(7) Saul's Second Transgression. Another trial was afforded Saul before his final rejection, the command to extirpate the Amalekites, whose hostility to the people of God was inveterate (Deut. xxv:to; Exod. xvii:8-i6; Num. xiv:42 45 ; Judg• iii:13; vi :3). and who had not by re pentance averted that doom which had been de layed 55o years (t Sam. xiv :48). They who represent this sentence as unworthy of the God of the whole earth, should ask on what principle the execution of a criminal under human govern ments can he defended? If men judge that the welfare of society demands the destruction of one of their fellows, surely God, who can better judge what the interests of his government require, and has a more perfect right to dispose of men's lives, may cut off by the sword of Isis servants the per sons whom, without any imputation of injustice, he might destroy by disease, famine, or any such visitation. It is more to our present purpose to remark that the apparent cruelty of this com mission was not the reason why it was not fully executed, as Saul himself confessed when Sam uel upbraided him, 'I feared the people and obeyed their voice' (t Sam. xv :24). This stub bornness in persisting to rebel against the direc tions of Jehovah was now visited by that final re jection of his family from succeeding him on the throne, which had before been threatened (verse 23; xiii :13, 14), and which was now significantly represented, or mystically predicted, by the rend ing of the prophet's mantle. After this second and flagrant disobedience. Saul received no more public countenance from the venerable prophet, who now left him to his sins and his punishment ; 'nevertheless, he mourned for Saul,' and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king (xv :35).
(8) Saul's Conduct Towards David. The de nunciations of Samuel sunk into the heart of Saul, and produced a deep melancholy, which either really was, or which his physicians (I Sam. xvi: 14, 15; comp. Gen. 1:2) told him was occasioned by an evil spirit from the Lord ; unless we under stand the phrase, "The evil Spirit," subjectively, as denoting the condition itself of Saul's mind, in stead of the cause of that condition (Is. xxix:to; Num. v:t4; Rom. xi :8). We can conceive that music might affect Saul's feelings, might cheer his despondency, or divert his melancholy; but how it should have the power to chase away a spiritual messenger whom the Lord had sent to chasten the monarch for his transgressions, is not so easily understood. Saul's case must probably be judged of by the same principles as that of the demoniacs mentioned in the New Testament. (See DEMONIAC.) David was recommended to Saul on account of his skill as a musician (I Sam. xvi:I6, 23), though the narrative of his in troduction to Saul, his subsequently. killing Goli ath, Saul's ignorance of David's person after he had been his attendant and armor-bearer, with various other circumstances in the narrative (t Sam. xvi :14-23 ; xvii ; xviii :1-4), present diffi culties which neither the arbitrary omissions in the Septuagint, nor the ingenuity of subsequent critics, have succeeded in removing, and which have led many eminent scholars to suppose the existence of extensive dislocations in this part of the Old Testament.
Though not acquainted with the unction of Da vid, yet having received intimation that the king dom should be given to another, Saul soon sus pected, from his accomplishments, heroism, wis dom, and popularity, that David was his destined successor ; and instead of concluding that his re sistance to the divine purpose would only accel erate his own ruin, Saul, in the spirit of jealousy and rage, commenced a series of murderous at tempts on the life of his rival, that must have lost him the respect and sympathy of his people, which they secured for the object of his malice and envy, whose noble qualities also they both exercised and rendered more conspicuous. He attempted twice to assassinate him with his own hand (xviii: to, II ; xix :to) ; he sent him on dangerous mili tary expeditions (xviti :5, 13, 17) ; he proposed that David should marry first his elder daughter, whom yet he gave to another, and then his young er, that the procuring of the dowry might prove fatal to David ; and then he sought to make his daughter NI instrument of her husband's destruc tion; and it seems probable that, unless miracu lously prevented, he would have imbrued his hands in the blood of the venerable Samuel him self (I Sam. xix :18), while the text seems to intimate (xx :33) that even the life of Jonathan was not safe from his fury, though the subse quent context may warrant a doubt whether Jon athan was the party aimed at by Saul. The slaughter of Ahnnelech the priest (t Sam. xxii: 15-20), under pretense of his being a partisan of David, and of eighty-five other priests of the house of Eli, to whom nothing could be imputed, as well as the entire population of Nob, was an atrocity perhaps never exceeded.
Having compelled David to assume the position of an outlaw, around whom gathered a number of turbulent and desperate characters, Saul might persuade himself that he was justified in bestow ing the hand of David's wife on another, and in making expeditions to apprehend and destroy him. A portion of the people were base enough to minister to the evil passions of Saul (I Sam. xxiii:19; xxvi :I), and others, perhaps, might color their fear by the pretense of conscience (xxiii:12). But David's sparing Saul's life twice, when he was completely in his power, must have destroyed all color of right in Saul's conduct in the minds of the people, as it also did in his own conscience (xxiv :3-7; xxvi, which two passages, though presenting many points of simi larity, cannot be referred to the same occasion, without denying to the narrative all historic accu racy and trustworthiness). Though thus degraded and paralyzed by the indulgence of malevolent passions, Saul still acted with vigor in repelling the enemies of his country, and in other affairs wherein his jealousy of David was not concerned (xxiii :27, 28).