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The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
The Antiquities of the Jews
Written by Flavius Josephus
Translated by William Whiston
Book Six
Chapter 7
Saul's War With The Amalekites, And Conquest
Of Them
1. NOW Samuel came unto Saul, and said to him, that he was sent
by God to put him in mind that God had preferred him before all
others, and ordained him king; that he therefore ought to be
obedient to him, and to submit to his authority, as considering,
that though he had the dominion over the other tribes, yet that
God had the dominion over him, and over all things. That
accordingly God said to him, that "because the Amalekites did
the Hebrews a great deal of mischief while they were in the
wilderness, and when, upon their coming out of Egypt, they were
making their way to that country which is now their own, I
enjoin thee to punish the Amalekites, by making war upon them;
and when thou hast subdued them, to leave none of them alive,
but to pursue them through every age, and to slay them,
beginning with the women and the infants, and to require this as
a punishment to be inflicted upon them for the mischief they did
to our forefathers; to spare nothing, neither asses nor other
beasts, nor to reserve any of them for your own advantage and
possession, but to devote them universally to God, and, in
obedience to the commands of Moses, to blot out the name of
Amalek entirely." (15)
2. So Saul promised to do what he was commanded; and supposing
that his obedience to God would be shown, not only in making war
against the Amalekites, but more fully in the readiness and
quickness of his proceedings, he made no delay, but immediately
gathered together all his forces; and when he had numbered them
in Gilgal, he found them to be about four hundred thousand of
the Israelites, besides the tribe of Judah, for that tribe
contained by itself thirty thousand. Accordingly, Saul made an
irruption into the country of the Amalekites, and set many men
in several parties in ambush at the river, that so he might not
only do them a mischief by open fighting, but might fall upon
them unexpectedly in the ways, and might thereby compass them
round about, and kill them. And when he had joined battle with
the enemy, he beat them; and pursuing them as they fled, he
destroyed them all. And when that undertaking had succeeded,
according as God had foretold, he set upon the cities of the
Amalekites; he besieged them, and took them by force, partly by
warlike machines, partly by mines dug under ground, and partly
by building walls on the outsides. Some they starved out with
famine, and some they gained by other methods; and after all, he
betook himself to slay the women and the children, and thought
he did not act therein either barbarously or inhumanly; first,
because they were enemies whom he thus treated, and, in the next
place, because it was done by the command of God, whom it was
dangerous not to obey. He also took Agag, the enemies' king,
captive, - the beauty and tallness of whose body he admired so
much, that he thought him worthy of preservation. Yet was not
this done however according to the will of God, but by giving
way to human passions, and suffering himself to be moved with an
unseasonable commiseration, in a point where it was not safe for
him to indulge it; for God hated the nation of the Amalekites to
such a degree, that he commanded Saul to have no pity on even
those infants which we by nature chiefly compassionate; but Saul
preserved their king and governor from the miseries which the
Hebrews brought on the people, as if he preferred the fine
appearance of the enemy to the memory of what God had sent him
about. The multitude were also guilty, together with Saul; for
they spared the herds and the flocks, and took them for a prey,
when God had commanded they should not spare them. They also
carried off with them the rest of their wealth and riches; but
if there were any thing that was not worthy of regard, that they
destroyed.
3. But when Saul had conquered all these Amalekites that reached
from Pelusium of Egypt to the Red Sea, he laid waste all the
rest of the enemy's country: but for the nation of the
Shechemites, he did not touch them, although they dwelt in the
very middle of the country of Midian; for before the battle,
Saul had sent to them, and charged them to depart thence, lest
they should be partakers of the miseries of the Amalekites; for
he had a just occasion for saving them, since they were of the
kindred of Raguel, Moses's father-in-law.
4. Hereupon Saul returned home with joy, for the glorious things
he had done, and for the conquest of his enemies, as though he
had not neglected any thing which the prophet had enjoined him
to do when he was going to make war with the Amalekites, and as
though he had exactly observed all that he ought to have done.
But God was grieved that the king of the Amalekites was
preserved alive, and that the multitude had seized on the cattle
for a prey, because these things were done without his
permission; for he thought it an intolerable thing that they
should conquer and overcome their enemies by that power which he
gave them, and then that he himself should be so grossly
despised and disobeyed by them, that a mere man that was a king
would not bear it. He therefore told Samuel the prophet, that he
repented that he had made Saul king, while he did nothing that
he had commanded him, but indulged his own inclinations. When
Samuel heard that, he was in confusion, and began to beseech God
all that night to be reconciled to Saul, and not to be angry
with him; but he did not grant that forgiveness to Saul which
the prophet asked for, as not deeming it a fit thing to grant
forgiveness of [such] sins at his entreaties, since injuries do
not otherwise grow so great as by the easy tempers of those that
are injured; or while they hunt after the glory of being thought
gentle and good-natured, before they are aware they produce
other sins. As soon therefore as God had rejected the
intercession of the prophet, and it plainly appeared he would
not change his mind, at break of day Samuel came to Saul at
Gilgal. When the king saw him, he ran to him, and embraced him,
and said, "I return thanks to God, who hath given me the
victory, for I have performed every thing that he hath commanded
me." To which Samuel replied, "How is it then that I hear the
bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the greater cattle in
the camp?" Saul made answer, That the people had reserved them
for sacrifices; but that, as to the nation of the Amalekites, it
was entirely destroyed, as he had received it in command to see
done, and that no one man was left; but that he had saved alive
the king alone, and brought him to him, concerning whom, he
said, they would advise together what should be done with him."
But the prophet said, "God is not delighted with sacrifices, but
with good and with righteous men, who are such as follow his
will and his laws, and never think that any thing is well done
by them but when they do it as God had commanded them; that he
then looks upon himself as affronted, not when any one does not
sacrifice, but when any one appears to be disobedient to him.
But that from those who do not obey him, nor pay him that duty
which is the alone true and acceptable worship, he will not
kindly accept their oblations, be those they offer ever so many
and so fat, and be the presents they make him ever so
ornamental, nay, though they were made of gold and silver
themselves, but he will reject them, and esteem them instances
of wickedness, and not of piety. And that he is delighted with
those that still bear in mind this one thing, and this only, how
to do that, whatsoever it be, which God pronounces or commands
for them to do, and to choose rather to die than to transgress
any of those commands; nor does he require so much as a
sacrifice from them. And when these do sacrifice, though it be a
mean oblation, he better accepts of it as the honor of poverty,
than such oblations as come from the richest men that offer them
to him. Wherefore take notice, that thou art under the wrath of
God, for thou hast despised and neglected what he commanded
thee. How dost thou then suppose that he will respect a
sacrifice out of such things as he hath doomed to destruction?
unless perhaps thou dost imagine that it is almost all one to
offer it in sacrifice to God as to destroy it. Do thou therefore
expect that thy kingdom will be taken from thee, and that
authority which thou hast abused by such insolent behavior, as
to neglect that God who bestowed it upon thee." Then did Saul
confess that he had acted unjustly, and did not deny that he had
sinned, because he had transgressed the injunctions of the
prophet; but he said that it was out of a dread and fear of the
soldiers, that he did not prohibit and restrain them when they
seized on the prey. "But forgive me," said he, "and be merciful
to me, for I will be cautious how I offend for the time to
come." He also entreated the prophet to go back with him, that
he might offer his thank-offerings to God; but Samuel went home,
because he saw that God would not be reconciled to him.
5. But then Saul was so desirous to retain Samuel, that he took
hold of his cloak, and because the vehemence of Samuel's
departure made the motion to be violent, the cloak was rent.
Upon which the prophet said, that after the same manner should
the kingdom be rent from him, and that a good and a just man
should take it; that God persevered in what he had decreed about
him; that to be mutable and changeable in what is determined, is
agreeable to human passions only, but is not agreeable to the
Divine Power. Hereupon Saul said that he had been wicked, but
that what was done could not be undone: he therefore desired him
to honor him so far, that the multitude might see that he would
accompany him in worshipping God. So Samuel granted him that
favor, and went with him and worshipped God. Agag also, the king
of the Amalekites, was brought to him; and when the king asked,
How bitter death was? Samuel said, "As thou hast made many of
the Hebrew mothers to lament and bewail the loss of their
children, so shalt thou, by thy death, cause thy mother to
lament thee also." Accordingly, he gave order to slay him
immediately at Gilgal, and then went away to the city Ramah.
Continue on to
Book
Six,
Chapter 8,
The Antiquities of the Jews
by
Flavius Josephus
Return to
The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
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