1Sa 13:8-11 | KD | STEP | Saul’s untimely sacrifice . - , 1Sa 13:9. Saul waited seven days for Samuel’s coming, according to the time appointed by Samuel (see at ), before proceeding to offer the sacrifices through which the help of the Lord was to be secured for the approaching campaign (see ); and as Samuel did not come, the people began to disperse and leave him. The Kethib וייחל is either the Niphal ויּיּחל, as in , or Piel וייחל; and the Keri ויּוחל ( Hiphil ) is unnecessary. The verb יעד may easily be supplied to שׁמוּאל אשׁר from the word למּועד (see Ges. Lehrgeb . p. 851).

‏ 1 Samuel 13:8-11

1Sa 13:8 Saul’s untimely sacrifice. - 1Sa 13:8, 1Sa 13:9. Saul waited seven days for Samuel’s coming, according to the time appointed by Samuel (see at 1Sa 10:8), before proceeding to offer the sacrifices through which the help of the Lord was to be secured for the approaching campaign (see 1Sa 13:12); and as Samuel did not come, the people began to disperse and leave him. The Kethib וייחל is either the Niphal ויּיּחל, as in Gen 8:12, or Piel וייחל; and the Keri ויּוחל (Hiphil) is unnecessary. The verb יעד may easily be supplied to שׁמוּאל אשׁר from the word למּועד (see Ges. Lehrgeb. p. 851). 1Sa 13:9

Saul then resolved, in his anxiety lest the people should lose all heart and forsake him altogether if there were any further delay, that he would offer the sacrifice without Samuel. העולה ויּעל does not imply that Saul offered the sacrifice with his own hand, i.e., that he performed the priestly function upon this occasion. The co-operation of the priests in performing the duties belonging to them on such an occasion is taken for granted, just as in the case of the sacrifices offered by David and Solomon (2Sa 24:25; 1Ki 3:4; 1Ki 8:63). 1Sa 13:10-12

The offering of the sacrifice was hardly finished when Samuel came and said to Saul, as he came to meet him and salute him, “What hast thou done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the people were scattered away from me, and thou camest not at the time appointed, and the Philistines were assembled at Michmash, I thought the Philistines will come down to me to Gilgal now (to attack me), before I have entreated the face of Jehovah; and I overcame myself, and offered the burnt-offering.” יי פּני חלּה: see Exo 32:11.