And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
Saul same to Carmel. In the Alexandrian version of the Septuagint it is said that Saul traveled in a chariot. Carmel was in the south of Judah (Joshua 15:55; 1 Samuel 25:2).
He set him up a place, х yaad (H3027), a hand; Septuagint, cheira (G5495)] - i:e., a pillar (2 Samuel 18:18), indicating that whatever was the form of the monument, it was surmounted, according to the ancient fashion, by the figure of a hand, the symbol of power and energy. Jerome ('Quaest. Hebraicae') says, it was a triumphal arch, made of myrtle, palm, and olive branches. These decorations might have been added to brighten the splendour of the trophy. But it is more than probable that, as the Hebrew text plainly states, the memorial of the victory was in the form of a colossal hand of stone, wood, or other durable material. Many such forms of the human hand exist among the monuments of ancient Egypt. Niebuhr ('Voyage en Arabie,' 2:,
p. 211) says, in his description of Ali's mosque at Mesched-Ali, that surmounting the dome, instead of a crescent, there is a hand extended, to represent that of Ali. The same symbol is on the top of the Alhambra, the palace of the Moorish kings in Grenada. The erection of this vain-glorious trophy was an additional act of disobedience. His pride had over-borne his sense of duty, in first raising this monument to his own honour, and then going to Gilgal to offer sacrifice to God.