1 Samuel 11 is fundamentally another Groundhog Day story: Saul was anointed king in the previous chapter but it doesn't really count until he musters the troops and massacres some people. But it does have some twists. It also has a major continuity problem -- actually two. All the people of Jabeshgilead, with the exception of the virgin women, were massacred in Judges 21. But here they are, miraculously resurrected so that they can make a deal with Nahash the Amonnite to have their right eyes poked out. Why exactly Nahash wants to do this is not explained.
A second major continuity error is the division in the muster between Israel and Judah. The kingdoms will not separate until fairly far in the future.
Finally there is the bizarre message Saul sends to raise his army, cutting his oxen into pieces and sending the pieces around Israel. (We can now speak of Israel rather than just the Israelites, as there is now a nation, although as I say historically this is likely anachronistic. The kingdom emerged a bit later.) This is similar to the means the unnamed Levite used in Judges 19, when he mailed the pieces of his murdered concubine. That was also a reprise of the story of Lot in Sodom. We often see this sort of theme and variation. (Viz. the two stories of the banishment of Hagar.) To me all this is suggestive of oral tradition being transcribed. In folklore, pieces of songs and stories often get reused and recombined.
Indeed, look at the footnote. In the dead sea scrolls, the beginning of the story was quite different.
11 Nahash[a] the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to him, “Make a treaty with us, and we will be subject to you.”
2 But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you only on the condition that I gouge out the right eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on all Israel.”
3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days so we can send messengers throughout Israel; if no one comes to rescue us, we will surrender to you.”
4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and reported these terms to the people, they all wept aloud. 5 Just then Saul was returning from the fields, behind his oxen, and he asked, “What is wrong with everyone? Why are they weeping?” Then they repeated to him what the men of Jabesh had said.
6 When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he burned with anger. 7 He took a pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers throughout Israel, proclaiming, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel.” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out together as one. 8 When Saul mustered them at Bezek, the men of Israel numbered three hundred thousand and those of Judah thirty thousand.
9 They told the messengers who had come, “Say to the men of Jabesh Gilead, ‘By the time the sun is hot tomorrow, you will be rescued.’” When the messengers went and reported this to the men of Jabesh, they were elated. 10 They said to the Ammonites, “Tomorrow we will surrender to you, and you can do to us whatever you like.”
11 The next day Saul separated his men into three divisions; during the last watch of the night they broke into the camp of the Ammonites and slaughtered them until the heat of the day. Those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.
Saul Confirmed as King
12 The people then said to Samuel, “Who was it that asked, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Turn these men over to us so that we may put them to death.”
13 But Saul said, “No one will be put to death today, for this day the Lord has rescued Israel.”
14 Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingship.” 15 So all the people went to Gilgal and made Saul king in the presence of the Lord. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the Lord, and Saul and all the Israelites held a great celebration.
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 11:1 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls gifts. Now Nahash king of the Ammonites oppressed the Gadites and Reubenites severely. He gouged out all their right eyes and struck terror and dread in Israel. Not a man remained among the Israelites beyond the Jordan whose right eye was not gouged out by Nahash king of the Ammonites, except that seven thousand men fled from the Ammonites and entered Jabesh Gilead. About a month later, 1 Nahash
2 comments:
After all the study we’ve done up to this point, I just don’t see why the Chumash and Tanakh in general are regarded as great. They are an enormous jumble, a mish-mash, a hodgepodge. Violent, often irrational, inaccurate and contrived. Granted, I haven’t read them in the original languages, but I don’t think it would affect the way I think about them now.
They almost seem like a cataloging of human foibles, frailties, and fears — and the results of living in servitude to them.
Yes. The challenge for me is to try to put myself into the world that created this. Why are some of these pieces in the book? Obviously people's expectations about literature were different. The writers don't seem concerned about the ubiquitous contradictions, and there is a good deal they don't bother to explain. But the character of Yahweh is pretty consistent. Somehow modern Jews and Christians have come to a very different understanding of him, but it's not what's in the book, that's for sure.
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