Saul rescues the city of Jabesh
1 ① One month later, Nahash the Ammonite went to Jabesh-gilead and surrounded the city. The people of Jabesh told Nahash, “Make an agreement with us and we will serve you.” 2Nahash answered, “I will make an agreement with you on this condition: I will pluck out the right eye of all of you, so that Israel will be left disgraced.” 3The elders of Jabesh then told him, “Give us seven days so we may send messengers through all the territories of Israel. If none of them comes to save us, we will surrender to you.”
4So the messengers went to Gibeah of Saul, breaking the news to the people. And all the people wept aloud.
5Just then Saul came from the field with his oxen. He asked, “What has happened to make the people weep?” And they told him what the men of Jabesh had said. 6At once, the spirit of God seized Saul and he was greatly angered. 7He took a yoke of oxen, cut them into pieces and gave them to the messengers to be taken through all the territories of Israel with this warning, “I will do the same with the oxen of anyone who does not come out after Saul and Samuel.”
Then a holy fear came upon the people and they set out as one man.
8When Saul inspected them at Bezek, the men of Israel were three hundred thousand; those of Judah, thirty thousand. 9And they sent the messengers with this answer to the people of Jabesh, “Tomorrow, by noon time, we shall come to you.” When the messengers returned, the people of Jabesh were very comforted 10and they told Nahash, “Tomorrow we will surrender and you may do to us whatever you please.”
11The following morning, Saul divided the people into three groups. They broke into the enemy camp early in the morning and slew the Ammonites until noontime. Those who could escape were scattered, each one running his own way.
12Then the people asked Samuel, “Who are these who said: Saul will never reign over us? Bring the men and we shall put them to death.” 13But Saul said, “No man shall be put to death today, for this day Yahweh has saved Israel.”
14Samuel told the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and officially proclaim the kingdom.” 15So all the people went to Gilgal and there they proclaimed Saul king before Yahweh. They sacrificed peace offerings and Saul and all Israel celebrated.
- 1 S 11,1 The account which was interrupted in 10:16 is resumed here. The people of Jabesh are disposed to accept peace. Israel weeps and shouts, but Saul decides that this situation is unbearable. His courage obliges God to act. Who are those who asked if Saul was going to reign? There is no political life without parties. From the beginning, Saul had his allies and his foes. But he must heed even more the tribalism of the Israelites, especially the rivalry between the northern tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin, and the tribe of Judah, in the south. As for the people of Jabesh, they will remain grateful to their savior and will be faithful to him until after his death. (See 1 S 31:11.) Saul is a good and generous man who does not take revenge on his enemies. Yet when one is the highest authority, one easily isolates self from others and becomes arrogant or pessimistic. Saul will refuse to listen to God and to his relatives, and his jealousy will blind him, as it did in regard to David.
