1 Samuel 11:7

Overview - 1 Samuel 11
Nahash offers them of Jabesh-gilead a reproachful condition.
They send messengers, and are delivered by Saul.
12 Saul thereby is confirmed, and his kingdom renewed.
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1 Samuel 11:7  (King James Version)
And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.
 


he took
The sending the pieces of the oxen was an act similar to that of the Levite, Judges 19:29 ,where see the Note. An eminent Scotch writer describes the rites, incantations, and imprecations used prior to the fiery cross being circulated, to summon the rough warriors of ancient times to the service of their chief; and he alludes to this ancient custom, which in comparatively modern times, has been practised in Scotland; and proves that a similar punishment of death, or destruction of their houses, for disobeying the summons, was inflicted by the ancient Scandinavians, as recorded by Olaus Magnus, in his History of the Goths. This bears a striking similarity to the ancient custom of the Israelites. With the Highlanders, a goat was slain; with the Israelites, an ox. The exhibition of a cross, stained with the blood of the sacrificed animal, was the summons of the former, while part of the animal, was the mandate of the latter. Disobedience in one nation was punished with the death of themselves or oxen, and burning of their dwellings in the other.

hewed
Judges 19:29

Whosoever
Judges 21:5-11

the fear
Genesis 35:5 ; 2 Chronicles 14:14 ; 17:10

with one consent
Hebrew as one man.
Judges 20:1