CHAPTER SUMMARY

Shmuel comes to Shaul, and tells him that God had sent him to appoint Shaul king, so Shaul should now listen to the word of God. God has decided that Shaul should exact the Jewish people’s revenge upon Amalek for what they had done to the Jews as they were leaving Egypt, meaning to completely wipe them out.

Shaul gathers the people, 200,00 plus 10,000 from the tribe of Yehudah; he then warns the Keni (descendants of Yitro) to leave the midst of Amalek, since they had treated the Jewish people well on the way out of Egypt. The Keni leave, and then Shaul attacks, defeats, and pretty much destroys Amalek. He only left alive—as far as the navi tells us—Agag and the best cattle.

Hashem comes to Shmuel and tells him that Shaul, by virtue of his disobedience, has disqualified himself from being king of the Jewish people, which upsets Shmuel, who prays about it the whole night. When Shmuel goes the next day to find Shaul, Shaul greets him happily, saying he has fulfilled God’s command. Shmuel points out that Shaul has left the sheep alive, Shaul claims that they were just for sacrifices.

Shmuel then upbraids Shaul, reminding him that for all his modesty he is the king of the Jewish people and was responsible for wiping out Amalek. Shaul again claims he had done what God wanted, only this time mentioning Agag, and reiterating the people’s wish to offer sacrifices. Shmuel responds that God does not want such sacrifices, and Shaul finally admits his sin, but asks Shmuel to join him in bowing down to God.

Shmuel refuses, since God has rejected Shaul as king, and turns to go. As he does, (in the literal reading of the verse) Shaul grabs hold of his coat, which tears in his hand. Shmuel then points out that God has torn the kingdom from Shaul that day, and given it to someone else; he adds that God is not one to change His mind. Shaul finally admits his sin, but begs Shmuel to honor him in public and join him for bowing down to God, a request to which Shmuel accedes.

After that, Shmuel sends for Agag, who goes happily, since he assumes he’s avoided death. Shmuel informs him that just as his sword had made widows of many women, his mother will be made barren, and kills him. Shmuel then goes home, and does not speak to or see Shaul for the rest of his life, because he was mourning Shaul’s failure, which led God to regret having made him king.

THE COMMAND TO KILL AMALEK

Shmuel oddly prefaces his order to kill Amalek with a reminder to Shaul that it was he, at God’s command, who had appointed Shaul king over the Jewish people. I note it as odd because I doubt that Shmuel regularly reminded Shaul of this fact; his mentioning it here suggests an attempt to emphasize God’s and Shmuel’s role in Shaul’s life. Thinking about the specific order he was issuing reveals why.

Particularly after the Holocaust, the Torah’s desire to exterminate Amalek disturbs modern ears, but we will see that Shaul also could not imagine that God would mean it as it was said. We all tend to assume that those who perpetrate crime deserve to be punished, but not (generally) entire nations, and certainly not those members of that nation who are not responsible for their actions (children and animals, for example). Yet the order to destroy Amalek contravenes those assumptions and thus presents particular challenges for those who try to follow God’s Will.

Although we will not fully solve the complicated question of why God decided that Amalek needed to be fully wiped out, I would suggest that an ability to fulfill such commands of God’s stems from a confidence that, as Omniscient Creator, the Lord sets the standard of who deserves life and who does not. As a human being, I would not feel that I could determine that a nation was so evil as to deserve extirpation; but as someone who is only responding to God’s command to do so, the issue is changed.

Of course, we see contemporary people who drape themselves in the mantle of God’s Word, freeing them to commit horrible cruelties and atrocities. That might lead us to be more careful in our acceptance of what someone claims is what God demanded, but in Shaul’s case—where Shmuel was a prophet of long standing—that issue had been obviated. It was, in his case, and would be (for any who would want to complete his work) practical only in the presence of a prophet who could make clear to us that we were accurately fulfilling His word.

In discussing this command, it is also perhaps relevant that Shaul was not completely destroying Amalek, since we find the nation still extant later on in the book (too soon after this chapter to claim that they were all descendants of Agag, the one person recorded as having survived this battle). God was therefore only telling Shaul to begin the war on Amalek that the Torah had commanded, not to complete it.

Shaul at least apparently responds appropriately, although he does not succeed as gathering as large an army as for the war against Nahash, where 300,000 Jews had come, plus 30,000 from the tribe of Yehudah. For this war—one directly commanded by God—only 2/3 as many Jews showed up, with the even more striking proportion that only 1/3 as many members of the tribe of Judah came.

Two explanations suggest themselves. First, Shaul does not put the same effort into the draft as he had the last time (no cows were destroyed to allow this draft to be conducted). Second, the people might have cared less, since the issue at stake was not their own safety, either personal or national. In terms of the tribe of Yehudah, it strikes me that their awareness of their separate status may also have made them aware that the job of wiping out Amalek was eventually theirs, so that they felt less responsibility to aid in what they knew would be an ultimately unsuccessful endeavor.

A FAILURE OF EXECUTION

Once again, we are forced by the text to confront how central the events of the Exodus remained even several hundred years afterwards. When Shmuel originally tells Shaul to destroy Amalek, it is for what they did on the way out of Egypt, and then, when Shaul warns the Keni before he attacks, he too reminds them of what they did for the Jews on the way out of Egypt. It also interests me that the Keni, whose religious orientation we do not know, followed Shaul’s advice. This, too, suggests that the memories created by the Exodus were extraordinarily strong even at this point.

Yet not strong enough to save Shaul from sin. He and the people do not fulfill God’s order exactly, for reasons that the text does not explain, but which we will need to consider later in this chapter. For now, we are only told that God informs Shmuel that He has regretted making Shaul king, since he (Shaul) did not fulfill His command.

Shmuel will, as we have reviewed, strongly rebuke Shaul for his actions, but his immediate response is also revealing. God’s words bother Shmuel greatly, and he calls out to God all night. So, too, at the end of the chapter, after Shmuel leaves Shaul and never sees him again, the navi tells us that it was because of his mourning over Shaul’s kingship. A subtext of the events in this chapter, then, is Shmuel’s sense of sorrow over Shaul’s failures.

While he, Shmuel, has simply followed God’s commandments all along, he nonetheless has developed a personal attachment to Shaul that was not required. For all that he was bothered by the people’s request to make Shaul king, Shaul was still his appointment, and he therefore takes his failure extremely personally. We will not see that same personal connection develop between Shmuel and David, although Shmuel will be the one to appoint him as well.

THE BEARER OF BAD TIDINGS

When Shmuel goes, the next morning, to find Shaul, he finds a jubilant king, who seems satisfied with his actions. Shaul is busy making a monument for himself, and then going elsewhere to build other altars and to sacrifice to God. When he first sees Shmuel, he greets him effusively, claiming to have fulfilled the word of God.

Before we see Shmuel’s response, let’s consider Shaul’s mental state at this point. He seems to actually believe what he says here, especially since it will take more than one reprimand by Shmuel for him to admit to having sinned. From one perspective, then, Shaul may not even realize that he has failed to fulfill God’s command. If that is so—and I believe it is—it provides a cautionary tale about our abilities of self-deception. Shaul has crucially failed to do what God wanted, and is not even aware of his failure. (It is also possible that Shaul was being defensive, but his insistence in verse 20 that he has fulfilled God’s word supports the first view).

Shmuel, perhaps trying to help him realize his misdeed, asks why he hears the sound of sheep (which, if Shaul was thinking well, would have reminded him that he was told to wipe them out completely). Shaul simply answers that the people brought them from Amalek, to sacrifice to God. As he says these words, he still does not realize how he has incriminated himself.

Shmuel tries again, a little more obviously connecting what he is about to say to God, so Shaul can take it more seriously. He stresses Shaul’s role as leader—to counteract his claim that it was the people who had taken the sheep—and his failure to follow God’s command to wipe out Amalek, instead being tempted to take booty.

Shaul misses the point. He stresses that he had wiped out Amalek, except for Agag, and that the people took some booty, but only to bring as sacrifices to God. His response shows that, as far as he was concerned, God’s specific order to wipe out everything of Amalek could not have been literal, that He must only have meant the people, and that taking animals for sacrifices cannot be the same as taking them for personal gain. The crucial issue, that when God gives us a direct order we need to follow it directly, has gone over his head.

Next week, we will see how Shmuel finally brings the point home, and the denouement of this sad moment in the history of our first king. Shabbat Shalom (and Happy Hannukah).