Bede : So Saul said: Bring me the burnt offering, etc. Seeing that the people had slipped away from him, but not seeing Samuel approaching, Saul offered the burnt offering. The legal scholars of that time, greatly degenerating from the perfection of the early leaders, saw the people slipping away from adherence to the law, and, not knowing that the time of the Lord's incarnation was near, established their own traditions to be observed, as if they would be pleasing to the Lord in every way. This interpretation is supported by what follows, when Saul replied to Samuel rebuking him for his foolish rashness, saying: — Commentary on Samuel