Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Tropologically St. Gregory: “Behold,” he says, “that Saul might be exceedingly angry, the Spirit of the Lord first came upon him. How much to be feared the anger of the Saints is, we perceive, if we think of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon them, if, while we behold them angry outwardly, we attend equally to the Spirit moving within. As often, therefore, as we are corrected by the zeal of our elders, we may greatly fear under their indignation, if we believe their onset to be the movement of the Holy Spirit.”
7. AND TAKING BOTH THE OXEN, HE CUT THEM IN PIECES.—Saul imitated the example of the Levite, who, cutting in pieces his wife slain by outrage, scattered them through all Israel, and so inflamed all to vengeance for the outrage, Judges 19:29. So the novelty of the cutting, of the new king threatening that he would do the same to the oxen of him who should withdraw from the war, moved all to repel the common danger with common minds and arms. For they feared the tyrant Naas, lest, the Galaadites being subdued and deprived of their eyes, his victory growing insolent, he should proceed across the Jordan, and there with like ferocity put all the other Hebrews under the yoke and blind them. They feared also the wrath and threats of their king Saul. They feared finally God the avenger, lest, if they deserted their king appointed by him, they should be delivered by him into the hands of Naas.
WHOSOEVER SHALL NOT COME FORTH AND FOLLOW SAUL AND SAMUEL, SO SHALL IT BE DONE TO HIS OXEN.—From this it is clear that Samuel, by God’s warning, was present with Saul, and took part in the camp and the battle, to encourage all for it, and by his prayers and merits to obtain victory for them from God. Whence also, that being won, verse 12, the people say to Samuel: “Who is he that said: Shall Saul reign over us?” And verse 14: “Samuel said to the people,” etc. Samuel, therefore, took part in this whole business of so dangerous a war, nay was of use with Saul, as judge and avenger of Israel. Note here: Saul was good as long as he followed Samuel as his director; but when he neglected his warnings and commands, he became wicked and reprobate. Again, Saul here puts himself before Samuel, as king of all Israel, and therefore more worthy; though Samuel was holier than he.
SO SHALL IT BE DONE TO HIS OXEN.—But why does he not threaten the same to the men themselves? R. Solomon answers, in Lyranus and Abulensis: “He did not wish,” he says, “to threaten the penalty of death, or of the cutting off of a limb, lest at the beginning of his reign he should seem to begin with great severity.” Dionysius agrees:
“Saul threatened,” he says, “the taking away of cattle, not the slaughter of men, that he might begin moderately to exercise his jurisdiction.”
New princes, therefore, if they are wise, should follow that of Claudian: “The mildest lot is that of kingdoms under a new king.”
8. AND THERE WERE OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND, AND OF THE MEN OF JUDA THIRTY THOUSAND.—Falsely Josephus, to display the strength of his Israelites to Vespasian and the Romans, says that there were seven hundred thousand from Israel, and seventy from Juda. Although the Septuagint here count six hundred thousand of Israel, and seventy from the tribe of Juda. Furthermore Saul “numbered them in Bezec,” which was a place near the Jordan, whose king was Adoni-Bezec, Judges 1:5, which Josephus calls Bamath, the Septuagint Bama.
Mystically, Bezec in Hebrew is the same as lightning or want, which Bede, transferring to the mystery, asserts means that “all the faithful, citizens of the eternal country, in Christ the Lord, who is compared to lightning, Luke chap. 17, verse 24, are to be numbered and gathered.” And again, “that those who, leaving all things, follow the Lord, are to be enrolled and numbered, that they may possess the kingdom of heaven, which the poor in spirit possess.” Furthermore on the numbers 300 and 30 thousand, the same Bede assigns this mystery: “The ternary,” he says, “on account of the confession of the holy Trinity, refers to faith; the denary and the centenary, on account of the choice of the right-hand reward, and the penny of the day to be given to the good vine-dressers, refer to hope. The millenary, moreover, regards the immovable and stable operation of perfect love.” And immediately: “In the sons of Israel, which means seeing God, he understands the perfection of those who contemplate; in the men of Juda, which is interpreted confession, the fortitude of the confessing,” each name being excellently suited to its own. For contemplators are called by the milder name of sons; confessors by the more solid name, truly.
9. TOMORROW YOU SHALL HAVE RELIEF.—Wonder here at the prudence and speed of Saul, who in one day gathered, arranged such forces, marched by long journeys against the enemy, fought, conquered, triumphed, so that he could say with Julius Caesar: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Hence it is clear that Josephus, and from him the Master of the Scholastic History, less truly put for tomorrow the third day. “It is credible,” says Dionysius, “that Samuel knew by divine revelation that Saul would triumph with his men.”
WHEN THE SUN SHALL BE HOT.—Mystically Blessed Peter Damian, book 6, epist. 9: “When,” he says, “the mind, first wasted away through sloth, now returned to itself, grows warm again to the desire of its Creator; when it forsakes the torpor of negligence, and the flame of holy love kindles the cold of its former insensibility; then, as the sun grows hot, victory is won over the enemies, and the besieged city is delivered from the hands of the proud king. Hence it is that of Abraham it is written: Because the Lord appeared to him in the vale of Mambre, in the very heat of the day,” Genesis chap. 18, 1. “Hence it is that of Lot it is said: The sun was risen upon the earth, and Lot entered into Segor,” Genesis chap. 19, verse 23. “Rightly, therefore, let us disdain the friendships of the world, or of its prince, and scorn to have a covenant of society with them, lest, while we are joined to darkness, we be deprived of light.”
10. IN THE MORNING WE WILL COME OUT.—Hear St. Gregory: “Those,” he says, “who are already secure of near help give the enemy a certain hope, whom they delude by promising. In voice indeed they feign weakness; but the strength of the promised help they keep within. They promise one thing, therefore, and believe another.” And a little after:
“They gave the enemy to believe,” he says, “that they would so deliver themselves into their hands that they could do with them whatever they wished. But those who knew that on the following day a king would come to their help were thinking of going out with him not to the hands of the enemy, but to their slaughter.”
11. SAUL PUT (divided) THE PEOPLE IN THREE COMPANIES,—that in three orders and places they might rush unexpectedly into the enemy’s camp; and so strike them and seize them, that none of them might escape. Again, that if one troop failed or gave way, another might succor it.
Mystically, Blessed Peter Damian, book 6 of the Epistles, epist. 5: “What is it,” he says, “that he divided the people into three parts, but that there are three principal virtues of the soul: faith, namely, hope and charity? In the threefold divisions of the warriors, therefore, the victory of the battle is obtained, because by these three virtues, Christ being leader, every diabolical temptation is conquered.”
AND HE ENTERED INTO THE MIDST OF THE CAMP IN THE MORNING WATCH,—that he might attack and overwhelm them sunk in sleep or half asleep. Josue used a like stratagem, chap. 10, verse 9, when he smote the Amorrhite. See what was said there.
AND THEY SMOTE THE AMMONITES.—Josephus adds that their king Naas himself was slain.
13. AND SAUL SAID: NO MAN SHALL BE KILLED THIS DAY,—because this day is a day of joy, victory and triumph, which it does not become us to make dismal, to defile and stain with the slaughter and mourning of citizens, say Josephus, Abulensis and Dionysius.
14. LET US GO TO GALGAL, AND RENEW THE KINGDOM,—Samuel chose Galgal both because this place was near the Jordan, beside which the battle had been fought and the victory won; and because Galgal was a place famous for the camp of Josue, chap. 5; and because Samuel was accustomed to judge the people in Galgal. There, therefore, was held the assembly of the people and public council; in which Samuel accordingly wished to renew the kingdom of Saul, that is, to have it confirmed by new congratulation of the people on his great victory. Whence it is probable that Samuel here again anointed Saul as king, and adorned him with the other royal insignia. Hence Josephus, book 6, chap. 4, asserts that Saul was anointed in Maspha and in Galgal. Three times, therefore, was Saul anointed by Samuel: first, secretly and privately, chap. 10, verse 1; second, publicly in Maspha; third, after the victory publicly likewise in Galgal. So Abulensis, Sanchez, Serarius and others. So also David was anointed king three times: first, privately in the house of his father, chap. 16, verse 13; second, publicly in Hebron “over the tribe of Juda,” 2 Kings chap. 2, verse 4; third, chap. 5, verse 3, “over all Israel.”
15. AND THEY SACRIFICED THERE VICTIMS OF PEACE OFFERINGS,—in thanksgiving for the peace won for Israel by the victory of Saul; and in petition that this peace might be firm and constant both for Israel and for Saul. For in the new exultation of so great a victory and the inauguration of the new king and triumpher Saul, it was fitting that these sacrifices be offered for public rejoicing “in Galgal,” although the ark of the covenant was not there, nor the tabernacle or altar of holocausts.