Nor do I understand how it was that the Lord allowed the people to escape, who ate the flesh with the blood thereof.} 'Here is a second victory of the new king; but this happened contrary to all expectations, and must have disconcerted Samuel, who does not appear upon the scene of action. The Philistines being vanquished, retire to their own country. It would appear that a truce must have been made, since the historian does not speak any more of war on this side. He mentions that Saul turned his arms against other nations; "that he attacked one after another: the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Idumeans, the Syrian kings of Sobah, to the north and beyond Damas; and that it was not until then that he turned again against the Philistines and Amalekites." Everywhere he was fortunate and conquered. It is evident these different wars must have taken several years; at least each of them one campaign. The narrator likewise seems to terminate here his history in numbering and naming the wives whom Saul married, the children he had, and the man whom he made commander of his guard and general of his troops. 'From the manner in which the fourteenth chapter is terminated!' a reader used to the style of these books would believe that the history of Samuel is really finished; for the ordinary form in closing the history of the other kings, is by recounting their wives, their children, and the prominent personages of their reign. The fifteenth chapter, however, which follows, seems to commence another portion of the reign of Saul, containing the details of the consecration and substitution of David, which may be dated from a scene of the final rupture, which took place between the king and Samuel. May it not have been that the last compiler, presumed to have been Esdras, in arranging the manuscripts originally written by Samuel, Nathan, and God, according to the testimony given in Chronicles i., 29, sewed the narratives together without much care, as was generally done among {141} the ancients? We shall see the proof of this in the presentation of David to Saul.' ( _Vide_ Volney.) *Chapter xv., vv. 2 and 3. Christian, contrast these with Daniel, chap. ix, v. 9, and then consider well how your Deity has entitled himself to the attribute of a God of love, shewing mercy and forgiveness to all, even to those who have rebelled against him. Verse 9. If only as a measure of policy, Saul's conduct is worthy of approval; he acted far more wisely than Samuel. Verse 29 is contradicted by v. 35 of this chapter, and in Jeremiah, chap, xv., y. 6; and of all the parts of the Bible this is the most absurd, for the whole transaction arises from his having repented that he had set up Saul as king. (See V. 11.) Verse 32. The Douay says that Agag was 'very fat;' if the Jews were cannibals this would doubtless be a sufficient reason for the sacrifice.