SAUL ; Sept. and N. T. ZacriA), son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, was the first king of the Israelites. The corrupt administration of justice by Samuel's sons furnished an occasion to the Hebrews for rejecting that theocracy, of which they neither appreciated tbe value, nor, through their unfaithfulness to it, enjoyed the full advan tages (I Sam. viii.) An invasion by the Ammon ites seems also to have conspired with the cause just mentioned, and with a love of novelty, in prompting the demand for a king (i Sam. xii. 12) —an officer evidently alien to the genius of the theocracy, though contemplated as an historical certainty, and provided for by the Jewish lawgiver (I Sam. xii. 17-20 ; Deut. xvii. 14-20; on which see Grotius's note ; also De .7:ire Belli, etc., i. 4. 6, with the remarks of Gronovius, who (as Puffen dorf also does) controverts the views of Grotius). An explanation of the nature of this request, as not only an instance of ingratitude to Samuel, but of rebellion against Jehovah, and the delineation of the manner in which their kings—notwithstand ing the restrictions prescribed in the law—might be expected to conduct themselves (-7,-Dr1 Sept. bucctitop,a pacriXecus ; I Sam. viii. I ; X.
25), having failed to move the people from their resolution, the Lord sent Saul, who had left home in quest of his father's asses, which had strayed, to Samuel, who having informed Saul of the divine purpose regarding him, and having at a feast shown him a preference, which, no doubt, the other guests understood, privately anointed him king, and gave him various tokens by which he might be assured that his designation was from Jehovah (I Sam. ix. x.) Moved by the authority of Samuel, and by the fulfilment of these signs, SauPs reluctance to assume the office to which he was called was over come ; which may be the meaning of the expres sion -11-Nn (i Sam. x. 9), though his hesitation afterwards returned (ver. 21, 22). On his way home, meeting a company of prophets, he was seized with the prophetic afflatus, and so gave occasion to a proverb afterwards in use among the Jews, though elsewhere a different origin is assig-ned to the saying (*r Sam. xix. 24). Immediately after, Saul was elected at Mizpah in a solemn assembly by the determination of the miraculous lot—a method of election not confined to the Hebrews (Aristot.
vi. ii; and Virg. "En. `Laocoon lectus Neptuni sorte sacerdos') ; and both previously to that election (x. 16), and subsequently, when in sulted by the worthless portion of the Israelites, he showed that modesty, humility, and forbearance which seem to have characterised him till cor rupted by the possession of power. The person thus set apart to discharge the royal function pos sessed at least those corporeal advantages which most ancient nations desidemted in their sovereigns (the Mos gtov rvpavviSos—Eurip.) His person was tall and commanding, and he soon showed that his courage was not inferior to his strength (I Sam. ix. 2 ; X. 23). His belonging to Benjamin
also, the smallest of the tribes, though of distin guished bravery, prevented the mutual jealousy with which either of the two great tribes, Judah and Ephraim, would have regarded a king chosen from the other ; so that his election was received with general rejoicing, and a number of men, moved by the authority of Samuel (x. 26), even attached themselves to him as a body-guard, or as counsellors and assistants. In the meantime the Ammonites, whose invasion had hastened the ap pointment of a king, having besieged Jabesh in Gilead, and Nahash their king having proposed insulting conditions to them, the elders of that town, apparently not aware of Saul's election (I Sam. xi. 3), sent messengers through the land imploring help. Saul acted with wisdom and promptitude, summoning the people en nzasse to meet him at Bezek ; and having at the head of a vast multitude totally routed the Ammonites (ver. I I), and obtained a higher glory, by exhibiting a new instance of clemency, whether dictated by principle or policy—` Novum imperium inchoanti bus utilis clementi fama' (Tac. Hist. iv. 63), For lowliness is young ambition's ladder,'—he and the people betook themselves, under the direc tion of Samuel, to Gilgal, there with solemn sacri fices to reinstal the victorious leader in his kingdom (it Sam. xi.) If the number set down in the He brew text, of those who followed Saul (r Sam. xi. 8), can be depended on (the Sept. more than doubles them, and Josephus outgoes even the Sept.), it would appear that the tribe of Judah was dissatisfied with Saul's election, for the soldiers furnished by the other tribes were 300,00o, while Judah sent only 3o,000 ; whereas the population of the former, compared with that of Judah, ap pears, from other passages, to have been as about five to three (2 Kings xxiv. 9). And yet it is strange that this remissness is neither punished (I Sam. xi. 7) nor noticed. At Gilgal Saul was publicly anointed, and solemnly installed in the kingdom by Samuel, who took occasion to vindi cate the purity of his own administration— which he virtually transferred to Saul—to censure the people for their ingratitude and impiety, and to warn both them and Saul of the danger of dis obedience to the commands of Jehovah (I Sam. xii.) These were the principal transactions that occurred during the first year of Saul's reign (which we venture to assign as the meaning of the first clause of ch. xiii. nrv In, the son of a year was Saul in his reigning'—the emendation of Origen, Saul was thirty years old,' which the chronology contradicts, for he seems now to have been forty years old, and the omission of the whole first verse by the Sept. being evidently arbitrary, and therefore inadmissible expedients for solving a difficulty) ; and the subsequent events happened. in the second year—which may be the meaning of the latter clause.