But Saul is at this point only king de jure; he does not become king de facto until after he has proved himself, chap. xi.  After an interval of a month (x. 27 LXX) the men of Jabesh, besieged by the Ammonites and in great straits, send messengers throughout Israel to implore speedy assistance, since in seven days they have to surrender to their enemies and each of them to lose his right eye.  The messengers come to the town of Saul, Gibeah in Benjamin, and tell their message before the people; the people lift up their voices and weep.  Saul meanwhile comes from the field with a yoke of oxen, and, observing the general weeping, asks what has happened.  The story is told him, and at once the Spirit of God comes upon him and his anger is kindled greatly; he hews in pieces his oxen and sends the pieces throughout Israel with the summons:  Whoever does not come forth to the battle, so shall it be done to his oxen!  And the fear of Jehovah falls on the people, and they go out as one man and relieve the besieged town.  Hereupon “the kingdom is renewed” for Saul at Gilgal, and only now does Samuel abdicate his government, in the long speech (chap. xii.) a considerable portion of which was given above.

That chap. xi. is now an integral part of this version of the history is clear from xii. 12, and also from xi. 12-14.  But it was not originally designed for this connection.  For we hear nothing of the warriors who according to x. 26 were in company with Saul; it is not on his account that the messengers of Jabesh came to Gibeah.  When the supposed king comes home from ploughing, nothing is done to indicate that the news concerns him specially:  no one tells him what has happened, he has to ask the reason of the general weeping.  He summons the levy of Israel not in virtue of his office as king, but in the authority of the Spirit, and it is owing to the Spirit acting on the people that he is obeyed.  Only after he has showed his power and defeated the Ammonites do the people make him king (xi. 15); the “renewal” of the kingdom (xi. 14), after a month’s interval, is a transparent artifice of the author of viii. 10, 1) seq. to incorporate in his own narrative the piece which he had borrowed from some other quarter:  the verses xi. 12-14 are due to him.

Chapter xi. stood originally in connection with the other narrative of the elevation of Saul (ix. 1-X. 16).  Hero Saul first appears engaged in searching for strayed she-asses.  After a vain search of several days he arrives in the neighbourhood of Ramah, and at the suggestion of his servant applies for information as to the asses to a seer there, to Samuel.  His approach has been announced to the seer by Jehovah the day before:  “To-morrow I will send to thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be ruler over My people Israel; he shall save them from the Philistines.”  He was accordingly expecting him, and had instituted a sacrificial feast on the bamah for him even before