John Gill Commentary 1 Samuel 9:4

"And he passed through the hill-country of Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they found them not: then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and there they were not: and he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they found them not." — 1 Samuel 9:4 (ASV)

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.

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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.