Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 22:7

"And Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds," — 1 Samuel 22:7 (ASV)

Hear now, you Benjamites. — We have here a fair example of Saul’s manner of ruling in his later years. It is no wonder that the heart of the people gradually became estranged from one of whom they had been so proud in earlier years. The suspicious and gloomy king had evidently—we have it here from his own mouth—gradually given all the posts of honour and dignity to men of his own tribe and family, or to strangers like Doeg.

“Hear now, you Benjamites”—so the "loyal ones" were evidently men of his own favoured tribe. Indeed, he refers to his own weak partiality as the reason why they, of all men, should be loyal. “Who but a Benjamite,” he says, “would only honour Benjamites?” Such a sovereign had surely forfeited his kingdom.

The consequences of such a weak and shortsighted policy were plainly visible in the meager forces he was able, in his hour of bitter need, to muster on the fatal field of Mount Gilboa against his sleepless Philistine enemies. (See 1 Samuel 31:0)