Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a monument, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal.
The writer recorded four more conflicts and reversals of fortune in chapters 7-15: the Philistines and Samuel (1 Samuel 7:2-17), the Ammonites and Saul (chs. 8-11), Saul and Jonathan (1 Samuel 12:1 to 1 Samuel 14:46), and Saul and Samuel (1 Samuel 14:47 to 1 Samuel 15:35). In the first two sections, God’s two anointed servants, Samuel and Saul, defeated Israel’s external enemies by depending on God. They both gave God the credit for their victories (1 Samuel 7:12; 1 Samuel 11:13-15). In the third and fourth sections, because Saul refused to obey God and to acknowledge His victory, Saul replaced the external enemies of Israel as the object of God and Samuel’s anger. Jonathan became Israel’s deliverer when his father failed. The son saw the spiritual significance of events to which the father was blind.