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1 Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabesh-gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. 2 And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. 3 And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days' respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel: and then, if there be no man to save us, we will come out to thee. 4 Then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul, and told the tidings in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voices, and wept. 5 And, behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field; and Saul said, What aileth the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh. 6 And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly. 7 And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. 8 And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9 And they said unto the messengers that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabesh-gilead, To morrow, by that time the sun be hot, ye shall have help. And the messengers came and shewed it to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad. 10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, To morrow we will come out unto you, and ye shall do with us all that seemeth good unto you. 11 And it was so on the morrow, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the host in the morning watch, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day: and it came to pass, that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them were not left together. 12 And the people said unto Samuel, Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us? bring the men, that we may put them to death. 13 And Saul said, There shall not a man be put to death this day: for to day the LORD hath wrought salvation in Israel. 14 Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there. 15 And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
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[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:1
And all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, etc. Many faithful men of the Church, united in true love, often consented to serve humbly by obeying teachers, whom they esteemed as wise as serpents in frequent meditation on the Scriptures; but they did not fail to be as doves in keeping ecclesiastical peace. However, because there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, the fabricators of errors and cultivators of perverse doctrines continually revealed themselves, showing that they did not have the enlightened eyes of the heart, nor could it be said of them, "Your eyes are like doves" (Cant. II); but rather they desired to remove the right eyes from all their listeners, that is, the senses of heavenly and supreme contemplation, and to deflect them to see only the left and perverse things, rendering them impotent in the daily battle we wage against spiritual wickedness in high places. For this reason Nahash wanted to gouge out the right eyes of the Jabeites, so that while they covered the left side of their faces with shields in battle, they would not be able to see what they should do against the enemy, or for their own salvation. For this reason the ancient enemy tries to deprive the faithful of heavenly light, to render them useless in every spiritual fight.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:3
And the elders of Jabesh said to him, etc. The more prudent and cautious ones in faith said to the heretics, in whom they recognized the voice of the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, just as Christ spoke differently in Paul and his followers: Do not force us to believe your new doctrine until, in seeking the light of the Holy Spirit, who was given to the sevenfold Church, we have thoroughly examined the writings of the Fathers; and if in them there is no one who defends our faith, we will come out to you, and, abandoning the Catholic unity which is within, we will instead join you, who have long since gone out from it and now attack it from outside, and we will listen as it is also read against us in it. They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us (1 John 2). These things they spoke not with any intention of assenting to the heretics, but being most certain of the paternal faith, they intended to conquer them by the just reasoning of their argument. This is similar to what the Psalmist says: If I have returned evil to those who rewarded me, I will fall empty by my enemies (Psalm 7). And what the Apostle says: For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our faith is in vain, our preaching is also in vain. And we are found to be false witnesses of God, because we have testified against God that He raised up Christ; whom He did not raise if the dead do not rise (1 Corinthians 15). These things were said not so that either the resurrection of Christ is denied, or the prophet is taught to return evil to those who rewarded him; but that by means of those things which could not be proven false, also those things about which there was doubt might be established as true.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:4
Therefore, messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, etc. Messengers sent out of necessity of the faith came to Jerusalem, or some other notable city of the faith, in which it was not doubtful that the Lord reigned; and they narrated to themselves that the Church was disturbed by heresy. Hearing this, all the people of correct belief testified to the pain of their innermost heart with tears and weeping; as has often happened, anyone who has read the church's history will find.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:7
And behold, Saul came, following oxen from the field, etc. And behold, the Lord came as a helper at the right time in tribulation, who was born as a man in the world after many experts in the law and learned philosophers, whom, however, He drove from the field of external freedom to taking on the walls of the Church by teaching heavenly things, and who was always diligent in considering the tears of the Church, so that He, as a pious comforter, might wipe them away and console them.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:7
And taking both oxen, he cut them into pieces, etc. And taking both the wise man of carnal observance of the law and the one who gloried in secular philosophy, the Lord destroyed whatever they knew arrogantly with evangelical simplicity, truth, and humility; and He sent this through all the boundaries of the Church by the works of the evangelists, who earn the name by announcing well: Saying, Whoever will not depart from his paternal way of life, which was in the world, and will not gird himself up to undertake the spiritual struggle, by following the admonitions of the Gospel and prophecy in profession and deed, thinking to govern everything discreetly through action, or beneficially meditated by rumination on the word, as an example of those of whom it is said: Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? (I Cor. I), at the end he will find them to be destroyed.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:7
Therefore, the fear of the Lord seized the people, etc. Upon hearing through the Gospel what heretics and schismatics, what pagans and unfaithful Jews are to suffer, the people of the faithful, struck with a wholesome fear, departing from the enticements of the old man, took themselves into the unity of the Catholic Church. And, scorning all the lurking places of the apocrypha, they came to be counted by Christ in the light of the shining Gospel, and to receive their name in heaven. For this reason, Bezec is rightly interpreted as lightning, certainly signifying that heavenly light of truth and grace, about which the Lord, teaching that heretics are to be avoided, said, “And they will say to you, 'Behold, here,' or 'Behold, there.' Do not go out, nor follow them;” He added and said, “For as the lightning flashes under heaven and shines to the other part under heaven, so will the Son of Man be in His day” (Luke XVII). And about which the Psalmist says, “He multiplied and troubled them” (Psalm XVII). Nor is it without reason that Bezec is also said to mean poverty. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew V). And those who, leaving everything, follow the Lord, why would they not be thought to be counted by their King in Bezec?

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:8
And there were three hundred thousand sons of Israel, etc. There were in the people of the nations, those who were most ready to defend the faith, who believed rightly, hoped, and acted through love. For the number three, because of the confession of the Holy Trinity, is to faith; ten and a hundred because of the choice of the reward of the right hand, and the daily denarius to be given to good vineyard workers, are related to hope. Moreover, a thousand because of the solid nature of the denarius, which naturally looks to the immutable and stable operation of perfect love, it can rightly be understood in the same Church either of the Jews or of the nations, by the strength of the men of Judah first confessing God; but by the sons of Israel, the sublimity of those who have learned to contemplate Him more perfectly, as the Psalm says: "God is known in Judah, His name is great in Israel." It is to be noted that according to the letter much before the times of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, separately the tribe of Judah, but separately also the others that were called Israel, were counted, although not yet divided by empire or religion.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:9
And they said to the messengers who came: Thus you shall say, etc. They once said with a living voice to those present, they also speak to us today consulting their writings, the defenders of the Church, and they command to be sent to the members of the same Church in peril, never to go out to listen to heretics, certain of their salvation, where the truth of the evangelical sun has shone. It is also said to all who suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness; because the patience of the poor shall not perish forever (Psalm IX). But when the day of judgment will have inclined, eternal salvation will be given.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:9
So the messengers came, and announced to the men of Jabesh, etc. Those who first feared the wiles of the heretics and the thorns of their arguments, later, being strengthened by the consolations of stronger and more learned doctors, promise that they will not come to them now in the night of dialectical deception, but in the manifestation of the most radiant truth and virtue, not now to be condemned with them by the Church, but to bear arms against them with the Church.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:10
And you shall do to us everything that pleases you. They said, being glad this night, although a conflict was approaching, those who knew most certainly that the morning of faith was approaching, would soon be pleasing to the enemies, not adverse to the punishments of truth by the syllogisms, but seeking only the comforts of fleeing and returning to their own darkness.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on 1 Samuel 11:11
The people were divided into three parts, so that we might not strike the serpent Nahash in one battle line alone. The people were divided into three parts so that they might reveal the fruit and dignity of sacred fasting. By fasting we are called back to the contemplation of the holy Trinity, which we lost by eating the forbidding fruit. The people were also divided into three groups because this act commended the fasts of the law, the prophets and the gospel. When Moses was deemed worthy to receive the law, he twice fasted for forty days. When Elijah escaped the hand of Jezebel, he came to Mount Horeb on the strength of one meal that sufficed him for forty days. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ fasted for forty days in the wilderness and did not eat any food of any kind. Therefore, Saul divided the people into three parts in order to promote the fasts of the law, the prophets and the gospel as an example for those abstaining from food.

Source: SIX BOOKS ON 1 KINGS 5.20
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:11
And it happened when the next day came, etc. It happened when the grace of God the Savior appeared for the help of the struggling Church, He established it in three parts of the faithful, namely of the married, the continent, and the teachers; whom the prophet designates under the names of Noah, Daniel, and Job, skillfully instructing each group to sharpen themselves for defending the peace of the Church.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:11
And he entered the middle of the camp in the morning watch, etc. As Lucifer of sound doctrine rises among the darkness of heresies, immediately the camps of perfidy are disturbed. But with the Scriptures glowing from the Sun of righteousness, they vanish, completely anathematized. For the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1).

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:11
But the rest were dispersed, etc. The heart and soul of the multitude of believers, although widely scattered, are one. However, the heretics, who seem to have temporarily escaped the judgment of the Church, and are expelled farther from her, are also discordant among themselves. Just as Isaiah said, “And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians” (Isaiah 19). For Sabellius against Arius, Eutyches against Nestorius, Photinus against the Manichean, and the rest of the impious against the impious, stir up the weapons of iniquity.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:12
And the people said to Saul: Who is this who said? etc. When the Samaritans did not wish to receive the Lord, the sons of thunder said: Lord, do you want us to call fire to come down from heaven and consume them? And Jesus turned and rebuked them: You do not know of what spirit you are; The Son of Man did not come to destroy, but to save (Luke 9).

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:14
But Samuel said to the people who were coming: Let us go to Gilgal, etc. With the heretics vanquished, condemned, or corrected, any perfect teacher says to the Church subject to him: Come, with the face of the heart unveiled, let us contemplate the glory of the Lord. For Gilgal is indeed called revelation. And the more we are renewed in the spirit of our mind in the knowledge of him who created us, the more we see the dangers of those we have conquered; because remaining in oldness, they did not want to reveal their way to the Lord and hope in him, nor to supplicate him confidently, and say: Reveal our eyes, that we may behold the wonders of your law (Psalm CXVIII).

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:14
And all the people went to Gilgal, etc. Upon hearing the exhortation of their spiritual teachers, the people grew in faith and in the knowledge of the truth, and in the revelation of the heart, illuminating themselves by humbling and despising themselves, sought the glory of Christ in everything, and exalted his name among each other, and for the peace of the Church offered whatever they could of their devotion before the Lord.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 11:15
And Saul rejoiced there, etc. Saul rejoiced in Gilgal, which is called revelation. Jesus exulted in the Holy Spirit and said: I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent (Matt. XI; Luke X), that is, from those trusting in serpentine wisdom, as if fighting against Israel under King Nahash; and you have revealed them to little ones, that is, to those whom in the brightness of truth and in the poverty of spirit, as if in the city of Bezek, the fear of the Lord has gathered, strengthened, and helped. Again, he says, I will see you, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you (John XVI).

Source: Commentary on Samuel