The Bible: what it is Part 20

'What a barbarous scene! horrible it must be confessed; but I know some more horrible still pa.s.s before eyes in our day. Suppose that Samuel had brought Agag to Ramatah; that there he had confined him in a dungeon at the bottom of a cistern; that he had come {143} every day with an attendant to make him undergo various tortures, to burn his feet--his hands, to stretch him upon a wooden horse, to dislocate him, etc. etc.; all this with honied terms, saying that it was all for his good; would not the lot of the victim have been a thousand times more dreadful? Ah!

much better the open cruelty of the Hebrew priest, compared with the charity of the priests and monks which bless Rome! Yet the European Governments authorise and suffer such abominations! But did Samuel commit such an act without motive--without a projected object? That would not be in conformity to his deep and calculating character. We will examine these motives.

'For ten or twelve years Saul, by his victories, did not cease to flourish and strengthen his credit in the minds of all the nation.

Samuel, finding himself eclipsed, took occasion to flatter the vindictive pa.s.sion of the Hebrews against the Amalekites. The victory of Saul, and taking king Agag in disobedience to the command of G.o.d, who had ordered the extermination of the Amalekites, furnished Samuel with a pretence for striking the audacious blow of anointing a subst.i.tute to rival Saul. He thought it necessary to strike terror into their minds by a preliminary imposing step, which would make Saul dread the falling upon him of some new celestial anathema. It is certain that this manoeuvre of Samuel succeeded, since Saul did not dare to use any act of violence against him.

'In considering the action of Samuel in a general point of view, political and moral, it presents an astonis.h.i.+ng union of pride, audacity, cruelty, and hypocrisy; a little orphan upstart, to decree from his caprice the extermination of a whole nation, even to the last living being! to insult--to abuse a king covered with laurels, become legitimate by his victories, and by the a.s.sent of the nation grateful for the peace and respect which he had procured for them! a priest to trouble this whole nation by a change of the prince, by the intrusion of a new elect of his choice. Here is found the first germ of that political division of the Hebrews which, suppressed under David and Solomon, broke out under the imprudent Rheoboam, and prepared the fall of the nation by rending it into two kingdoms.

'We see here the fruits of that divine or visionary power imprudently allowed by a people, stupified by superst.i.tion, to a king, otherwise worthy of esteem, but feeble-minded. We see an impostor, who dared to call himself the sent of G.o.d, the representative of G.o.d, finally, G.o.d himself (for such is the transition of ideas which will not fail to occur when the first is tolerated), turning all this to his profit.

The plain historian achieves, without knowing it, the tracing of the portrait and character of Samuel, in saying, "Samuel did not see Saul any more; but lamented his misfortune that G.o.d had rejected him."'

*Chapter xvi., v. 2. Here the Lord directs Samuel to tell a lie, yet in Proverbs, chap, xii., v. 22, we are told that lying lips are an abomination unto the Lord.

Verse 4. Our version says the elders 'trembled,' the Douay says {144} they 'wondered,' and the Breeches Bible says they were 'astonished.'

Verse 7. The choice of Saul, whose height was so great (_vide_ chap, x., v. 23), being an unfortunate one, this time the selection is made on totally different principles.

Verse 14. 'An evil spirit from the Lord.' If read literally, these words would occasion, in the minds of pious theists, grave doubts as to how an evil spirit could come from an infinitely pure and good G.o.d; but Hugh Farmer, in his essay on Demoniacs, says that Saul's disorder was a deep melancholy, and that this appears by the mode of cure--i.e., music, a proper method of exhilirating the animal spirits.

Verse 18. It is clear that this servant, if he spoke the words here alleged, spoke untruly. David was a young lad who kept his father's sheep, who was regarded as too young to go to battle, and who did not know how to wear armour.

*Chapter xvii., v. 4. Goliah must have been at least nine feet six inches high.

Verse 5. This coat of mail would weigh about one hundred and fifty-six pounds four ounces avoirdupois, allowing half an ounce to the shekel, which I believe is under the weight.

Verse 7. The spearhead at the same rate would weigh about eighteen pounds twelve ounces.

verse 12. David is here introduced as if he had never been mentioned before. 'The days of Saul;' these words indicate a writer subsequent to the death of Saul.

Verse 17. 'What can we think of this? Jesse hardly recalled his son from the honourable post of armour-bearer to the king! It is not likely that he was turned off, since we afterwards find him playing on the harp to the king as before; neither was it a proper employment for the King's armour-bearer to be feeding sheep when the army was in the field, and his majesty with them in person! Why, the most easy method is to take it as we find it, to suppose it to be right, and go quietly on with the story.'

Verse 34. Instead of 'a lion _and_ a bear,' the Douay reads 'a lion or a bear.'

Verse 35, Instead of 'I caught him by his beard and smote him,' the Douay has 'I caught them by the throat, and I strangled and killed them.'

Verse 49. The helmet which afforded no protection to Goliah's forehead must have been of a very curious pattern. The fact of David's going unharmed except with a sling and stones would induce one to suppose that he intended to keep a long distance between himself and Goliah. If so, he would incur no danger in the combat, as the heavily-armed Goliah could not run after him, and all that was necessary was for David to avoid coming within the reach of the giant's spear. When Goliah and David talked, they must have been a very long way from each other, for we find that David afterwards ran and hasted toward the Philistine before he got sufficiently near to sling a stone at him....

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