John Gill Commentary 1 Samuel 9

Now there was a man of Benjamin
Of the tribe of Benjamin, which has its name from the youngest son of Jacob, and one of this tribe was the first king of Israel:

whose name was Kish :
whom the apostle calls Cis, (Acts 13:21) , and Josephus ^F9 Cises; his name, according to Hillerus ^F11 , signifies "ensnared"; for what reason it was given him is not certain:

the son of Abiel ;
in (1 Chronicles 8:33) (9:39) , he is called Ner that begat Kish; and in this book, (1 Samuel 14:50 1 Samuel 14:51) Ner and Kish are represented as brethren, the sons of Abiel: to reconcile this, it may be observed, that Ner being the elder brother, on the death of his father Abiel, had the care and bringing up of his younger brother Kish; and therefore when he is said to beget him, the meaning is, not that he was the parent of him, but the bringer up of him; or rather, as Kimchi thinks, Abiel had two sons, one of which was Ner; and that he had two sons, one that was called after his own name Ner, who was the father of Abner; and the other Kish, the father of Saul:

the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite ;
of these persons we nowhere else read:

a mighty man of power ;
not a man of riches, or of authority, neither a wealthy man, nor a magistrate, for his family was mean and contemptible, (1 Samuel 9:21) (10:27) but a man of great strength, an able bodied man, and of great natural fortitude, and courage of mind.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: Antiqu. l. 6. c. 4. sect. 1.
• F11: Onomastic. Sacr. p. 405.

And he has a son whose name was Saul
Of this name was the great apostle of the Gentiles before his conversion, and was of the same tribe also; but very different in stature; he was a little man, this a large tall man, like his father perhaps;

a choice young man, and a goodly ;
(1 Samuel 2:1–10) of a goodly aspect, a comely man, tall and well shaped, in the prime of his age, a very agreeable person, one among a thousand:

and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than
he ;
meaning not for the endowments of his mind, or his moral character and behaviour. There might be as good, or better men than he, on such accounts, but for his outward appearance, his bodily shape, and the dignity of his person:

from his shoulders and upwards he was higher than any of the people ;
this description of him is enlarged upon and explained, to show that he was just such a person the people desired to have a king over them, such an one as the nations about them had; and it was usual with the eastern people, and so with the Greeks and Romans, to choose persons to the highest offices of magistracy that had a more impressive personal appearance than others, which they often noted as a recommendation for princes.

Herodotus ^F12 reports of the Ethiopians, that they judged the largest person, and him who had strength according to his size, most worthy to be king. And the same writer observes ^F13 , that among the many thousands in Xerxes' army, there was not one who for comeliness and size was so worthy of the empire as Xerxes himself; so Ulysses, was more acceptable to the people of Corfu ^F14 because of his height;

so Alexander's captains, it is said ^F15 , might be thought to be kings because of their beautiful form, height, and great strength and wisdom. Julius Caesar is said to have been of high stature; and so Domitian {p}; Virgil ^F17 represents Turnus as more excellent in body than others, and a full head taller than them; and Anchises as walking statelier and taller than the rest ^F18 ; among the many encomiums Pliny ^F19 gives of Trajan, regarding his outward form and appearance, this is one: "proceritas corporis" (height of body), being taller than others;

the Gentiles had a notion that such men were closer to the deities, and looked more like them; so Diana is described as taller than any of the nymphs and goddesses ^F20 . Solomon, according to Josephus ^F21 , chose young men to ride horses and attend his person when he himself rode, who were conspicuous for their height and significantly taller than others.

FOOTNOTES:

• F12: Thalia, sive, l. 3. c. 20.
• F13: Polymnia, sive, l. 7. c. 187.
• F14: Homer. Odyss. 8. ver. 20, 21.
• F15: Justin. e Trogo, l. 13. c. 1.
• F17: Aeneid. l. 7. ver. 783, 784. & 9. ver. 29.
• F18: Ib. l. 8. ver. 162.
• F19: Panegyr. c. 4, 22.
• F20: "Tamen altior illis ipsa dea est". Ovid. Metam. l. 3. fab. 2. ver. 180, 181.
• F21: Antiqu. l. 8. c. 7. sect. 3.

And the asses of Kish, Saul's father, were lost
Had got out of the stables or fields, in which they were kept, and strayed from thence:

and Kish said to Saul his son, take now one of the servants with thee,
and arise, go seek the asses ;
he chose not to send his servants only, who might not be so careful and diligent in searching for them, but his son, and not him alone, but a servant with him to wait upon him, and assist him. And it was quite agreeable to the simplicity of those times for persons of equal or greater substance to be employed in such an affair; asses made a considerable part of the wealth and riches of men, were rode upon by persons of quality, and were fed and taken care of by the sons of dukes and princes; see (Job 1:3) (Judges 5:10) (Genesis 36:24) .

The Jews^F23

FOOTNOTES:

• F23: Hieron. Trad. Heb. in Paralip, fol. 83. A. have a tradition, that this servant was Doeg the Edomite.

And they passed through Mount Ephraim
The mountainous part of that tribe, which lay contiguous to the tribe of Benjamin, where it might be supposed the asses had strayed to:

and passed through the land of Shalisha ;
a tract in the tribe of Benjamin, so called from some illustrious person, prince, and duke of it; in it very probably was the place called Baalshalisha; (2 Kings 4:42) and which perhaps is the same Jerom calls ^F24 Bethshalisha; and says there was a village of this name in the borders of Diospolis, almost fifteen miles distance from it to the north, in the Tamnitic country; though Bunting ^F25 says it was situated in Mount Ephraim, eight miles from Jerusalem to the northwest:

but they found them not ;
the asses, neither in Mount Ephraim, nor in the land of Shalisha:

then they passed through the land of Shalim
which some take to be the same with Salim, where John was baptizing, (John 3:23) but Jerom says ^F26 it was a village on the borders of Eleutheropolis, to the west, seven miles distant from it:

and [there they] were not ;
the asses could not be found there:

and he passed through the land of the Benjamites ;
or rather of Jemini, which was in Benjamin, so called from a famous man of that name; for it cannot be thought they should pass through the whole tribe of Benjamin in one day. And, according to Bunting ^F1 , from Gibeah, the native place of Saul, through the mountain of Ephraim, and the land of Shalisha, to the borders of Shalim, were sixteen miles; and from thence to Jemini, in the tribe of Benjamin, sixteen more:

but they found them not ;
the asses.

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: De loc. Heb. fol. 89. K.
• F25: Travels of the Patriarchs p. 129.
• F26: De loc. Heb. fol. 94. L.
• F1: Travels of the Patriarchs p. 126.

And when they were come to the land of Zuph
In which was Ramathaimzophim, the native place of Samuel, (1 Samuel 1:1) and so the Targum here, "the land in which was the prophet". Saul said to the servant that was with him, come, and let us return;
home, despairing of finding the asses after so long a search in divers places:

lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us ;
fearing some evil should have befallen his son and his servant, in comparison of whom, and especially his son, the asses would be of no account, and so give himself no concern for them, but be in great care and uneasiness for his son and servant; wherefore Saul thought it most advisable to return home as soon as possible, lest his father should be overwhelmed with grief and trouble.