Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Samuel 31:1 - 31:1

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Samuel 31:1 - 31:1


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The account of the war between the Philistines and Israel, the commencement of which has already been mentioned in 1Sa 28:1, 1Sa 28:4., and 1Sa 29:1, is resumed in 1Sa 31:1 in a circumstantial clause; and to this there is attached a description of the progress and result of the battle, more especially with reference to Saul. Consequently, in 1Ch 10:1, where there had been no previous allusion to the war, the participle נִלְחָמִים is changed into the perfect. The following is the way in which we should express the circumstantial clause: “Now when the Philistines were fighting against Israel, the men of Israel fled before the Philistines, and slain men fell in the mountains of Gilboa” (vid., 1Sa 28:4). The principal engagement took place in the plain of Jezreel. But when the Israelites were obliged to yield, they fled up the mountains of Gilboa, and were pursued and slain there.

1Sa 31:2-6

The Philistines followed Saul, smote (i.e., put to death) his three sons (see at 1Sa 14:49), and fought fiercely against Saul himself. When the archers (בַּקֶּשֶׁת אֲנָשִׁים is an explanatory apposition to הַמֹּורִים) hit him, i.e., overtook him, he was greatly alarmed at them (יָחֶל, from חִיל or חוּל),

(Note: The lxx have adopted the rendering καὶ ἐτραυμάτισαν εἰς τὰ ὑποχόνδρια, they wounded him in the abdomen, whilst the Vulgate rendering is vulneratus est vehementer a sagittariis. In 1Ch 10:3 the Sept. rendering is καὶ ἐπόνεσεν ἀπὸ τῶν τόξων, and that of the Vulgate et vulneraverunt jaculis. The translators have therefore derived יָחֶל from חָלַל = חָלָה, and then given a free rendering to the other words. But this rendering is overthrown by the word מְאֹד, very, vehemently, to say nothing of the fact that the verb חָלַל or חָלָה cannot be proved to be ever used in the sense of wounding. If Saul had been so severely wounded that he could not kill himself, and therefore asked his armour-bearer to slay him, as Thenius supposes, he would not have had the strength to pierce himself with his sword when the armour-bearer refused. The further conjecture of Thenius, that the Hebrew text should be read thus, in accordance with the lxx, הַמְּרֹרִים אֶל וַיָּחֶל, “he was wounded in the region of the gall,” is opposed by the circumstance that ὑποχόνδρια is not the gall or region of the gall, but what is under the χόνδρος, or breast cartilage, viz., the abdomen and bowels.)

and called upon his armour-bearer to pierce him with the sword, “lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and play with me,” i.e., cool their courage upon me by maltreating me. But as the armour-bearer would not do this, because he was very much afraid, since he was supposed to be answerable for the king's life, Saul inflicted death upon himself with his sword; whereupon the armour-bearer also fell upon his sword and died with his king, so that on that day Saul and this three sons and his armour-bearer all died; also “all his men” (for which we have “all his house” in the Chronicles), i.e., not all the warriors who went out with him to battle, but all the king's servants, or all the members of his house, sc., who had taken part in the battle. Neither Abner nor his son Ishbosheth was included, for the latter was not in the battle; and although the former was Saul's cousin and commander-in-chief (see 1Sa 14:50-51), he did not belong to his house or servants.

1Sa 31:7

When the men of Israel upon the sides that were opposite to the valley (Jezreel) and the Jordan saw that the Israelites (the Israelitish troop) fled, and Saul and his sons were dead, they took to flight out of the cities, whereupon the Philistines took possession of them. עֵבֶר is used here to signify the side opposite to the place of conflict in the valley of Jezreel, which the writer assumed as his standpoint (cf. 1Sa 14:40); so that הָעֵמֶק עֵבֶר is the country to the west of the valley of Jezreel, and הַיַּרְדֵּן עֵבֶר the country to the west of the Jordan, i.e., between Gilboa and the Jordan. These districts, i.e., the whole of the country round about the valley of Jezreel, the Philistines took possession of, so that the whole of the northern part of the land of Israel, in other words the whole land with the exception of Peraea and the tribe-land of Judah, came into their hands when Saul was slain.