SECTION 2. The Rise and Fall of Saul. Saul Having Been Anointed As King, The Reasons For His Downfall Are Now Described, Along With His First Major Defeat Of The Philistines And His Defeat Of The Amalekites. This Is Accompanied By A Brief Reference To His Wider Successes (13:1-15:35).
This section opens and close with examples of how as Saul becomes established he becomes lax in respect of his obedience towards YHWH, resulting first in the loss of his dynasty (1 Samuel 13:1), and then in the loss of his kingship (1 Samuel 15:1). In between these two incidents are a record of his victories (1 Samuel 13:19 to 1 Samuel 14:23 a; 1 Samuel 14:47) and indications of Saul's increasing spiritual failure. We can analyse this section as follows:
a Saul disobeys YHWH and does not wait for His advice through Samuel. His dynasty are rejected from the kingship (1 Samuel 13:1).
b Jonathan and YHWH deliver Israel (1 Samuel 13:19 to 1 Samuel 14:23 a).
c Saul makes a rash oath and Jonathan unknowingly breaks it and becomes liable to sentence (1 Samuel 14:23 a).
d As a result of Saul's rash oath his men eat animals with their blood resulting in Saul building his ‘first altar' (1 Samuel 14:31).
c Saul consult the oracle over his rash oath and Jonathan is sentenced to death, but the people will not allow it (1 Samuel 14:36).
b Saul and Abner deliver Israel (1 Samuel 14:47).
a Saul disobeys YHWH and preserves for himself and the people what is ‘devoted' to YHWH. He is rejected from the kingship (1 Samuel 15:1).
Chapter 15.
Saul's Victory Over The Amalekites And His Subsequent Tragic Failure To Honour YHWH's Commands (1 Samuel 15:1).
In this chapter Saul reveals that he has become so filled with a sense of his own importance that he now feels that he can ignore God's clear commandment simply for his own benefit, however heinous his actions might be. He considers that he has a right to put YHWH right. The result is that God rejects him from being king over Israel, and Samuel leaves him never to return. The further effects of this rejection on Saul will be that he will go into clinical depression, and become schizophrenic, thus being ‘two men' at the same time and being plagued with paranoia and delusion. Had he been obedient to YHWH this illness may never have happened.
There is no indication as to when this incident in 1 Samuel 15 occurred but it has been suggested that it may well have been some years after the incidents described in 1 Samuel 13-14 in order for Saul's arrogance and disobedience to have grown sufficiently to account for his behaviour here. On the other hand we might consider that his behaviour in the previous chapter has already demonstrated that he was quite capable of exactly this at any time. The stress in this passage is on obedience, and the whole is designed so as to bring out Saul's total disobedience, in accordance with the tendency that we have observed previously (1 Samuel 13:13). It is describing the final stage in his downfall. To us his crime might appear small, and even reasonable. But it would not have been seen like that in his day. It would have been looked on with horror by the independent observer. For to take for oneself what had been ‘devoted to YHWH' was sacrilege of the most heinous kind (compare Joshua 7).
It is, however, interesting that Samuel is again involved with Saul here. It demonstrates that, while their relationship was no longer as close, Saul was still being given an opportunity to at least partially redeem himself. He was still seen as being ‘YHWH's anointed.'
Analysis.
a And Samuel said to Saul, “YHWH sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel, now therefore listen you to the voice of the words of YHWH” (1 Samuel 15:1).
b “Thus says YHWH of hosts, I have marked what Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him in the way, when he came up out of Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” And Saul summoned the people, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred units of footmen, and ten units of men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul smote the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is before Egypt (1 Samuel 15:2).
c And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword, but Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the second oxen, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly (1 Samuel 15:8).
d Then came the word of YHWH to Samuel, saying, “It repents me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he is turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to YHWH all night (1 Samuel 15:10).
e And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a monument, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him, “Blessed are you of YHWH. I have performed the commandment of YHWH” (1 Samuel 15:12).
f And Samuel said, “What means then this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to YHWH your God, and the remainder we have utterly destroyed” (1 Samuel 15:14).
g Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what YHWH has said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Say on”. And Samuel said, Although you were little in your own sight, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And YHWH anointed you king over Israel, and YHWH sent you on a journey, and said, “Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. For what reason then did you not obey the voice of YHWH, but did fly upon the spoil, and did what was evil in the sight of YHWH?” (1 Samuel 15:16).
h And Saul said to Samuel, “Yes, I have obeyed the voice of YHWH, and have gone the way in which YHWH sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the prime choice of the devoted things, to sacrifice to YHWH your God in Gilgal” (1 Samuel 15:20).
i And Samuel said, “Has YHWH as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of YHWH? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected the word of YHWH, he has also rejected you from being king (1 Samuel 15:22).
h And Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of YHWH, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, I pray you, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship YHWH” (1 Samuel 15:24).
g And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of YHWH, and YHWH has rejected you from being king over Israel.” And as Samuel turned about to go away, Saul laid hold on the skirt of his robe, and it tore (1 Samuel 15:26).
f And Samuel said to him, “YHWH has torn the kingship of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbour of yours who is better than you. And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man, that he should repent” (1 Samuel 15:28).
e Then he said, “I have sinned. Yet honour me now, I pray you, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship YHWH your God” (1 Samuel 15:30).
d So Samuel turned again after Saul, and Saul worshipped YHWH (1 Samuel 15:31).
c Then said Samuel, “Bring you here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him apprehensively. And Agag said, “Is the bitterness of death surely past?” (1 Samuel 15:32).
b And Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel executed Agag before YHWH in Gilgal (1 Samuel 15:33).
a Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; for Samuel mourned for Saul, and YHWH repented that he had made Saul king over Israel (1 Samuel 15:34).
Note that in ‘a' Saul treats Saul as the anointed of YHWH, ready to do His bidding, and in the parallel Saul is no longer seen by Samuel as the anointed of YHWH. In ‘b' Saul is to slaughter the Amalekites (including Agag the king) and devote them to YHWH and in the parallel Samuel ensures the final completion of that task. In ‘c' Saul spares Agag and in the parallel Agag is brought before Samuel for sentence. In ‘d' Saul is declared to have ‘turned back' from following YHWH, and Samuel cries to YHWH concerning it all night, and in the parallel Samuel ‘turns again' to Saul, and Saul worships YHWH. In ‘e' Saul builds a monument in honour of his victory and claims to have obeyed YHWH, and in the parallel he admits that he has not obeyed YHWH and asks that Samuel will still honour him before the elders and the people. In ‘f' Samuel draws attention to Saul's disobedience and Saul tries to excuse it, and in the parallel Samuel tells him that as a result of his disobedience YHWH has torn his kingship from him and will not change His mind. In ‘g' Samuel asks Saul why he has not obeyed the voice of YHWH, and in the parallel declares that he has thus rejected the word of YHWH and done evil in His sight with the result that YHWH has rejected him from being king over Israel. In ‘h' the people took of the prime items from among the devoted things to sacrifice to YHWH (something specifically forbidden), and in the parallel Saul admits that he has sinned by listening to the people. Centrally in ‘h' Samuel indicates that obedience is better than sacrifice, and listening to and doing what YHWH requires is better than the fat of rams.