1 Samuel 13


1 Samuel 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains Saul's act of disobedience after his coronation. This is within a section comprising 1 Samuel 7–15 which records the rise of the monarchy in Israel and the account of the first years of King Saul.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 23 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis.
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint include Codex Vaticanus.

Places

  • Bethel
  • Gibeah
  • Gilead
  • Gilgal
  • Michmash
  • Bethoron

    Analysis

Saul was appointed as a king to save his people 'from the hand of their enemies', specifically the Philistines, that had a strong presence in the central hill country of Israel, were able to send out bands of raiders into different territories of Israel and controlled the manufacture of metal equipments for agricultural and weapons. He had to establish a standing army, not just a militia, and achieved an initial success under the leadership of Jonathan, his son, against Philistine garrisons, despite with less force and inferior weapons. The Philistines mustered their large and powerful army causing the Israelites to flee eastwards to hide in the hills and some even went into Transjordan area, even some in the Israelite army went away. This became the setting for the battle of Michmash, where a Philistine garrison had been placed to guard a pass in the area.
One major emphasis in this chapter is on the disobedience of Saul, which affects the future of his kingship. Saul's failure to follow God's instruction through Samuel had doomed his dynasty and God chose another king who would obey. Thus, this chapter contains the first prediction of David to be the king of Israel.

War with the Philistines (13:1–7)

Even as the Philistines had decisively been defeated by the Israelites led by Samuel, they still pose a threat to Israel, and would be a problem for Saul throughout his reign. Jonathan's successful attack on the Philistine outpost in Geba incited bigger conflicts. Saul assembled an army but now the Philistines had big military advantage, which caused many Israelites to flee to another place and leave the army, leaving Saul in Gilgal with a dim prospect for the next battle.

Verse 1

  • "Reigned one year" translated from Hebrew: בן שנה שאול במלכו, - .
This verse is absent in the Greek Septuagint version.
Some Bible versions assume that some words are corrupted, so the numbers depicting Saul's age when he began to reign, and the length of his reign are missing. In the Hexapla version, Origin inserted the word "thirty" for Saul's age. However, it may not be correct because, at that time, Jonathan was old enough to command an army and capable of performing heroic acts. Josephus states that Saul reigned eighteen years in the lifetime of Samuel and twenty-two years after his death, for a total of forty years, which agrees with. Saul's grandson, Mephibosheth, was five years old at Saul's death.

Verse 2

  • "3000 men": This is the beginning of a standing army in Israel, out of the 300,000 men that fought the Ammonites with Saul and returned with him to Gilgal.
  • "Michmash": was four miles from Gilgal, nine miles from Jerusalem, near the village Rama. Once was called "Byra", which may be the same with Beer, where Jotham fled after he had delivered his parable. In the Misnah, the city was celebrated for bringing forth the best wheat. It is identified with the modern village, "Mukhmas", on the north of Wadi es-Suweinit, a 'deep ravine with precipitous sides running from the highlands of Benjamin to Jericho', on the south of which lays Geba.
  • "Mount Bethel": east of the ancient city of Bethel, and this could be the same as the place where Abraham built an altar near Bethel, because Michmash lays to the east of Bethel.
  • "Gibeah": hometown of Saul, a few miles to the southwest of Geba. In the Cambridge Bible it is conjectured that when Saul occupied Michmash the Philistines moved their post at Gibeah to Geba, to more closely monitor Saul's movement, so Jonathan seized Gibeah, from where he attacked Geba, a victory that was given credit to Saul as well.

    A late prophet and a premature sacrifice (13:8–14)

Saul waited seven days in Gilgal for Samuel to come performing the offerings before God, in reference to the specific instruction in 1 Samuel 10:8, but when his army began to scatter, he decided to act on Samuel's advice in 1 Samuel 10:7 by offering the sacrifice without waiting for Samuel. Ironically, Samuel showed up just when Saul finished the burnt offering, before offered fellowship offerings. Saul's defense of his actions reveals his superstitious character, that his movitation of the offerings was to seek 'the Lord's favor' for the battle as a kind of "good luck" charm, a beginning move towards superstition and witchcraft as noticed by early church father, John Chrysostom. Saul's major sin is perhaps his attempt to 'usurp Samuel's role of religious leadership'. Because of this act, Samuel told Saul that his kingdom would not endure, although Saul was still king and apparently God would still give him one more chance to show his obedience in the case of fighting the Amalekites, which Saul again failed and so was declared publicly that God had rejected Saul as king of Israel and given his kingdom to 'one of his neighbors'.

Verse 14

  • "A man after His own heart": this is often misinterpreted as having "a heart similar to God's", which could be questionable when applied to David who committed many sins, but the Hebrew term "heart" really refers to "will" or "choice", so the phrase actually means "after God's choice" as also found in various verses in the Bible and all points to "desire", "will" or "choice".

    Troop movement and Philistine's metal monopoly (13:15–23)

After giving his rebuke, Samuel left for Gibeah, then Saul, after counting his remaining army, decided to go to the same place. Saul's men decreased greatly from the 300,000 men against the Ammonites to 3000 men now down to 600 soldiers. Apparently his action to burn the offerings did not help to encourage more soldiers and furthermore, the full-scale battle did not start immediately. Verses 19–22 explain how the Philistines monopolized metalworking in the area, so only Saul and Jonathan had sword among the Israelites. That the Philistines had much better weapons caused the people of Israel to fear them even more.

Commentaries on Samuel

General

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