1 Samuel 13
Facing a massive Philistine army, Saul waits for Samuel. The seventh day passes. He offers the sacrifice himself.
Summary
Chapter 13 is the first of Saul's two great failures, and it is marked by the urgency of the situation. Jonathan, Saul's son, strikes the Philistine garrison at Geba, and the Philistines respond with an army whose numbers the narrator gives in superlative terms: thirty thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and infantry like sand on the seashore. The Israelites realize the scale of the threat; men flee across the Jordan or hide in the landscape — caves, thickets, rocks, holes, cisterns. The army that is still with Saul at Gilgal is trembling with fear and shrinking daily.
Samuel had told Saul at their previous meeting to go to Gilgal and wait seven days for him to come and offer sacrifices and give instructions. The seven days pass. Samuel does not come. The army is disintegrating around Saul. He orders the burnt offering and the peace offerings and makes them himself. At the moment he finishes, Samuel arrives. The confrontation is sharp and brief. Saul explains: I saw the army scattered, you did not come in the appointed days, the Philistines were assembling. I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering. Samuel's response is the first formal verdict: you acted foolishly, you did not keep the commandment. The Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. Now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart to be ruler. Samuel goes to Gibeah. Jonathan. The chapter ends with Israel almost weaponless — the Philistines have kept all the smiths from practicing their trade in Israelite territory, so that not a sword or spear is to be found in all the hands of Israel.
- 1 Samuel 1Chapter 1 opens at the sanctuary at Shiloh, where Elkanah of Ephraim brings his household each year to worship.
- 1 Samuel 2Chapter 2 opens with the Song of Hannah, one of the most influential poems in the Hebrew Bible — my heart exults in the Lord, the mighty brought low, the hungry fed, the barren bearing seven.
- 1 Samuel 3Chapter 3 is one of the most carefully paced call narratives in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 4Chapter 4 is the disaster that the previous chapters have been building toward.
- 1 Samuel 5Chapter 5 is the ark narrative in Philistine territory, told with something close to sardonic comedy.
- 1 Samuel 6Chapter 6 is the ark's return to Israel, engineered by Philistine priests who want to know whether their afflictions are the Lord's doing or mere coincidence.
- 1 Samuel 7Chapter 7 is the closing movement of the Samuel-as-judge arc.
- 1 Samuel 8Chapter 8 is the pivot of the entire book.
- 1 Samuel 9Chapter 9 introduces Saul, and the introduction is built on irony.
- 1 Samuel 10Chapter 10 is Saul's anointing and public selection.
- 1 Samuel 11Chapter 11 is Saul's first military action and the only chapter of his reign where he functions without any reservation or failure.
- 1 Samuel 12Chapter 12 is Samuel's formal farewell as Israel's judge, a speech that occupies the whole chapter.
- 1 Samuel 13Chapter 13 begins the decline.
- 1 Samuel 14Chapter 14 is a chapter of action and its costs.
- 1 Samuel 15Chapter 15 is the final disqualification.
- 1 Samuel 16Chapter 16 is the introduction of David and one of the most carefully constructed scenes of divine election in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 17Chapter 17 is the book's most famous chapter.
- 1 Samuel 18Chapter 18 is where the book's two great relationships crystallize.
- 1 Samuel 19Chapter 19 is the escalation from hostility to overt murderous intent.
- 1 Samuel 20Chapter 20 is the central scene of the David-Jonathan friendship and one of the great parting scenes in ancient literature.
- 1 Samuel 21Chapter 21 is a chapter of disguise and desperation.
- 1 Samuel 22Chapter 22 is one of the darkest chapters in the book.
- 1 Samuel 23Chapter 23 is a chapter of pursuit and one extraordinary meeting.
- 1 Samuel 24Chapter 24 is the first of two episodes in which David has Saul's life in his hands and refuses to take it.
- 1 Samuel 25Chapter 25 opens with Samuel's death — mourned by all Israel — and then turns to a story of David's near loss of self-control and the woman who stops it.
- 1 Samuel 26Chapter 26 is the second episode in which David refuses to kill Saul and, like chapter 24, it is structured to make the refusal as emphatic as possible.
- 1 Samuel 27Chapter 27 is the chapter of David's double game among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 28Chapter 28 is one of the strangest and most debated passages in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 29Chapter 29 is the resolution of a problem the narrative has been building toward: David, marching with Achish and the Philistine forces to fight against Israel.
- 1 Samuel 30Chapter 30 is the crisis of David's time among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 31Chapter 31 is the last chapter of 1 Samuel and the end of Saul's story.