(9) Saul's Last Offense and Death. The measure of Saul's iniquity, now almost full, was completed by an act of direct treason against Jehovah, the God of Israel (Exod. xxii:i8; Lev. xix:3t ; xx :27 ; Deut. xviii :to, It). Saul, proba bly in a fit of zeal, and perhaps as some atone ment for his disobedience in other respects, had executed the penalty of the law on those who practiced necromancy and divination (1 Sam. xxviii :3). The question as to the character of the apparition evoked by the witch of Endor falls more properly to be considered under other arti cles. (See DIVINATION; WITCH.) Assured of his own death the next day, and that of his sons, the ruin of his army, and the triumph of his most formidable enemies, whose invasion had tempted him to try this unhallowed expedient—all announced to him by that same authority which had foretold his possession of the kingdom, and whose words had never been falsi fied—Saul, in a state of dejection which could not promise success to his followers, met the enemy next day in Gilboa, on the extremity of the great plain of Esdraelon ; and having seen the total rout of his army, and the slaughter of his three sons, of whom the magnanimous Jonathan was one; and having in vain solicited death from the hand of his armor-bearer (Doeg the Edomite, the Jews say, 'A partner before of his master's cringes. and now of his punishment'), Saul perished at last by his own hand (I Chron. x:4, 8, 14).
When the Philistines came on the morrow to plunder the slain, they found Saul's body and the bodies of his sons, which, having beheaded them, they fastened to the wall of Bethshan ; but the men of Jabesh-gilead, mindful of their former obligation to Saul (t Sam. xi). when they heard of the indignity, gratefully and heroically went by night and carried them off. and buried them under a tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
It is pleasing to think that even the worst men have left behind them those in whom gratitude and affection are duties. Saul had those who mourned him, as some hand was found to have strewed flowers on the newly made grave of Nero.
From Jabesh the bones of Saul and of his sons were removed by David, and buried in Zelah, in the sepulcher of Kish, his father. R. L.
(10) Character. Saul had been, in many re spects, admirably suited for his times. At his ac cession Israel was crushed and helpless: he left it victorious far and near. Philistine, Ammonite, Moabite, Amalekite, and Syrian, by turns, found themselves defeated, and had to own the prowess of the new Hebrew leader. He, with his heroic son Jonathan, and his cousin and general, Abner, are among the greatest heroes of Israel. He showed his magnanimity in the clemency extended to those who resisted him at the opening of his reign, while the lament of the men of Jabesh gilead over his death, and the loyalty of nearly all Israel to his house, after his fall, even to the length of fighting on its behalf, proves that he knew how to endear himself to the nation at large.
Archbishop Trench draws, in one of his dis courses, delivered before the University of Cam bridge, a sad picture of the contrast between the beginning and the close of Saul's career. All the finer and nobler elements of his character dis played themselves at the outset of his eventful life; while at the end we have before us the mournful spectacle of "the gradual breaking down under the wear and the tear of the world, under the in fluence of unresisted temptations, of a lofty soul: the unworthy close of a life worthily begun." 2. An early king of Idumea (Gen. xxxvi :37); he was of Rehoboth, and succeeded Samlah of Masrekah. (B. C. after 1618.) 3. The Hebrew name of Paul (Rom. xi :t ; Phil. iii :5). ( See PAUL.)