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1 Samuel 11:1-11

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

1. Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabeshgilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. 2. And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this [condition] will I make [a covenant] with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it [for] a reproach upon all Israel. 3. And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days’ respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel: and then, if [there be] no man to save us, we will come out to thee. 4. Then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul, and told the tidings in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voices, and wept. 5. And, behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field; and Saul said, What [aileth] the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh. 6. And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly. 7. And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent [them] throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. 8. And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9. And they said unto the messengers that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabeshgilead, To morrow, by [that time] the sun be hot, ye shall have help. And the messengers came and shewed [it] to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad. 10. Therefore the men of Jabesh said, To morrow we will come out unto you, and ye shall do with us all that seemeth good unto you. 11. And it was [so] on the morrow, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the host in the morning watch, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day: and it came to pass, that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them were not left together.

1 Samuel 11:1-11 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on 1 Samuel 11:1

Theological / Devotional

Nahash the Ammonite. The name Nahash is the familiar Hebrew word for “serpent.” The serpent was a prominent decoration in the heathen temples of Palestine. The children of Israel had seen fit to preserve the brazen serpent after their experience with the poisonous reptiles in the Wilderness of Zin, on their departure from Kadesh (Num. 20:1; 21:5-9; cf. 2 Kings 18:4). Seeing the importance placed upon the snake in all the religions of their neighbors, the Israelites before long were also venerating the serpent that they thought had saved them in the wilderness (cf. Eze. 8:7-12). Later, in the days of Hezekiah, the brazen serpent was destroyed because of such worship (2 Kings 18:4). Inasmuch as personal names were frequently compounded with those of various deities, Nahash was evidently given a name implying certain characteristics of the serpent, such as wisdom, cunning, and craftiness.

Jabesh-gilead. Scholars had previously assigned this town to the hills overlooking the Wadi Yabis (Jabesh) 7 mi. (11.5 km.) to the east of the river Jordan. But this would have been too far for the men of Jabesh-gilead to carry the bodies of Saul and Jonathan the same night they took the impaled torsos of these men down from the city wall of Beth-shan (ch. 31:11-13). The archeologist Nelson Glueck found several definite lines of evidence that led him to identify Jabesh-gilead with the modern mounds of Tell el-Meqbereh and Tell Abu Kharaz, 2 2/3 mi. (4.3 km.) east of the Jordan, overlooking the river Yabis after it emerges from its deep gorge in the hills of Gilead and flows westward toward its union with the Jordan (The River Jordan, pp. 159-167). This city had been the home of the 400 virgins whose parents were slain because they did not participate in the civil war against Benjamin, and who were given as wives to the remnant of that tribe after its almost total destruction (Judges 21:8-14).

Many years earlier than Nahash, Israel had been in subjection to the Ammonites for 18 years. It would be natural that the Ammonites, still resenting their defeat at the hands of Jephthah, would be looking for an opportunity to regain control of Gilead. The Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh had rich soil, watered by the Jabbok, Yabis, and Yarmuk rivers. Well situated above the heat of the desert, their vineyards and fine pasturages were the envy of the peoples of the eastern deserts. Jabesh-gilead had risen from the rain of earlier days, but its inhabitants had probably not forgotten their brutal punishment following the affair with Benjamin. But stronger than the feud between the men of Jabesh-gilead and their own kin was the hatred Ammon felt for all Israel as a result of the defeat administered them by Jephthah.

By SdaBc