![\"In](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/10\/Saul_1878.jpg\")
<\/a>Wikimedia Commons public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I taught 1 Samuel 9-17 in my ward\u2019s Gospel Doctrine class today.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Memorable stories.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The account given in 1 Samuel 15 in particular, though, is a very difficult one. \u00a0The total annihilation of a people is painful to read about, particularly when the directive to do so is said to have come from God himself.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an issue well worth discussing, but I don\u2019t want to get too deeply into it right now. \u00a0Suffice it to say that I\u2019m not even sure that these military tales are entirely accurate, historically speaking, anyway. \u00a0Could they have been exaggerated, in order to heighten the heroism of the founders, for example.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In any event, here\u2019s how the chapter opens:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\u00a0<\/span>Samuel also said unto Saul, The\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0sent me to\u00a0anoint thee\u00a0to be<\/span>\u00a0king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 2\u00a0<\/span>Thus saith the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0of hosts, I remember\u00a0that<\/span>\u00a0which\u00a0Amalek\u00a0did to Israel, how he laid\u00a0wait<\/span>\u00a0for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 3\u00a0<\/span>Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly\u00a0destroy\u00a0all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The Amalekites dwelt in the Negev Desert, far to the south of today\u2019s Israel, just to the west of the southern end of the Dead Sea and around in the land of Moab (in modern-day southern Jordan).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Saul was disobedient to the divine commandment conveyed by Samuel:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 7\u00a0<\/span>And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah\u00a0until<\/span>\u00a0thou comest to\u00a0Shur, that\u00a0is<\/span>\u00a0over against Egypt.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 8\u00a0<\/span>And he took\u00a0Agag\u00a0the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 9\u00a0<\/span>But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all\u00a0that was<\/span>\u00a0good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing\u00a0that was<\/span>\u00a0vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 10\u00a0<\/span>\u00b6\u00a0<\/span>Then came the word of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0unto Samuel, saying,<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 11\u00a0<\/span>It\u00a0repenteth\u00a0me that I have set up Saul\u00a0to be<\/span>\u00a0king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0all night.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 12\u00a0<\/span>And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 13\u00a0<\/span>And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed\u00a0be<\/span>\u00a0thou of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>: I have performed the commandment of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 14\u00a0<\/span>And Samuel said, What\u00a0meaneth<\/span>\u00a0then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 15\u00a0<\/span>And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And plainly, in fact, more Amalekites than merely Agag survived. \u00a0(See above, where I express some degree of uncertainty, anyway, as to whether this story is precisely accurate, historically.) \u00a0Of the 613\u00a0commandments (mitzvot<\/em>) enumerated in Orthodox Jewish writing, three refer to the Amalekites, who are obviously assumed still to exist. \u00a0As set out by the great medieval rabbinic authority, physician, and philosopher\u00a0Moses Maimonides<\/a>, (d. AD 1204) those three\u00a0mitzvot<\/em>\u00a0are:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The rabbis derived these mitzvot<\/em>\u00a0from\u00a0Deuteronomy<\/a>\u00a025:17\u201318,\u00a0Exodus<\/a>\u00a017:14 and 1 Samuel 15:3. \u00a0Rabbi\u00a0Shlomo\u00a0Itzhaki (d. AD 1105), who is better known by the acronym\u00a0Rashi<\/em>, indicates that the extermination must be total and complete, \u201cfrom man unto woman, from infant unto suckling, from ox unto sheep, so that the name of Amalek not be mentioned even with reference to an animal by saying \u2018This animal belonged to Amalek.'\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Pretty rough.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In any event, Saul\u2019s failure to carry out the divine commandment resulted in God\u2019s repudiation of him as king. \u00a0(A previous episode of disobedience \u2014 described in 1 Samuel 13:5-14 \u2014 had already cost Saul\u2019s posterity the right to succeed him on the throne of Israel.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 16\u00a0<\/span>Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 17\u00a0<\/span>And Samuel said, When thou\u00a0wast<\/span>\u00a0little in thine own sight,\u00a0wast<\/span>\u00a0thou not\u00a0made<\/span>\u00a0the head of the tribes of Israel, and the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0anointed\u00a0thee king over Israel?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 18\u00a0<\/span>And the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 19\u00a0<\/span>Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 20\u00a0<\/span>And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea,\u00a0I have obeyed the voice of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>, and have gone the way which the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 21\u00a0<\/span>But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0thy God in Gilgal.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 22\u00a0<\/span>And Samuel said, Hath the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0as great<\/span>\u00a0delight\u00a0in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the\u00a0voice\u00a0of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>? Behold, to\u00a0obey\u00a0is<\/span>\u00a0better than\u00a0sacrifice,\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0to hearken than the fat of\u00a0rams.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 23\u00a0<\/span>For\u00a0rebellion\u00a0is as<\/span>\u00a0the sin of witchcraft, and\u00a0stubbornness\u00a0is as<\/span>\u00a0iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast\u00a0rejected\u00a0the word of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>, he hath also\u00a0rejected\u00a0thee from\u00a0being<\/span>\u00a0king.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 24\u00a0<\/span>\u00b6\u00a0<\/span>And Saul said unto Samuel, I have\u00a0sinned: for I have\u00a0transgressed\u00a0the commandment of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>, and thy words: because I\u00a0feared\u00a0the people, and obeyed their voice.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 25\u00a0<\/span>Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 26\u00a0<\/span>And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>, and the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 27\u00a0<\/span>And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it\u00a0rent.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 28\u00a0<\/span>And Samuel said unto him, The\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0hath rent the\u00a0kingdom\u00a0of Israel from thee this day, and hath\u00a0given\u00a0it to a\u00a0neighbour\u00a0of thine,\u00a0that is<\/span>\u00a0better than thou.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 29\u00a0<\/span>And also\u00a0the Strength of Israel\u00a0will not lie nor repent: for he\u00a0is<\/span>\u00a0not a man, that he should repent. . . .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 32\u00a0<\/span>\u00b6\u00a0<\/span>Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 33\u00a0<\/span>And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in Gilgal.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 34\u00a0<\/span>\u00b6\u00a0<\/span>Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 35\u00a0<\/span>And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and\u00a0the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Bracketing the lethal violence against the Amalekites \u2014 I know, I know: it\u2019s a pretty big thing to bracket \u2014 this remains a sad story. \u00a0Saul is rather pathetic, and his life will become increasingly unfortunate until its tragic end. \u00a0But Samuel, too, emerges as a pitiable figure in his grieving and mourning for Saul and his vain all-night entreaties to the Lord on Saul\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But I\u2019ll close by coming back, just briefly, to the subject of the Amalekite genocide (or quasi-genocide):<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A friend in our Gospel Doctrine class today offered an interesting suggestion. \u00a0I don\u2019t pass it on as a total or wholly satisfying solution to the extreme violence of this story, but I do find it intriguing.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A total prohibition on taking slaves or booty from a war might actually, he proposes, have had something of a deterrent effect against wars. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Pre-modern armies were heavily modified by the prospect of plunder and gain. \u00a0Slaves, concubines, jewels, weapons, produce, farm animals \u2014 there was much to be taken from an enemy if things went well. \u00a0But if there were no possibility at all of any such plunder, many ancient and medieval soldiers and their leaders (and not a few still today) would have been considerably more reluctant to march out, putting their lives at great risk.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Just a thought.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 I taught 1 Samuel 9-17 in my ward\u2019s Gospel Doctrine class today. \u00a0 Memorable stories. \u00a0 The account given in 1 Samuel 15 in particular, though, is a very difficult one. \u00a0The total annihilation of a people is painful to read about, particularly when the directive to do so is said to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n\n