1Sa 14:24-28, 38-45, 15:3, 18, 32-33, Mat 25:41, Act 23:12-14, Rom 9:3 | TSK | STEP

Therefore.Both the Septuagint and Vulgate add much to this verse: [Kai eipe Saoul, Kyrie Lo Theos Israel, ti Loti ouk apekrithes to doulo sou semeron? ei en emoi e en lonathan to Luio mou he adikia, Kyrie ho Theos Israel dos delous kai ean tade eipe, dos de to lao sou Israel, dos de osioteta, k.t.l.] {Et dixit Saul ad Dominum Deum Israel; Domine Deus Israel da indicium: quid est quòd non responderis servo tuo hodie? Si in me, aut in Jonatha filio meo est iniquitas hæc, da ostensionem: aut si hæc iniquitas est in populo tuo, da sanctitatem, etc.} "And Saul said [to the Lord God of Israel, Vulg.] Lord God of Israel [give a sign, Vulg.] Why is it that thou has not answered thy servant to-day? If the iniquity be in me, or in my son Jonathan, [O Lord God of Israel, LXX.] make it manifest; and if thou say thus, give to thy people Israel, give mercy," etc., [but Vulg. Or, if this iniquity be in thy people, give sanctification," etc.]

Give a perfect lot. or, Shew the innocent.

Pr 16:33; Ac 1:24

And Saul.

10:20,21; Jos 7:16-18; Jon 1:7

escaped. Heb. went forth.

Tell me.

Jos 7:19; Jon 1:7-10

I did but.

God.

25:22; Ru 1:17; 2Sa 3:9; 19:13

thou shalt.

39; Ge 38:24; 2Sa 12:5,31; Pr 25:16

who hath.

23; 19:5; Ne 9:27

there shall not.The people judged rightly, that the guilt was contracted by Saul, and not by Jonathan; and therefore they rescued him from the hands of his rash and severe father.

2Sa 14:11; 1Ki 1:52; Mt 10:30; Lu 21:18; Ac 27:34

he hath.

2Ch 19:11; Isa 13:3; Ac 14:27; 15:12; 21:19; Ro 15:18; 1Co 3:9

2Co 6:1; Php 2:12,13; Re 17:14; 19:14

the people.

Isa 29:20,21

1 Samuel 15:3

Now go.The Amalekites, a people of Arabia Petræa, who inhabited a tract of country on the frontiers of Egypt and Canaan, had acted with great cruelty towards the Israelites on their coming out of Egypt, and God then purposed that Amalek, as a nation, should be blotted out from under heaven; but it had been spared till it had filled up the measure of its iniquities, and now this purpose is carried into effect by Saul, upwards of 400 years afterwards! Nothing could justify such an exterminating decree but the absolute authority of God; and this was given: all the reasons of it we do not know; but this we know well, the Judge of all the earth doeth right.

utterly destroy.

Le 27:28,29; Nu 24:20; De 13:15,16; 20:16-18; Jos 6:17-21

slay.

Ex 20:5; Nu 31:17; Isa 14:21,22

ox and sheep.

Ge 3:17,18; Ro 8:20-22

1 Samuel 15:18

the sinners.

Ge 13:13; 15:16; Nu 16:38; Job 31:3; Pr 10:29; 13:21

they be consumed. Heb. they consume them.

1 Samuel 15:32-33

Agag said.

Jer 48:44; 1Th 5:3; Re 18:7

As thy sword.

Ge 9:6; Ex 17:11; Nu 14:45; Jud 1:7; Mt 7:2; Jas 2:13; Re 16:6; 18:6

Samuel.It has been a matter of wonder to many, how Samuel could thus slay a captive prince, even in the presence of Saul, who from motives of clemency had spared him; but it should be remarked, that what Samuel did here, he did in his magisterial capacity; and that Agag had been a cruel tyrant, and therefore was cut off for his merciless cruelties. Farther, it is not likely that he did it by his own sword, but by that of the 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.}

hewed.

Nu 25:7,8; 1Ki 18:40; Isa 34:6; Jer 48:10

Matthew 25:41

them.

Depart.

7:23; Ps 6:8; 119:115; 139:19; Lu 13:27

ye cursed.

De 27:15-26; 28:16-68; Ps 119:21; Jer 17:5; Ga 3:10-13; Heb 6:8

everlasting.

46; 3:12; 13:40,42,50; Mr 9:43-48; 2Th 1:9; Re 14:10,11; 20:10-15

prepared.

Joh 8:44; Ro 9:22,23; 2Pe 2:4; 1Jo 3:10; Jude 1:6; Re 12:7-9

Acts 23:12-14

certain.

21,30; 25:3; Ps 2:1-3; 64:2-6; Isa 8:9,10; Jer 11:19; Mt 26:4

bound.

1Ki 19:2; 2Ki 6:31; Mt 27:25; Mr 6:23-26

under a curse. or, with an oath of execration.

Le 27:29; Jos 6:26; 7:1,15; Ne 10:29; Mt 26:74; *Gr:

1Co 16:22; Ga 3:13

that.Such execrable vows as these were not unusual among the Jews, who, from their perverted traditions, challenged to themselves a right of punishing without any legal process, those whom they considered transgressors of the law; and in some cases, as in the case of one who had forsaken the law of Moses, they thought they were justified in killing them. They therefore made no scruple of acquainting the chief priests and elders with their conspiracy against the life of Paul, and applying for their connivance and support; who, being chiefly of the sect of the Sadducees, and the apostle's bitterest enemies, were so far from blaming them for it, that they gladly aided and abetted them in this mode of dispatching him, and on its failure they soon afterwards determined upon making a similar attempt. (ch. 25:2, 3.) If these were, in their bad way, conscientious men, they were under no necessity of perishing for hunger, when the providence of God had hindered them from accomplishing their vow; for their vows of abstinence from eating and drinking were as easy to loose as to bind, any of their wise men or Rabbis having power to absolve them, as Dr. Lightfoot has shown from the Talmud.

1Sa 14:24,27,28,40-44; Ps 31:13

which.

2Sa 15:12,31; Joh 16:2

Ps 52:1,2; Isa 3:9; Jer 6:15; 8:12; Ho 4:9; Mic 7:3

Romans 9:3

I could.

Ex 32:32

were.

De 21:23; Jos 6:17,18; 1Sa 14:24,44; Ga 1:8; 3:10,13

accursed. or, separated. my kinsmen.

11:1; Ge 29:14; Es 8:6; Ac 7:23-26; 13:26