Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
AND THEY PROPHESYING,—that is, singing hymns to God. Singers, therefore, are here called prophets, especially those who by the inspiration of God poured forth these hymns, as Saul did, of whom it follows. So the sons of Asaph are said to have prophesied, that is, to have sung the praises of God on harps, book 1 Paral. chap. 25, verse 1.
See what I have said on the meanings of the name prophet, 1 Cor. 14. St. Justin gives the cause and fruit of this singing, Quest. 107: “Ecclesiastical singing,” he says, “rouses the soul with a certain pleasure to a burning desire for that which is celebrated in the song, quiets the affections and concupiscences of the flesh: drives away the evil thoughts of enemies, whom it is not given to see, arising by suggestion: it makes the pious combatants generous and strong by constancy in adversities: it brings to the pious a medicine for all things which happen sad and mournful in life.”
And St. Isidore, book 7 of the Sentences chap. 7: “The usefulness of psalmody,” he says, “consoles sad hearts, makes minds more grateful, delights the fastidious, rouses the sluggish, invites sinners to lamentation. For however hard the hearts of carnal men may be, as soon as the sweetness of a psalm sounds, it bends their mind to a feeling of piety.” And a little after: “I know not how, by the modulation of the singer a greater compunction of heart is born; for many are found who, moved by the sweetness of the song, bewail their crimes, and are the more moved to tears on that side on which the sweetest sweetness of the psalmist has sounded.”
6. AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD SHALL COME UPON THEE, AND THOU SHALT PROPHESY WITH THEM,—that is, inspired by the spirit of God and as it were moved by enthusiasm, thou shalt dictate and sing hymns to God: “By this word (shall come upon) a sudden inspiration is signified as from the hidden secret of the divinity,” says St. Augustine, book 2 to Simplician, Quest. 2.
AND SHALT BE CHANGED INTO ANOTHER MAN,—thou shalt receive a greater wisdom and magnanimity infused by God, from a rustic driver of asses thou shalt become civil, political, royal, because thou shalt put on a liberal and kingly mind. Thou shalt become from rude wise, from hard gentle, from rustic urbane, from private royal. Nazianzen adds that it is not to be doubted that Saul by the indwelling Holy Spirit was changed into a spiritual man.
7. WHEN THEREFORE THESE SIGNS SHALL HAPPEN TO THEE, DO WHATSOEVER THY HAND SHALL FIND.—As if to say: From these signs understand most certainly that thou art king chosen by God, and hast obtained royal faculty with the help of God assisting thee, so that thou canst accomplish whatever thou wishest, whatever occurs to thee to be done in government. Act royally, therefore, and fight intrepidly for the people of God and thine own.
FOR THE LORD IS WITH THEE,—as thy director and governor. So Angelomus, Abulensis and others. Hear St. Jerome in the Quaestiones: “By these signs thou shalt be able to know that God willed thee to be king: and therefore for all things which are to be done by thee, act royally, because the Lord is with thee.” And the Chaldee: when these signs shall come to thee, prepare for thyself the vessels (instruments) of the kingdom, for the word of the Lord is in thy help. Lyranus: dispose thyself, he says, as much as thou canst for reigning becomingly and powerfully.
8. Samuel, either by the rumor of the people or by the instinct of God, foreknew the warlike machinations of Naas king of Ammon against Jabes Galaad. For this reason he sends Saul ahead to Galgal, which was near Jabes Galaad, and promises that he will follow him there, to show him the will of God about this war; but since the enemy pressed Samuel, it was not permitted to wait for Saul, say Cajetan and Lyranus.
Otherwise Abulensis, who thinks that a general rule is here given to Saul by Samuel, that whenever he should be placed in the dangers of war and of enemies, he should betake himself to Galgal, and summon himself there, and wait as if to inquire there about the will of God; and this is hinted at chap. 13, 8. So also Angelomus. “The exposition of Lyranus and Abulensis,” says Serarius, “would best be joined, so that this was done at that time, and afterwards it ought always to have been done by compact in more difficult affairs, as is understood from Josephus, and below chap. 22, verses 8 and 18.”
Furthermore he bids Saul go down to Galgal, both because Galgal was near the Jordan, to defend it against enemies, that they might not cross it into Judea; and because Galgal was a place dedicated to prayer and sacrifice, from which the Hebrews, crossing the Jordan dry-shod, first pitched their camp in Galgal, Josue 4:19 [?]; and to make Saul mindful of this benefit and passage, and bind him more to God.
THAT THOU MAYEST OFFER AN OBLATION AND SACRIFICE VICTIMS,—as if to say: Thou shalt bring victims to be sacrificed by a priest. For it was not lawful for Saul to sacrifice them himself, because he was not a priest.
9. GOD GAVE HIM ANOTHER HEART,—that is, God made the heart of Saul, which, when he was a private man, was small, abject, rustic, servile, now that he was made king, magnanimous, lofty, ample and royal, so that he would yield to no dangers, fear no enemies, and think no burden hard for himself. So St. Catherine of Siena asked of Christ another heart conformed to the heart of Christ, and obtained it. So Abulensis: “He changed his heart,” he says, “which was before small and servile, into a royal heart.” Hugo the Cardinal: “He had,” he says, “a loftier and bolder heart.” The Carthusian: “He gave Saul a more virtuous heart and specially magnanimous.” Vatablus: “He put into him another mind, and a royal heart or royal spirits.” Theodoret: “Since he was a rustic,” he says, “knowing only how to till the earth, when he had laid hands on him, he gave him a royal spirit.” St. Gregory: “He had,” he says, “a changed heart: for he who had sought asses was now thinking of the ordering of a kingdom.” The same Gregory, however, again explains these words in a bad sense: “If,” he says, “he is known to have then received another heart, he was humble before the prophet; but as he began to depart, he began at the same time to be proud: in his own mind he was now no longer a little one, but thought himself a king: he was not yet lofty in rank, but he was lofty in estimation.” Properly, however, God here changed the heart of Saul because he made him “prophesy,” that is, sing praises to God, as went before. So Tertullian, book On the Soul, chap. 21:
“The Spirit of God,” he says, “changed Saul before into another man, that is, into a prophet, as the evil spirit afterwards changed him into another man, namely an apostate.” So also other Interpreters explain.
inspired by the divinity, he sang to God the same praises which the other Prophets sang. The manner is explained by the Author of the Wonders of Holy Scripture, book 1, chap. 11, treating of the canticle of the Hebrews after the passage of the Red Sea, Exodus 15: “It is a miracle worthy of admiration,” he says, “that all together, old men with children, and all ages, inspired by the same breath, as if from one mouth, taught by no premonition, continuously sang the same words in unison. Where the breasts and mouths of the singers are inspired not by the custom of human wit but by the divine spirit, the Lord, who a little before had appeared to them in the deep, himself afterwards governed their tongues and minds in such a canticle.”
The Hebrews in St. Jerome add that Saul truly prophesied concerning the future age, concerning the rewards of the just and the punishments of the wicked.
11. IS SAUL ALSO AMONG THE PROPHETS?—From the sudden and great change of Saul this exclamation of the bystanders burst forth, which was turned into a proverb like that by which we say: “A goose among swans, an ass among bees, a crow among the Muses.” In like manner they said in the time of Christ of Saul made Paul: “Is Saul also among the Apostles?” Does he preach Jesus who used to persecute Jesus? says St. Gregory. You may use this proverb also when anyone indiscriminately usurps to himself some grand function beyond his accustomed powers; as in this age everyone handles sacred letters and disputes about them. So St. Gregory Nazianzen, Apology for his flight to Pontus: “Instead of being docile to God,” he says, “all prophesy, so that even Saul is among the Prophets, according to the ancient history and proverb.” Acutely Epictetus, chap. 22, can. 20: “Dost thou desire to philosophize? Prepare thyself as one who is to be laughed at, as though many would mock thee, as though they would say: Has this man suddenly become a philosopher for us? and whence has he this haughtiness?”