Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 15:27

"And as Samuel turned about to go away, [Saul] laid hold upon the skirt of his robe, and it rent." — 1 Samuel 15:27 (ASV)

He laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle. The king’s passionate action indicates a restless, uneasy mind. Not content with entreating words, Saul, perhaps even with some violence, takes hold of the old man as he turns away, to detain him. What Saul took hold of and tore was not the “mantle” (Authorized Version), but the hem, or outer border, of the “meil,” the ordinary tunic that the upper classes in Israel then customarily wore.

The Dean of Canterbury, in a careful Note in the Pulpit Commentary, shows that the “mantle,” which would be the accurate rendering of the Hebrew addereth, the distinctive dress of the Hebrew prophets, was certainly not used in the days of Samuel, the great founder of the prophetic order. Special dresses came into use only gradually, and Elijah is the first person described as being clothed in this manner. Long before his time, the school of the prophets had grown into a national institution. A loose wrapper of coarse cloth, made of camel’s hair and fastened around the body at the waist with a leather girdle, had become the distinctive prophetic dress. This dress continued to be used until the arrival of Israel’s last prophet, John the Baptist (Mark 1:6).