{"id":57380,"date":"2019-06-14T11:46:11","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T08:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=57380"},"modified":"2023-01-08T14:16:59","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T12:16:59","slug":"saul-the-unlikely-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/saul-the-unlikely-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Saul, The Unlikely King"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[423,503,885],"acf":{"old_id":"57380","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56443,"related_cahpter":"241","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Saul is artfully portrayed as the diametrical opposite of a political schemer consumed by naked ambition","content":"

Saul makes his first appearance in the chapter that follows the request of Israel for a king, and God\u2019s initially indignant and ultimately resigned acquiescence. Introduced as the son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin, Saul is described as \u201ca fine and goodly young fellow, and no man of the Israelites was goodlier than he, head and shoulders taller than all the people\u201d (1 Sam 9:2). Saul has the physical stature of a leader, but the sequence of events that follows makes clear that he was anything but an ambitious young man craving power and political authority. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is no accident that the narrative of Saul\u2019s journey away from home – a journey that leads to his anointment by Samuel as the future king – began with Saul seeking something trivial; he was sent by his father with one of his lads to retrieve some lost asses. After searching a large terrain and failing to locate the asses, Saul exhibited a sensitivity and uncertainty incompatible with crassly cynical ambition or a burning lust for power. He addressed the accompanying lad: Come, let us turn back, lest my father cease worrying about the asses and worry about us\u201d (1 Sam 9:5-6). Saul was a considerate and decent son, worrying about his father\u2019s worrying. So the lad, his inferior, took the lead, making sure that the quest did not end prematurely: \u201cLook, pray, there is a man of God in this town, and the man is esteemed – whatever he says will surely come to pass. Now then, let us go there. Perhaps he will tell us of our way on which we have gone\u201d (1 Sam 9:6-7). <\/span><\/p>\n

Drawing a sharp contrast between Saul\u2019s irresolution and his lad\u2019s initiative, our narrator has Saul voice an additional worry: \u201cBut look, if we are to go, what shall we bring to the man? For the bread is gone from our kits and there is no gift to bring to the man of God. What do we have? And the lad answers: \u201cLook, I happen to have at hand a quarter of a shekel of silver that I can give to the man of God, that he may tell us our way\u201d (1 Sam 9:7-8). Not Saul but the lad carried the cash that could be offered to the man of God (who happened to be Samuel), and Saul merely followed his lead. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although tapped to become king, Saul is artfully portrayed as the diametrical opposite of a political schemer consumed by naked ambition. Before acceding to the throne, he bears absolutely no psychological resemblance to the voracious monarchs whose insatiable craving for ever-greater power at the expense of their people\u2019s well-being was the subject of Samuel\u2019s prophetic warnings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Excerpts from The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp.18-20. By permission of the author.<\/span><\/p>\n

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