The criminal process which it occasioned is still in manuscript
in the library of the King of France, No. 1770.
'The illustrious house of St. Memin did great good to the convent of the
Cordeliers, and had their vault in the Church. The wife of a Lord of St.
Memin, provost of Orleans, being dead, her husband, believing that his
ancestors had sufficiently impoverished themselves by giving to the
monks, gave the brothers a present, which did not appear to them
considerable enough. These good Franciscans conceived a plan for
disinterring the deceased, to force the widower to have her buried again
in holy ground, and to pay them better. The project was not clever,
for the Lord of St. Memin would not have failed to have buried her
elsewhere. But folly often mixes with knavery.
'At first, the soul of the lady of St. Memin appeared only to two
brothers. She said to them--"I am damned, like Judas; because my husband
has not given sufficient." The two knaves who related these words
perceived not that they must do more harm to the convent than good. The
aim of the convent was to extort money from the Lord of St. Memin, for
the repose of his wife's soul. Now if Madame de St. Memin was damned,
all the money in the world could not save her. They got no more; the
Cordeliers lost their labour.
'At this time there was very little good sense in France: the nation
had been brutalised by the invasion of the Franks, and afterwards by the
invasion of scholastic theology; but in Orleans there were some persons
who reasoned. If the Great Being permitted the soul of Madame de St.
Memin to appear to two Franciscans, it was not natural, they thought,
for this soul to declare itself damned like Judas. This comparison
appeared to them to be unnatural. This lady had not sold our Lord Jesus
Christ for thirty deniers; she was not hanged; her intestines had
not obtruded themselves; and there was not the slightest pretext for
comparing her to Judas.
'This caused suspicion; and the rumour was still greater in Orleans,
because there were already heretics there who believed not in certain
visions, and who, in admitting absurd principles, did not always fail to
draw good conclusions. The Cordeliers, therefore, changed their battery,
and put the lady in purgatory.
'She therefore appeared again, and declared that purgatory was her
{124} lot; but she demanded to be disinterred. It was not the custom
to disinter those in purgatory; but they hoped that Monsieur St. Memin
would prevent this extraordinary affront by giving money. This demand
of being thrown out of the Church augmented the suspicions. It was
well known that souls often appeared; but they never demanded to be
disinterred.
'From this time the soul spoke no more, but it haunted everybody in the
convent and church. The brother Cordeliers exorcised it. Brother Peter,
of Arras, adopted a very awkward manner of conjuring it. He said to
it--If thou art the soul of the late Madame de St. Memin, strike four
knocks; and the four knocks were struck. If thou art damned, strike six
knocks; and the six knocks were struck. If thou art still tormented in
hell, because thy body is buried in holy-ground, knock six more times;
and the other six knocks were heard still more distinctly. If we
disinter thy body, and cease praying to God for thee, wilt thou be
the less damned? Strike five knocks to certify it to us; and the soul
certified it by five knocks. [Spirit-rapping is therefore more ancient
than is generally supposed.} 'This interrogation of the soul, made by
Peter, of Arras, was signed by twenty-two Cordeliers, at the head of
which was the reverend father provincial. This father provincial the
next day asked it the same questions, and received the same answers.
'It will be said that the soul having declared that it was in purgatory,
the Cordeliers should not have supposed that it was in hell; but it is
not my fault if theologians contradict one another.
'The Lord of St. Memin presented a request to the king against the
father Cordeliers. They presented a request on their sides; the king
appointed judges, at the head of whom was Adrian Fumee, master of
requests.
'The Procureur-General of the commission required that the said
Cordeliers should be burned; but the sentence only condemned them to
make the "amende honorable," with a torch in their bosom, and to be
banished from the kingdom. This sentence is of February 18th, 1535.
'After such a vision, it is useless to relate any others: they are all a
species either of knavery or folly. Visions of the first kind are under
the province of justice; those of the second are either visions
of diseased fools, or of fools in good health. The first belong to
medicine, the second to Bedlam.'
Verse 3. 'Before the lamp of God went out.' I presume this refers to
some lamp kept burning in the tabernacle; but it is a strange mode of
description.
Verses 4 to 21. 'Now to appreciate this narrative, I do not intend to
reason on its leading features: God comes into a chamber, stands before
a bed, speaks as a person of flesh and bones. What should I think of
a person who would believe such a fable? I shall confine myself to the
conduct and character of Samuel. And first, I demand who saw, who heard,
all that was said; who related it, who made it public? It could not
be Eli; it could be only Samuel, who was {125} actor, witness, and
narrator. He alone had an interest to invent and promulgate. Without
him who could have specified the minute details of this adventure? It
is evident that we have here a scene of phantasmagoria, resembling those
which took place among the ancients in the sanctuaries of the temples,
and for the responses of the oracles. The young adept was encouraged to
it by the physical and moral feebleness of the high-priest Eli; perhaps
by the instigation of some person concealed behind the curtain, and
having interests and passions which we cannot now ascertain; though
it is most probable that Samuel trusted to no one. What remains to be
afterwards seen of his dissimulation, seems to fix the balance on this
side. Divulging was not so difficult; he might have been satisfied
with the confidence of a servant, a devoted friend, an old or a young
priestess, that the apparition of God, the oracle of the holy ark might
be rumoured, acquiring from mouth to mouth an intensity of certitude and
belief.
'"But Samuel increased (says the text) and God was with him, and none of
his words fell to the ground: and all Israel knew that he was become a
prophet of God; and God continued to appear in Shiloh." As to the word
_prophet_ the historian tells us that, at this epoch, the Hebrew term
[------] (_nebiah_) was unknown: that the word [--------] (_raeh_) was
used, which signifies _seer_. Here, then, we have a posthumous writer,
who connected at pleasure the memoirs which Samuel, or some other
contemporary, had composed. It pleased him to set down, as a positive
fact, the belief of all Israel in this fable, while he himself knew
nothing of the matter. If we had memoirs of those times from several
hands, we should have materials for reasonable judgment. It is said in
the text, that for some time the word of the Lord had become scarce, and
that there appeared no more visions. Why was this? because there
were some incredulous; because there had happened bad examples, false
oracles, divulging of sacerdotal knavery, which had awakened the good
sense of the higher class among the people. The blind and fanatic
credulity remained, as it always happens, among the multitude; it was
on them that Samuel calculated, and we shall see on the installation of
Saul, that he had always against him a party of unbelievers, powerful
enough to compel him to use management, and even to oblige him to
abdicate.' (_Vide_ Volney.)
*Chapter iv., v. 4. 'The ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts
which dwelleth between the cherubims.' The Douay translates the same
thus:--'The ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts sitting upon the
cherubims.' As to cherubim see page 21. The word translated ark is
[------] (_aroun_). In Parkhurst, under the root [----], I find the
following remarks which are worthy of consideration:--
'Thus _Tacitus_ informs us that the inhabitants of the north of
_Germany_, our _Saxon_ ancestors, worshipped _Herthum_ or _Hertham_,
that is, the _Mother Earth_ (Terrain Matrem), and believed her to
interpose in the affairs of men, and to visit nations; that to her,
within a sacred grove in a certain island of the ocean, a vehicle,
covered with a vestment, was consecrated, and allowed _to be touched
by the priest alone_, {126} who perceived when the goddess entered
into this her _secret place_ (penetrali), and with profound veneration
attended her vehicle, which was drawn by cows. While the goddess was
on her progress, days of rejoicing were kept in every place which she
vouchsafed to visit. They engaged in no war, they meddled not with arms,
they locked up their weapons; peace and quietness only were then known,
these only relished, till the same priest reconducted the goddess,
satiated with the conversation of mortals, to her temple. Then the
vehicle and vestment, and, if you will believe it, the goddess herself
was washed in a secret lake.
'Among the _Mexicans, Vitziputzli_, their supreme god was represented in
a human shape sitting on a throne, supported by an _azure globe_, which
they called _heaven_. Four _poles or sticks came out from two sides of
this globe_, at the ends of which serpents' heads were carved, the whole
making a _litter_, which the priests carried on their shoulders whenever
the idol was shewed in public'--_Picart's Ceremonies and Religious
Customs_, vol. 3, p. 146.
'In Lieutenant Cook's voyage round the world, published by Dr.
Hawksworth, vol. 2, p. 252, we find that the inhabitants of _Huaheine_,
one of the islands lately discovered in the South Sea, had "a kind of
_chest or ark_, the lid of which was nicely sewed on, and thatched
very neatly with palm-nut leaves; it was fixed upon _two poles_, and
supported on little arches of wood, very neatly carved. The use of the
poles seemed to be to remove it from place to place, in the manner of
our sedan-chairs; in one end of it was a square hole, in the middle of
which was a ring touching the sides, and leaving the angles open so as
to form a round hole within, a square one without. The first time _Mr.
Banks_ saw this coffer, the aperture at the end was stopped with a piece
of cloth which, lest he should give offence, he left untouched. Probably
there was then something within; but now the cloth was taken away,
and upon looking into it it was found empty. _The general resemblance
between this repository and the ark of the Lord among the Jews is
remarkable_; but it is still more remarkable, that upon inquiring of the
(Indian) boy what it was called, he said Ewharre no Eatua, the House of
God; he could, however, give no account of its signification or use." In
the neighbouring island of _Ulietea_ "were also four or five Ewharre no
Eatua, or Houses of God, like that we had seen at _Huaheine_."' p. 257.
Verse 11. The presence of the ark seems rather to have increased the
misfortunes of the Israelites in the previous battle; without the ark
they lost 4,000 men, in this they lost 30,000 men, beside also losing
possession of the ark.
*Chapter v., w. 3 and 4. 'The ark of the God of the Jews was in the
profane hands of the Philistines. The people might have profited by the
opportunity to destroy the talisman which had so often frightened them;
but at this time superstition was universal, and among all nations
the priests had a common interest to maintain it, lest contempt for
a strange deity should lead their ferocious warriors to examine too
closely their own idol. The ark is respected, the priests of the {127}
Philistines place it in the temple of their God Dagon, in the city of
Azot (or Ashdod). The following day on rising, the people of Azot found
the idol Dagon fallen upon its face (the posture of adoration), before
the ark; but they raised it up and replaced it. The next day they found
it fallen again, but this time the hands and the head were separated
from the body, and placed on the threshold of the temple. Whence, I
would ask, came this act of audacity and secret knavery? Did some Jew
introduce himself into the city with that artifice, that pickpocket
stratagem of which the Arabs and the peasants of Egypt and Palestine
give, even in our days, astonishing examples? This might be possible;
fanaticism might lead to it. The temple had no sentinels; it was even
open, and decisive victory might have banished all vigilance. On the
other hand, might it not have been the priests of Dagon, who resorted
to this knavery from the motive already pointed out? Their subsequent
conduct, altogether partial, renders this extremely probable.
'The people of Azot could not believe their God so powerless as to be
treated so by human force; they would say, "it is Dagon himself who
declares his will, who shows his respect for his brother, the God of
the Jews; he did not wish to hold him captive." The alarm spreads, the
priests announce some calamity, the effect of the celestial anger, and
epidemic disease of the intestines takes place (in that country ruptures
and dysenteries are common); then an eruption of rats and field mice was
very destructive. The people are confounded, all is attributed to
the captivity of the ark. They demand its release, The inhabitants of
another town where they take it learn the motive and become alarmed; the
disease spreads by contagion, and terror thus becomes general. Finally,
after seven months' delay, the military chiefs of the Philistines call
before them their priests and divines, and demand of them what they
shall do with the ark? It was proposed to burn it, but mark the reply;
they advise not only to send it back, but also to offer an expiatory
offering for the sin of the warriors. These (as is commonly the case),
not less credulous than brave, ask what offering should be given?
The priests reply, "make five golden emerods and five mice of gold,
according to the number of your principalities, to appease the God of
the Hebrews. Why have you hardened your hearts like the King of Egypt?
You have been smitten like him; send away also the ark of the God of the
Hebrews." Here the spirit and system of the priests are evident; they
nourish the public credulity in favour of their particular power, at the
expense even of the interests of their own nation. Is there not reason
to believe that the trick played by Dagon came from their hands?'
(_Vide_ Volney.)
Verse 5. '"Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come
into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this
day."
'Bishop Patrick has a note on the words "unto this day:"--
'"The day when Samuel wrote this book: when the events happened he was
a youth: but the book was written when he was advanced in years." {128}
'The space of time between this event and Samuel's death was about forty
years--not long enough to justify the expression "unto this day." It
must not be taken for granted that Samuel wrote this book; and the verse
before us tells as plainly as words can express, that Samuel must have
been dead many years, perhaps centuries, when it was written. But the
commentators have not seen the natural force of the words, on account of
the erroneous opinion that Samuel was the writer, with which they would
make the narrative harmonise.' ( _Vide_ 'Hebrew Records.')
Verse 9. The Douay adds--'And the Gethrites consulted together and made
themselves seats of skins.'
*Chapter vi., v. 5. It is difficult to understand how the Deity could be
propitiated by a direct violation of the second commandment.
Verse 19. Psalm 103, v. 8. 'The Lord is slow to anger,' yet 50,070
people slain in an instant for a mere act of indiscretion.
'Bethshemesh was a village belonging to God's people, situated,
according to commentators, two miles north of Jerusalem.
'The Phoenicians having in Samuel's time beaten the Jews and taken from
them their ark of allegiance in the battle in which they killed thirty
thousand of their men, were severely punished for it by the Lord:
'"He struck them in the most secret part of the buttocks; and the fields
and the farm houses were troubled.... and there sprung up mice; and
there was a great confusion of death in the city."
'The prophets of the Phoenicians or Philistines having informed them
that they could deliver themselves from the scourge only by-giving to
the Lord five golden mice and five golden emerods, and sending him back
the Jewish ark, they fulfilled this order, and according to the express
command of their prophets, sent back the ark with the mice and emerods
on a waggon drawn by two cows, with each a sucking calf, and without a
driver.
'These two cows, of themselves, took the ark straight to Bethshemesh.
The men of Bethshemesh approached the ark in order to look at it; which
liberty was punished yet more severely than the profanation by the
Phoenicians had been. The Lord struck with sudden death seventy men of
the people and fifty thousand of the populace.
'The Reverend Doctor Kennicott, an Irishman, printed in 1768 a French
commentary on this occurrence, and dedicated it to the Bishop of Oxford.
At the head of this commentary he entitles himself Doctor of Divinity,
Member, of the Royal Society of London, of the Palatine Academy, of the
Academy of Gottingen, and of the Academy of Inscriptions at Paris.
All that I know of the matter is, that he is not of the Academy of
Inscriptions at Paris. Perhaps he is one of its correspondents. His vast
erudition may have deceived him; but titles are distinct from things.
'In this pamphlet he pretends to prove that the Scripture text has been
corrupted. Here we must be permitted to differ with him. Nearly all
Bibles agree in these expressions: seventy men of the people, and fifty
thousand of the populace. {129} 'The Reverend Doctor Kennicott says to
the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Oxford, that formerly there were
strong prejudices in favour of the Hebrew text; but that for seventeen
years his lordship and himself have been freed from their prejudices,
after the deliberate and attentive perusal of this chapter.
'In this we differ from Dr. Kennicott; and the more we read this chapter
the more we reverence the ways of the Lord, which are not our ways.
It is impossible (says Kennicott) for the candid reader not to feel
astonished and affected at the contemplation of fifty thousand men
destroyed in one village--men, too, employed in gathering the harvest.
'This does, it is true, suppose a hundred thousand persons at least in
that village; but should the Doctor forget that the Lord had promised
Abraham that his posterity should be as numerous as the sands of the
sea?
'The Jews and the Christians (adds he) have not scrupled to express
their repugnance to attach faith to this destruction of fifty thousand
and seventy men.
'We answer that we are Christians, and have no repugnance to attach
faith to whatever is in the Holy Scriptures. We answer with the Reverend
Father Calmet, that "if we were to reject whatever is extraordinary and
beyond the reach of our conception, we must reject the whole Bible."
We are persuaded that the Jews being under the guidance of God himself,
could experience no events but such as were stamped with the seal of the
divinity, and quite different from what happened to other men. We will
even venture to advance that the death of these fifty thousand and
seventy men is one of the least surprising things in the Old Testament.
'We are struck with astonishment still more reverential when Eve's
serpent and Balaam's ass talk; when the waters of the cataracts are
swelled by rain fifteen cubits above all the mountains; when we behold
the plagues of Egypt, and the six hundred and thirty thousand fighting
Jews, flying on foot through the divided and suspended sea; when Joshua
stops the sun and moon at noon-day; when Sampson slays a thousand
Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass..... In those divine times all
was miracle, without exception; and we have the profoundest reverence
for all these miracles; for that ancient world which was not our world;
for that nature which was not our nature; for a divine book, in which
there can be nothing human.
'But we are astonished at the liberty which Dr. Kennicott takes of
calling those _Deists_ and _Atheists_, who, while they revere the Bible
more than he does, differ from him in opinion. Never will it be believed
that a man with such ideas is of the academy of medals and inscriptions.
He is, perhaps, of the academy of Bedlam, the most ancient of all,
and whose colonies extend throughout the earth.' (_Philosophical
Dictionary_.)
Verse 19. The Douay renders this--'He slew of the people seventy men,
and fifty thousand of the common people;'
*Chapter vii., v. 1. What were the men of Kirjathjearim, that they
should enjoy complete immunity from the ills which attended the {130}
other unfortunates who came in contact with the ark, and what gave
them the right to sanctify Eleazar? Kirjathjearim was a city of the
Gibeonites. (Joshua, chap, ix., v. 17.)
Verse 6. 'Drew water, and poured it out before the Lord.' This is a mode
of sacrifice, or rather of offering, to the Lord which I do not find
mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Verse 13. It is not true that the Philistines came no more into the
coast of Israel. (_Vide_ chap, xvii., v. 1.)
Verse 15. 'And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.' Bishop
Patrick's interpretation of this stubborn verse may be quoted, but to
be as speedily rejected; because it perverts the plain meaning of words,
for the purpose of making them support a preconceived theory:--
'"As Samuel was the author of this book, he could not speak literally
of 'all the days of his life;' the sense probably is, that he was so
diligent in the discharge of his office, that he gave himself no rest,
but sat to judge causes every day."'
'It is almost a waste of words to reply to such a manifest perversion of
the meaning. "All the days of his life" means "the whole of his life,"
not "every day:" and the use of these words shows that Samuel could
not have been the author of the book. But the commentator, taking for
granted that Samuel was the author of the book, has twisted the meaning
of words to suit this preconceived notion.' (Dr. Giles.)
*Chapter viii., v. 3. The sons of Samuel seem to have been equally as
vicious as the sons of Heli, yet Samuel escapes punishment.
Verses 6 to 9. 'The thing displeased Samuel,' doubtless it did, he
disliked having to resign the supreme power. Volney says:--
'A conspiracy was evidently formed; for, according to the historian,
a deputation from the sages of Israel came to find Samuel, at his
residence at Ramatha, to demand from him a king--a royal government,
constituted like that of the neighbouring people, to whose example
generally his attention was directed. The answer which he gave to this
deputation, and the details of his conduct in this affair, disclose
the anger of disappointed ambition, of a pride deeply wounded. It was
necessary for him to bend to force, to yield to necessity. But we shall
see him in the execution exhibit a cunning intellect, even to perfidy,
which, by its analogy to the adventures in the temple, his pretended
visions and nocturnal revelations, discovers all his character.
'They forced Samuel to name a king. He might, he ought to have chosen,
the man the most capable by his talents and by his resources, to fill
this eminent post. But this he avoided. Such a man would reign by
himself, and not obey him. A docile subject was necessary. He sought him
in a family of low degree, without adherents; but having that exterior
which would impose on the people. His choice was that of one who,
having just enough sense necessary to transact ordinary business, was
constantly under the necessity of recurring to a benefactor, who could
preserve a strict hand over him. Samuel, in a word, selected a handsome
man of war, who should possess the executive, and be his lieutenant,
while he would continue to hold the {131} legislative reigning power.
Here is the secret of all the conduct which we shall see him pursue
in the elevation of Saul, in the disgrace of this king, and in the
substitution of David, another trait of sacerdotal Machiavelism.'
*Chapter ix., v. 1. The Douay substitutes for 'mighty man of power'
the words 'valiant and strong.' By verse 21, according to Saul's own
statement, his family was least amongst the families of Benjamin.
Verses 6 to 8. So that the fortune-tellers of the Jews, like those of
the present day, were inaccessible, unless you had money. The servant
knew that with the piece of silver he would be a welcome visitor to the
man of God.
Verses 9 and 10. (Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of
God, thus he spoke:--'Come, and let us go to the seer;' for he that is
now called a prophet, was beforetime called a seer.) Then said Saul to
his servant, 'Well said; come, let us go.' So they went unto the city,
they found young maidens going to draw water, and said to them, 'Is the
seer here?'
In explaining this passage, the editors of the Family Bible try to
make it appear that the words 'now' and 'beforetime' imply no greater
interval of time than that which passed in Samuel's own life-time. They
quote as follows from Bishop Patrick, Pyle, and Dr. Gray:--
'The word now refers to the time when this book was written, probably
the latter part of Samuel's life. The verse explains that, at the time
when Saul was appointed king, the Hebrew word Roeh, "a seer of secret
things," was usually applied to inspired persons; but that afterwards
the word Nabi, or "prophet" (which had been very anciently known, as
appears from the books of Moses), came into common use. (Bishop Patrick,
Pyle.) The word Nabi, 'prophet,' was in use in the time of Moses, or
Abraham. (See Genesis, chap, xx., v. 7.) But then it only implied a man
favoured of God; whereas in the time of Samuel it was appropriated to
one who foresaw future events.
These remarks contain both what is true and what is false. It is evident
that the word Roeh, seer, is the older term of the two, and we find that
it is the word which Saul and his companions actually used--'Is the seer
here?' The word seer, therefore, was used in Samuel's life-time, and
there is no proof that the word Nabi, 'prophet,' superseded it during
the life of Samuel. Indeed, there is a verse in the Second Book of
Samuel which shows that the old word seer was still in use after the
death of Samuel.
The king (i.e., David), said also unto Zadoc, the priest, 'Art not
thou a seer? return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you,
Ahimaaz thy son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar.' Chap, xv., v. 27.
The book of Samuel was, consequently, not written by Samuel. The words
now and beforetime denote too long an interval to allow room for such a
supposition. But yet the word Nabi, 'prophet,' not in use in the time
of Samuel, actually occurs in the Pentateuch, and other books of the Old
Testament; as for example, in Genesis, chap. {132} xx., v. 7; Exodus,
chap, vii., v. 1; chap, xv., v. 20; Numbers, chap. xi., v. 29; chap,
xii., v. 6; Deuteronomy, chap, xiii., vv. 1,5; chap. xviii., v. 15;
chap, xxxiv., v. 10; Judges, chap, iv., v. 4; chap, vi., v. 8; 1 Samuel,
chap, iii., v. 20; chap. ix. v. 9; 2 Samuel, chap, vii., v. 2; 1 Kings,
chap, xiii., v. 11. In the later of these passages it is not to be
wondered that the word rendered 'prophet' should be found, because the
writer of the First Book of Samuel tells us that it had come into use
in his time, and therefore must have been a common word afterwards; but
that it should occur in the Book of Genesis proves either that Genesis
was written after the introduction of the word into the Hebrew language,
or that the writer of the First Book of Samuel is wrong in describing
the word as modern, or that the meaning of the word had changed. I
believe that the word was actually a new word in the Hebrew language,
introduced after the Babylonish captivity, and consequently that the
First Book of Samuel, as well as the Pentateuch, were written after that
captivity. ('Hebrew Records.')
Verse 15. In a note to Home's 'Deism Refuted,' Bishop Middle-ton is
quoted, in favour of, the simplicity of the style of the Bible; the
style here is undoubtedly simple enough: 'The Lord had _told Samuel in
his ear_ a day before Saul came.'
Verse 24. According to the Hebrew it is not Samuel, but the cook, who
speaks in this verse to Saul.
'What are we to think of all this? Can we believe that it was by
accident that the asses of Kish disappeared, and that Saul was led to
the house of Samuel? Let those believe this who have faith in seers,
fortune-tellers, the gods of the heathen, and a particular Providence
in finding lost asses; but to those who have not lost or abjured their
senses, it is clear that all this is a crafty manoeuvre, secretly
contrived to attain a particular object. We cannot doubt that Samuel,
a man so acquainted throughout Israel, had already known the person of
Saul. He thought his character suited to his end; but, to be assured
precisely of it, it was necessary to talk with him. He could not
decently go to see him; he must send for him. He says to a devotee (as
men of that caste always had them), "God wishes to prove his servant
Kish; go, take away his asses, and lead them to such a place." The man
obeys. Behold Saul seeking them. He does not find them. In such a case,
how many Swiss, Bavarian, Tyrolese, Breton, Vendean peasants would go
to see the fortune-teller? But nothing was easier to this divine than
to bribe people on the route which Saul was to take. It was foreseen by
Samuel. He projected the sacrifice and the feast after this calculation.
The portion set apart for an absent guest proves it. When he had Saul in
his house he employed the evening to sound him in every way; he
prepared him for his new part; finally he sends off the servant,
and mysteriously, without witness, performs the grand, the important
ceremony of pouring a little oil on his head [mark well the
circumstance; he anoints him without witness in secret for a public
effect]; he kisses him, says the text; he tells him that from this
moment God has consecrated him unchangeable, irremovable king of Israel.
{133} 'At this stage of their intimacy, it is evident their confidence
was complete. Saul knew and accepted the propositions and conditions of
Samuel. He who had measured the mind of his pupil, in order to subjugate
him more and more, uttered several predictions to be accomplished
immediately. "In returning home (says he) you will meet at such a place
two men, who will tell you that your father has found his asses; further
on you will find three men going to Beitel (or Bethel), they will say to
you such things; they will make you such a present. Again, at the hill
of the Philistines, you will find a procession of prophets, descending
from the high place, to the sound of the lyres, of drums, of pipes, and
of guitars. The spirit of God will seize you; you will prophesy with
them; you will be changed to another man. When these signs shall happen
to you, you must do that which you wish. God will be with you; you must
come and find me at Galgala to sacrifice: I shall go down there to offer
pacificatory sacrifices; you must wait my arrival seven days, and I
will let you know what you must do. Saul went, and all that Samuel had
predicted came to pass!" Now, what was there miraculous here? It was
easy for Samuel to organise all these meetings, and even to calculate
the time and place of the procession of the prophets--a religious
ceremony which had its fixed days and hours.
'Saul, dismissed by Samuel, met the procession of prophets, and at sight
of the train, seized with the spirit of God, he set himself to prophesy
with them. The people inquired if Saul had become a prophet. Those who
knew it asked what had happened to the son of Kish to have also become
a prophet? Others observed, what is their father to them? His
father-in-law having questioned him on the details of his journey,
Saul told him all except the affair of the royalty. Behold, then, a
connivance between Saul and Samuel.
'There remained a public scene to play to gain the respect and credulity
of the people. For this purpose, Samuel convoked at Maspha a general
assembly. After some reproaches on the part of God (for nothing can be
done without his name), you wish to have, says he, another king than
your God; you shall have him. In the meantime he began to draw by lot
the twelve tribes of Israel, to know from which tribe should issue their
king. The lot fell upon the tribe of Benjamin: he drew them by lot,
and the lot fell upon the family of Matri; and finally on the person of
Saul. Assuredly if there is any juggling, it is that of drawing lot on a
thing already determined. As to the trick of directing the lot, we know
that it requires but very little address to play the sleight of hand: it
has been seen everywhere; we yet see examples of it
'It is necessary that the Hebrew people should believe that God himself
had made choice of Saul, in order that his choice might impose obedience
upon all, and respect to the malcontents, which the opposition had not
yet let be seen. By an addition to the jugglery, Saul was not present:
it is clear that Samuel had concealed him; they seek him; they soon find
him in the hiding-place which the seer had the merit of divining. The
people were surprised to see so fine a {134} man; and, according to the
literal account, they cried 'God save the King.' Then Samuel read to the
people the statutes of the kingdom, and he wrote them a book, which he
deposited, without doubt, in the temple. Alter the ceremony the people
were dismissed. Saul returned to his house at his farm; and to form an
army he assembled around him men whose hearts God had touched; that is
the sycophants and partisans of Samuel; but the evil one's exclaimed,
What! is this he who is to save us? And they carried him no presents.
'These last expressions point out a party of malcontents. Their spirit
and tone of disdain indicate the low rank and condition in which Saul
was born, and perhaps also the mediocrity of his talents already known
to his neighbours, without exposing a secret infirmity, which we shall
soon see developed. We perceive, then, that these malcontents were of
a class distinguished by birth and by wealth, who are in the text
denominated "evil ones," because the writer was a believer, a devotee,
imbued with the ideas of the priest, his hero, and that of the
superstitious majority of the nation.
'The book of royal statutes, written by Samuel, is worthy of some
attention. The Hebrew word mashfat [------] which it is designated,
signifies sentence rendered--law imposed. What was this law, this
constitution of royalty? The answer is not doubtful. It was the same
mashfat mentioned in the 8th chapter and 11th verse, where Samuel being
angry, says to the people--Here is the mashfat of the King; who will
reign over you: he will take your children; he will employ them in the
service of his chariots and his horses; they will run before him and
before his chariots of war; he will make them captains over thousands
and captains of fifties; he will employ them as labourers in his fields
to gather his harvest, to make his instruments of war, and his chariots.
He will take your daughters and make them perfumers (or washerwomen),
his cooks, and his bakers. He will take your corn fields, your olive
orchards, and your vineyards; he will give them to his servants; he will
take the tenth of your grain and of your wine to give to his eunuchs
and servants; he will take away your slaves, male and female, as well
as your asses; and the best of your goods will be for his use; he will
decimate your cattle, and of your own persons he will make slaves.
'Those will be deceived who take this for menaces only. It is simply the
picture of what passed among the neighbouring people who had kings. It
is an instructive sketch of the civil, political, and military state of
those times when we see chariots, slaves, eunuchs, tithes, tillages
of different kinds, companies and battalions of thousands and fifties,
etc., as in later periods. Such were the evils resulting from the
theocratic _régime_, or government of priests in the name of God, that
the Hebrews preferred to it a military despotism, concentrated in a
single person; who at home had the power of maintaining peace, and
abroad to repel aggression and the intrusion of strangers.
'If Samuel had been a just man he would, in establishing the rights of
the king, have also fixed the balance of his duties, what constituted
the rights of the people: he would have imposed upon him, {135} as
is practised in Egypt, the duties of temperance in all things, of
abstinence from luxury, of repressing his passions, of overseeing his
agents, of discountenancing flatterers, of resolution to punish, and of
impartiality to judge between his subjects. But the priest Samuel was
irritated at having wrested from him the sceptre which his knavery had
obtained. The most to be regretted in this affair is, that Saul was not
endowed with sufficient means or sufficient spirit to counteract this
perfidious protector. He could, by feigning to hold Samuel strictly to
his order, by obliging him to explain it clearly, have thrown back upon
him the checks which he imposed, and thus, in the eyes of the people,
he would have had the merit of liberating them. David did not fail; but
Saul, altogether a brave warrior, and not suspecting the policy of the
temple, became the dupe and the victim of a consummate Machiavelism.
'According to Samuel, the royal statute was a pure and severe despotism,
a genuine tyranny. According to Moses, it was quite another thing. To be
convinced of this, it is sufficient to read the precept recorded in the
17th chapter of Deuteronomy, verse 14, etc. It says, literally, "When
you shall have entered into the land which Jehovah your God has given
you, and which you shall possess and inhabit, and you shall say I will
establish over me a king like all the people that surround me, you shall
establish him who shall choose Jehovah your God; you shall take him from
among your brethren (Jews); you shall not take a stranger who is not
your brother; and this king shall not possess many horses; he shall
not make the people return to Egypt to have many horses; he shall
not multiply wives, that his heart turn not away; he shall not amass
treasures of gold and silver, and when he shall sit upon the throne he
shall write for himself a copy of the law in a book before the priests
and the Levites, and this copy shall be in his hands; he shall read it
every day of his life to learn to fear Jehovah his God, and to practise
all his precepts." What a difference between this statute of Moses
and that of Samuel! Mark well the words: the king shall be one of your
brethren, a man entirely as one of you; and he shall be submissive to
the will of the nation. How happens it that Samuel was not intimate
with, or did not mention, a single word of an ordinance of the
legislator so precise and radical? How was it that no person made the
least mention of it? Was this law of Moses unknown or forgotten? or was
it by some chance not yet inserted? These are reasonable suspicions in
this respect.' (_Vide_ Volney.)
Dr. Giles observes that:--
'The description of a king (Deuteronomy xvii., 16--20), presents nothing
offensive to the feelings or injurious to the happiness of the people:
nor does it seem to imply that the Almighty would disapprove of the
Israelites choosing for themselves a king when they should, be settled
in the land of promise. On the contrary, it conveys an idea that the
request would be a natural one, and it explains the mode in which the
petition should be complied with. Is it, then, likely that Samuel
had read this description, when he cautioned the people {136} against
choosing a king by giving that forcible picture of his tyranny and his
rapacity?
'The words of Samuel will seem highly reasonable to those who know the
nature of Oriental despotism, if we only suppose that Samuel had never
read the 17th chapter of Deuteronomy, which deals so much more leniently
with the same contingency.
'It is something, also, to our present point that neither does Samuel
cause Saul to copy out the book of the law as before alluded to, and
this seems to prove that there was no book of the Law besides the two
tables of stone then in existence.'
*Chapter x., v. 5. 'The hill of God, where is the garrison of the
Philistines.' So that, according to this, the God of the Israelites, who
had brought the Jewish nation into the land promising to cast out all
opposers, not only failed in the promise, but actually suffered the
indignity of having the hill designated _par excellence_ as the 'hill of
God,' occupied by a hostile garrison.
The musical accompaniments to the prophesying, prove that a very
different meaning must attach to the word than the one usually given;
some allege that the word means poet. It is used in many places in a
manner entirely unconnected with the foretelling of future events. In
the epistle to Titus the word prophet is used in reference, probably
to a heathen poet. By Chronicles, chap, xxv., v. 123, the word
'prophesying' clearly denotes musical performances 'under order of the
king.' The Douay in a foot-note tells me that prophesying is singing
praises to God by divine impulse.
I am inclined to consider the word prophet as synonymous with that
of _bard_. Our ancient bards recited the events of the past, and in
stirring poetical phraseology gave forth their hopes and conjectures of
victories in the future.
Verse 12 has no connection with the rest of the chapter, and it is not
consistent in itself. There is no connection between the question
'Who is their father?' and the following words, 'Therefore it became
a proverb, is Saul also amongst the prophets?' Besides which, in chap,
xix., v. 24, we get a totally different version of the origin of the
proverb.
Verse 25. This book is lost, I presume. It is never referred to
afterwards. Was it a revelation from God?
Verse 26. Why did not God touch the hearts of every man.
*Chapter xi., vv. 4 to 7. Although Saul was the anointed king of Israel,
he seems to have been ploughing in a field, and to have killed the very
oxen he had been using. The king at that time, therefore, was not so
well off as the priest.
Verses 8 to 15. 'The Hebrew version says, thirty thousand men of Judea,
and three hundred thousand of the eleven tribes. The Greek, on the
contrary, says, seventy thousand of Judea, and six hundred thousand of
the others. Such variations, which are often repeated, show the credit
that is due to these books of morals. According to the Greek version,
by supposing every six persons to furnish one man-of-war, there would
be three millions of inhabitants on a {137} territory of nine hundred
square leagues; consequently more than three thousand persons to the
square league; which is against all probability. The most reasonable
number, perhaps, is twenty thousand picked men for a _coup de main_,
which moreover demanded rapidity. Saul departs like an arrow; arrives at
break of day, and pours on the camp of the Ammonites, who, accustomed
to the sluggish manner of the Jews, expected no such movement. Saul
surprises, destroys them, and delivers the town. The people, charmed
with this beginning, come uncovered, and propose to Samuel to slay
those who do not recognise and salute the king. Saul brave, and for this
reason generous, opposes it. This once Samuel is satisfied, and gives
orders that there snail be a general assembly at Gilgal to renew the
installation, which was done. But why this second ceremony? Was it to
give the opponents and malcontents an opportunity to rally with the
majority of the people, and to stifle a schism which had more partisans
than are indicated? for we see symptoms of it when in the approaching
war with the Philistines there were found in their camp many Hebrew
deserters, bearing arms against the party of Samuel and Saul. This was
the first apparent motive, and it was quite ingenious. But we shall
soon discover that Samuel, always, profound and full of deception, had
another secret intimately connected with his interests and character.
The text tells us, chap, xii., that the assembly being formed, Samuel
standing before all the people, made a speech, the substance of which
was that he had managed their affairs with perfect integrity; that he
had taken no one's ox or ass; that he had oppressed or persecuted no
one; that he had not taken bribes; and that nevertheless he had been
forced to put a king in his place. He attributes this step as against
God. But why God? It was himself. As, by the nature of the royal
_régime_, such as he has pictured it, Saul could not fail to cause
similar vexations, a contrast was created which even at this time tends
to diminish the credit he had just, acquired, and shows the jealousy
that actuated Samuel.
'The priest insisted that God had, until then, governed the nation by
his special servants, such as Moses, Aaron, Gideon, Jephtha, etc.; and
that the people, now rebellious, wished to govern themselves by men
of their own choice. But as this new system took away the supreme and
arbitrary power from the priests of whom Samuel was the head, we
see whence came the deep hatred which he entertained for it; and his
sacerdotal arrogance in setting himself up as the chief interpreter and
representative on earth of the Divinity. Here the writer (a priest also)
has joined a remarkable circumstance: "You see," says Samuel to the
people, "that we are in the time of harvest [the end of June, or
beginning of July.] Well, I will invoke God, and he will answer me in a
voice of thunder and rain, and you shall know your sin of disobedience."
So there came thunder and rain, and the people were seized with fear;
they knew their sin and demanded pardon of Samuel, who (generously)
answered that he would not cease always to pray for them.
'This recital is very well, but we have a right to ask for the {138}
evidence of its truth? Who has seen the occurrence? Who has told it to
us? A narrator at second hand. Was he a witness of it? He is the only
one; he is partial. Besides, a crowd of facts and similar accounts are
found among the Greeks, the Romans, and all the ancient barbarians. Are
we to believe that their seers, that their divines had also the gift of
miracles? But admitting the recital and the fact, we have yet the right
to say that Samuel, more knowing than a multitude of superstitious,
ignorant peasants, had perceived the sign, or forerunner of a storm,
which is not rare at that time of the year. I myself, while travelling,
have seen it in the last days of December, when the case is still
more singular. The result was, the people placed greater confidence in
Samuel; and that was what this ecclesiastical king wanted, in order not
to lose the tutelage of his royal lieutenant.' ( _Vide_ Volney.)
*Chapter xii., v. 11. 'Bedan.' "It is remarkable," says Bishop Patrick,
"that there is no such name as Bedan mentioned in the Book of Judges."
'Dr. Hales, with a singular boldness of criticism, observes on the same
passage:--
'"Perhaps Barak may be meant."
'This supposition might pass if it were certain that the Book of Judges
contained a full history of all that period of the Jewish national
existence; but as it certainly is a very brief history, and occasionally
changes with great abruptness from one subject to another, it is most
probable that other writings once existed which perished before the
present Book of Judges was compiled.' (_Vide_ 'Hebrew Records.')
*Chapter xiii., v. 1. The Douay translates this--'Saul was a child of
one year when he began to reign.'
'It was natural for this new king to be elated with his first and
brilliant success, and with his sudden and high fortune. We find him
also a little while after declare war against the Philistines. Several
incidents mentioned give cause to suspect that this was contrary to the
wish of Samuel, and that hence began the misunderstanding which we shall
soon see break out. Samuel might with reason represent to Saul "that the
Philistines were powerful, warlike, and formidable; that their maritime
trade rivalled that of Sidon and Tyre, giving them the means of industry
superior to those of the Hebrews; who, although left in peace under
their own government, were not in a state fit for independence or
resistance, since they had not even the liberty of having smiths to make
their axes, their ploughshares, and still more their lances, and that
it was, therefore, better to temporise." This is all very true and wise.
But Saul went farther; full of confidence in the ardour of the people,
he could answer that God would benevolently provide, as in the time of
Gideon and Jephtha. He chose three thousand men to remain on duty with
him, and sent away the rest. Of this light corps he gave one thousand
to his son Jonathan. This young man soon attacked a post of the
Philistines, who called to arms and gathered together. Saul, seeing them
numerous, summoned the {139} Hebrews. According to the historian
the Philistines detached thirty thousand war chariots, six thousand
horsemen, and a multitude of foot soldiers, as numerous as the sand of
the sea shore. We ask, who counted these chariots and horsemen? There
is, besides, a shocking contradiction, for the whole territory of the
Philistines was not more than one hundred leagues square, which does not
answer to more than two hundred thousand inhabitants. We must suppose,
according to the narrative, there was more than one hundred thousand
warriors. It is a very remarkable circumstance that in the books of the
Jews the numbers are generally exaggerated beyond belief, and almost
always in round numbers by decimals. Fear seized the Hebrews; the
country people dispersed, and hid themselves in the mountains and caves.
Saul found himself in a great straight; he called upon Samuel, who
desired him to wait seven days (he wished to see how it would turn).
During this time the people contrived to desert. Saul, believing that
success depended upon a propitiatory sacrifice, ordered preparations,
and seeing the enemy ready to attack him before Samuel's arrival, he
determined to make the sacrifice himself, which was the duty of the
priest. Finally Samuel arrived: "What have you done?" says he to
Saul. The king explains his reasons. Samuel answers, "You have acted
foolishly; you have not observed the orders which God gave you; he had
established your kingdom for ever: now your kingdom shall not stand;
_God has chosen a man after his own heart_ (this phrase must be borne
in mind when criticising David's life); he has made him chief over his
people;" and Samuel went away.
'Such a sudden change of conduct could not take place without serious
motives. We must suppose that some dissention had arisen between them;
some serious dispute of the kind which I have pointed out. If, however,
that should not suffice to explain a part so decided, or justify so
much insolence, I can perceive another motive. The course of public and
private actions of Saul, show that he was subject to a nervous disease,
the symptoms of which are those of epilepsy. Might it not be that this
distressing disease being ordinarily concealed, Samuel did not know of
it when he made choice of Saul; but having discovered it, he perceived
himself to blame in public opinion and before his enemies, and then
sought occasion and means to disown him? It is no less true that in
this his conduct is wicked and blameable, inasmuch as he destroys the
confidence of the people in their chief, and encourages them to desert
and lay open the country to the enemy.
'This priest thought all success impossible, and by immolating his
vanquished pupil he wished to insure for himself a compromise with his
enemies, both within and without. Chance defeated his calculations. Saul
remained with six hundred men, courageous and determined like himself.
He takes post before the enemy's camp, prohibiting all attack. Several
days passed. His son, Jonathan, stealing under cover (of the night,
probably), followed by one only squire, he presents himself before a
Philistine post, situated on a high rock; he is taken for a refugee
Hebrew, such as had arrived in great numbers for several days before; he
climbs up with his squire and is received. {140} In a moment they
both attack the enemy with so much boldness and good fortune that they
stretch twenty men dead upon half an acre of ground. Confusion and
terror spread through the camp.' [In fact, Jonathan's exploit exercised
such a wonderful effect that, we are told, the earth quaked and trembled
with fear. The Douay says, that 'it was a miracle from God;' our
authorised text does not notice the miracle, but it is quite certain
that the last word of the Hebrew verse is [------] (Alehim or Elohim),
for which I find no equivalent in our version. Why is this omitted?] The
Philistines think themselves betrayed, either by one another or by
the refugee Hebrews. One man strikes another: Saul, hearing the noise,
advances with his men, and the rout became complete. Carried away by his
excessive courage, the king imprudently forbids the eating of anything
before the end of the day, and of the slaughter and pursuit. His son,
ignorant of this, refreshes himself with a little honey; his father
would have immolated him to his oath (like Jephtha), but the people
oppose it, and save Jonathan. [I confess that I do not quite understand
how the Israelites smote the Philistines without weapons; but God's
ways are not as our ways. Nor do I understand how it was that the Lord
allowed the people to escape, who ate the flesh with the blood thereof.}
'Here is a second victory of the new king; but this happened contrary to
all expectations, and must have disconcerted Samuel, who does not appear
upon the scene of action. The Philistines being vanquished, retire to
their own country. It would appear that a truce must have been made,
since the historian does not speak any more of war on this side. He
mentions that Saul turned his arms against other nations; "that he
attacked one after another: the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Idumeans,
the Syrian kings of Sobah, to the north and beyond Damas; and that it
was not until then that he turned again against the Philistines and
Amalekites." Everywhere he was fortunate and conquered. It is evident
these different wars must have taken several years; at least each of
them one campaign. The narrator likewise seems to terminate here
his history in numbering and naming the wives whom Saul married, the
children he had, and the man whom he made commander of his guard and
general of his troops. 'From the manner in which the fourteenth chapter
is terminated!' a reader used to the style of these books would believe
that the history of Samuel is really finished; for the ordinary form in
closing the history of the other kings, is by recounting their wives,
their children, and the prominent personages of their reign. The
fifteenth chapter, however, which follows, seems to commence another
portion of the reign of Saul, containing the details of the consecration
and substitution of David, which may be dated from a scene of the final
rupture, which took place between the king and Samuel. May it not have
been that the last compiler, presumed to have been Esdras, in arranging
the manuscripts originally written by Samuel, Nathan, and God, according
to the testimony given in Chronicles i., 29, sewed the narratives
together without much care, as was generally done among {141} the
ancients? We shall see the proof of this in the presentation of David to
Saul.' ( _Vide_ Volney.)
*Chapter xv., vv. 2 and 3. Christian, contrast these with Daniel, chap.
ix, v. 9, and then consider well how your Deity has entitled himself to
the attribute of a God of love, shewing mercy and forgiveness to all,
even to those who have rebelled against him.
Verse 9. If only as a measure of policy, Saul's conduct is worthy of
approval; he acted far more wisely than Samuel.
Verse 29 is contradicted by v. 35 of this chapter, and in Jeremiah,
chap, xv., y. 6; and of all the parts of the Bible this is the most
absurd, for the whole transaction arises from his having repented that
he had set up Saul as king. (See V. 11.)
Verse 32. The Douay says that Agag was 'very fat;' if the Jews were
cannibals this would doubtless be a sufficient reason for the sacrifice.
Volney thus comments on this chapter (the reader ought to bear in mind
that Volney scarcely ever quotes from the Protestant version):--
'Several years, perhaps eight or ten, were passed in the wars of
Saul without any mention of Samuel. Without doubt the successes and
popularity of the king affected the prophet. At last he reappears on the
scene; he seeks an occasion favourable to his views; he finds Saul; he
opens by recalling to his mind that he consecrated him king. This was to
induce obedience, through a sentiment of gratitude, to what he was going
to say. "Behold," he observes, "what that God now ordains who formerly
ordered me to consecrate you. I recollect what the people of Amalek did
against my people at the coming up from Egypt. (It was 400 years before;
Amalek had opposed the passage of the Hebrews, and had slain many.) Go
now, strike Amalek; destroy all that belongs to them; spare nothing;
you must slay men, women, children, oxen, sheep, goats," etc Who is not
chilled at such a command? To make God order the extermination because
of a quarrel 400 years before, in which the Hebrews were the aggressors,
for they wished to force a passage through the territory of Amalek. But
what was the object of Samuel? He had a design in view, and an occasion
was wanted to execute it. Samuel saw a popular cause for war and seized
it
'Saul formed an army. The Hebrew text says 10,000 men of Judah and
200,000 foot soldiers of the other tribes. The Greek says 400,000 men of
one and 30,000 of the other. The Alexandrian manuscript says only 10,000
of each, which is the most probable. Why these contradictions? Why these
absurdities? For it is absurd to collect 200,000 men to take by surprise
a small tribe of Bedouins. Saul departs and surprises the Amalekites in
the desert; he kills all those who fall into his hands; takes their king
alive; guards him together with the beasts and other booty. Returning
triumphant to Mount Carmel, he descends to the valley where there is an
altar, and prepares, says the text, to offer a sacrifice to God of the
best among the spoil, according to the rites of the Greeks and Romans.
Samuel arrives; but, says the historian, God had spoken {142} to the
seer (during the night) and had said, "I repent of having made Saul
king, for he has turned from me and does not obey my orders." This, it
is said, frightened Samuel, who cried to the Lord all night. Here again
is a vision, a conference, a repentance from God! Could our negroes and
savages hear such fables without laughing? The Jews believe all; they
do not ask any proof of Samuel; he however is the only evidence; he only
could have written such details. He is here author, actor, judge, and
party. Who would be a Jew to believe upon his word? Yet it is a proverb,
"as unbelieving as a Jew."
'Samuel arrives and advances to Saul. "What means," says he, "this noise
of cattle that I hear?" Saul answers, "The people have spared the best
of the effects of Amalek to offer to the Lord our God; we have destroyed
the rest." "Allow me (replies Samuel) to relate what God said to me last
night." "Speak," says Saul. "When you was little in your own eyes (says
the Lord) did not I make you king of Israel, and now have I not sent
you against Amalek directing you to exterminate him; why have you not
fulfilled my commandment? Why have you sinned and kept the spoils?" "I
have obeyed (replied Saul); I marched, I destroyed Amalek, and brought
away the king alive, but the people have kept back these spoils and
these victims of beasts to offer on the altar of God at Galgala."
Samuel answers, "Does God demand these offerings and victims rather than
obedience to his orders? You endeavour to ascertain good fortune by
a victim, by inspecting the fat of rams; but know that the sin of
divination is rebellion, a falsehood, an idolatry; but since you reject
the commands of God he rejects your kingdom."
'Saul, feeble and superstitious, confesses himself culpable; he
supplicates the ambassador of God to pray for the removal of his sin;
the priest rejects his prayer, reiterates his deposition, and turns to
leave him. Saul seizes the skirt of his coat or cloak to retain him; the
priest, implacable, makes an effort by which the part is torn. "God (he
repeats) has torn from you the kingdom of Israel, and has delivered it
to a better; he has so decreed; is he man to repent?" Saul insists,
"I have sinned, do not dishonour me before my people and before their
chiefs; return to me, and I will humble myself before thy God." (These
words seem remarkable; there were, then, among the Hebrews, other
acknowledged Gods who lived on an equality with Jehovah.) And Samuel
returned, and Saul humbled himself before Jehovah. Samuel then said,
"Bring me Agag, king of Amalek;" and Agag being come, Samuel said to
him, "What you have done to the children of our mothers that shall be
done to yours;" and Samuel cut him in pieces [it seems with an axe].
Having performed this exploit, Samuel returned to Ramatah, and during
his life did not visit Saul.
'What a barbarous scene! horrible it must be confessed; but I know some
more horrible still pass before eyes in our day. Suppose that Samuel had
brought Agag to Ramatah; that there he had confined him in a dungeon
at the bottom of a cistern; that he had come {143} every day with an
attendant to make him undergo various tortures, to burn his feet--his
hands, to stretch him upon a wooden horse, to dislocate him, etc. etc.;
all this with honied terms, saying that it was all for his good; would
not the lot of the victim have been a thousand times more dreadful? Ah!
much better the open cruelty of the Hebrew priest, compared with the
charity of the priests and monks which bless Rome! Yet the European
Governments authorise and suffer such abominations! But did Samuel
commit such an act without motive--without a projected object? That
would not be in conformity to his deep and calculating character. We
will examine these motives.
'For ten or twelve years Saul, by his victories, did not cease to
flourish and strengthen his credit in the minds of all the nation.
Samuel, finding himself eclipsed, took occasion to flatter the
vindictive passion of the Hebrews against the Amalekites. The victory
of Saul, and taking king Agag in disobedience to the command of God, who
had ordered the extermination of the Amalekites, furnished Samuel with
a pretence for striking the audacious blow of anointing a substitute to
rival Saul. He thought it necessary to strike terror into their minds
by a preliminary imposing step, which would make Saul dread the falling
upon him of some new celestial anathema. It is certain that this
manoeuvre of Samuel succeeded, since Saul did not dare to use any act of
violence against him.
'In considering the action of Samuel in a general point of view,
political and moral, it presents an astonishing union of pride,
audacity, cruelty, and hypocrisy; a little orphan upstart, to decree
from his caprice the extermination of a whole nation, even to the last
living being! to insult--to abuse a king covered with laurels, become
legitimate by his victories, and by the assent of the nation grateful
for the peace and respect which he had procured for them! a priest to
trouble this whole nation by a change of the prince, by the intrusion
of a new elect of his choice. Here is found the first germ of that
political division of the Hebrews which, suppressed under David and
Solomon, broke out under the imprudent Rheoboam, and prepared the fall
of the nation by rending it into two kingdoms.
'We see here the fruits of that divine or visionary power imprudently
allowed by a people, stupified by superstition, to a king, otherwise
worthy of esteem, but feeble-minded. We see an impostor, who dared to
call himself the sent of God, the representative of God, finally, God
himself (for such is the transition of ideas which will not fail to
occur when the first is tolerated), turning all this to his profit.
The plain historian achieves, without knowing it, the tracing of the
portrait and character of Samuel, in saying, "Samuel did not see Saul
any more; but lamented his misfortune that God had rejected him."'
*Chapter xvi., v. 2. Here the Lord directs Samuel to tell a lie, yet
in Proverbs, chap, xii., v. 22, we are told that lying lips are an
abomination unto the Lord.
Verse 4. Our version says the elders 'trembled,' the Douay says {144}
they 'wondered,' and the Breeches Bible says they were 'astonished.'
Verse 7. The choice of Saul, whose height was so great (_vide_ chap,
x., v. 23), being an unfortunate one, this time the selection is made on
totally different principles.
Verse 14. 'An evil spirit from the Lord.' If read literally, these words
would occasion, in the minds of pious theists, grave doubts as to how
an evil spirit could come from an infinitely pure and good God; but Hugh
Farmer, in his essay on Demoniacs, says that Saul's disorder was a deep
melancholy, and that this appears by the mode of cure--i.e., music, a
proper method of exhilirating the animal spirits.
Verse 18. It is clear that this servant, if he spoke the words here
alleged, spoke untruly. David was a young lad who kept his father's
sheep, who was regarded as too young to go to battle, and who did not
know how to wear armour.
*Chapter xvii., v. 4. Goliah must have been at least nine feet six
inches high.
Verse 5. This coat of mail would weigh about one hundred and fifty-six
pounds four ounces avoirdupois, allowing half an ounce to the shekel,
which I believe is under the weight.
Verse 7. The spearhead at the same rate would weigh about eighteen
pounds twelve ounces.
verse 12. David is here introduced as if he had never been mentioned
before. 'The days of Saul;' these words indicate a writer subsequent to
the death of Saul.
Verse 17. 'What can we think of this? Jesse hardly recalled his son from
the honourable post of armour-bearer to the king! It is not likely that
he was turned off, since we afterwards find him playing on the harp to
the king as before; neither was it a proper employment for the King's
armour-bearer to be feeding sheep when the army was in the field, and
his majesty with them in person! Why, the most easy method is to take
it as we find it, to suppose it to be right, and go quietly on with the
story.'
Verse 34. Instead of 'a lion _and_ a bear,' the Douay reads 'a lion or a
bear.'
Verse 35, Instead of 'I caught him by his beard and smote him,' the
Douay has 'I caught them by the throat, and I strangled and killed
them.'
Verse 49. The helmet which afforded no protection to Goliah's forehead
must have been of a very curious pattern. The fact of David's going
unharmed except with a sling and stones would induce one to suppose that
he intended to keep a long distance between himself and Goliah. If so,
he would incur no danger in the combat, as the heavily-armed Goliah
could not run after him, and all that was necessary was for David to
avoid coming within the reach of the giant's spear. When Goliah and
David talked, they must have been a very long way from each other,
for we find that David afterwards ran and hasted toward the Philistine
before he got sufficiently near to sling a stone at him....
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