1 Samuel 15 - Introduction

XV.

(1 Samuel 15:1) The War with Amalek. — Saul’s Disobedience to the Will of God in the matter of Sparing the King and the Choicest of the Plunder. — The Last Meeting in Life of Saul and Samuel. — The Prophet reproaches the King. — Death of Agag at the hands of Samuel.

EXCURSUS G: ON THE CONDUCT OF AGAG, KING OF AMALEK, WHEN SAMUEL SLEW HIM BEFORE THE LORD (1 Samuel 15).

Although, on the whole, we prefer the usual interpretation of this scene, which the English Version clearly suggests — viz., that Agag, finding that the warrior-king had spared him, ceased to have any apprehensions any longer for his life, and that when summoned into the presence of the old prophet, came in a comparatively happy and joyous state of mind, imagining that he was only to be presented in a formal manner to the chief religious official in Israel — still, there is another and most interesting interpretation of this singular scene, which has the support of the distinguished scholar and expositor, Ewald. This interpretation of the original understands that the conquered Amalekite monarch was fully aware that the summons into the presence of the dread seer meant a summons to death, and that, conscious of his impending doom, he braced himself up as a warrior-king to meet his end heroically with a smile. Agag then met his fate “with delight” (this is the word rendered in English delicately), and cries out, moved by a lofty, fearless impulse, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” This willingness to die on the part of the royal captive was regarded by the people as a happy omen; and possbfy, if we adopt this interpretation of the episode, this was one of the reasons which had preserved the circumstances of the incident with such exact detail, for there was a deeply rooted persuasion among the ancients that if the victims resisted when led to the altar, the incident was one of evil omen.

Compare the words which Æschylus, in the Agamemnon, puts into Cassandra’s mouth before her death. If we understand the words of Agag in the sense suggested in this Excursus, the captive Trojan princess met her death in a similar spirit.

Cassandra. I will dare to die... I pray that I may receive a mortal blow — and without a struggle... that I close my eyes.

Chorus.... If thou really art acquainted with thy doom, how comes it that, like a divinely-guided heifer, thou advancest so courageously to the altar? — Agamemnon, 1261-1269