Chapter Eleven

Saul’s victory over Nahash, king of the Ammonites.

1 Samuel 11:1. And [it was about a month later that] Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash: “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you. “About a month later” – after Saul’s election to kingship. Nahash the Ammonite – king of the Ammonites. The Ammonites lived in the southern regions of the east beyond the Jordan. Jabesh-Gilead – a city located in the middle part of the eastern region beyond the Jordan, Gilead.

1 Samuel 11:2. And Nahash the Ammonite said to them: “I will make a covenant with you on this condition, that I may gouge out all your right eyes, and thereby bring disgrace upon all Israel. Apart from the disgrace brought upon Israel, the deprivation of the conquered people of their right eye could have another purpose. By depriving the men of Jabesh of precisely the right eye, Nahash “wished to make them incapable of warfare, because the one holding a shield in his left hand covers his left eye, and his right eye looks upon the enemies.” Therefore depriving the right eye could easily lead to the defeat of those deprived of it (Blessed Theodoret, Commentary on 1 Sam., question 23; compare Josephus “Jewish Antiquities,” 6:5, 1).

1 Samuel 11:3. And the elders of Jabesh said to him: “Give us seven days’ time, that we may send messengers throughout all the territory of Israel; and if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you. “We will come out to you,” to fulfill your requirement.

1 Samuel 11:5. And behold, Saul came from the field behind the oxen, and said: “What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?” And they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. “And behold, Saul came from the field behind the oxen.” Evidently he was still living that laborious agricultural life that he had lived before his election to kingship. The royal way of life and royal surroundings came later.

1 Samuel 11:6. And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled; “And the Spirit of God came upon Saul” – the spirit of noble resolution to go and free the innocently oppressed, in the full confidence that the Lord would not abandon him with His help.

1 Samuel 11:7. And he took a pair of oxen and cut them to pieces, and sent word throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying: “Whoever does not follow Saul and Samuel, so shall be done to his oxen.” And the dread of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. “In order to understand any thought, to fully assimilate it, ancient man needed a more or less vivid image. A Hebrew, who had not yet experienced what royal power is, could only fully grasp its strength when he was told that for disobedience to the king he would lose an ox, the most precious thing in his agricultural economy, and when at that moment he was shown a piece of a cut ox” (Ya. Bogorodsky, “Hebrew Kings,” Kazan, 1884, p. 34–35).

1 Samuel 11:8. And Saul mustered them at Bezek, and the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. Bezek – a city in the middle part of the western region beyond the Jordan, opposite Jabesh-Gilead. “The men of Judah” – warriors from the tribes of Judah and Simeon; “the children of Israel” – warriors from the remaining tribes, except the tribe of Levi, which was freed from military obligations by virtue of its constant service at the tent of the Lord. The division of the Hebrew people into Judah and Israel can be felt long before the final division of the Hebrew monarchy into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. (For more on this, see Pokrovsky’s work “The Division of the Hebrew Kingdom into Judah and Israel.”)

1 Samuel 11:11. On the next day Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and smote the Ammonites until the heat of the day; and those who survived scattered, so that no two of them were left together. “Into the midst of the camp” of the enemy. “In the morning watch,” that is, during the time from 2 to 6 o’clock in the morning. In ancient times the night was divided among the Hebrews into three watches, of four hours each. The first lasted from 6 to 10 o’clock in the evening, the second – from 10 o’clock in the evening to 2 o’clock in the morning, and the third, called the morning watch, from 2 to 6 o’clock in the morning. From the time of the Hebrews’ subjection to Roman rule, the Hebrews adopted the division of the aforesaid hours of the night into four watches, of three hours in each, similar to what was accepted by the Romans (Matt 14:25;Mark 13:35).

1 Samuel 11:12. Then the people said to Samuel: “Who was it who said: ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death. Compare 1 Sam 10:27. Evidently, Saul’s military exploit broke the last doubt of the people that he could be a desirable king of Israel (1 Sam 8:20).

1 Samuel 11:13. But Saul said: “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has brought deliverance to Israel. Compare 1 Sam 10:27, end of verse.

1 Samuel 11:14. And Samuel said to the people: “Come, let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there. 1 Samuel 11:15. And all the people went to Gilgal, and they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal, and they offered peace offerings before the Lord. And Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. The unanimous recognition of Saul by all the people assembled at Gilgal as king over Israel healed the dangerous division of public opinion which had revealed itself concerning Saul at his first election at Mizpah (1 Sam 10:27). When the power of the king was recognized by all the people, the prophet Samuel was able to lay down without obstacle his office as judge of the Hebrews. “And they offered peace offerings”: see note to 1 Sam 7:9. But it is possible to assume that the expression “before the Lord” indicates the temporary presence of the tent of the Lord at Gilgal (compare 1 Sam 10:17).