The new thing at this juncture was that this spirit passed
over upon Israel, and that the best members of the community were
seized by it. It afforded an outlet for the suppressed excitement
of the nation.
The new-kindled zeal had for its object, not the abolition of Baal
worship, but resistance to the enemies of Israel. Religion and
patriotism were then identical. This spirit of the times was
understood by an old man, Samuel ben Elkanah, who lived at Ramah
in south-western Ephraim. He was not himself one of the Nebiim;
on the contrary, he was a seer of that old type which had for a
long time existed amongst the Hebrews much as we find it amongst
the Greeks or Arabs. Raised by his foreseeing talent to a
position of great prominence, he found opportunity to occupy
himself with other questions besides those which he was
professionally called on to answer. The national distress
weighed upon his heart; the neighbouring peoples had taught him to
recognise the advantages which are secured by the consolidation of
families and tribes into a kingdom. But Samuel's peculiar merit
lay, not in discovering what it was that the nation needed, but in
finding out the man who was capable of supplying that need.
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