--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 299 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/299/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 299. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/299/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 299. 1 Samuel · 21 of 37 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/299/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/299/#p-N ### Verse 12 [¶1] He set him up a place - Literally, a hand, יד yad. Some say it was a monument; others, a triumphal arch: probably it was no more than a hand, pointing out the place where Saul had gained the victory. Absalom's pillar is called the hand of Absalom, [2Sam 18:18]. ### Verse 15 [¶3] The people spared the best of the sheep - It is very likely that the people did spare the best of the prey; and it is as likely that Saul might have restrained them if he would. That they might not love war, God had interdicted spoil and plunder, so the war was undertaken merely from a sense of duty, without any hope of enriching themselves by it. ### Verse 17 [¶5] Little in thine own sight - Who can bear prosperity? Is it not of the Lord's great goodness that the majority of the inhabitants of the earth are in comparative poverty? ### Verse 21 [¶7] To sacrifice unto the Lord - Thus he endeavors to excuse the people. They did not take the spoil in order to enrich themselves by it, but to sacrifice unto the Lord; and did not this motive justify their conduct? ### Verse 22 [¶9] Hath the Lord as great delight, etc. - This was a very proper answer to, and refutation of Saul's excuse. Is not obedience to the will of God the end of all religion, of its rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices? ### Verse 23 [¶11] For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry - This is no translation of those difficult words, כי חטאת קסם מרי ואון ותרפים הפצר ki chattath kesem meri veaven utheraphim haphtsar. It appears to me that the three nouns which occur first in the text refer each to the three last in order. Thus, חטאת chattath, Transgression, refers to און aven, Iniquity, which is the principle whence transgression springs. קסם kesem, Divination, refers to תרפים teraphim, consecrated images or telesms, vulgarly talismans, used in incantations. And מרי meri, Rebellion, refers evidently to הפצר haphstar, Stubbornness, whence rebellion springs. The meaning therefore of this difficult place may be the following: As transgression comes from iniquity, divination from teraphim, and rebellion from stubbornness, so, because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. All the versions are different. ### Verse 24 [¶13] I have sinned - because I feared the people - This was the best excuse he could make for himself; but had he feared God more, he need have feared the People less. ### Verse 25 [¶15] Pardon my sin - Literally, bear my sin; take it away; forgive what I have done against thee, and be my intercessor with God, that he may forgive my offense against him; turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. ### Verse 26 [¶17] I will not return with thee - I cannot acknowledge thee as king, seeing the Lord hath rejected thee. ### Verse 29 [¶19] The Strength of Israel will not lie - What God has purposed he will bring to pass, for he has all power in the heavens and in the earth; and he will not repent - change his purpose - concerning thee. [¶20] We may say it was some extenuation of Saul's fault that the people insisted on preserving the best of the prey; for who could resist the demands of a victorious mob? But his crime was in consenting; had he not, the crime would have been theirs alone. ### Verse 32 [¶22] Agag came unto him delicately - The Septuagint have τρεμων, trembling; the original, מעדנת maadannoth, delicacies; probably איש ish, man, understood; a man of delights, a pleasure-taker: the Vulgate, pinguissimus et tremens, "very fat and trembling." [¶23] Surely the bitterness of death is past - Almost all the versions render this differently from ours. Surely death is bitter, is their general sense; and this seems to be the true meaning. ### Verse 33 [¶25] As thy sword hath made women childless - It appears that Agag had forfeited his life by his own personal transgressions, and that his death now was the retribution of his cruelties. [¶26] And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces - [¶27] 1. What Samuel did here he did in his magisterial capacity; and, [¶28] 2. It is not likely he did it by his own sword, but by that of an executioner. What kings, magistrates, and generals do, in an official way, by their subjects, servants, or soldiers, they are said to do themselves; qui facit per alterum, facit per se. ### Verse 35 [¶30] And Samuel came no more to see Saul - But we read, [1Sam 19:22-24], that Saul went to see Samuel at Naioth, but this does not affect what is said here. From this time Samuel had no connection with Saul; he never more acknowledged him as king; he mourned and prayed for him, and continued to perform his prophetic functions at Ramah, and at Naioth, superintending the school of the prophets in that place. ### Introduction [¶32] Samuel is sent from Ramah to Bethlehem, to anoint David, [1Sam 16:1-13]. The Spirit of the Lord departs from Saul, and an evil spirit comes upon him, [1Sam 16:14]. His servants exhort him to get a skillful harper to play before him, [1Sam 16:15], [1Sam 16:16]. He is pleased with the counsel, and desires them to find such a person, [1Sam 16:17]. They recommend David, [1Sam 16:18]. He is sent for, comes, plays before Saul, and finds favor in his sight, [1Sam 16:19-23]. ### Verse 1 [¶34] Fill thine horn with oil - Horns appear to have been the ancient drinking vessels of all nations; and we may suppose that most persons who had to travel much, always carried one with them, for the purpose of taking up water from the fountains to quench their thirst. Such a horn had Samuel; and on this occasion he was commanded to fill it with oil, for the purpose of consecrating a king over Israel from among the sons of Jesse. ### Verse 2 [¶36] Take a heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice - This was strictly true; Samuel did offer a sacrifice; and it does not appear that he could have done the work which God designed, unless he had offered this sacrifice, and called the elders of the people together, and thus collected Jesse's sons. But he did not tell the principal design of his coming; had he done so, it would have produced evil and no good: and though no man, in any circumstances, should ever tell a lie, yet in all circumstances he is not obliged to tell the whole truth, though in every circumstance he must tell nothing but the truth, and in every case so tell the truth that the hearer shall not believe a lie by it. ### Verse 3 [¶38] Call Jesse to the sacrifice - The common custom was, after the blood of the victim had been poured out to God, and the fat burnt, to feast on the flesh of the sacrifice. This appears to have been the case in all, except in the whole burnt-offering; this was entirely consumed. ### Verse 4 [¶40] The elders of the town trembled at his coming - They knew he was a prophet of the Lord, and they were afraid that he was now come to denounce some judgments of the Most High against their city. ### Verse 5 [¶42] Sanctify yourselves - Change your clothes, and wash your bodies in pure water, and prepare your minds by meditation, reflection, and prayer; that, being in the spirit of sacrifice, ye may offer acceptably to the Lord. ### Verse 7 [¶44] Man looketh on the outward appearance - And it is well he should, and confine his looks to that; for when he pretends to sound the heart, he usurps the prerogative of God.