Saul and his son Jonathan, making his first appearance without much fanfare in this chapter, are listed as the two top ranking warriors among the people of Israel. But they also exhibit remarkably poor judgment and they let impulse take over prudence in ways that will cost way too many lives, and eventually, their family crown, whatever it was made of, if there ever even was one. This chapter will prove to be another crucial milestone in their eventual tragic undoing.
One object that defined their exalted status, so far, wasn’t a crown - but a sword. This chapter goes out of its way to describe the rarity of iron weapons in use by Israel, during what will become known as the Iron Age. This precious metal was specifically prohibited by the Philistines who had the monopoly on the most advanced technology of the day, maintaining both military and financial superiority. When it came to warfare, Israel was not able to procure iron weapons or even upgrade agrarian tools. They only two swords in the land belonged to the royals:
וְהָיָה֙ בְּי֣וֹם מִלְחֶ֔מֶת וְלֹ֨א נִמְצָ֜א חֶ֤רֶב וַֽחֲנִית֙ בְּיַ֣ד כׇּל־הָעָ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֶת־שָׁא֖וּל וְאֶת־יוֹנָתָ֑ן וַתִּמָּצֵ֣א לְשָׁא֔וּל וּלְיוֹנָתָ֖ן בְּנֽוֹ׃
“Thus on the day of the battle, no sword or spear was to be found in the possession of any of the troops with Saul and Jonathan; only Saul and Jonathan had them.”
According to scholars, the use of iron was not popular in that region before Saul’s time - roughly the 10th century BCE. Most tools and weapons were made from a combination of bronze and lead. The Philistines, with links to the trade routes of Greek and Egypt, had the upper hand, increasingly threatening Saul’s nascent leadership. The fragile reality is ruptured when young Jonathan, sword in hand, decides to assassinate one of the Philistine top brass, stationed in Geba. The Philistine army responds with fury, advancing on Michmas with 30,000 chariots, and 6,000 horsemen, as Saul sounds the alarm and gathers his troops in Gilgal, to prepare for battle. What happens next is a bit unclear but it seems that Samuel instructed them to wait for him so that a sacrificial ritual will launch the war and hopefully appease YHWH. Saul and his soldiers wait in Gilgal, as the people flee and hide in caves and crevices, for seven long days. Samuel’s delay destroyed morale, and many soldiers deserted the battle ground. In despair, on the seventh day, as his army dwindles, Saul offers up the sacrifice himself ---
And just then, Samuel shows up, with no apology, furious at Saul for taking over the religious ritual.
Saul’s profuse apologies and very good reason -- the Philistine army is no joke - fall on deaf ears, as Samuel insults the king and promises him that this will cost him the crown; neither he nor Jonathan will reign for long, no matter what weapons they hold.
Samuel’s resentment of the king he crowned is quite disturbing here, and with dire consequences not just for Saul and his household but for all of Israel. What is this tension all about?
Halbertal and Holme explore this in The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel:
“Despite Saul’s initial victories over the Ammonites and other tribal enemies of Israel, Samuel continued to resent the king he had anointed, and his seething resentment will inflict continuous blows on Saul until the very end.
Though Samuel had witnessed firsthand Saul’s personal reluctance and innocence, he couldn’t resist treating Saul as an illegitimate usurper of his own role and power.
A young and inexperienced king was destined to make mistakes. And Samuel, as we will see, did more than his share in pushing Saul to, and over, the brink.
Besides providing a telling and astute commentary on the complex role of religion in stabilizing and destabilizing political authority, the trap that Samuel arguably laid for Saul in order to undermine his confidence in the future also lets us glimpse the particularly problematic form of instrumentalization that will play such a prominent role in the narrative to come...
It is difficult to avoid the reasonable speculation that Samuel’s resentment and wish that Saul would fail was at the heart of this sequence of events. After Saul’s first stumble as king, orchestrated by Samuel and wrapped in a religious aura, Samuel, who had anointed Saul, now ominously prophesied the end of his reign. Samuel’s all-too-human motivation is accentuated in the narrative by an embellishment that the prophet artfully added to his condemnation of Saul’s trespass. Samuel claimed that a substitute for Saul had already been picked by God, anticipating a divine decision that the reader knows has not yet been made, in order, as it were, to nail Saul’s coffin shut in advance.
God’s own voice is notably absent from the drama because, at this moment, God and the cult have become mere instruments in a struggle between contestants for power.”
Samuel leaves Gilgal as soon as he’s done rebuking Saul. The king, his son, their two swords, wounded pride, and dwindling army, are left to face the Philistines, iron chariots and all, in what is bound to be another epic, and surprising battle, one for the iron age, and the ages.
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