Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
he himself explaining his mind says, verse 30: “I have sinned, but now honour me before the ancients of my people and before Israel;” lest they reject me as rejected by God through thee, and in fact cast me down from the kingdom. So Rupert on Apoc. chap. 1: “Saul,” he says, “left his first humility, nor did he do penance; he said indeed: I have sinned; but he did not say or feel it humbly. For he adds: But now honour me; honour therefore or glory, not of God but his own, he wished to buy by this confession, saying: I have sinned.”
…he says, did it profit Saul that he confessed he had sinned at the rebuke of Samuel? That confession was without doubt culpable which did not wash away the fault. For how would the Master of humility despise a confession of humility? and He to whom it is certainly inborn to give grace to the humble could not but be appeased, if the humility that sounded in the mouth had shone in the heart.”
25. BUT NOW BEAR, I BESEECH THEE, MY SIN.—“Bear,” that is, endure, tolerate, dissemble, forgive, spare, pardon. So Josephus, the Chaldee, Pagninus, Vatablus and others. AND RETURN WITH ME (to Galgal, verse 12), THAT I MAY ADORE THE LORD,—that before thee and through thee I may sacrifice …
Others think better that Saul is here deprived of the kingdom, in first act not in second, that is, that he is cast down from the royal power, but is yet permitted its use and administration for life. Or rather that the deprivation of the kingdom is announced to him, the real execution of which deprivation was to be made shortly after in his slaughter and death: as heretics and the like are deprived by ecclesiastical law of their goods, but are nevertheless permitted to use them until the execution of this penalty and sentence is made by the prince, so that by his fiscal officer they are in fact confiscated and assigned to the treasury.
For that Saul remained king until his death is plain, first, because he himself continually governed the kingdom until then, as he had done before; secondly, because the people held and honoured him as their king; thirdly, because David always professed that Saul was king, and that he himself had no right to the kingdom except after his death. Nor did Chrysostom mean anything else in saying that David is king, namely designated by God, to succeed the dethroned Saul at his death, and transmit the kingdom to his posterity, and perpetuate it in them. Finally Samuel himself, after this deprivation of the kingdom, did royal honour to Saul, and followed him as king, verse 32; for otherwise Israel would have lacked a king and prince: for David did not rule before the death of Saul. When Samuel therefore says: “He hath rejected thee from being king,” it is as if he said, He hath rejected thee, that thou mayest not long continue in the kingdom: for He has decreed to take the kingdom from thee with a short life, and to transfer it to David; wherefore not thy descendants, but David’s, shall succeed to the kingdom, and shall be continually kings of Israel.
24. AND SAUL SAID TO SAMUEL: I HAVE SINNED.—This penitence of Saul was not true and serious, proceeding from true sorrow of heart for God offended, but … the Lord; that the people may see that I am not cast off by God, but reconciled to Him and to thee.
27. AND HE CAUGHT HOLD OF THE SKIRT OF HIS MANTLE, AND IT RENT.—“He,” that is Samuel, say some Rabbis, caught hold of his own mantle, or else of Saul’s mantle, and rent it, to signify that the kingdom was rent and separated from him. But I say, “he,” that is Saul, caught hold of Samuel’s mantle, and it was rent, Samuel resisting, to signify the rending and separation of the kingdom from Saul and his posterity. So the Septuagint, Josephus and St. Augustine, book 17 On the City of God, where he contends that from the Septuagint it is here foretold that the kingdom is to be transferred from the Jews to Christ and the Christians. For so the Septuagint have it: The Lord hath rent thy kingdom from Israel out of thy hand this day; and he will give it to thy neighbour better than thou. And Israel shall be divided in two and shall not return, neither shall the Holy One of Israel repent. For the kingdom was not rent from Israel except in Christ and through Christ, says St. Augustine, who was better than Saul, that is, than the Jews, whose king Saul was: and then it was divided in two, because one part of the Jews was converted to Christ, but the other remained obstinate in its unbelief and Judaism. And this decree of God shall be eternal, that the Jews shall no longer have a king and a kingdom, because repentance of a deed falls not on God. So St. Augustine, and rightly in the allegorical sense, not the literal. For literally, the kingdom was here rent from Saul, when it was given to David, who was more obedient and better than Saul: and then the kingdom was divided in two; because the tribe of Juda alone adhered to David as its king, while over the remaining tribes Abner, the captain of the army, set up as king Isboseth the son of Saul, and that for seven years, until, Isboseth being slain, all the tribes accepted David as king, as is plain from 2 Kings chap. 2, verse 4 and following.
In like manner Ahias the prophet rent his mantle into twelve pieces, and gave ten pieces to Jeroboam; signifying by this symbol that he should be king of ten tribes, and that the two remaining tribes, namely Juda and Benjamin, would adhere to Solomon and his son Roboam, 3 Kings chap. 11, verse 30. This rending of the mantle, then, represented the rending of the kingdom of Solomon on account of his idolatry.
for the past tense signifies an act begun and destined, not perfected. So “hath rent,” that is, has decreed to rend, “the kingdom of Israel from thee,” to give it “to one better
29. BUT THE TRIUMPHER IN ISRAEL WILL NOT SPARE.—The Chaldee: It is decreed upon thee by the Lord of the victories of Israel, as if to say: An absolute and irrevocable sentence of God has been passed upon thee, that thou be deprived of the kingdom. He calls God “the Triumpher in Israel” to sting Saul, as if to say: Thou art proud and triumphest in thy victories against Amalec and other enemies, and therefore rebellest against God; but know that those victories are not thine, nor won by thy strength, but granted thee by God. For He is the king and “Triumpher in Israel,” who, fighting for Israel His faithful people, makes it conquer and triumph over its enemies. In Hebrew: and also the victory of Israel will not lie, that is, God, who was the cause of this and of the other victories of Israel, will not retract His word about taking the kingdom from thee. So our version. Others: will not lie, that is, that He should revoke and falsify the promise of the kingdom decreed to David. Vatablus, however: as if to say, God will not make void the strength given to Israel; God will not forsake Israel of its former strength.
30. THEN HE SAID: I HAVE SINNED; YET HONOUR ME NOW (as king) BEFORE THE ANCIENTS OF MY PEOPLE, AND BEFORE ISRAEL,—that is, before the rest of the people of Israel, lest they, seeing me despised by thee, despise me and strip me of the kingdom. You see here that Saul’s penitence was human, and extorted by fear of losing the kingdom. Whence St. Bernard in the Declamations, towards the end: “To what end,” he says, “this honouring for thee, wretched man? Was this the whole of that supplication: I have sinned, pray to the Lord for me? Rightly indeed did He not spare, who beheld the heart; He could not be moved by a false supplication. Hardly yet had David said: I have sinned; and the answer was given him: The Lord hath taken away thy sin. So surely, so even to this day, beloved, he whose mind gapes after other consolations, and in transitory and perishing things is not unwilling to be consoled, withdraws from himself the grace of heavenly consolation. Which, if he sought it with worthy devotion, with full affection, with vehement desire, and strove to ask, seek, knock, without doubt asking he would receive, seeking he would find, to him knocking it would be opened.” Hear St. Gregory here, book 6, chap. 2: “It is plain what penitence he has who still desires to be honoured. For if he truly repented of his sin, he would rather desire to be dishonoured than honoured,” etc. Angelomus also: “In that he said: Honour me before the ancients of my people, he spoke suffering shame, and held by pride; because he feared to lose honours, and therefore did not obtain what he asked, saying: I have sinned. For whoever under the pretence of confession still fears to lose human honours, he cannot obtain from God the indulgence which feigned humility asks,” etc.
31. SO SAMUEL RETURNING FOLLOWED SAUL.—Samuel yielded to Saul’s petition, lest he drive him to despair or fury; but that he might protect his honour before the people, lest they despise him and drive him from the kingdom. This little consolation he granted Saul, that he might bear the deprivation of the kingdom more gently, and not fall into worse things. For, as St. Gregory says: “Perhaps if the rejected king did not see the prophet returning with him to adore the Lord, he would adore the idols of demons. And so he both rejected him, and returned with him; because in the powerful of this world iniquity is so to be condemned, that, being embittered, they may not lose the good which they have.” Whence he gathers: “Well therefore does Samuel return with the rejected king, because chosen preachers both smite the powerful of the world for their iniquity, and for example’s sake suffer them to do some good things.”