MEANWHILE the Ark was carried by the Philistines in triumph to Ashdod228, one of their five confederate cities, and placed in the Temple of Dagon. But there its sanctity was remarkably vindicated, for on the morrow that idol was found lying on its face upon the ground. In vain did its votaries set it up in its place again. The next day saw it a second time laid prostrate, and not only fallen, but broken, without head or hands. Moreover while a plague of mice destroyed their crops, “emerods,” i.e. hemorrhoids or piles, tormented their bodies. In great consternation they, thereupon, removed the Ark to Gath, but there, too, the same plague broke out, and when they were on the point of removing it to Ekron, the inhabitants of that city interfered, and declared they would not admit it within their walls.
The advice of the priests and diviners was then asked, and they suggested that the sacred Coffer should be placed in a new cart drawn by two milch kine, which had never been yoked, and with a trespass-offering of five golden mice and five golden emerods be sent back to the Israelites. If the kine of their own accord took the road to Beth-shemesh, (house of the Sun229), under the hills of Dan, and close to the Philistine lowlands, then it would be certain that their misfortunes were due to the hostility of the Gods of the Israelites, otherwise it might be concluded that some chance had smitten them.
The plan was adopted. The Ark was placed in the new cart, together with the coffer containing the trespass-offerings, and the kine took the high-road from Ekron to Beth-shemesh, without turning to the right hand or the left. It was the time of wheat-harvest, and the people of the town were busy gathering in their corn, when lifting up their eyes they with joy beheld the Ark, which they had not seen for seven months (1 Sam. vi. 1). The kine, meanwhile, stopped not till they had reached the field of Joshua, an inhabitant of the place, where there was a great stone. Beth-shemesh being a suburb-city, and allotted to the priests (Josh. xxi. 16; 1 Chr. vi. 59), the Levites residing there took down the Ark and the coffer, placed them on the great stone, then clave the wood of the cart, and offered up the kine as a burnt-offering to Jehovah, at the close of which ceremony, the five lords of the Philistines, who had joined the procession, returned to their own country (1 Sam. vi. 10–16).
But even this joyous day was not to pass by without a great calamity. Not content with offering sacrifices, the people of Beth-shemesh approached the Ark, and though even the priests were not allowed to touch it, removed the lid, to do which some force must have been used, and looked into it, for which profanity a considerable number were stricken with instant death. Messengers were, therefore, dispatched to Kirjath-jearim (the fields of the wood, see Ps. cxxxii. 6), and thither through the hills the Ark was sent, and placed in the house of the Levite Abinadab, whose son Eleazar was consecrated to keep it, and there it remained until the time of David (1 Sam. vii. 1).
Meanwhile Samuel, of whom we have not heard since he denounced the doom of the house of Ithamar, was growing up an acknowledged Prophet of the Lord. In this sad crisis of the nation’s history he now came forward and convening an assembly at Mizpeh, probably the Watch-tower of Benjamin, solemnly expostulated with the Israelites on their idolatrous practices. With fasting and public confession they acknowledged the righteousness of the late judgments. Water was poured upon the ground, and the people entered into a covenant to abandon the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth. From this day Samuel’s career as Judge began, and was inaugurated by a great victory over the Philistines, who hearing that the Israelites were recovering from their former depression, once more gathered together at Mizpeh, prepared to give them battle. At this crisis, Samuel taking a lamb offered it as a whole burnt-offering for the nation’s sins, and was thus piously employed when the Philistines made their onslaught. But at this moment a terrific thunder-storm burst forth, accompanied, according to Josephus, by an earthquake. Seized with a sudden panic, the Philistines fled in disorder, and were pursued with great slaughter by the victorious Israelites as far as Beth-car (the house of lambs), a height to the west of Mizpeh. On the very spot, where twenty years before the Philistines had gained their most signal triumph, Samuel now set up a huge stone to commemorate his victory, and named it Ebenezer, the Stone of Help (1 Sam. vii. 12).
The subsequent effects of this success were still more apparent. Not only did the Philistines receive a decided check, but the Amorites also, the scourge of the little tribe of Dan, made peace with Israel, and all the cities in the Philistine territory, which had been taken from the Israelites, from Ekron to Gath, were restored. Samuel’s office as Judge was now confirmed. Ramah, his birth-place, was his residence, and here he erected an altar to the Lord, and thence from year to year went forth in solemn circuit to the old sanctuaries, Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, combining with the duties of a Judge the functions also of a Seer or Prophet, and with all the weight of an Oracle advising in any of the troubles of national or domestic life (1 Sam. ix. 11, 18, 19). As years passed on, and he waxed old, his sons Joel and Abiah, like those of Jair and Abdon before him, shared a portion of his judicial functions, and administered justice in the more southerly portions of the country. But they did not walk in their father’s footsteps. He who, when a child, had denounced the terrible doom on Eli for the wickedness of his sons, lived to see his own sons turning aside after lucre, exacting excessive usury, and perverting judgment (1 Sam. viii. 3).
A new and more advanced period in the history of the nation was at hand, and the supremacy of the Judges was about to close. Samuel, who came like Numa after Romulus, did not fail to prepare the people for the new epoch. At Ramah, at Bethel, at Mizpeh, at Gilgal230 he gathered together Schools of the Prophets, and was the great reformer of the prophetical order, a work of such importance that he is even classed with Moses, the great Lawgiver of the nation. (Comp. Ps. xcix. 6; Acts iii. 24; xiii. 20.) The title, indeed, of “prophet” has occurred already more than once, and is applied to Abraham (Gen. xx. 7), to Moses (Deut. xviii. 15–18), to Aaron (Ex. vii. 1), to Miriam (Ex. xv. 20), to the seventy elders (Num. xi. 24–30), to Deborah231 (Judg. iv. 4). But these were isolated cases. It was the work of Samuel to give permanence and effectiveness to the prophetical functions.
Promising youths were gathered by him into Schools or Colleges of Prophets, where they lived together in a society or community, under a head or leading prophet, whom they called their Father (Comp. 1 Sam. x. 12; xix. 20), or Master (2 K. ii. 3), while they were termed his sons. Here they employed themselves in studying the Law of Moses; practised the composition of sacred poetry; and became skilled in sacred music, the psaltery, harp, tabret, pipe, and cymbals (1 Sam. x. 5; 2 K. iii. 15; 1 Ch. xxv. 1, 6). They also preserved and copied historical records, and “gathered up the traditions of their own and former times.” Their calling was not merely, sometimes not at all, to predict future events. They were to be forth-speakers for God, to commune with God, to speak of God, to teach His truth, to declare His will, and that not only in words, but sometimes in action. Studying the Law of Moses, and the records of God’s past dealings with their nation, they were to see the earnest of His presence for rebuke or consolation in the present. Their vocation required of them to preach morality and spiritual religion, to denounce oppression and covetousness, injustice and profligacy, cruelty and idolatry. And while called to reveal God’s will in each successive crisis of the nation’s history, they were also specially raised up to fix the eye of their countrymen on the future, to keep alive the belief in God’s promises of Redemption, and to foretell the incarnation of Him, in whom all nations were to be blessed. If they often typified Him, whose appearance they announced and whose Spirit dwelt in them, in His humiliation, being despised and rejected by the generation in which they lived, yet from time to time they typified Him also in His exaltation, for the Lord, whose messengers they were, stood by them, frequently confirmed their word by miracles, and punished those who injured them232.
The subsequent position of the Prophetical order at momentous periods of the national history is strikingly illustrated by the conduct of its Reformer and Organizer now. The misconduct of Samuel’s sons produced dissatisfaction and a cry for change. Samuel himself was stricken in age. He had been a man of peace. One military success and one only had distinguished his Judgeship. On the west the ever-restless Philistines gave signs of recovery from their late defeat (1 Sam. x. 5), while beyond the Jordan Nahash the Ammonite threatened the cities of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh (1 Sam. xii. 12). There was no known general in Israel qualified by his position or powers to take the command of the nation’s armies, and lead them to battle. The fixed form of kingly government, which the people saw enjoyed by all the nations around, which they had themselves partially adopted under Gideon and Abimelech, under Jair and Abdon, and to which events appeared to have been rapidly tending, was not yet realized.
At this juncture, then, the elders and accredited heads of the nation repaired to Ramah, and on the ground of Samuel’s advanced age, the misconduct of his sons, and, as we gather from an incidental remark of Samuel himself afterwards, an apprehended invasion by the Ammonites, they requested that the form of government might be changed, that a king might rule over them, like the nations round about (1 Sam. viii. 5).
This demand was a shock to Samuel’s feelings, and the thing displeased him. He knew well the abuses such a form of government was too likely to entail. But he did not reject the petition of the nation. He was a true mediator between the old order that was changing and the new order, to which it was destined to give place. He prayed to the Lord for advice and direction in this great crisis, and his prayer was heard. Though he had been rightly displeased with the people’s request, though they had done worse than rejecting him and had rejected their invisible Ruler, he was directed to hearken to their voice, but he was not to leave them without warning. He was to shew them the manner of the king that should reign over them (1 Sam. viii. 9).
Accordingly Samuel convened an assembly, and faithfully described the Oriental court and ceremonial, which the election of a king would inevitably entail; how he would at his own pleasure take their sons and appoint them to command his chariots and his horses, would set them to ear his ground and reap his harvest, and fashion his chariots and instruments of war; how he would take their daughters to be his confectioners, his cooks, and his bakers; how their property would cease to be their own, and their fields, their oliveyards and vineyards, their flocks and herds, their menservants and maidservants would be required to be at his disposal. Under this despotism he warned them that a day would come when they would cry unto the Lord, but He would not hear them (1 Sam. viii. 10–18).
His words, however, fell on unheeding ears. The pomp and ceremonial of a court had too many attractions for the nation; without a king to judge them and fight their battles, they affected to feel isolated and degraded in the eyes of neighbouring peoples, and a king they were resolved to have. This answer of the elders Samuel carried back to the Lord, who again bade him hearken to their voice, and promised the fulfilment of their wishes, with which assurance they were dismissed to their several cities233 (1 Sam. viii. 22).
THE elders of Israel had not long to wait for the king they so earnestly desired. Shortly after Samuel’s return to Ramah he received Divine intimation that on the morrow one would be sent him, whom he was to anoint to be captain over the Lord’s people. Accordingly the next day, as he was on his way to the high place to give his benediction at a sacrificial feast, he met two wayfaring men. One was a man of Benjamin, Saul the son of Kish, of a noble and handsome mien and gigantic stature, from his shoulders and upward higher than any of the people; the other was his servant. In quest of the asses of Saul’s father, which had strayed, the two had been traversing without success the central region of Palestine, and now guided by certain maidens of Ramah, whom they had met at the entrance of the place going out to draw water, they had resolved to ask the advice of Samuel.
The Prophet had already noticed the tall handsome stranger, and as he drew near the Divine Voice assured him that he was the destined Ruler of His people (1 Sam. ix. 15, 16). When, therefore, Saul enquired for the Seer’s house, Samuel not only declared that he was the person he sought, but revealed his mysterious acquaintance with the secret of his three days’ journey, and bade him lay aside all further anxiety, for the asses were found. Then, turning to Saul, he added in yet more mysterious words, On whom is the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father’s house? Marvelling at the import of this significant question addressed to one who belonged to the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and whose family was the least of all the families of Benjamin (1 Sam. ix. 21), Saul followed the Prophet to the high place, where with his servant he was made to sit in the chiefest place among the thirty guests assembled at the sacrificial feast, and to partake of a special portion which had been reserved for him.
Thence he returned to the town, and in the evening held further conversation with Samuel on the house-top of his dwelling. Next morning at daybreak Samuel roused his guest, and accompanied him some little way to the end of the town. There the servant was bidden to pass on, and the two being left alone the Prophet taking a phial of oil poured it on Saul’s head, and kissed him, and assured him of his election to be the first King of Israel. To this assurance he added prophetic intimations of incidents which would occur on Saul’s return homewards, and which could not fail still further to confirm him in the conviction that his sudden elevation was indeed of the Lord. Two men would meet him at Rachel’s sepulchre, and inform him that the asses were found, and that his father’s anxieties now centred on himself; at the “plain,” or rather the “oak” of Tabor (1 Sam. x. 3) he would meet three men going to Bethel carrying gifts of kids, bread, and a skin bottle of wine; they would salute him, and offer him two loaves of bread, which he was to receive at their hand; then, thirdly, on reaching the hill of God, probably Gibeah, where the Philistines had posted a garrison, he would meet a company of the prophets coming down from the high place with psaltery, tabret, pipe, and harp, whose inspired strains would so affect him that he would join himself to them, and be turned into another man. After the fulfilment of these three signs, he was to go to Gilgal, and there tarry seven days till Samuel’s arrival to offer sacrifices, and tell him what he should do (1 Sam. x. 8). Then the two men parted, each of the three signs came to pass, and God gave the son of Kish another heart. Convinced of his call to inaugurate the kingly period of Israel’s history, his soul rose to the greatness of the occasion; the strains of the prophetic choir so wrought upon his spirit that he felt inspired to join them, and his appearance in their society became the occasion of a well-known proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets? (1 Sam. x. 12).
Meanwhile Samuel convened all the people to Mizpeh of Benjamin, and after again rebuking them for their want of faith in thus hastily seeking a change of government, bade them present themselves before the Lord by their tribes and by their thousands, in order that the sacred lot might decide the election of the king. In solemn order the tribes passed before him, and the lot fell upon that of Benjamin. Then the same ceremony was successively repeated with the clans, the families, the individuals, and in a manner that none could dispute, it was indicated that Saul the son of Kish was the object of the Divine choice. But when search was made for him, he was not to be found. Still unwilling to accept the arduous duties of the kingdom, he had concealed himself in the circle of baggage round the encampment at Mizpeh. The search was renewed, and he was brought forth from his hiding-place. As he advanced into the midst his exalted stature struck the spectators with admiration, and a universal shout of Long live the King betokened the nation’s acceptance of its new head (1 Sam. x. 24).
Left to themselves, the Israelites would, doubtless, have stood committed to the new form of government, without pausing to insist on any conditions from their Ruler, well content if he proved as absolute and irresponsible as those of the nations round about. But the far-seeing Samuel was wiser than they. Well knowing the bearing of the transactions of that day on the nation’s future, he not only expounded to the people the manner of the kingdom as set forth by their great Lawgiver in the Book of Deuteronomy (xvii. 14–20), but for the sake of greater security committed the regulations thus accepted to writing, and laid them up in safe keeping before the Lord, and thus, “under Divine sanction, and amidst the despotisms of the East, arose the earliest example of a constitutional monarchy234.”
This ceremony concluded, the people returned to their homes, and Saul retired to Gibeah. Though his elevation had been thus formally approved, there were not wanting those who, on the score, probably, of the obscurity of his tribe, and the fact that his capacities were as yet unknown, expressed much dissatisfaction at his promotion, questioned his ability to rule them, and brought him none of the usual presents (1 Sam. x. 27). With rare self-control, however, he held his peace, and in a short time was enabled to justify the confidence that had been reposed in him.
While living in retirement at Gibeah, he received intelligence which roused all his martial ardour, and for the first time revealed his talents as a military leader. The Ammonites, recovered from the defeat they had sustained from Jephthah, had under the leadership of their king Nahash laid siege to Jabesh-gilead (See Judg. xxi. 8), the inhabitants of which place in their terror invited the heathen king to make a covenant with them, and agreed to serve him. This, with characteristic haughtiness he declined, except on the condition that he might put out their right eyes, and thus render them unfit for further military service. In this strait, the elders of the place requested seven days’ respite, and meanwhile sent messengers to their brethren imploring assistance. Saul was driving his herd homewards from the field, when the sound of wild lamentation in his native town revealed the danger which threatened the friendly235 town of Jabesh-gilead. Immediately the Spirit of the Lord came upon him (1 Sam. xi. 6), filling him with courage and resolution for the emergency. Taking a yoke of oxen, he hewed them in pieces, and sent this war-token throughout all the tribes, summoning them under pain of eternal disgrace to rally round himself and Samuel and hasten to the rescue of their brethren. He then bade the messengers return to Jabesh-gilead with the assurance of succour, before the sun was hot on the morrow. His determined spirit quickly communicated itself to others, and 300,000 from Israel, and 30,000 from Judah gathered round him and the Prophet. Bezek, a place apparently within a day’s march of Jabesh, was appointed their head-quarters, and thence dividing his forces into three companies Saul executed a swift night-march, and burst upon the Ammonites in the morning watch, who panic-stricken by this unexpected onslaught were defeated with enormous loss, so that not two of them were left together (1 Sam. xi. 11).
This signal success had an instantaneous effect upon the people. The Israelites hailed Saul as the deliverer of their country, and even proposed to put to death those who had not at first acknowledged him as king. With continued self-command, however, he calmed their zeal, and declined to stain with innocent blood the memory of a day, on which, as he said with becoming modesty, not he but Jehovah had wrought salvation in Israel. At this juncture, the new ruler having been tried and not found wanting, Samuel suggested that the people should once more repair to Gilgal, and there renew the kingdom. Accordingly after the sacrifice of peace-offerings and amidst great rejoicings Saul was solemnly inaugurated in his regal functions, while Samuel embraced the opportunity afforded by so large a gathering to bid farewell to the people he had ruled so prudently with all his power (1 Sam. xii.). He had hearkened, he said, to their voice; he had made a king over them. For himself, he was old and grey-headed, he had walked before them from his childhood unto that day. Let them now testify if they had ought against him. Had he defrauded any? Had he oppressed any? Had he taken any bribe to blind his eyes? If so, he would make ample restoration. With one voice the whole people bore witness to the integrity and uprightness of his public life. Then, like Moses and Joshua, he gave them his parting counsels, and after exhorting them by the memory of past mercies and past deliverances to cleave fast to the Lord, and not forsake His commandments, called on the Lord Himself to ratify his words by an outward and visible sign. It was the season of wheat-harvest236, when thunder and rain seldom or never occurred. But at the word of Samuel, the sky became black with clouds, the thunder rolled and the rain fell, bearing witness to the solemnity of the Prophet’s warnings; who having thus bidden farewell to the people, henceforth retired from any share in the government, which now devolved on Saul alone.
IN dismissing Saul from Ramah after their first interview, Samuel, it will be remembered, had told him that he would pass a garrison of the Philistines (1 Sam. x. 5; xiii. 3) Recovering from their defeat at Ebenezer this people had again renewed their old hostilities, and pitched in the heart of the mountains of Benjamin. Two years after his accession (1 Sam. xiii. 1), Saul resolved to throw off a yoke which pressed so severely on the neighbourhood of his native place. Gathering round him a small standing army of 3,000 men, he placed 1,000 under the command of his valiant son Jonathan at Geba237, while he himself with 2,000 took up a position at Michmash (Mŭkhmas) about 7 miles north of Jerusalem, and along the ridge of intervening heights in the direction of Bethel. Either at or close to Jonathan’s position was posted a garrison of the Philistines. For some time the rival forces stood watching one another, and at length Jonathan in a fit of youthful ardour fell upon the garrison, and put it to flight.
Tidings of this event quickly reached the Philistines in their rich southern plains, who forthwith swarmed with a vast force up through the passes of Benjamin, while Saul retired to Gilgal, and there summoned a general gathering of the nation. But in face of the enormous masses of their foes, the Israelites, seized with a sudden panic, as in the days of Gideon (Judg. vi. 2), fled for refuge to the natural hiding-places of the country, to the dens, the inaccessible fastnesses, and the caves with which it abounded, while some even crossed the Jordan into the territory of Gad and Gilead (1 Sam. xiii. 7).
The Philistines now in their turn occupied Michmash, and their oppression of the Israelites was most grievous. A regular disarmament was carried out, so that none of the Hebrews had sword or spear save the king and his son, and their immediate retainers; nay, the very smiths were removed, and the Hebrews were constrained to go down to their enemies to get their agricultural implements sharpened. In this terrible crisis Saul sent messages from Gilgal to Samuel at Ramah, who promised within seven days to join the king and celebrate solemn sacrifices, preparatory, probably, to some concerted plan of action. But the days passed away, and Samuel came not. The Philistines were collecting in constantly increasing numbers at Michmash, and the terrified Israelites dropped off more and more, leaving their king with barely 600 followers. The present posture of affairs imperatively demanded prudence and caution, and from Samuel the king would, doubtless, have learnt the Divine will, and He, who had enabled Gideon with only 300 men to conquer even more numerous foes, would have opened up some mode of deliverance. But Samuel came not, and Saul, unable to restrain his impatience, resolved to offer the sacrifices himself. He had scarcely done so when the Prophet arrived and sternly rebuked him for his impetuous zeal. Thou hast done foolishly, said he, thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, and he proceeded to intimate that the kingdom, which might have been established in his family, would not continue, but would be transferred to another (1 Sam. xiii. 11–14).
Meanwhile the Philistines continued their oppressive and tyrannical exactions. Roving bands from their camp went forth in three directions238, and committed disastrous depredations, while from the heights, where they were encamped, Saul and Jonathan, at the head of their little band, looked down upon a ravaged and terror-stricken country, unable and afraid to lift a hand against its oppressors. At length Jonathan resolved to strike another blow. Between the Israelite position at Geba and the Philistine garrison at Michmash was a distance of about three miles, part of which consisted of a deep gorge, running between two sharp jagged rocks, the one called Bozez (Shining), probably from the white chalky cliffs, the other Seneh (the Thorn or Acacia), so called probably from some solitary acacia on its summit. Above this gorge239 was the Philistine garrison. Without informing his father, or communicating his design to any one, except the young man his armour-bearer, Jonathan resolved to ascend the steep sides of the ravine, and then to take the conduct of the enemy as an omen for further operations. If the Philistines came forth and threatened an attack, they would remain in the valley; if they challenged them to advance, they would take this as an augury of success, and press on. Upon their hands and feet, then, the two climbed up, and at length were detected by the Philistines. Behold, they cried in derision, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes, where they have hid themselves. Come up and we will shew you a thing. The omen was favourable, and the two pressed on.
Strong as a lion, and swift as an eagle (2 Sam. i. 23), Jonathan no sooner reached the summit than he rushed upon his unexpecting foes, and aided by his armour-bearer, slew at the first onset upwards of twenty men. Thereupon a sudden and uncontrollable panic seized the garrison and spread to the camp, and even the marauding hordes in the neighbourhood. A simultaneous earthquake (1 Sam. xiv. 15) increased the confusion, and when Saul’s watchmen at Gibeah looked towards the opposite end of the gorge of Michmash, they beheld the multitudes melting away, going and beating down one another. Unable to explain the cause of this sudden movement, the king ordered the High-priest Ahiah to enquire who had left the Israelite camp. On ascertaining that Jonathan was leading an attack upon the enemy, he would have a second time consulted the ark of God, but while he was talking, the noise in the Philistine host grew louder and louder. On this he bade the High-priest stay his enquiries, and putting himself at the head of his 600 followers, he rushed up the defile, and on reaching the opposite side found that a general panic had seized the foe, every man’s hand was against his fellow, and there was a great discomfiture (1 Sam. xiv. 20).
It was the signal for a general rising. Even the Israelites in the Philistine camp turned against their captors, and were quickly joined by others of their brethren, who till now had remained concealed in the mountains of Ephraim. Onwards the pursuit swept over the high ground of Bethel and down the pass of Beth-horon to Ajalon240. In the excitement of the hour, and carried away by that rash impetuosity which henceforth seemed to mar all his actions, Saul cried to heaven, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged of mine enemies (1 Sam. xiv. 24). He had not yet encountered his heroic son, and the fasting people were spent and wearied. Soon the pursuit lay through a forest bedewed in divers places with the droppings of wild honey. Overcome with his exertions, which had brought such glory to the nation, and unaware of his father’s rash adjuration, Jonathan put forth the end of his staff into a honeycomb, and therewith refreshed his parched lips. An Israelite saw what he had done, and revealed the terms of the royal curse. My father hath troubled the land, said he, and once more mingled in the pursuit (1 Sam. xiv. 24–32).
The day must now have been far advanced, and the host utterly unable to endure any longer the enforced fast flew upon the spoil, and taking sheep and oxen slew them on the ground, devouring the fresh carcases even with the blood241. When the news of this infraction of the law was announced to Saul, he directed that a large stone should be set up to serve as a kind of altar. Still eager and impetuous, late as it was, he wished to continue the pursuit and to spoil the Philistines till the morning light. The more prudent Ahiah suggested that the Divine Will should first be ascertained. Arrayed in his ephod (1 Sam. xiv. 3), he consulted, probably, the “Breastplate of Judgment242,” while the king enquired of the Lord, Shall I go down after the Philistines? Wilt Thou deliver them into the hand of Israel? But no answer was vouchsafed, the Oracle was dumb. Suspecting there was something to intercept the Divine response, Saul proposed to ascertain the cause by appealing to the sacred lot, exclaiming with all his former rashness, As the Lord liveth, though the sin be found in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. In solemn silence the chiefs of the host divided; Saul and Jonathan stood on one side, the people on the other. The lot was cast, and it was ascertained that the sin lay between the king and his son. Again the lot was cast, and this time Jonathan was taken. Adjured by his father, the youthful conqueror confessed that with his staff he had taken and eaten some honey. Saul declared he would abide by his vow, and Jonathan would have fallen a victim to the royal rashness, had not the people interfered. With a determination he dared not oppose, they declared that not one hair of his head should fall to the ground. Thus Jonathan was saved; and Saul returned to his native hills, and the Philistines, defeated and disgraced, to their fertile lowlands (1 Sam. xiv. 24–46).