Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 9:14

"And they went up to the city; [and] as they came within the city, behold, Samuel came out toward them, to go up to the high place." — 1 Samuel 9:14 (ASV)

Behold, Samuel came out against them. —“Saul comes before Samuel, bashfully pursuing his humble quest, in apparent unconsciousness of the power slumbering within him of aspiring to and attaining the highest place; the great seer receives him in a way quite different from all that he could have hoped or feared. At the moment of their meeting, the seer has come forth from his house on the way to the solitary sacred heights of Ramah, the city of his residence, where he sacrifices on the altar to Jahveh, or usually partakes of a sacred sacrificial meal with some of his closest friends.

He at once desires to take Saul also with him, telling him beforehand how unimportant the immediate object of his inquiries was, and that the matter was already settled; but that a very different and far better destiny in Israel was reserved for him and his whole house. And though Saul, in his unassuming simplicity, would gladly waive the honor which is obscurely hinted (so little does he yet know his better self), the holy man, more discerning, takes him with him to the sacrificial meal, which is already prepared; even assigns him the place of honor among the thirty guests previously invited, while he is served with a portion of the sacrificial meat, set aside, as it were, specially for him: for similarly, a portion different from and higher than that of ordinary men had long been reserved for him by heaven.”— Ewald.