Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
18. BEHOLD, DAVID IS IN NAIOTH IN RAMATHA.—“Naioth,” says Adrichomius, “is a place in the city (near the city) of Ramatha or Rama, of the tribe of Benjamin, six miles distant from Jerusalem toward Bethel, where David and Samuel dwelt, and Saul prophesied.” The Chaldee renders Naioth as “house of learning.” For this was the assembly, as the Septuagint and Josephus say, that is, the company and college of the Prophets, of religious men devoted to God.
20. AND WHEN THEY SAW A COMPANY OF PROPHETS PROPHESYING,—that is, praising God with the customary hymns and psalms. For “to prophesy” often means to praise and sing psalms. So in 1 Paralipomenon 25:1, David is said to have appointed Asaph and Heman who “should prophesy (that is, sing psalms) with harps and psalteries.” A like instance occurs in 2 Paralipomenon 35:15; see what I have said of these Prophets at chapter 10.
AND SAMUEL STANDING OVER THEM,—as though to say: Samuel presided over them as their precentor and choir-leader. You will say: How then is it said in chapter 15, the last verse, that Samuel saw Saul no more until the day of his death? The Hebrews in St. Jerome answer that Samuel hid himself when Saul came, or at least that Samuel did not see Saul in royal dress, as he had seen him before. For Saul, prophesying here, had stripped himself of it. But we say more plainly that Samuel did not see, that is, did not visit Saul, as I said at chapter 15.
AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAME ALSO UPON THEM, AND THEY ALSO BEGAN TO PROPHESY (to sing psalms).—The Spirit of God here dictated to them hymns for them to sing, namely the same that Samuel was singing with his company, and at the same time put into them the desire to sing and the melodies of the voice for singing skilfully. God did this in favour of David, that he might have time to escape.
Morally, learn here how much the fellowship of the good avails, and likewise the virtue and merits of the Saints. For these rascals, or ministers of the wicked Saul, became prophets among the prophets and praised God, as though Samuel and David had breathed their spirit upon them.
24. AND HE STRIPPED HIMSELF ALSO OF HIS GARMENTS,—so that he was entirely naked, say some. More decently, Angelomus, Lyranus and Abulensis hold that Saul stripped himself only of his outer royal garments, not of the inmost, because the Spirit of God does not take away modesty, says Vatablus, so that the praises of God may be freely proclaimed; rather, the Spirit of God so carried Saul out of himself that he did not know what he was doing, says Aben-Ezra. Lyranus adds: Saul, he says, laid aside the royal robe and in its place put on a religious one, suited to divine praises, such as Samuel and the Prophets wore; as princes sometimes do, who for piety’s sake assume the habit of St. Francis.
AND HE FELL (so read with the Roman text and the Septuagint; not “he sang,” as some read) NAKED (in the manner I have just said) ALL THAT DAY AND NIGHT,—that David might have sufficient time to flee. See here what wonderful providence God had over his David, and in what wonderful ways he preserved him; David’s patience, confidence and holiness deserved this. Saul “fell,” then, because he was bereft of strength and senses, say Abulensis, Aben-Ezra and Vatablus; or rather because, prostrating himself on the ground, he adored God with the other prophets, 1 Corinthians 14. So Serarius.
WHEREFORE IT IS SAID: IS SAUL ALSO AMONG THE PROPHETS?—We heard the same said of Saul in chapter 10, but there the cause was novelty; here, however, contrariety was the reason and cause of the proverb. For all marvelled that Saul, so hostile and envious to David the prophet, was suddenly so changed that he prophesied among his companions and sang psalms himself.
The author of the Wonders of Holy Scripture, in St. Augustine, book 2, chapter 10, adds that Saul pursued his servants with drawn bow.
both in sacred and in profane writers: so Virgil of the ploughman, Georgics 1; so Titus Livius of Quintus Cincinnatus, book 3, chapter 26.
Moreover, St. Augustine, on Psalm 103, teaches from this passage that even to the wicked (such as Saul was) the spirit of prophecy is given at times in the very act and heat of their wickedness; for this is a grace freely given, not one that makes pleasing to God, as charity is. “Saul,” he says, “prophesied, not when he had pursued David, but while he was in the act of pursuing him, etc. Those who were sent were filled with the spirit of prophecy, and prophesied. But perhaps they had come with a good mind, either from the necessity of their office, or not intending to do what was commanded. He sent others also; the same was done in them, and let us interpret their mind in this way. When these delayed, he came himself, raging, panting for slaughter, thirsting for the blood of the innocent and holy man, who was himself also ungrateful, and he too was filled with the spirit of prophesying, and prophesied. Let not those therefore boast who perhaps have, without charity, this holy gift of God, as holy baptism is holy; but let them see what account they will have to render to God, who do not use holy things holily. Of these will be those who shall say: In thy name we have prophesied; to them it shall not be said: You lie, but it shall be said: I know you not; depart from me, you that work iniquity; for if I have all prophecy, and have not charity, I am nothing. Saul also prophesied, but he worked iniquity.”
So Balaam prophesied in the very act of impiety, in which he was persecuting the Hebrews, Numbers 21 and following, as did Caiphas, who, persecuting Christ and driving him to death, prophesied that it was expedient that he should die for the people, John 11:50.
Morally, see and wonder here at God’s power over even the obstinate wicked, as well as his clemency and beneficence; for these so change and raise their heart that they prophesy; he changes them thus that they may return to him by repentance; but they, hardening themselves in their stubbornness, strive and contend with God’s clemency by their hardness. So he did here in Saul. He did the like, and far more, in Saul (Paul), when, while he was still “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,” in the very course and heat of persecution, striking him with heavenly light and voice, he at once changed him, from Saul made him Paul, from a persecutor an Apostle, from a Pharisee a Doctor of the Gentiles, Acts 9, so that of him as of Saul it might be said: “Is Saul also among the Prophets,” nay, among the Apostles? This was a change of the right hand of the Most High; but greater in Saul (Paul) than in Saul. For in Saul the perverse heart remained, blinded by envy and hatred of David, together with the prophecy; but in Saul (Paul) the iron heart, inflamed with hatred of Christ and Christians, was by a miracle taken from him by God, and made a holy, heavenly and divine heart, burning and glowing with insatiable love of Christ and Christians.