← Back to the beginning of 1 Samuel 15
Ver. 11. It repenteth me that I have set up Saul.] This is humaniths dictum, spoken after the manner of men: as man when he altereth anything that he did before, seemeth to repent. It hath been elsewhere noted, that God’s repentance is not a change of his will, but of his work. Repentance with man, is the changing of his will; repentance with God, is the willing of a change. And it grieved Samuel] Heb., And Samuel kindled; viz., with anger and grief together; anger against Saul, and grief for him, See a like mixture of holy passions in our Saviour against the hard-hearted Jews, Mark 3:5. And he cried unto the Lord all night.] That God would not cast away Saul, but give him repentance unto life. Here was no envy at his new successor, but fervent charity.
Ver. 12. Saul came to Carmel.] A town of Judah that was in his way as he returned from Amalek. (Joshua 15:55) And, behold, he set him up a place.] Heb., A hand: that is, say some, a trophy or monument of triumph like a hand; as who should say, By mine own hand hav e I achieved this victory. So Sesostris, king of Egypt, not long before Saul’s days, when he had conquered any country, was wont to set up pillars there; and thereon to engrave these words, Τηνδε την χωρην ωμοισιν τοις εμοισιν οκτησαμην; With mine own hands did I get this land. This is taken for a vain glorious vaunt of Saul’s, and an aggravation of his sin. He goeth on to boast in the next.
Ver. 13. Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed, &c.] Which if he had done indeed, he would never thus have boasted, but by glossing speeches he thinks to stop Samuel’s mouth, from whom he might well fear a reproof. He gives good words, when his deeds were evil: he protests his obedience against his conscience, and faceth out his protestation against a reproof. In a word, there needeth no other character of hypocrisy than Saul in the handling of this one business with Agag and Samuel, as a very grave and learned divine hath well observed. Dr Hall, Contempla.
Ver. 14. What meaneth then this bleating, &c.] Quid verba quaero, facta cum videam? cave ne dicta factis erubescant. Tenue mendacium pellucet: falsehood may be transparently seen through, many times: “but the unjust knoweth no shame.” (Zephaniah 3:5)
Ver. 15. They have brought…the people spared, &c.] He had no hand in it, if you will believe him; he lays all the blame upon the people, -contrary to 1 Samuel 15:9, -they would have it so, and how could he hinder them? A poor shift of weak princes, an ordinary trick of arrant hypocrites, to save themselves by charging others. As harlots when their beauty is decayed, desire to hide it from themselves by false glosses, and from others by paintings: so do hypocrites their sins, -from themselves by false glosses, and from others by shuffling and excuses. To sacrifice unto the Lord.] Thus piety is frequently pretended to worldly respects, (Philippians 3:18,19) and to wicked respects. (Matthew 23:14 1 Kings 21:9 2 Samuel 15:8 Matthew 2:8) But this is putrid hypocrisy; it is double iniquity. The rest we have utterly destroyed.] With shame enough might he speak it: but it was past that time of day with him.
Ver. 16. Stay, and I will tell thee.] Ministers must rebuke with all authority: neither may any despise them for so doing. (Titus 2:15) It is a treacherous flattery to soothe men up in their sins, and to sew pillows under their elbows.
Ver. 17. When thou wast little in thine own sight.] There is an ingratitude in every sin, and that is to be considered. Good turns aggravate unkindnesses: and our offences are increased by our obligations.
Ver. 18. Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites.] Those sinners with an accent, those wicked with a witness; qui noluerant solita peccare, - as Seneca said of some in his time, -who strove to out sin others.
Ver. 19. Wherefore then didst thou…fly upon the spoil?] As a hungry hawk upon his prey. See on 1 Samuel 15:9.
Ver. 20. Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.] He thinketh to overcome the prophet, and to make his penny good silver. He putteth God to his proofs, as those did in Jeremiah 2:25. Et pudet non esse impudentem, as Augustine speaks.
Ver. 21. But the people took, &c.] See 1 Samuel 15:15.
Ver. 22. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.] The reason whereof is given by one, Quia per victimas aliena caro, per obedientiam voluntas propria mactatur: because in sacrifice the flesh of another creature, but by obedience, our own wills are offered up to God. Luther was wont to say, Mallem obedire quam miracula facere, I had rather be obedient, than able to work miracles:
Ver. 23. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.] Because it dethroneth God, as it were, and setteth up self in his place. For as the covetous man’s god is his gold, the glutton’s his belly, the ambitionist’s honour; so the obstinate sinner’s god is his own reason and will, which alone he serveth, seeketh, and setteth up for his chiefest good. It is his pleasure, his profit, and his preferment, that is every wicked man’s trinity: and his carnal self that is these in unity. What wonder then that God so hateth such? (Deuteronomy 29:19-21) He cannot satisfy himself in saying what he will do to them: but is absolute in threatening, to show that he will be resolute in punishing. See the like, Isaiah 22:12-14 Eze 24:13,14.
Ver. 24. I have sinned.] Tandem aliquando frigide ait Peccavi. When he could deny it no longer, at length he maketh a forced and feigned confession; drawn thereto, more by the danger and damage of his sin, than by the offence; mincing and making the best of an ill matter. Rupertus, making a comparison between the repentance of Saul and of David, observeth that they both cried Peccavi, sed magno discrimine, but with a great deal of difference. It was wrung from Saul, but it freely came from David. (2 Samuel 12:13) Saul sought his own glory; David, God’s. Saul saith, “I have sinned; yet honour me before the people”: David saith, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned; have mercy on me,” &c. Because I feared the people.] This was to excuse one sin with another. He should have trusted in God, done his duty, and not feared what man could do unto him.
Ver. 25. Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin,] i.e., Pray God to pardon it: though some here also tax him for this, that he relied more upon another’s virtue than upon his own penitency; likeas afterwards, also, he would cloak his guiltiness with the holiness of another’s presence. That I may worship the Lord.] He would fashionably serve that God, whom yet he careth not to reconcile by sound repentance.
Ver. 26. The Lord hath rejected thee.] God loveth to retaliate; and what wonder that the holy and true God casteth off him, whose best was dissimulation?
Ver. 27. He laid hold on the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.] Saul was loath to leave him, lest the people should take notice of a breach betwixt them. But what a madness of malice was that in those Papists in King Edward VI’s time, against Mr Cardmaker, lecturer in Paul’s, that in his reading, cut and mangled his gown with their knives! Act. and Mon., 1436.
Ver. 28. The Lord hath rent the kingdom.] And given it to the man that shall hereafter tear off the skirt of thy garment, as Lyra here noteth out of the Rabbins, whence also Saul said then, “And now behold I know well that thou shalt surely be king,” &c. (1 Samuel 24:20)
Ver. 29. And also the Strength (or Eternity) of Israel will not lie nor repent.] This was most fearful, and showed that the sentence passed upon Saul was irrevocable. Do not think, saith a reverend man, this is a case that seldom comes; it is done every day, upon some or other. Dr Preston.
Ver. 30. I have sinned: yet honour me.] Thus he careth to hold in with men, in what terms soever he standeth with God. Not so the sincere Christian. (Romans 2:29)
Ver. 31. So Samuel turned again after Saul.] Both to show his respect to him as his sovereign, and to do execution upon Agag.
Ver. 32. And Agag came unto him delicately.] Gressu et incessu regio, et superbo, stately and haughtily, with the garb and gait of a king; as little dreaming of death. Ultimus sanitatis gradus est morbo proximus, say physicians. The wicked when nearest misery, are oft in greatest security: as here Agag. Vatab. Pinguissimus et tremens. -Vulg., sc., prae pinguedine.
Ver. 33. As thy sword hath made women childless.] Thine and thy predecessors’, in whose footsteps thou hast trodden; being Mali corvi, malum ovum, neither good egg, nor good bird. And Samuel hewed Agag.] With his own hands likely, as Phinehas stabbed Zimri, and Elias slew the Baalites, not out of a desire of revenge, but a zeal for justice: such as was that in Charles V, who, hearing that his general Farnesius had ravished certain gentlewomen, said, If I had the villain here, I would despatch him with mine own hand. A. Lap. Parei Med. Hist. Prof.
Ver. 34. Then Samuel.] Little caring for one another’s company.
Ver. 35. And Samuel came no more,] viz., To visit him, and assist him. Samuel mourned for Saul.] For the hardness of his heart, and the hazard of his soul.