CHAPTER SUMMARY

The chapter opens with a problematic statement, that Shaul was one year old when he took office and reigned for two years. The traditional chronology of Shaul’s reign interprets this verse to mean that he had reigned for one year when the events of this chapter took place, and in total reigned for two years. (We will discuss another option later, in our analysis of the events of the chapter).

We are told that Shaul chose three thousand people, and kept them as a standing army, two thousand with him and another thousand with Yonatan, sending the rest of the people home. Yonatan gets into what we would call a border skirmish with a Plishti garrison, and defeats it, leading to a war, with a general call-up of all the reservists.

Plishtim put together an impressive array of people, frightening the Jewish camp greatly, so much so that people were deserting and hiding in caves, crossing the Jordan to escape, and so on. Shaul, during this time, is waiting the seven days for the arrival of Shmuel that Shmuel had referred to in their first meeting. The people were rapidly deserting, so finally Shaul asks for the olah, and offers it.

As soon as he does, Shmuel arrives, and Shaul goes out to greet him. Shmuel says, "What did you do?" and Shaul replies that he saw the people deserting, the Plishtim gathering, and he had not yet supplicated God, so he, against his instincts, offered the sacrifice. Shmuel then informs Shaul that he has erred greatly, that God would have established his kingdom forever among the Jewish people, but that now that he did this, God was going to take away his kingdom and give it to someone else, who would listen to Him. And Shmuel leaves.

The chapter then closes by describing the dire straits in which the Jews find themselves. The Plishtim were already sending out their advance armies in a three-pronged attack, to destroy whatever they could. The Jews, meanwhile, had no metalworkers in their midst, because Plishtim refused to let them, lest they make weapons. To make even peacetime materials, the Jews had to go to Plishtim. On this occasion, then, only Shaul had a sword or spear. And the Plishtim are on the verge of attack.

SHAUL’S BRIEF HONEYMOON

Almost any way we look at it, this is a sad chapter. That first verse, giving the chronology of Shaul’s reign, means either that these events happened after his first year or second year of being king. In the traditional chronology, as mentioned above, these events happened after a year, and Shaul only ruled for two.

Abravanel objects to this view since he finds it hard to imagine that all of the events of Shaul’s reign—those we will see in the rest of the book—took place in only two years. He instead suggests that Shaul reigned for longer (he suggests 17 years, for various reasons), which would make it plausible that these events occurred after he had reigned for two years. (You then have to explain what the verse means when it says that he was one when he became king, but there are numerous ways to explain that).

Either way, then, Shaul had a remarkably brief time in which he was in everyone’s favor. Shmuel appointed him, but he decided not to tell people about that—and those who saw him change by having a prophecy could not believe it. When Shmuel called the people together and Shaul was publicly picked, some people mocked his appointment, and Shaul ignored it. Only after he defeated Nahash did the people more unanimously support him; unless we assume that all those events occurred within the space of a few weeks, it means that his time as the undisputed head of the nation was short.

SETTING UP A MILITARY

Shaul’s first move in this chapter is to create a standing army, allowing the rest of the people to go to their homes. This reform would mean that in a period of simmering tensions with Plishtim, most of the people could be spared involvement. In our chapter, however, it does not work that way, since Yonatan (Shaul’s son) gets into a battle, and sparks a major engagement.

Just in terms of chronology, I would note that Shaul is old enough to have a son who is old enough to lead an army. While Yonatan could have been as young as eighteen at this time, Shaul would then presumably have been at least 36. Not, admittedly, an old age, but if we remember that Shaul was largely under his father’s thumb when he met Shmuel, we realize that he had been functioning in a family business, where the father ran everything, and had been sent from there to be king of the Jewish people. His difficulties in doing so become more understandable, and therefore more tragic.

FAILURE AT GILGAL

One problem Shaul faces here is handling the people. While he, Shaul, knows that Shmuel is scheduled to arrive after seven days, the people are allowing their fear of the Plishtim to create panic. Shaul, for reasons that we are not told about by the prophet, cannot stem this tide of panic, and begins to fear that he would be left with no one. He therefore offers "the olah." Immediately after, Shmuel arrives.

I think the phrase "the olah" lets us understand some of the subtext of this incident. Shmuel’s tardiness and immediate arrival after Shaul errs in offering the sacrifice has all the markings of a test, one that Shaul failed. But what was that test, and why did he fail it?

It may be that Shaul’s failure to control the people was part of the problem; certainly later in the sefer it will become a more prominent issue. In our case, the people’s desertions were raising Shaul’s tension levels, perhaps leading him to act in ways he might otherwise not. When he explains to Shmuel what he had done, he does stress the people’s reactions. Had he found a way to keep them with him, then, he might not have felt as much pressure to offer the olah.

But I do not think that is the main issue here, since it is the offering of the sacrifice that immediately precedes Shmuel’s arrival, and that is the offense Shmuel notes. The navi’s referring to it as the sacrifice suggests that it was a well-known element of entering battle that one offer a sacrifice to God. Shaul, afraid that the battle would begin before Shmuel got there, felt tremendous pressure—as we can tell from his telling Shmuel va-et’apak, I went against my instincts. Shaul was stuck between his desire to listen to Shmuel, God’s prophet, and his need to keep to the tradition of offering a sacrifice.

It was precisely that tension, I suggest, that Shmuel (and God) wanted Shaul to conquer. Once Shaul knew that Shmuel was a nevi Hashem, anything he said should have superseded any traditions of Shaul’s or the people’s. The value of a custom is only when there is no countervailing pressure; it should not even compete with the properly rendered order of God’s prophet. Shaul’s tension is symptomatic of the people’s greater attachment to their traditions and sacrifices than to the actual word of God. In failing to help Shmuel wean the people from this tendency, Shaul has failed in his leadership in an irretrievable way.

THE AFTERMATH

Commentators note that Shmuel says Shaul would have been a king forever had he not failed this test, but Yaakov had promised Yehudah that his descendants would rule. They suggest that Shaul would have been a king of a province, subordinate to the Yehudic king, but a king nonetheless.

In any event, Shmuel leaves (apparently signaling that God has left, too, which should be pretty dispiriting), and Shaul remains with only 600 people. The desertion problem was clearly significant, since Shaul began with a standing army of 3000, and had gathered the people as a whole as well. He was not, then, exaggerating the problem when he decided to offer the olah, he was simply failing to handle an actual problem in the correct way.

Perhaps a more significant problem is the Jews’ lack of arms. The Plishtim, worried about the Jews’ rising up against them, had literally disarmed them by removing their ability to produce weapons. (If you don’t have weapons, you cannot wield them—without straying into current events, I would note that often the supporting machinery of war is more easily disabled than the actual combatants, and more effectively stops the war).

The chapter ends with the Jews in a devilish position. Their army has been decimated by desertion, the Plishtim are already sending multiple advance units to terrorize the countryside, and their main army is large enough and formidable enough to easily handle any threat they can offer. As the old cartoon might have said, "Looks like this is the end…" That it is not depends on the actions of Yonatan, who is a recurring character in the sefer (meaning, in modern terms, that he could still accept roles in other performances, but did have to be available to Shmuel’s producers when they wanted him).

So far, we only know that Yonatan was able to command a group of the army on his own, and that he, by attacking Plishtim, had precipitated this current conflict. Already he would seem to contrast with his father in taking greater independence, and in being more willing to take forceful action for the Jews’ independence, without needing the kinds of pushes that his father had needed. Next chapter will give us further opportunity to watch Yonatan and see his differences from his father, differences that will heighten his tragedy in losing the chance to become king. Shabbat Shalom.