Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
1. MAKE A LEAGUE WITH US,—as if to say: Strike a covenant with us, as the Septuagint render. The Chaldee, however: Decree a pact for us, and we will serve thee; as if they said: We will be thy subjects and servants, but as allies, not conquered in war and taken by force, like slaves.
2. ON THIS CONDITION WILL I MAKE A LEAGUE WITH YOU, THAT I MAY PLUCK OUT ALL YOUR RIGHT EYES,—both for ignominy and reproach, as follows; and that I may render you half-blind and useless in war: “For soldiers cover the left eye with the shield, but with the right they manage the business in battle.” So Abulensis. Hear Josephus, book 6 of the Antiquities chap. 5: “This man (Naas), hostile to the Jews dwelling beyond the Jordan, entering the region with a great and strong army, began to subdue their cities; and not content with having taken away their liberty for the present, in order to remove all matter of rebelling in the future, he plucked out the right eye of those who surrendered voluntarily as well as of those subdued by force; so that, since the shield denies sight to the left, they might become wholly useless in war.”
Dionysius adds a third cause, namely that Naas by this blinding of the Jabesites wished to strike terror of himself into all the Hebrews, that none thereafter, fearing a like punishment, should dare to rebel against him.
Tropologically Naas in Hebrew is the same as serpent, namely the devil, “who plucks out the right eyes of his own, when, those abstaining from him being overcome, he so prevails through gluttony that they desire only carnal things, and give no heed to the spiritual things which they used to love,” says St. Gregory, Bede and Angelomus; for spiritual things are the right hand, that is, the better and higher; and therefore to be looked on with the right and better eye: but carnal things are the left, that is, the baser; and therefore to be glanced at in passing with the left and baser eye. With the right, therefore, we look up to heaven and heavenly things; with the left we look down on earth and earthly things.
Hear St. Nilus in the Ascetic: “Naas the Ammonite, who signifies the serpent, threatens that he will dig out the whole right eye of keen-sighted Israel, that no right thought may be directed to any right action; for he knows that those who betake themselves from contemplation to action make great progress; for they have acted blamelessly in their actions who with the keenest eyes of the mind have first meditated what is to be done.”
3. GRANT US SEVEN DAYS,—to ask counsel and help of the other Hebrews. Naas the proud granted them this not from piety but from arrogance, says Dionysius, thinking that no one would dare to succor them, or to meet him in battle. For he thought that in so few days so great an army, which would be a match for his own, could not be gathered.
4. THE MESSENGERS THEREFORE CAME TO GABAA OF SAUL,—for Gabaa was the country of Saul, and therefore he resided in it as king.
5. AND BEHOLD SAUL CAME, FOLLOWING THE OXEN OUT OF THE FIELD.—“He came,” says Hugo, “following the oxen out of the field; not as keeper of the oxen, for that would be unbecoming, that a king should be a herdsman; but it happened by chance that when Saul was returning from the field, the oxen went before him on the way.” So also Lyranus and Dionysius.
But this sense seems twisted and violent; for to follow oxen from the field is the part of ploughmen leading their oxen back from the plough to the stable. Saul was therefore a ploughman, says Abulensis, and although he was now created king, he nevertheless returned to his accustomed husbandry, when other affairs of the kingdom did not occur. So also David; after he was anointed king by Samuel, he returned to feed his sheep. Whence verse 7, he cut in pieces both these oxen of his, with which Saul ploughed. They were therefore his own oxen, not another’s. So Abulensis, Cajetan, Sanchez, Mendoza and others. St. Gregory gives the reason, book 19 of the Morals chap. 17: because “all that is done perishes, unless it is carefully guarded in humility.” And “this,” says Hugo the Cardinal, “is against Religious, who when they are made Bishops, lay aside their rule.” See and wonder here at the simplicity and modesty of the first kings, Saul and David, and at the dignity and excellence of agriculture; since kings and princes once practised it. So Romulus, so also Remus, Curius, Fabricius, and the first Roman ancient Senators and Princes were ploughmen and farmers. Hear Propertius, book 4:
The Senate-house, which now gleams high with its purple-bordered senate, had skin-clad Fathers, rustic hearts.
The trumpet called the ancient Quirites to the debate. A hundred was their Senate often in the meadow.
Pliny, book 18 of the History chap. 3: “The fields,” he says, “were cultivated by the very hands of the Commanders; the earth rejoicing in the laurelled ploughshare and the triumphal ploughman.” Valerius Maximus, book 4, chap. 4: “Those very rich men,” he says, “who were summoned from the plough to become consuls, turned the soil for pleasure only; and those whom the dangers of the Republic summoned as commanders, the narrowness of their family means forced to become herdsmen.” St. Chrysostom gives the reason, hom. 15 on 2 Corinthians: Why? That God to our first parents appointed agriculture as necessary, and the most innocent and excellent art, according to that of Genesis chap. 2, verse 15: “He placed him in the paradise of pleasure, to dress it and to keep it.” And presently after the flood “Noe, a husbandman, began to till the ground, and planted a vineyard,” Gen. 9:20.
Hear Philo, book On Abel and Cain: “Moses,” he says, “esteeming the art of shepherds illustrious, himself handled this business.” And book On Agriculture: “So great,” he says, “is the honor and usefulness of pastoral care believed to be, that the race of Poets is wont to call kings shepherds of the people.” And book On Joseph, treating of pastoral care: “This discipline,” he says, “agrees with the civil. And this is, I think, why the Poets call kings shepherds of the people. For he who is chief in the art of cattle-raising will easily turn out a good king, set over the most beautiful flock of men, his industry having been approved in a lesser business.” Finally book 1 On the Life of Moses, tome 2, of Moses: “He presided,” he says, “over flocks, preparing himself for rule. For the pastoral is a prelude to kingship, that is, to the government of men, the gentlest flock.” Clement of Alexandria, Stromata: “Moses,” he says, “feeds sheep, as one to be first trained for the pastoral headship. For to him who is to preside over a flock of men, the knowledge of feeding sheep is a preliminary exercise. And from it God leads him to be the leader of the army of the Hebrews.” St. Ambrose elegantly notes the same, book 1, epist. 4: “Abraham,” he says, “and Jacob, and afterwards Moses and David were shepherds, putting on in this office a certain royal discipline.” Finally St. Basil, hom. 26 On the Martyr Mamas: “Despise not a man,” he says, “when thou hearest shepherd. He who first pleased God, Abel, was a shepherd. Moses, that great lawgiver, fed sheep on Mount Horeb; and through pasturing came to converse with God. Jacob the patriarch, by feeding sheep, showed patience for the truth, and in a small image sealed his whole life as with a certain mark; David from the pasturing of sheep came to the kingdom. Pasturing and the administration of a kingdom are sisters. Wherefore the Lord, embracing both, is both shepherd and king.”
6. AND HIS ANGER WAS EXCEEDINGLY KINDLED.—Saul sharpens his just anger against Naas, the idolater and tyrant, demanding such unworthy things of the Israelites, who were now subjects to God and to himself as king; that it might be to him a whetstone of virtue, and spur him to just vengeance on him and the defense of his subjects; for this work needed a heroic and lofty spirit, especially in so sudden a matter, when he had no soldier, and the enemy and the narrow time pressed. Hear St. Basil, hom. 10 On anger: “Indignation,” he says, “is the sinew of the soul in virtue, supplying strength and constancy for doing things well; which, restraining as with a kind of iron the soul softened by pleasure and wanton, makes it from soft and slack more austere and strong.” And a little after: “Let us use anger,” he says, “as arms. Therefore Moses, the meekest of all men, condemning the idolatry of the calf, armed the hands of the Levites for the slaughter of their brethren. What made Phinees just? Was it not anger against the fornicators, who, being otherwise mild and meek, at once slew both? Samuel, drawing the king of Amalec into the midst, was he not a minister of just anger in his actions? Elias, truly zealous, by just indignation brought it about that the priests of foul worship were punished with death for the good of all Israel.” Wherefore St. Ambrose, book 1 Of Duties chap. 21: “Be angry,” he says, “where there is a fault with which you ought to be angry; for it cannot be that we are not moved by the unworthiness of things; otherwise it is judged not virtue but softness and slackness. Be angry, therefore, so as to abstain from fault.”