To tell the story of Saul, the first King of Israel, we need to start in the middle, since the accounts of the beginning and end of his reign have been heavily reimagined by those left to pick up the pieces after his death.
As the Book of Samuel tells us (I Samuel 13–14), Saul was a middle-aged man when the inevitable war with the Philistines came. For years, the Philistines had been raiding the highlands, where the Israelite villages were situated. Saul, together with his warrior-son Jonathan, led the Hebrews in battle against these more powerful foes.
The Philistines were dismissive of Israelite military prowess, even sarcastic, joking about how the Hebrews were hiding in crags. Part of their confidence came from the sore lack of weapons on the Israelite side, something Philistine soldiers had been controlling for years.
But Saul had worked his entire adult life at strengthening the Israelite side. Archaeology reveals that during this period, all the Israelite villages were abandoned in favor of a handful of fortified, central sites. No more raids on Saul’s watch.
The fateful battle took place at Mikhmas and was kicked off by Jonathan striking the Philistine prefect in nearby Geba, where the local garrison was quartered. He attacked the Philistines with an organized army; they were unprepared for this, and Saul’s army carried the day.
He next went south into Judah, which the Philistines had dominated for decades, and made it part of his nascent Israelite kingdom. He apparently made it as far south as the Beersheba Valley, where he destroyed the main city of the Amalekites, Israel’s fierce enemy from when they first approached the land.
Then Saul turned north to expand the new kingdom’s control over the northern tribes, but here he was stopped by the Philistines, who had sent their army into the Jezreel Valley. The battle is fought at the very northern edge of the Samarian highlands, by Mount Gilboa, and this time, Saul’s army is defeated and his sons are all killed. Saul himself falls on his sword to avoid being taken and tortured by the enemy. After a brief civil war, David of Judah took control of the kingdom, and the history of Israel marched on to greater heights.
This is the short version of King Saul’s life, and it is not surprising that Israel’s storytellers loved to speculate on how this monarch came to power. The Book of Samuel weaves together three different versions of Saul’s rise to power, each with a different image of him.
1. Hometown Boy
Saul’s father, Kish, has lost his jennies (female donkeys) and sends Saul out to find them together with a servant. By the time they get as far as Zuf, the servant suggests they go ask the local seer if he can tell them where the jennies went. It turns out that the local seer is none other than Samuel, who has been told by God that a young man named Saul is soon to arrive, and he should be anointed king and even granted prophecy, hence the saying developed at the time (I Samuel 10:11), “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
2. Divine Fiat
The people ask Samuel to appoint them a king, and though he and God both think it’s a bad idea, they agree. The people gather at Mitzpeh, and Samuel performs a divination, which first points to the tribe of Benjamin (of which Saul is a member) and finally to Saul, who is hiding behind the baggage.
3. Hero
Saul is out plowing his field when some messengers arrive at his village and explain that Nahash, king of the Ammonites, has captured the Israelite village of Jabesh-Gilead and is about to force all the villagers to gouge out their right eye. They have a week to comply or be slaughtered. Saul hears of this and is overcome with fury. He slices up an ox yoke and sends the pieces all over Israel with a message to join him. He defeats the Ammonites and takes the throne.
One common thread in the descriptions of Saul is that he was enormous, “head and shoulders” above any other Israelite. And yet, the biblical stories accuse him of personal weakness. In the war with Amalek, Samuel had specifically told Saul that God forbade taking booty, but Saul, although ostensibly a powerful king, feels pressured to allow the people to take some. In response, Samuel berates him for subordinating himself to his own subjects (I Samuel 15:17): “You may look small to yourself, but you are the head of the tribes of Israel.”
The chief weakness of Saul’s character in the Book of Samuel is his obsessive jealousy of David, whom he tries to kill multiple times. Despite David being a powerful Israelite warrior, best friends with Jonathan and married to Saul’s daughter Michal, Saul sees him as a threat and slaughters anyone he believes is on David’s side.
Some accusations against Saul likely have a grain of truth. How can the founder of a kingdom not be a little ruthless and paranoid, especially when he must protect himself and his people from enemies? The Bible mentions that Saul slaughters the Gibeonites “in his zealousness for Israel and Judah.” And the stories of Saul chasing David through the Judean wilderness are likely true as well; David was a brigand leader and temporarily a vassal of the Philistine king of Gath (I Samuel 27, 29).
And yet, the depiction of Saul as crazed and weak derives more from Davidic propaganda than from history. Saul was the great hero of Israel, and he hated David; this was something the Davidic scribes needed to explain, and what better way than to make Saul seem like he had lost his mind and never really had the personal strength for kingship to begin with. And yet, it’s also possible to see Saul as the Book of Samuel portrays him in his battle against the Philistines, as a warrior-king who bested Israel’s enemies:
After Saul had secured his kingship over Israel, he waged war on every side against all his enemies: against the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, the Philistines, and the kings of Zobah; and wherever he turned he worsted [them]. He was triumphant, defeating the Amalekites and saving Israel from those who plundered it (I Samuel 14:47–48).
