and overmastered, the others took to flight, no doubt in the belief that the two assailants were supported.  They carried their panic with them into the half-deserted camp, whence it spread among the various foraging bands.  The commotion was observed from Gibeah opposite, and, without pausing to consult the priestly oracle, King Saul determined to attack the camp.  The attempt was completely successful, but involved no more than the camp and its stores; the Philistines themselves effected an unmolested retreat by the difficult road of Bethhoron.

Saul was no mere raw stripling when he ascended the throne; he already had a grown-up son at his side.  Nor was he of insignificant descent, the family to which he belonged being a widespread one, and his heritage considerable.  His establishment at Gibeah was throughout his entire reign the nucleus of his kingdom.  The men on whom he could always reckon were his Benjamite kinsmen.  He recognised as belonging to him no other public function besides that of war; the internal affairs of the country he permitted to remain as they had been before his accession.  War was at once the business and the resource of the new kingdom.  It was carried on against the Philistines without interruption, though for the most part not in the grand style but rather in a series of border skirmishes. 1

********************************* 1 As regards the position of Samuel in the theocracy and the relation in which the stood to Saul, the several narratives in the Book of Samuel differ widely.  The preceding account, so far as it relates to Samuel, is based upon 1Samuel ix., x. 1-15, xi., where he appears simply as a Roeh at Ramah, and has nothing to do either with the administration of the theocracy or with the Nebiim.  Compare Prolegomena above, chap.  VII. *********************************

It is not without significance that the warlike revival of the nation proceeded from Benjamin.  By the battle of Aphek Ephraim had lost at once the hegemony and its symbols (the camp-sanctuary at Shiloh, the ark of the covenant).  The centre of Israel gravitated southward, and Benjamin became the connecting link between Ephraim and Judah.  It would appear that there the tyranny of the Philistines was not so much felt.  Their attacks never were made through Judah, but always came from the north; on the other hand, people fled from them southwards, as is instanced by the priests of Shiloh, who settled in Nob near Jerusalem.  Through Saul Judah entered definitely into the history of Israel; it belonged to his kingdom, and it more than most others supplied him with energetic and faithful supporters.  His famous expedition against the Amalekites had been undertaken purely in the interests of Judah, for it only could possibly suffer from their marauding hordes.