Fallen Into Knowledge

A series of thoughts from todays reading:

1. Both Eli’s and Samuel’s sons failed to follow in their footsteps. Aaron, too: two of his sons offered “strange fire” before the Lord, and subsequently bit it. While Israel is consistently commanded to recount the faithfulness of God to their children, they are never reported as doing so. Seeing Samuel’s sons’ waywardness, Israel decides that the solution to their problems is to have a king “like the other nations.” Methinks they missed the point. From this vantage point in chapter 8 the reader can look back on the history of the Judges and see how bad that era was. Readers can also look forward and see that the history of Israel’s kings - in balance - is not much better.

2. Huh. In chapter 11:8 it says, “When he [Saul] mustered them at Bezek, those from Israel were three hundred thousand and those from Judah seventy thousand.” This is well before the division of Israel to northern and southern kingdoms, and yet they are here referred to as if the division had already happened. The editor showing his (presumably a he) hand?
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I don’t have much to say about Ruth apart from what I have already said, except that I am constantly amazed by the story - ever more as my familiarity with it increases.