CHAPTER 7
Not too much happens in this chapters, which is interesting
because it really covers the core of Samuel’s career as a judge. Let’s see, first we get some final bits of
the ark. They let it stay in the town
of Kiriath-jearim for 20 years. And in those
years, prophet Samuel becomes a judge and urges the people to turn to the Lord.
The Israelites fight the Philistines and defeat them. The Bible gives Samuel a lot of credit for
it, noting his sacrifice to the Lord just before the big battle. It’s such a
big win that we’re told the Philistines never succeed in taking Israeli territory
ever again.
Finally, we get three verses about Samuel in action as a
judge. He makes once nice
modification. Instead of just staying
in one spot and letting people come to him for judging, he becomes a circuit
rider. Once a year he’ll go around the
land on a regular course issuing his pronouncements.
The next chapter will kick off with Samuel as an old man, so
I find it amazing that a man important enough to have not one but two Bible
chapters named after him has the heart of his career leading Israel boiled down
to a mere one chapter – and a short chapter at that (17 verses). What makes Samuel so important is that he’s
the last of the judges. And thus the
transference of power is what matters, and that’ll come up soon. Also, he’s not just a judge but a priest,
and the Bible was written by priests, so they play up the importance of Samuel
himself when they can. That said, he
doesn’t really do a whole hell of a lot.
He’s a judge and a prophet, but there is nothing an obviously glamorous
or exciting that he does in his reign like Gideon did in his days as a
judge. Just the fact that the Bible
sees fit to discuss Samuel’s judging is notable, even if it is just three
verses. With other guys we get stories
of battles, and then the Bible just limply says “and then he judged Israel for
40 years” before moving on to the next guy and the next battle.
CHAPTER 8
This is an important chapter. Here is where Israel begins the transference from a land of
tribes loosely governed by judges to a nation with a king reigning over
all. Here you get what’s going on, and
the Bible’s spin on things. And I don’t
really agree with the Bible’s spin.
Samuel is now old, so he’s given judging duties to his two
sons. As had been the case with Eli all
those years ago, the two sons suck.
They are corrupt, accept bribes, and pervert justice. The people cry out to Samuel asking to be
ruled by a king, just like other nations are.
The Bible’s thoughts on having a king are pretty clear: it’s
against it. When Samuel reports the
people’s wishes to God, the Lord is personally offended. God tells Samuel the people aren’t rejecting
you, but me. I’m the one who led them
out of Egypt, and they’ve always been following my laws, but apparently that’s
not good enough. Now they want a man
instead of me and my laws. Those
ingrates. Samuel lays it on thick to
the people, too. A king? You guys want a king? He’ll tax you, he’ll draft men into his
army, he’ll make you do manual labor, he’ll take the best produce from your
fields, the best animals from your flocks, and take you slaves. It’ll suck having a king. But the people
insist, and God tells Samuel to give them what they want.
OK, that’s what is going on, but let’s look a little
deeper. First, the reason peoples like
the Hebrew adopt kings is partially out of political necessity. It’s an arms race in the Near East. Other nations have kings, and the political
centralization that comes with that can give them an edge in military
matters. As nations and empires become
stronger and bigger, they are more dangerous.
Either you keep up or fall behind.
The good old days of Joshua are gone.
Back then, he defeated over 30 kings and still didn’t take the entire
Promised Land. Now you have to be aware
of the geopolitical reality. To make a
comparison, I once read a book on ancient Egypt and in the Old Kingdom they
didn’t really care about foreign powers because there were essentially none
that were real threats. But by the New
Kingdom – the same era as this part of the Bible essentially – they really
needed to focus on them or else they could fall under. If that’s true of Egypt, it’s really true of
the Hebrew.
Second, is this really something new? Let’s look at the political history of the
Hebrew so far in this book. They had
Eli, then Eli’s two horrible sons, then Samuel, and now Samuel’s two sons. Folks, why did Eli’s sons become
judges? Because their dad was a
judge. And why did Samuel’s sons become
judges? Because of their daddy. Isn’t that how monarchies work? You get your position based on birth. OK, so they’re not called kings, but they
are the top authorities and they’re getting their position by birth. So now it’ll just be a more powerful leader,
that’s all. For that matter, even the
transference of power to Samuel is part of this trend. No, he wasn’t related to Eli, and yes he was
an actual prophet of God (and that clearly helped him become a judge). However, Samuel was raised in the temple
essentially by Eli. Samuel was
effectively a stepson. And he only got
the job once Eli’s no good sons died.
He was next in line, going by family.
Essentially, Israel already has kings, they’re just making more powerful
ones.
And where does God get off saying that the people aren’t
rejecting Samuel by Him? I don’t get
that. In reality, neither God nor
Samuel are rejected, but Samuel’s sons are being rejected. He says they don’t need kings to follow his
laws by we’ve seen tons of evidence that the Hebrew don’t follow his laws very
well at all. Shouldn’t God be
infuriated with Samuel’s sons instead of the Hebrew people? The problems of Eli’s children caused God to
turn against them, not all Israel. And
Samuel’s kids are using heir position as judges of God’s laws to pervert God’s
laws. But no, they’re not the ones he’s
upset with.
Lastly, if you look at Samuel’s anti-king tirade, it’s
interesting because everything he says does come to pass. Between David and Samuel you will see
taxation, a military draft, a labor tax (forced labor) impressed on the people. These are actual complaints that’ll come up.
For example, the army traditionally came from the tribes offering up their men
as volunteers, but creating a national professional army will replace it (and give the king more power). Solon institutes a labor tax and it’s so
hated that the word used to describe it in the ancient Hebrew version of the
Bible is the same word used to describe the pharaoh’s forced labor on the
Israelites before Moses. Yeah, that’s
quite a bit.
So the rant is there for a reason and tells us something
about the writer’s personal feelings on kings.
CHAPTER 9
And now we meet the first king, Saul. The Bible portrays it as a straightforward
story, but if you look closely there is some sensible political finesse going
on.
Saul is the tallest man in Israel and he’s looking for his
dad’s runaway donkeys. He looks all
over the place, and is about to go home when the servant traveling with him has
an idea. Hey – Samuel lives nearby,
let’s ask him! So they go looking for
him, and are told where to find him after meeting some women by the water
well. I only bring this up because of
the longstanding tradition of the Bible having main characters meet women at
the well. It happened in the marriage
of the patriarchs and later to Moses – and now to Saul.
Saul meets Samuel, and God has apparently told Samuel that
this is the guy. They eat and Samuel gives Saul the best part of the animal,
the part normally reserved for the priest.
He’s already treating Saul like a king.
OK, now here’s the background political finesse. We’re told that Saul is a member of the tribe
of Benjamin, which is the weakest of the tribes. Furthermore, we’re told that his clan is the least impressive
clan of Benjamin. It’s a savvy move
picking someone like that. Kings are a
new institution and one thing to be concerned about is a king using his stature
to grab too much power. If you pick a
person from a big clan in a prominent tribe, he’d have that much greater a base
of power. Combining his tribe’s power
with the power of the king, he might start dominating over other tribes. But a guy from a lowly clan from Israel’s
smallest tribe is a bad bet to do this.
So give it to Saul.
CHAPTER 10
Samuel officially anoints Saul as the first king of
Israel. But nothing has been made
public yet. After anointing Saul,
Samuel tells Saul that three things will happen to him on his way home, and if
they happen, Saul should take it as a sign that Samuel ain’t just whistling
Dixie about this becoming king thing.
Saul will first meet people who will tell him that his dad’s
donkeys are fine but the dad is fretting about the absent Saul. Then three guys will give you some
food. Finally, he’ll come across a pack
of prophets and the spirit of the Lord will overtake Saul and he’ll join in
their procession. Naturally all three
things happen.
When he gets home, though, Saul is still gun shy about
telling anyone anything. Saul just says
he want looking all over for the animals, asked Samuel about them, Samuel said
they were safe, and so Saul went home.
This is all true enough. Samuel
did indeed say that of the goats, but Saul is doing some selective
editing. It’s hard to blame him. How do you go out looking for goats and come
home telling your dad that you’ve been anointed king? That sounds too fantastic to be true.
But Samuel announces a king has been chosen, and has people
come to his town for the announcement of who it is. He first notes the king hails from the tribe of Benjamin, then
from the clan of Matri. Then he says
it’s Saul – but Saul is absent. Apparently,
he’s hiding in the baggage that they brought with them. This is an interesting character
moment. Saul doesn’t want to be king
and seems a bit overwhelmed. Hey, he’s
never even led a household, let alone a kingdom. It’s also an endearingly human moment. Here he is – the man chosen to rule Israel, and he’s hiding
rather than accept what fate has thrust upon him.
But he’s taken out and made king. But some refused to follow him, and refuse tribute. So the first kingship of Israel is off to a rocky start.
CHAPTER 11
Though things looked rocky at the end of Chapter 10, they
soon improve notably here. First the
Ammonites invade from the east. Their
leader makes a sinister statement. He
agrees to a treaty only if every Israeli has his eye gouged out. Yeah, that’s not exactly an actual term for
peace.
But then Saul hears those harsh terms and gets pissed. The chops up some oxen, and has the chopped
up oxen pars sent to every tribe in Israel with this message: send your men to
Saul or this will happen to your oxen.
OK, if he can’t rule nicely – and Chapter 10’s conclusion showed that
many weren’t going to go along willingly with king from the lesser clan of a
small tribe – then he’ll have to rule by fear.
And it works.
Several hundred thousand Hebrew soldiers come out and they whip the
Ammonites. Everyone sings the praises
of Saul all across the land. It’s the
high point for Saul. (And as such, it’s all downhill from there).
One oddity: when the army is assembled, we’re told 300,000
Israelites and 70,000 Judeans come out.
Why are the people of Judah counted separately? I know eventually there will be a divided
kingdom with Judah making up almost all of the southern kingdom of Judea, but
that is still far in the future.
Regardless, that’s how the Bible presents the numbers here.
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