|Old Testament History - 4.7 - Saul, Gilgal, Rejection of
Kingdom| Saul Marches against the Philistines - Position of the
two Camps - Jonathan's Feat of Arms - Saul Retreats to Gilgal -
Terror among the People - Saul's Disobedience to the Divine
Command, and Rejection of his Kingdom. AT Gilgal Saul had been
accepted by the whole people as their king,* and it now behooved
him to show himself such by immediately taking in hand as his
great work the liberation of the land from Israel's hereditary
enemy the Philistines. * Accordingly the commencement of Saul's
reign was dated from Gilgal. Hence 1 Samuel 13:1 had opened, as
the history of all other kings (comp. 2 Samuel 2:10; 5:4; 1
Kings 14:21; 22:42; 2 Kings 8:26; etc.), with the statistical
data of his age at the commencement, and the duration of his
reign. But unfortunately the numeral letters have wholly fallen
out of the first, and partially out of the second clause of ver.
1, which, as they stand in our present Hebrew text, may be thus
represented: "Saul wa