Hamlet, the Sixth Commandment, and prophetic souls killing kings (series)

In Elizabethan England, there was a popular and widely known biblical tale about a prophet who kills a king. The tale was used to discourage rebellion, but contained unintended implications.

We may prefer to think that Christianity is about love of enemies, not killing murderous usurping kings. But in fact, writers of homilies for the Elizabethan church cited an especially interesting example:

God had ordered King Saul to kill King Agag and all his followers and livestock [1]. But Saul disobeyed. So the prophet Samuel slew King Agag. The prophet killed a wicked king, because King Saul had failed to do it [2].

To authorities, this demonstrated that no one should disobey or rebel against God, even monarchs, so neither should English subjects rebel against their queen.

The killing of Agag by Samuel is mentioned in two official homilies [3]. It was not as rarely heard in churches as it is today. But consider the implications:

The story presents a monarch who disobeyed, and a prophet who killed an evil king. Samuel didn’t kill his own king, King Saul, but killed an evil foreign king, granted.

But if God orders someone to kill a king, and such orders are not to be disobeyed, what about fictional Hamlet's Denmark and historical England? If God used a ghost to order a Danish subject or prince to kill an evil Danish king, such orders must be obeyed. Period. It would not matter if the executed king was Danish or foreign. Orders are orders.

What if God ordered an English subject to kill his or her own monarch?

A common impulse among viewers and readers of Hamlet is to think: Killing a monarch was especially prohibited. The Sixth Commandment says murder is prohibited. 

And yet Elizabethan Church propaganda that was intended to discourage rebellion cited this tale: A prophetic soul (Samuel) killed the wicked King Agag.

In 1858, Thomas Eaton noted, “Hamlet has only to strike the blow of vengeance — as Samuel did when he slew Agag — in obedience to the will of heaven" [4].


INDEX to this series on Hamlet and the Ten Commandments:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2026/07/series-index-ten-commandments-in-hamlet.html

NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu

[1] The Amalekites and their leader King Agag had been ruthless robbers (Claudius is called by Hamlet a "cut-purse of the kingdom"). God commanded that every one of them be killed, none spared, and that their cattle also be killed, not taken as booty or spoils, and not spoils to be converted to sacrifice (prohibited elsewhere in Bible), as Saul would like to suggest..

[2] Saul disobeyed and for this lost favor with Samuel and God. He was still a secular king, but not a theocratic leader, as noted by https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/tpc/1-samuel-15.html

[3] See “An Homily Against Disobedience and Willful Rebellion,” 1571, part 2.
https://dokumen.pub/certain-sermons-or-homilies-1547-and-a-homily-against-disobedience-and-wilful-rebellion-1570-a-critical-edition-9781442632202.html

See also from the first book of homilies, homily VIII, “Of the Declining from God” aka  "A Sermon of how Dangerous a Thing it is to Fall from God." https://anglicanheritage.com/homilies/h108/

[4] Eaton, Thomas Ray, Shakespeare and the Bible, London, J. Blackwood, 1858 (181-2).
https://archive.org/details/shakespeareandb00eatogoog/page/n196/mode/2up?q=Hamlet

IMAGES:
Upper right: “Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.' Illustration by William Brassey Hole, 1846-1917. Public domain in the US (100 years or fewer).
https://www.art.com/products/p56693813364-sa-i11536828/william-brassey-hole-samuel-slaying-agag-at-gilgal-bible.htm

Upper left: Samuel Killing Agag, King of the Amalekites (1699). Rombout van Troyen, . (b. 1605, d. 1656). Public domain in the US (100 years or fewer). https://www.meisterdrucke.us/fine-art-prints/Rombout-van-Troyen/1426222/Samuel-Killing-Agag,-King-of-the-Amalekites.html

Bottom:
Samuel kills Agag - The decapitation of Agag, King of the Amalekites, by the prophet Samuel - engraving in “The Illustrated Bible” (1899) by Gustave Doré (1832-1883). Public domain in the US (100 years or fewer). https://www.meisterdrucke.ie/kunstwerke/1260px/Gustave_Dore_-_Samuel_kills_Agag_-_The_decapitation_of_Agag_King_of_the_Amalekites_by_the_proph_-_%28MeisterDrucke-923136%29.jpg 

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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

I usually post every week.