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(^72) According to Jewish tradition, Samuel, like Solomon, died at the age of fifty-
two. He is said to have become prematurely old.
(^73) Josephus adds "Bethel" (Ant., 6. 3, 2), implying that one of the two sons
"judged" at Bethel, the other at Beersheba. But this suggestion - for it amounts to
no more than that - is wholly unsupported.
(^74) The rendering of the Authorised Version, they "perverted judgment," is stronger
than the original, which means, "they inclined," or "bent," judgment.
(^75) The word "it" seems necessary to give the sense of the Hebrew correctly.
(^76) This is the nearest approximation to a full rendering of the Hebrew expression.
(^77) It is noteworthy that Samuel introduces no personal element, nor complains of
their charges against his sons. If I have not remarked in the text on the absence of
all prayer before making such an application, as, contrasted with the conduct of
Samuel, it is not that I am insensible to it, but that I wish to present the matter in its
objective rather than its subjective aspect.
(^78) Not the manner of the king.
(^79) This account of the origin of monarchy in Israel seems to us to have also another
important bearing. It is impossible to regard it as either unauthentic or of much
later origin. For the manifest tendency of the Jewish mind in later periods
increasingly was to surround existing institutions with a halo of glory in their
origin. This would especially be the case in reference to the origin of monarchy,
associated as it was in later times with the house of David. Of anti-monarchical
tendencies we discover no real trace. An account so disparaging to royalty would
never have been invented, least of all in later times. The thoughtful reader will find
in what we have just marked a principle which has a wide application in the
criticism of Old Testament history.
(^80) It is only such a view of the character of Saul which, I venture to think,
satisfactorily accounts for his choice in the first instance, and then for his fall and
final rejection. But thus read, there is a strict unity about his whole history, and his
outward religiousness and the deeper defects of this religion appear consistent with
each other.
(^)