Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 9

Saul. — The inspired compiler of these books—having related the circumstances that accompanied the people’s request to the last of the judges for a king—closed the first part of the story of this momentous change in the fortunes of the chosen people with the words of the prophet-judge, bidding the representative elders to return to their homes and wait for the result of his solemn communion with the Eternal Friend of Israel on the subject of this king they so earnestly desired.

The Eternal answered His servant either in a vision, by Urim, or by an angelic visitor. In most cases, we are left in ignorance regarding the precise method by which God communicated with these highly-favored men—His elect servants. The chosen Israelite whom Samuel was to anoint as the first king in Israel would meet the prophet—so said the word of the Lord to Samuel—on a certain day and hour, at a given place.

The ninth chapter begins with a short account of the family of this man chosen for so high an office, and after a word or two of personal description, goes on to relate the circumstances under which he met Samuel. Saul, a man in the prime of manhood, distinguished among his fellows by his great stature and for his grace and manly beauty, was the son of a noble and opulent Benjamite of Gibeah, a small city in the south of the Land of Promise.

The whole of this episode in our ancient book is singularly picturesque. We see the still unproclaimed king occupied in his father’s business, throwing his full energy into the everyday transactions of the farm on the slopes of Mount Ephraim. In a few words, the historian describes how the modest and retiring Saul was roused from the quiet pastoral pursuits in which his previously uneventful life had been spent. The reverent, perhaps slightly reluctant, admiration with which the seer of God gazed at the future king of Israel; the prophet’s significant address; the symbolic gifts; the graceful hospitality; and, above all, the solemn and (no doubt) burning words of the generous old man, woke up the sleeping hero-spirit and prepared the young Benjamite for his future mighty work.

But there was no unseemly elation at the prospect that lay before him, no hurried grasping at the splendid prize that the seer told him the God of his fathers had destined for him.

Quietly he took leave of the famous Samuel. The predicted signs of his coming greatness were, one by one, literally fulfilled. But Saul returned to the ancestral farm in the hills of Benjamin and was subject to his father, as in former days. When at last the public summons to the throne came to him, he seems to have accepted the great office for which he had been marked with genuine reluctance and shrinking. Nor does he appear to have significantly altered his old, simple way of living until a great national disgrace called for a devoted patriot to avenge it. Then the heroic heart of the Lord’s anointed awoke, and Saul, when the hour came, showed himself a king indeed.

Kish, the son of Abiel. — On comparison with the genealogical summaries given in Genesis 46:21; 1 Samuel 9:1; 1 Samuel 14:51; 1 Chronicles 7:6–8, and others, the line of Saul appears as follows:

Benjamin → Becher → Aphiah (possibly Abiah) → Bechorah → Zeror (possibly Zur) → Abiel → Ner → Kish → Saul

Yet even here certain links are omitted, for we hear of a Matri in 1 Samuel 10:21, and Jehiel in 1 Chronicles 9:35.

The truth is that in each of the genealogical summaries the transcriber of the original family document left out certain names not needed for his special purpose. The names omitted are not always the same; thus, often in these tables, the apparent discrepancies.

Dean Payne Smith, too, suggests that the hopeless entanglement in the Benjamite genealogies is partly due to the terrible civil war that resulted from the crime related in Judges 20. In the confusion that naturally resulted from the massacres and ceaseless wars of this early period, many of the older records of the tribes must have perished.

A choice young man, and a goodly. —The Hebrew word which is rendered in English by “a choice young man” cannot signify both these epithets. The translators were probably influenced by the Vulgate (Latin) Version, which translates the Hebrew word by electus, “chosen, or choice,” the more common meaning of the Hebrew word being avoided, because at this time Saul appears to have had a son (Jonathan) who must have nearly reached his maturity.

But the term "young" was not inappropriate for Saul, who was still in the full vigor of manhood as contrasted with Samuel's old age, being about forty to forty-five years old. Therefore, translate it simply as “a young man,” etc. In the childhood of nations, heroic proportions were highly valued, and the king's gigantic stature and remarkable beauty undoubtedly contributed to his ready acceptance by the still semi-barbarous Israelites. (Compare Herodotus, 3:20, 7:187; Aristotle, Politics, 4:29; Virgil’s description of Turnus, Aeneid, 7:650, 783; and Homer’s words about Ajax, Iliad, 3:226.)

The asses. —Literally, And the she-asses. At this period of Jewish history, asses were much used by the people. The horse was forbidden by the Law. Asses were used not only for purposes of agriculture but also for riding; so in the song of Deborah we find, Speak, ye that ride on white asses (Judges 5:10); and again we read of the thirty sons of Jair, the Gileadite judge, each one ruler of a city, who rode on thirty ass colts (Judges 10:4). These belonging to the farm of Kish, being probably kept for breeding purposes, were untethered, and so strayed from the immediate neighborhood and were lost.

The whole of this chapter and part of the following is full of picturesque details of the pastoral life of the people. In many of the little pictures, we see how strongly at this early period the religion of the Eternal colored almost all parts of the everyday life of Israel.

One of the servants. —The “servant,” not “slave;” the Hebrew word for the latter would be different. The servant was evidently a trusty dependent of the house of Saul’s father and was on familiar terms with his young master. We hear of his giving wise advice in the course of the search (1 Samuel 9:6); he was the one in charge of the money (1 Samuel 9:8); and this servant, we are especially told, was treated by Samuel the judge as an honored guest at the sacrificial feast at Ramah. He was traditionally believed to have been Doeg the Edomite, afterwards so famous as one of the most ruthless of the great captains of King Saul. (See 1 Samuel 22:18.)

And he passed through mount Ephraim. The chain of the mountains of Ephraim ran southward into the territory of Benjamin, where were situated the patrimonial possessions of Saul’s house.

And passed through the land of Shalisha. —Or land “of the Three;” so called because three valleys there united in one, or one divided into three. It is believed to be the region in which Baal-shalisha lay (2 Kings 4:42), fifteen miles north of Diospolis, or Lydda.

The land of Shalim.—Probably a very deep valley, derived from a Hebrew word, signifying “the hollow of the hand.”

The land of Zuph. —This was believed to be in the south-west of Benjamin.

Lest my father ... take thought for us. —“Saul’s tender regard for his father’s feelings here is a favourable indication of character.”— Dr. Kitto.

A man of God. —When Saul determined to give up the search for his father’s asses, he was in the neighborhood of the city of Samuel the seer—“Raman of the Watchers.” The servant points out to him the tower of the then-famous residence of the seer and judge, Samuel. “Will you not ask him,” suggests the servant, “about the missing beasts?”—the young countryman, in the simplicity of his heart, thinking the occasion of the loss of his master’s asses a sufficient one to warrant an intrusion upon the prophet-judge of Israel.

The relationship, however, between Samuel and the people must have been of a very close and friendly nature; otherwise, it would never have occurred, even to a simple countryman—as Saul’s servant probably was then—to have sought the advice of one so great as Samuel in such a matter. It also says much for the old prophet’s kindly, unselfish disposition that his name was thus loved and honoured, even in the secluded farms of the Land of Promise.

An honourable man. —Better rendered, one held in honour.