"Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways, now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." But the true reason of this application, as he afterwards declared, was their apprehension of an invasion from Nahash, king of Ammon. They wanted a younger and more warlike leader than Samuel to oppose him, forgetting his intercession for them, and forgetting the arm of the Lord, so visibly exerted for them in subduing the Philistines, xii. 12. And their application was so understood by THE LORD, when He granted it, and "gave them a king in his anger:" "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected ME, that I should not reign over them," by thus shewing their distrust of the divine protection, viii. 6—8. And when Samuel, by the LORD's desire, solemnly protested against their rebellious request, and forewarned them of the severe services and requisitions they and their children, and their substance, would be exposed to, from a king, instead of the mild and gentle service of THE LORD, “the people," joining with their elders, said, "Nay, but we will have a king [to reign] over us, that we also may be like the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles," viii. 922. Thus relinquishing the glorious singularity of their government, the theocracy, under which they had hitherto dwelt alone," or detached from the Gentile nations; and shewing what sort of a king they wanted; not a civil judge, like Samuel, but a military captain, rejecting "THE CAPTAIN OF the LORD'S HOST," who had led them from the days of Joshua. After which, Samuel dismissed the people to their own cities, or dissolved the assembly.

66

THE

About this time, probably, to chastise the people for their perverseness, and their rejection of THE LORD, thus wilfully and deliberately, they were again reduced under servitude by the Philistines. This may be collected from THE LORD's private communication to Samuel the day before Saul came to enquire after his father's 'asses which had strayed. "To-morrow, about this time, I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel, that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines, for I have looked upon my people, because their cry is come unto me," ix. 16; and mention is made, shortly after, of “ a garrison of the Philistines," x. 5; another at Geba, xiii. 3; and another at Micmash, xiii. 23.

Samuel's spirited justification of his conduct before all Israel is an admirable composition. He first challenges them to adduce any instance of oppression, fraud, or bribery, on his part, while he judged Israel; that he and his sons both stood before the tribunal of the public, ready to await their sentence; and : when the people expressly acknowledged his integrity, he then : reminded them of the servitudes they had incurred for forgetting or forsaking God; and the deliverers, whom God, on their repentance, occasionally raised up to them, such as Jerubbaal, or Gideon, [Bedan] Barak*, Jephthah, and [Samuel] Sampson ↑. And he concluded by threatening them with the divine chastisements upon them and their king, whom the Lord had granted to them, if they should rebel any more against him; and to mark the divine displeasure at their proceedings, and also his own power with God, he called down thunder and rain from heaven at the unusual season of wheat harvest. "And when all the people greatly feared THE LORD, and Samuel," his prophet, and besought him to intercede for them, that their lives might be spared, he kindly encouraged them to trust in the Lord, notwithstanding this additional crime of asking a king; and he still assured them of his intercession in their behalf, and of his services as their civil judge and teacher, for that the omission would be a sin on his own part:-" Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against THE LORD in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you still the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord, and consider what great things He hath done for you; but if ye shall do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king,” xii. 1—25.

This illustrious prophet, like his predecessor Moses, was mighty to intercede for his backsliding people, and has placed the duty of public intercession on its firmest basis, the sin incurred by neglecting it on the part of the ministers of religion, and of the guardians of the state.

•, Barak, nearly resembles, Bedan, whose name is not found among the Judges, and was the reading of the Sept. Syr. and Ar. versions.

† nov, Samson, resembles, in three of its letters, and was the reading of the Syr. and Ar. and of Heb. xi. 32, and is confirmed by the indelicacy of Samuel's praising himself.

And Samuel judged Israel [in a religious and civil capacity] all the days of his life, 1 Sam. vii. 15, while Saul acted in a military capacity. The people were summoned "to go forth after Saul and after Samuel" conjointly, 1 Sam. xi. 7.

And when the measure of the iniquities of the Jews came to the full, shortly before the Babylonish captivity, THE LORD declared by Jeremiah, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet should not my mind be towards this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth!" Jer. xv. 1.

FIFTH PERIOD.

FROM THE REGAL STATE TO THE REVOLT OF THE TEN TRIBES, 120 YEARS.

Nathan's prophecy of THE MESSIAH, the son of David...... 1055

The reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon, were forty years

each, Acts xiii. 21, 2 Sam. v. 4, 1 Kings xi. 42, which determines the length of the period. But the dates of the detail are not noticed in Scripture. They may, however, be collected from incidental circumstances, and from the series of the events, to a considerable degree of exactness, not differing, perhaps, above a year, more or less, from the truth.

SAUL.

The first king granted by THE LORD to the importunity of the people, is described as a choice young man, of a goodly person, and taller by the head and shoulders than any of the people, ix. 2, qualifications likely to engage their admiration and respect, x. 24. He was a Benjamite, " of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and his family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin,” as he declared to Samuel, modestly stating his own insufficiency for the office to which he was called, ix. 21, xv. 17. And when the lot fell on him, he had actually hid himself to avoid being made king, x. 17-24. He was first proclaimed by the people; and about a month after, when he had defeated the Ammonites, "the kingdom was solemnly renewed," or confirmed to him, by all the people before the Lord at Gilgal, xi. 1—15.

The smallness of the tribe of Benjamin, which had not yet recovered from the civil war, in which they had been nearly destroyed, and the insignificance of Saul's family in that tribe, might tend to compose the jealousies and rivalship of the two most powerful tribes of Ephraim and Judah, which all along were disposed to "enry and vex each other," Isa. xi. 13, had the first king been elected from either. And it is not unlikely, that "the men of Belial," or factious persons, who despised Saul, as too inconsiderable to save the state, were of the breed of those haughty and turbulent Ephraimites, who chid Gideon so sharply, and threatened to destroy Jephthah, representing his people as "fugitives from Ephraim."

Saul therefore took no notice of their insults, but wisely "held his peace," x. 27, and Samuel afterwards interposed to save their lives, when the people wanted to put them to death, not only as an ungracious act, on "a day" of victory, when "God wrought salvation in Israel," but through policy, not to provoke the spirit of disaffection among the leading tribes, xi. 12, 13.

Saul's age, at the time of his election, seems to have been dropped from the original, xiii. 1, which, literally rendered, is "Saul, a son of a year," (not "Saul reigned one year," as in the English Bible.) Vignoles reckons that he was then forty years old †, Chronol. Tom. I. p. 152, and certainly he could not have been much less; for, in the second year of his reign, Jonathan, his eldest son, had a separate military command, and smote the Philistine garrison in Geba, xiii. 2, 3; and the youngest of four of his sons, Ishbosheth, who succeeded him for a while, was born in the first year of his reign, 2 Sam. ii. 10.

It is worthy of observation, that "the Spirit of THE LORD, which came upon Saul, and turned him into another man,” as foretold by Samuel, x. 6, by no means interfered with his free will, or free agency; he was still free "to act as occasion should serve," or require, x. 7; and accordingly, when his uncle wanted him to tell what the prophet had said unto him, he mentioned the finding of the asses, but "of the matter of the kingdom, whereof Samuel spoke, he told him not,” x. 16. He followed the dictates of his own prudence on this occasion, as afterwards, in "holding his peace," when insulted by the seditious. But he was still at liberty to "grieve the Spirit," and even to "quench the Spirit," and to be possessed, on the contrary, with an evil spirit from THE LORD, when he lost that modesty and humility which first recommended him, and became envious, jealous, cruel, and tyrannical.

SAUL'S FIRST OFFENCE.

His first offence was an infringement of the directions and functions of his coadjutor Samuel, who had treated him all along with so much kindness, hospitality, and distinction, superior to envy, ix. 18-24, and to encourage him, gave him some remarkable signs, which accordingly came to pass, x. 1-13.

In the second year of his reign, and beginning of his long and "sore warfare with the Philistines, which lasted all his life," at intervals, xiv. 52, Samuel had appointed to meet him at Gilgal, in the course of seven days, to offer burnt offerings, and sacrifice sacrifices of peace-offerings, and to shew him what he

Thus Joseph was 66 Ia son of seventeen years," or "seventeen years old," Gen.

xxxvii. 2.

+ Origen, in his Hexapla, inserts" thirty," (viog тpiakovтa erwv Zaovλ.)