1 Samuel 11:1 Commentary and Bible Study

This is going to be a terrible event. The Ammonite threat was what gave rise to the demands for a king in the first place. In 1 Samuel 12:12 Samuel will later chastise the people and say, ‘And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the LORD your God was your king.’ Nahash the Ammonite had taken certain portions of the land and was threatening them, and that is the shadow that started the desire for a king originally. So he comes up, and he encamps against this particular region and city, Jabeshgilead. And the men of Jabesh say desperately – it is east of Jordan, a bit cut off from the rest of Israel – ‘Make a covenant [make a treaty] with us and we will serve thee.’ But the Ammonites are extremely cruel and they answer, ‘Yes, we will make a treaty with you; but only on condition you let us gouge out every man’s right eye so that you are utterly disabled for war: all your men, all your warriors, and then you can service us.’ That would mean they could never be warriors, they could never be soldiers; they wouldn’t have any depth of vision; they were disabled, and of course from their appearance it was obvious they had been disabled, and the nation which was fainthearted enough already, would say, ‘It's not only the Philistines; it’s the Ammonites we have to fear’, and they would be crushed and intimidated, and yield to them. So they lay this cruelty upon the people of Jabesh. The people of Jabesh: they have been given these terrible terms, and they give way to the Ammonites. ‘The 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.’ They accept these terrible terms, but they ask for time. And they get it from the Ammonites, no doubt because, cynically, Nahash believes that in seven days they will never stir the Israelites across the west of Jordan to come and defend them, and they will be humiliated in the process. Of course the men of Jabesh agreed to the terms supposing that they would either get help, or they would run for it when the time came. But they say, ‘If we don't get help, we will succumb.’ What a sad thing! Israel was so oppressed by Philistines and in this area by Ammonites, that there was no spirit in them, no desire in them for their exercise of national freedom under God.