The book of Samuel is traditionally divided into two parts, I and II, easy enough. No particular reason is given, other than perhaps that it just ran on a bit. It’s a compilation of the writings of three prophets, Samuel, Gad, and Nathan, with emphasis on the first. Much of its focus is around the Ark of the Covenant, during years of Philistine oppression, followed by the reign of King Saul and the early story of the history of David, prior to becoming king. Equally important is that Samuel is the last of the Prophets and Judges as national leaders, reestablishing law, order, and religious practice for the tribes; and he is instrumental in the creation of a united monarchy as the leadership role for the Jews.
- There was a man Elkhanah who had two wives, Penninah with whom he had children, and Hannah, who despite repeated tries, never became pregnant. Penninah, not a pleasant woman, lords it over Hannah, who is miserable. One day Hannah accompanies Elkhannah to the Temple. Distraught, she falls to her knees and prays, silently but fervently, for God to give her a child. She’s so into it that the priest, Eli, accuses her of being drunk, though after her explanation, he wishes her well and hopes her prayer comes true. It does. Elkhanah and Hannah go home, get it on, she gets preggers, gives birth to Samuel, which she says means “Because I asked God for him”. And, she takes Samuel to the Temple and Eli the priest, and dedicates him to the service of God in perpetuity. Burnt offering and all.
- So, Hannah and Elkanah leave Samuel with the priest, Eli, to raise him in service to God. And, he does a good job of that. But, while doing so, he slacks off on supervising his own sons, how turn out to be, shall we say, ne’er do wells. Not only do they shirk their priestly apprentice duties, but they steal meat from the sacrificial offerings, sometimes even before it’s offered, in order to use the meat to cook other dishes. They treat people poorly. Eli notes all this, but seems to just sort of flap his hands. One day a holy man shows up at the temple, and proceeds to castigate Eli for his lack of fatherly supervision. Eli offers to leave the priesthood, but the holy man tells him that he and his descendants are destined to obligatory temple service in perpetuity, as punishment. Further, he adds, he’s taking over the raising of Samuel. Meanwhile, it’s noted, now that her barren spell is over, and she’s offered thankful prayers to God, Hannah is now regularly getting pregnant and the family is growing. I have no doubt that Penninah isn’t happy.
- Eli’s getting old. Samuel is still in his care (what happened to the holy man who was going to take over his education?). One night, Samuel hears a voice calling his name. Thinking it’s Eli, he goes to him, but Eli says he didn’t call him and to go back to sleep. This happens twice more, and then Eli realizes that it must be the voice of God, and tells Samuel to answer that he is ready to serve. Samuel does so. God then details the punishment he has in store for Eli and his descendants. Samuel is afraid to tell Eli what God told him. But, Eli insists, saying that if Samuel doesn’t spill the beans, God will punish him. An interesting manipulative choice. Samuel tells him, Eli accepts his fate, as he’d already told God he would. And we get a cryptic “all the things Samuel predicted came true”. Which, I find interesting, because it implies that Samuel’s words, as prophecy, are believed to be his own, rather than him passing on the word of God. More like an oracle than a conduit. And, it raises his own street cred as someone who is trustworthy in his predictions. Thus, the concept of a prophet and prophecy comes to the fore, rather than as past leaders had asserted, simply reporting on “what God said” to the people.
- God appears to Samuel. We don’t know what was said, but Samuel convinces the Israelites to attack the Philistines. They do so and are soundly defeated, losing 4000 soldiers. They decide they need God with them, so they send a messenger to Eli, back at the temple. He dispatches his sons (the disgraced ones, remember), with the Ark of the Covenant, to join the troops at the battlefront. On arrival, the Israelites cheer and celebrate. The Philistines find out why and are afraid, after all, remember what God did to the Egyptians! The Israelites attack again, and are once again soundly defeated, losing 30000 soldiers! In addition, Eli’s sons are killed and the Ark is captured. A messenger is dispatched to tell Eli, who is sitting at the temple gate awaiting news. When told, he falls off his chair, breaks his neck, and dies, at age 98. His daughter-in-law, pregnant, hearing that her husband and father-in-law are dead, promptly goes into labor, delivers a baby, who she names Ichabod, meaning “The glory has departed from Israel”. She dies.
- Let’s just say, God is not cool with the Philistines capturing his Ark. First they take it to the city of Ashod, and set it up next to a statue of the Syrian god of crop fertility, Dagon. Next morning, his statue is lying face down in front of the Ark. The Philistines prop the statue back up and next day not only is it on the ground, but its head and limbs have been broken off. And, they all get hemorrhoids. Concerned, they send messages to one and all, and it is suggested they move the Ark to a more secure location, in Gath. So, God gives everyone in Gath hemorrhoids. The Philistines up the security and send the Ark to Ekron. The Ekronites aren’t happy, assuming the folk in Ashod and Gath just want them to die and/or get hemorrhoids too. Which is, well, true. And it starts to happen. All the rulers of the various Philistine city-states get together and, surprise, surprise, decide maybe capturing the Ark of the Covenant wasn’t a smart idea after all, and maybe, just maybe, they ought to return it.
- Ya gotta love holy men and their divinations. The Philistines keep the Ark for another six months, muttering about it the whole time, then finally summon a bunch of divinatory types. These guys are like, “Are you kidding me? Send it back. Send it back right now.” Of course, there are conditions. The Philistines will need to pay a fine, which the oracles determine should consist of 5 golden statues of their hemorrhoids (I am NOT making this up) and 5 golden statues of the mice that are ravaging their fields. Did we have mice yesterday? They are to load the Ark and the 10 statues onto a cart, hook a couple of cows up to it, and set them loose, letting divine provenance guide their path. Of course, the cows head right back to the Israelites, who chop up the cart for firewood and put the Ark on a large stone. The statues, in a large chest are placed next to the Ark. Although not stated, apparently the Israelites opened up the Ark and checked it out, as next thing we know, God’s killed off 50,070 of them. The people remaining, not so happy about the return of the Ark.
- So the leaders of the Israelites went and retrieved the Ark and brought it back to Kiriath-jearim, where it sat, on display, for 20 years. At the same time, they continued to display statues and worship other gods, and the Philistines kept advancing. So they went to Samuel and said, what’s up with God? Why isn’t he answering our prayers? And Samuel replies, guys, guys, how many times do we have to say it? Stop worshipping other gods and just dedicate yourselves to this one, 100%. And they’re like, okay, we’ll give it a try. They destroy all the idols and altars of the other gods. The Philistines see this and realize they better attack now, before the Israelite god jumps in. But Samuel offers up a lamb to him, and God’s like, oooh, lamb, I like lamb, and he helps the Jews rout the Philistines. And, they take back all the territories that the Philistines had taken from them over the years. Then, for the rest of Samuel’s life, he’s hailed as the judge over Israel, making his rounds and keeping things in order. This seems a big time jump given where we are in the book.
- So, we really did time jump, and Samuel is old, and he appoints his sons as judges in his place. History repeating itself – remember, he was raised by Eli, whose sons were scoundrels – Samuel’s sons are too, taking bribes and subverting justice. The leaders of the people come to Samuel and say, look, your sons are trash, you’re dying, we’re tired of this whole judges thing, and that you didn’t see this coming says a whole lot about your prophetic abilities. We want a king. Samuel talks to God, who says, go for it. After all, he says, this is just one more time the chosen folk are abandoning me, their true king, for an earthly one. But, warn them of what having a king will be like. So Samuel tells them he’ll appoint a king, but they should know, kings take slaves and concubines. They create serfdoms, and collect taxes (like the Temple wasn’t collecting the same tithes he warns them about). They’ll steal your land and possessions. The people say, yeah, yeah, we got it, we want a king. Samuel reports back to God who says, do it, let them sort it out.
- There’s a young man, a Benjaminite, named Saul. He’s handsome, he’s bright, he’s tall. Really tall. Like a foot taller than anyone else around. One day, his father sends him, and a servant, out to look for some donkeys that have strayed from the farm. Saul and the servant search high and low, but don’t find the donkeys. Saul is ready to turn back, but the servant tells him he’s heard there’s a seer, a prophet, in a nearby town. So they go there. And, who should be waiting for them, because he got the heads-up from God? Why, it’s Samuel! God told him to go to this town and this day. As soon as Saul appears, God whispers to Samuel that this is the guy to make Israel’s new king. Conversation ensues, Saul demurs, Samuel insists, they chat long into the night on Samuel’s rooftop. Next day, Samuel and Saul set out for Saul’s home to tell dad all about the kingship and such. Samuel has Saul send his servant ahead so that he can reveal some divine secrets to Saul. I keep remembering that this is supposed to be a bad idea….
- So, Samuel oils up Saul (hey, I didn’t make this up), and then tells him to start heading home (I thought they were already heading to Saul’s home?). He says that on the way, Saul will be met by men who will tell him those missing donkeys have been found. Then he’ll be met by some other men who are carrying sacrificial items who will give him some bread. Then he’ll run into a group of prophets “speaking in ecstasy”, with whom he is to join and do the same. Then he’s to enter a shrine and sit and wait a week for Samuel to show up. All that happens. Samuel shows up, gathers all the leaders of the people at the shrine, chastises them a bit for abandoning God, reminds them that appointing a king is their idea, has Saul (who is hiding “in the baggage”) brought out, where he stands, tall and pretty. Samuel appoints him king, people cheer, he sends Saul home to his dad. Some other people start muttering about whether or not this is the right guy to be king or not.
- A group of Ammonites, led by one Nahash, surround a small city, Jabesh-gilead, demanding their surrender and threatening to gouge out every Israeli’s right eye, starting in that city. The folk of Jabesh send word to the leaders of nearby cities. Word reaches Saul. He gets angry. He cuts up some oxen and send it in pieces to all the city-state leaders, saying if they don’t show up and support him in his new fight against the Ammonites, he’s going to do the same to them. And, show up they do, more than 300k strong. Saul, and Samuel, send word ahead to Jabesh, and the leaders there tell the Ammonites, Hey, we’ll surrender to you tomorrow morning, just come to the city gates. The Ammonites show up, Saul, Samuel, and 300k troops ambush them, and pretty much slaughter everyone. Samuel announces that everyone is to make their way to Gilgal, where Saul will officially become king, initiating the first reign of the monarchy over Israel. They do.
- Samuel stands before the elders. He asks them to announce, in front of God, if he’s ever wronged them, ever stolen from them, ever cheated them. They reply that he hasn’t. So he says, good, look, over and over again in our history, you’ve turned away from God. Each time, it has gone badly, and a hero, judge, or prophet has had to step in and fix things when you realized you’d screwed up. So, I told you that appointing a king was a bad idea, and it would lead to you being devoted to the king instead of God, and we know where that leads. So, just as a reminder, I’m going to ask God for a little demo. And then Samuel asks God to send a massive storm, which batters their fields and homes until they beg Samuel to make it stop. He does. Then he reminds them that he’s getting old, and will soon be leaving them. But, they should just remember, human monarchy or not, the real king over all of them, that they should never forget, is God.
- Saul gathers 3000 men and routs a prefecture of Philistines. He’s done this on his own initiative, Samuel had told him to hang tight for a week, but he’s bored, and he’s got a bit of self-importance going. When Samuel doesn’t show up on time, he forges ahead. He offers up a sacrifice, and then prepares for war against the Philistines. Samuel shows up and says, wow, dude, I told you to wait, now I’m pissed and God’s pissed. You could have established your dynasty for the future, but now, you’re on your own. Meanwhile, the Philistines gather tens of thousands of troops and start marching on the Israelites and Saul, who finds that no one’s really on his side anymore. He only has 600 men to support him, and no weapons of quality, because they used to get them from the Philistines.
- Saul’s son Jonathan is an impetuous fellow. He sneaks off from camp with his servant, and decides to challenge a garrison of Philistines himself. In short order, the two of them kill 20 men, and set the rest of the garrison into confusion and disarray. When Saul sees the Philistines are vulnerable, he marches on the garrison with 600 men and slaughters them. For no apparent reason, however, he announces to his troops that they’ll only win if they don’t eat anything until the battle is over. They don’t, and are victorious. However, Jonathan doesn’t know about this, and samples some captured honey. A few of the troops, hungry and tired, follow suit, trying honey, and killing some cattle and sheep and cooking them up. Saul sees this, tells them they have to sacrifice and kill the animals properly. He swears that whoever started this will be put to death. When he finds out it’s his son, he orders him killed, with no apparent compunction. But the troops prevail on him to rescind the order, as Jonathan is the one who initiated the battle that they’ve just won. Saul relents.
- You’d think by now, the Jews would understand that disobeying God is a bad idea. Samuel reminds Saul that he made him king on behalf of God. God tells Samuel that it’s time for revenge on the Amalekites, who attacked the Jews on their exodus from Egypt. So Samuel tells Saul to gather troops and go destroy the Amalekites – every man, woman, child, ox, sheep, etc., no one and nothing is to be left alive. Saul gathers 210k troops and marches on Amalek. They slaughter all the people, but take the livestock for themselves. Then Saul has a statue of himself erected there. God’s not happy. Samuel’s not happy. He confronts Saul, who tries to excuse it because they were going to offer some of the livestock as sacrifices to God. Samuel asks him whether he thinks God wants sacrifices or obedience? Saul hems and haws and makes excuses for his behavior. Samuel tells him he, and God, regrets having made him king, strips him of the title, and tells him to go back home to his family. They never speak nor see each other again.
- God tells Samuel to stop moping around, after all, he’s the one who picked Saul, not Samuel, and he’s the one who unpicked him too. He tells him to head to Bethlehem and checkout the sons of a guy named Jesse. Samuel’s worried that Saul will come after him. Why? Because Saul is still out there playing king, even without God’s blessing. So Samuel heads to Bethlehem, checks out Jesse’s sons, God says none of them are the one. Samuel asks if there’s another kid, Jesse sends for his youngest. God says, yup. Samuel annoints… David. And, David gets all spiritual and goes back to tending sheep. Until, Saul, who is gripped by bad juju these days, is advised to find a young man who can soothe his troubled spirits with music and song. Guess who? Yup, David. Saul has him brought to court and indentured to him.
- The Philistines are back. This time, with a champion, Goliath! Standing over 9′ tall, decked out in bronze armor, with shield and sword. He challenges the Jews, saying that if they send someone out to fight him, whoever’s side loses becomes the slaves of the other. For 40 days he issues the challenge and the Israelites don’t respond. One day, David, who has been going back and forth between tending his dad’s sheep and playing the lyre for Saul (is that a euphemism?), shows up in camp with cheese and bread from his father. While there, delivering it to his brothers who are in Saul’s service, he overhears Goliath. He asks what’s going on, his older brother tells him, “get lost squirt, this is real man’s biz”. David goes to Saul and tells him that he has the power of God on his side, and he’ll do it. David tries to put on armor, but it’s too heavy, so he goes out in his shepherd’s tunic and calls out Goliath, who laughs at him. David declares he’s got God on his side, uses his sling and a stone, and knocks Goliath out, and then cuts off his head. The Philistines run away. The Israelites pursue, and yes, you guessed it, kill them all. David takes Goliath’s head back to Saul, who demands to know whose child this is. I guess the courtiers didn’t tell him where they procured his “soother” from.
- Jonathan, Saul’s son, appears, and he’s in love with David. They share clothes, they share, well, an implied everything. Saul, meanwhile, requires David to stay fulltime, rather than share with his dad. David continues to go out and kill Philistines on Saul’s behalf. But the people love David and not so much Saul, who gets pissy. He offers him one daughter, David declines, he offers him his other (who also happens to be enamored of David), he declines. Saul keeps sending David out on missions, hoping the Philistines will kill him. David continues to beat every challenge Saul gives him. He even goes out and kills 200 Philistines just to cut off their foreskins and present them to Saul. Saul pushes his second daughter to David. I’m not convinced that Saul’s actions aren’t a father’s gay panic – trying to get him killed off, and the whole take my daughter, stop “being roommates” with my son.
- Saul orders that David be killed. It’s not clear if this is because he’s upset because David keeps upstaging him in battle or because David’s cohabitating with his son. Jonathan warns David, who hides, while Jonathan talks his father out of killing David. David returns to court, and all is well, until one day, while playing the lyre to sooth Saul’s temper, Saul suddenly tries to kill him with a spear. David evades and escapes and goes home to his kinda sorta wife, Michal (Saul’s daughter), who tells him to flee. He does, while Michal dresses up an idol (wait, even David still has idols in the house?) with a wig, and puts it in their bed. When Saul’s men come to kill David, she tells them he’s sick. Saul orders them to grab him and bring him to court. They discover the ruse. Michal claims David forced her into the ruse under threat of death. Meanwhile, David goes to Samuel, tells him what happened, they go join a group of prophets “speaking in ecstasy”, and start doing so themselves. Saul chases, arrives, and starts doing the same. I suspect drugs.
- David tells Jonathan that Saul is still trying to kill him. Jonathan doesn’t believe it because his father tells him everything. David asserts it’s true, they devise a plan for him to hide and not attend dinner, and Jonathan to determine if it is or not. The plan is irrelevant. Jonathan realizes it’s true. In a rage, Saul throws a spear at him. Jonathan let’s David know that it’s true after all and he should leave. They kiss, hug, hang a bit (wink, wink), declare their undying love for each other, and Jonathan sends David away.
- While Jonathan goes back home to his father, David heads out on the run. He arrives at a temple, where the priest recognizes him, but wonders why he is alone. David lies, claiming he’s on a secret solo mission from Saul. He asks for some bread. The priest says he only has consecrated bread, which can only go to a man who hasn’t slept with a woman. David replies that that’s not an issue (further reinforcing my, and many people’s thoughts about his relationship with Jonathan), and the priest gives him the bread. Then he asks if there might be a weapon he can have, and the priest notes that Goliath’s sword is stored there, and given that David slew him, the sword is, rightfully, his. So he takes the sword, goes on to another city, where he is again recognized. Overhearing that the local ruler is afraid of him, and of Saul, he’s fearful that he’ll be turned in. So he starts acting crazy, talking to himself, scratching at doors, and drooling. The local ruler dismisses him as harmless, having clearly gone ’round the bend.
- David is back on the run, and holes up in a cave. His family, and others who are afraid of Saul, join him there, in total, about 400 people. He takes them to the king of Moab, asking that they be allowed to stay there under his protection. The king agrees. God, meanwhile, has other ideas, and orders David to go to the Hereth forest, in the region alloted to Judah’s tribe. Cut scene, back to Saul, who is sitting on a hillside with his spear, surrounded by troops, searching for David. Doeg, a courtier, tells Saul where David is. He also tells what he’s learned about David’s flight. Saul laments that David, and Jonathan, his own son, have conspired against him. He sends troops to bring the priest who helped David with bread and sword to him. The priest claims innocence, that he trusted David’s word. Saul’s not having it and orders all the priests in the temple killed. His soldiers refuse, but, Doeg, who imagine is a beady eyed sycophant, not only kills all the priests, but all the townfolk. Except one son of the priest who escapes and goes to David to warn him.
- David hears that Philistines have attacked a nearby city-state, Keliah. He consults with God, twice, who tells him to go drive them out. He does so along with troops loyal to him, saving the city. Offered sanctuary there, he hears that Saul now knows where he is. Checking in once again, God tells him if he stays there, the city’s people will turn him over to Saul in order to save themselves. So he leaves and hides in the wilderness. He moves from place to place each time Saul discovers where he is. Jonathan sneaks out to David and assures him that one day David will be king, and he, Jonathan, will be at his side again, and that even his father know this. Meanwhile, Philistines attack elsewhere, and Saul decides to go handle it with his troops, leaving David alone.
- Saul returns from pursing the Philistines, to find David has disappeared into the wilderness. He takes 3000 men and heads out in search. One day, he goes into a cave “to relieve himself”. Alone. David and his men are hiding in said cave. David sneaks up behind Saul, but rather than harm him, cuts a corner off his cloak. Impressive ninja skills that one. Then as Saul leaves the cave, David calls to him, saying, look, I could have killed you, but I didn’t, I just took a piece of your cloak. Why are you coming after me, I’ve never done anything wrong to you? Saul, in a complete 180, after months, years(?) of chasing David, says, “Huh, you’re right, I’ve been wrong all this time, besides, I know one day you’ll be king”. WTF? He asks David to swear to protect his lineage. David swears – after all, he’s married to Saul’s daughter, though apparently not sleeping with her, while sleeping with Saul’s son, but not married to him. Saul, mollified, goes home.
- Samuel dies. That’s it. Nothing further is said. David, meanwhile, is out there roaming the wilds. He hears about Nabal, a sheep rancher, who is busy shearing his flocks, because it’s that season. David recalls that at one time, he helped protect Nabal’s property. So, he sends messengers to Nabal, saying he’s headed that way, and expects some recompense. Nabal tells the messengers to get lost, as far as he’s concerned, David is just a runaway slave of Saul’s. David, incensed, marches on Nabal’s home with 400 men. Nabal’s wife finds out, has her servants throw together provisions for the 400 men, and they ride out to try to stop David. She begs for forgiveness, David accepts, saying it’s a good thing she came out, or he’d have killed everyone related to Nabal. Ten days later, God strikes Nabal dead. David takes Nabal’s wife, Abigail, to be his third wife (along the way he picked up a second one). As best we know, still, given his claims of purity, he’s not sleeping with anyone but Jonathan, on the rare occasion they see each other.
- Given that Samuel died at the start of the previous chapter, I’m wondering not only why this book is continuing, but what they’re going to fill “II Samuel” with. I also thought we finished yesterday with Saul agreeing to leave David alone and going home. But, here we are again, with Saul and 3000 men purusing David in the wilderness. One night, while Saul sleeps, and supposedly his commander in chief, Abner, is on guard, David and some of his men sneak into their camp, and into Saul’s tent. The men want to kill Saul, to end this. David says no, leave Saul’s death to God, and instead they steal Saul’s spear and water jug. Then they go up to a nearby hill and David yells out to Abner what he’s done, and how Abner has fallen down on the job of protecting Saul, noting they could have killed him. Saul, once again, laments that he has been in the wrong about David, and agrees to leave him alone and heads home. I’m not buying it.
- David’s not stupid, he knows Saul won’t really stop trying to kill him. So he goes over to the enemy. Literally. He up and heads to Philistine territory with 600 men, and from there spends the next 16 months raiding into Israel. WTF? Each raid he makes sure to slaughter every man, woman, and child in the settlement that he attacks. His own people. And then he dutifully reports back his successes to the Philistine leader, Achish, who’s happy to let him live there as long as he’s doing the wet work.
- David and his men entrench themselves further with the Philistines, agreeing to join the king’s march on Saul. Now, Saul, after Samuel died, forbid the consultation with ghosts and spirits throughout Israel, though no reason is given. Finding himself under attack, he has his courtiers find a woman who still consults with spirits, and goes to her in disguise. She thinks it’s a trap, but he convinces her to try. Then he has her call up the ghost of Samuel, at which point she realizes who Saul is and freaks out. Samuel’s ghost is not amused at being called upon by Saul. When Saul begs him for help, he says no. He lays out that Saul rejected God’s teachings, and God rejected him, and hey, karma dude… tomorrow you and your family are going to join me as ghosts. Saul’s turn to freak out. The woman who called up Samuel’s ghost offers him a meal before he leaves, which he refuses, but she talks him into it. So we have a brief dining interlude.
- Having served Achish faithfully for more than a year, David is comfortably ensconced in the military command. But here, in this new battle, the other Philistine leaders only remember him as David who killed tens of thousands of them in the past. They don’t trust him. Achish tells David. David objects, pointing out how faithful he’s been since his defection. Achish hints at a sort of once a defector, perhaps again a defector. David takes his men and heads back home to sulk. You just know this is a plot setup, right?
- Meanwhile back home, while David, his men, and the Philistines were head out on conquest, the Egyptians have raided. They’ve carted off all the women and children, all the livestock, all the riches. My first thought… you didn’t leave any troops guarding the city??? David’s men are pissed, but after checking in with God, he takes 600 men, leaving 400 behind as guards (about time), and heads after the Egyptians. They encounter a slave boy, left behind by the Egyptians. He agrees, in exchange for his life, to lead them to the Egyptian army. David and his men surprise attack the Egyptian troops, slaughtering all but 400 who get away on camels. They recover all the women, children, livestock, and riches, as well as the Egyptian riches. They return home. Arguments ensue over who’s entitled to what shares of the loot. David rules that all share equally, that the men who stayed back guarding the city were just as important as the ones who went on the raid. After all, had they left men there in the first place, the Egyptian attack may not have been successful to begin with.
- The Philistines, meanwhile, are pursuing their attack on Israel, and on Saul and his army. They rout the army, killing Saul’s three sons, and greviously wounding Saul, who, rather than submit to having his body desecrated by infidels, commits suicide. This does not deter the Philistines from desecrating his or his sons’ bodies, which they proceed to do, sending some parts as warnings to other communities, and hanging other parts on walls locally. In the dark of night, some locals recover the cadavers, burn them, and bury the remaining bones. End scene.