Bible Commentaries

In conclusion, Samuel gave him an important hint with regard to his futureattitude: “And goest thou before me down to Gilgal; and, behold, I amcoming down to thee, to offer burnt-offerings, and to sacrifice peace-offerings: thou shalt wait seven days, till I come to thee, that I may showthee what thou art to do.” The infinitive clause וגו להעלות isundoubtedly dependent upon the main clause וירדתּ, and notupon the circumstantial clause which is introduced as a parenthesis. Thethought therefore is the following: If Saul went down to Gilgal to offersacrifice there, he was to wait till Samuel arrived. The construction of themain clause itself, however, is doubtful, since, grammatically considered,ירדתּ can either be a continuation of the imperative עשׂה (1 Samuel 10:7), or can be regarded as independent, and in fact conditional. The latter view, according to which ירדתּ supposes his goingdown as a possible thing that may take place at a future time, is the onerequired by the circumstantial clause which follows, and which isintroduced by והנּה; for if וירדתּ were intended tobe a continuation of the imperative which precedes it, so that Samuelcommanded Saul to go down to Gilgal before him, he would have simplyannounced his coming, that is to say, he would either have saidוירדתּי or ארד ואני. The circumstantialclause “and behold I am coming down to thee” evidently presupposesSaul's going down as a possible occurrence, in the event of which Samuelprescribes the course he is to pursue. But the conditional interpretation ofוירדתּ is still more decidedly required by the context. Forinstance, when Samuel said to Saul that after the occurrence of the threesigns he was to do what came to his hand, he could hardly command himimmediately afterwards to go to Gilgal, since the performance of whatcame to his hand might prevent him from going to Gilgal. If, however,Samuel meant that after Saul had finished what came to his hand he was togo down to Gilgal, he would have said, “And after thou hast done this, godown to Gilgal,” etc. But as he does not express himself in this manner, he can only havereferred to Saul's going to Gilgal as an occurrence which, as he foresaw,would take place at some time or other. And to Saul himself this must notonly have presented itself as a possible occurrence, but under the existingcircumstances as one that was sure to take place; so that the whole thingwas not so obscure to him as it is to us, who are only able to form ourconclusions from the brief account which lies before us. If we supposethat in the conversation which Samuel had with Saul upon the roof (1 Samuel 9:25), he also spoke about the manner in which the Philistines, who hadpushed their outposts as far as Gibeah, could be successfully attacked, hemight also have mentioned that Gilgal was the most suitable place forgathering an army together, and for making the necessary preparations fora successful engagement with their foes. If we just glance at the events narrated in the following chapters, for thepurpose of getting a clear idea of the thing which Samuel had in view; wefind that the three signs announced by Samuel took place on Saul's returnto Gibeah (1 Samuel 10:9-16). Samuel then summoned the people to Mizpeh,where Saul was elected king by lot (1 Samuel 10:17-27); but Saul returned toGibeah to his own house even after this solemn election, and was engagedin ploughing the field, when messengers came from Jabesh with theaccount of the siege of that town by the Ammonites. On receiving thisintelligence the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, so that he summoned thewhole nation with energy and without delay to come to battle, andproceeded to Jabesh with the assembled army, and smote the Ammonites(1 Samuel 11:1-11). Thereupon Samuel summoned the people to come toGilgal and renew the monarchy there (1 Samuel 11:12-15); and at the sametime he renewed his office of supreme judge (1 Samuel 12), so that now for thefirst time Saul actually commenced his reign, and began the war against thePhilistines (1 Samuel 13:1), in which, as soon as the latter advanced toMichmash with a powerful army after Jonathan's victorious engagement,he summoned the people to Gilgal to battle, and after waiting there sevendays for Samuel in vain, had the sacrifices offered, on which account assoon as Samuel arrived he announced to him that his rule would not last (1 Samuel 13:13.).

Now, it cannot have been the first of these two gatherings at Gilgal thatSamuel had in his mind, but must have been the second. The first isprecluded by the simple fact that Samuel summoned the people to go toGilgal for the purpose of renewing the monarchy; and therefore, as thewords “come and let us go to Gilgal” (1 Samuel 11:14) unquestionably imply,he must have gone thither himself along with the people and the king, sothat Saul was never in a position to have to wait for Samuel's arrival. Thesecond occurrence at Gilgal, on the other hand, is clearly indicated in thewords of 1 Samuel 13:8, “Saul tarried seven days, according to the set timethat Samuel had appointed,” in which there is almost an express allusion tothe instructions given to Saul in the verse before us. But whilst we cannotbut regard this as the only true explanation, we cannot agree with Seb. Schmidt, who looks upon the instructions given to Saul in this verse as “arule to be observed throughout the whole of Samuel's life,” that is to say,who interprets ירדתּ in the sense of “as often as thou goestdown to Gilgal.” For this view cannot be grammatically sustained,although it is founded upon the correct idea, that Samuel's instructionscannot have been intended as a solitary and arbitrary command, by whichSaul was to be kept in a condition of dependence. According to our explanation, however, this is not the case; but there wasan inward necessity for them, so far as the government of Saul wasconcerned. Placed as he was by Jehovah as king over His people, for thepurpose of rescuing them out of the power of those who were at that timeits most dangerous foes, Saul was not at liberty to enter upon the waragainst these foes simply by his own will, but was directed to wait tillSamuel, the accredited prophet of Jehovah, had completed theconsecration through the offering of a solemn sacrifice, and hadcommunicated to him the requisite instructions from God, even though heshould have to wait for seven days.

(Note: The difficulty in question has been solved on the whole quitecorrectly by Brentius. “It is not to be supposed,” he says, “thatSamuel was directing Saul to go at once to Gilgal as soon as he shouldgo away from him, and wait there for seven days; but that he was todo this after he had been chosen king by public lot, and havingconquered the Ammonites and been confirmed in the kingdom, wasabout to prepare to make war upon the Philistines, on whose accountchiefly it was that he had been called to the kingdom. For the Lordhad already spoken thus to Samuel concerning Saul: 'He will save mypeople from the hands of the Philistines, because I have looked uponmy people.' This is the meaning therefore of Samuel's command:Thou hast been called to the kingdom chiefly for this purpose, thatthou mayest deliver Israel from the tyranny of the Philistines. Whentherefore thou shalt enter upon this work, go down into Gilgal andwait there seven days, until I shall come to thee: for thou shalt thenoffer a holocaust, though not before I come to thee, and I will showthee what must be done in order that our enemies the Philistines maybe conquered. The account of this is given below in 1 Samuel 13, where welearn that Saul violated this command.”)

When Saul went away from Samuel, to return to Gibeah, “God changed tohim another heart,” - a pregnant expression for “God changed him, and gavehim another heart” (see at 1 Samuel 10:6); and all these signs (the signs mentioned bySamuel) happened on that very day. As he left Samuel early in themorning, Saul could easily reach Gibeah in one day, even if the town wherehe had met with Samuel was situated to the south-west of Rachel's tomb,as the distance from that tomb to Gibeah was not more than three and ahalf or four hours.

1 Samuel 10:10

The third sign is the only one which is minutely described,because this caused a great sensation at Gibeah, Saul's home. “And they(Saul and his attendant) came thither to Gibeah.” “Thither” points back to“thither to the city” in 1 Samuel 10:5, and is defined by the further expression “toGibeah” (Eng. version, “to the hill:” Tr.). The rendering ἔκειθεν (lxx) does not warrant us in changing שׁם into משּׁם;for the latter would be quite superfluous, as it was self-evident that theycame to Gibeah from the place where they had been in the company ofSamuel.

1 Samuel 10:11

When those who had known Saul of old saw that he prophesiedwith the prophets, the people said one to another, “What has happened tothe son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” This expressionpresupposes that Saul's previous life was altogether different from that ofthe disciples of the prophets.

1 Samuel 10:12

And one from thence (i.e., from Gibeah, or from the crowd thatwas gathered round the prophets) answered, “And who is their father?”i.e., not “who is their president?” which would be a very gratuitousquestion; but, “is their father a prophet then?” i.e., according to theexplanation given by Oehler (Herzog's Real. Enc. xii. p. 216), “have theythe prophetic spirit by virtue of their birth?” Understood in this way, theretort forms a very appropriate “answer” to the expression of surprise andthe inquiry, how it came to pass that Saul was among the prophets. Ifthose prophets had not obtained the gift of prophecy by inheritance, butas a free gift of the Lord, it was equally possible for the Lord tocommunicate the same gift to Saul. On the other hand, the alteration of thetext from אביהם (their father) into אביהוּ (his father),according to the lxx, Vulg., Syr., and Arab., which is favoured by Ewald,Thenius, and others, must be rejected, for the simple reason that thequestion, Who is his father? in the mouth of one of the inhabitants ofGibeah, to whom Saul's father was so well known that they called Saul theson of Kish at once, would have no sense whatever. From this the proverbarose, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” - a proverb which was used toexpress astonishment at the appearance of any man in a sphere of lifewhich had hitherto been altogether strange to him.

1 Samuel 10:13-16

When Saul had left off prophesying, and came to Bamah, hisuncle asked him and his attendant where they had been; and Saul told him,that as they had not found the asses anywhere, they had gone to Samuel,and had learned from him that the asses were found. But he did not relatethe words which had been spoken by Samuel concerning the monarchy,from unambitious humility (cf. 1 Samuel 10:22, 1 Samuel 10:23) and not because he was afraidof unbelief and envy, as Thenius follows Josephus in supposing. From theexpression “he came to Bamah” (Eng. ver. “to the high place”), we mustconclude, that not only Saul's uncle, but his father also, lived in Bamah, aswe find Saul immediately afterwards in his own family circle (see 1 Samuel 10:14.).

Saul's Election by Lot. - After Samuel had secretly anointed Saul king bythe command of God, it was his duty to make provision for a recognitionof the man whom God had chosen on the part of the people also. To thisend he summoned the people to Mizpeh, and there instructed the tribes tochoose a king by lot. As the result of the lot was regarded as a divinedecision, not only was Saul to be accredited by this act in the sight of thewhole nation as the king appointed by the Lord, but he himself was also tobe more fully assured of the certainty of his own election on the part ofGod. -

(Note: Thenius follows De Wette, and adduces the incompatibility of1 Samuel 8 and 1 Samuel 10:17-27 with 1 Samuel 9:1-10, 1 Samuel 9:16, as a proof that in 1 Samuel 10:17-27 we have a different account of the manner in which Saulbecame king from that given in 1 Samuel 9:1-10, 1 Samuel 9:16, and one whichcontinues the account in 1 Samuel 8:22. “It is thoroughlyinconceivable,” he says, “that Samuel should have first of all anointedSaul king by the instigation of God, and then have caused the lot to becast, as it were, for the sake of further confirmation; for in that caseeither the prophet would have tempted God, or he would have madeHim chargeable before the nation with an unworthy act of jugglery.”Such an argument as this could only be used by critics who deny notonly the inspiration of the prophets, but all influence on the part ofthe living God upon the free action of men, and cannot thereforerender the truth of the biblical history at all doubtful. Even Ewald seesno discrepancy here, and observes in his history (Gesch. iii. p. 32): “Ifwe bear in mind the ordinary use made of the sacred lot at that time,we shall find that there is nothing but the simple truth in the wholecourse of the narrative. The secret meeting of the seer with Saul wasnot sufficient to secure a complete and satisfactory recognition ofhim as king; it was also necessary that the Spirit of Jehovah shouldsingle him out publicly in a solemn assembly of the nation, and pointhim out as the man of Jehovah.”)

1 Samuel 10:17

העם is the nation in its heads and representatives. Samuel selected Mizpeh for this purpose, because it was there that he hadonce before obtained for the people, by prayer, a great victory over thePhilistines (1 Samuel 7:5.).

1 Samuel 10:18-19

“But before proceeding to the election itself, Samuel oncemore charged the people with their sin in rejecting God, who had broughtthem out of Egypt, and delivered them out of the hand of all theiroppressors, by their demand for a king, that he might show them howdangerous was the way which they were taking now, and how bitterlythey would perhaps repent of what they had now desired” (O. v. Gerlach;see the commentary on 1 Samuel 8). The masculine הלּחצים isconstrued ad sensum with המּמלכות. In לו ותּאמרוּ the early translators have taken לו for לא, which is the actual reading in some of the Codices. But althoughthis reading is decidedly favoured by the parallel passages, 1 Samuel 8:19; 1 Samuel 12:12, it is not necessary; since כּי is used to introduce a directstatement, even in a declaration of the opposite, in the sense of our “nobut” (e.g., in 1:10, where להּ precedes). There is, therefore,no reason for exchanging לו for לא.

1 Samuel 10:20-21

After this warning, Samuel directed the assembled Israelitesto come before Jehovah (i.e., before the altar of Jehovah which stood atMizpeh, according to 1 Samuel 7:9) according to their tribes and families((alaphim): see at Numbers 1:16); “and there was taken (by lot) the tribe ofBenjamin.” הלּכד, lit. to be snatched out by Jehovah, namely, throughthe lot (see Joshua 7:14, Joshua 7:16). He then directed the tribe of Benjamin to drawnear according to its families, i.e., he directed the heads of the families ofthis tribe to come before the altar of the Lord and draw lots; and the familyof Matri was taken. Lastly, when the heads of the households in thisfamily came, and after that the different individuals in the household whichhad been taken, the lot fell upon Saul the son of Kish. In the words, “Saulthe son of Kish was taken,” the historian proceeds at once to the finalresult of the casting of the lots, without describing the intermediate stepsany further.

(Note: It is true the Septuagint introduces the words καὶ προσάγουσι τὴν φυλὴν Ματταρὶ εἰς ἄνδρας before ויּלּכד, and this clause is also found in a veryrecent Hebrew MS (viz., 451 in Kennicott's dissert. gener. p. 491). But it is very evident that these words did not form an integral part ofthe original text, as Thenius supposes, but were nothing more than aninterpolation of the Sept. translators, from the simple fact that theydo not fill up the supposed gap at all completely, but only in a verypartial and in fact a very mistaken manner; for the family of Matricould not come to the lot εἰς ἄνδρας (man by man), butonly κατ ̓ οἴκους (by households: Joshua 7:14). Before thehousehold ((beth) -(aboth), father's house) of Saul could be taken, it wasnecessary that the גּברים ( ἄνδρες ), i.e., the differentheads of households, should be brought; and it was not till then thatKish, or his son Saul, could be singled out as the appointed of theLord. Neither the author of the gloss in the lxx, nor the moderndefender of the gloss, has thought of this.)

When the lot fell upon Saul, they sought him, and he could not be found.

1 Samuel 10:22

Then they inquired of Jehovah, “Is any one else come hither?”and Jehovah replied, “Behold, he (whom ye are seeking) is hidden amongthe things.” The inquiry was made through the high priest, by means ofthe Urim and Thummim, for which בּיהוה שׁאל wasthe technical expression, according to Numbers 27:21 (see Judges 20:27-28; Judges 1:1,etc.). There can be no doubt, that in a gathering of the people for soimportant a purpose as the election of a king, the high priest would also bepresent, even though this is not expressly stated. Samuel presided over themeeting as the prophet of the Lord. The answer given by God, “Behold, heis hidden,” etc., appears to have no relation to the question, “Is any oneelse come?” The Sept. and Vulg. have therefore altered the question into ει ̓ ἔτι ἔρχεται ὁ ἀνήρ , utrumnam venturus esset; and Thenius would adopt this as an emendation. But he is wrong in doing so; for there was no necessity to ask whetherSaul would still come: they might at once have sent to fetch him. Whatthey asked was rather, whether any one else had come besides those whowere present, as Saul was not to be found among them, that they mightknow where they were to look for Saul, whether at home or anywhereelse. And to this question God gave the answer, “He is present, onlyhidden among the things.” By כּלים (the things or vessels, Eng. ver. the stuff) we are to understand the travelling baggage of the peoplewho had assembled at Mizpeh. Saul could neither have wished to avoidaccepting the monarchy, nor have imagined that the lot would not fallupon him if he hid himself. For he knew that God had chosen him; andSamuel had anointed him already. He did it therefore simply from humilityand modesty. “In order that he might not appear to have either the hope ordesire for anything of the kind, he preferred to be absent when the lotswere cast” (Seb. Schmidt).

1 Samuel 10:23-25

He was speedily fetched, and brought into the midst of the(assembled) people; and when he came, he was a head taller than all thepeople (see 1 Samuel 9:2). And Samuel said to all the people, “Behold yewhom the Lord hath chosen! for there is none like him in all the nation.”Then all the people shouted aloud, and cried, “Let the king live!” Saul'sbodily stature won the favour of the people (see the remarks on 1 Samuel 9:2).

Samuel then communicated to the people the right of the monarchy, andlaid it down before Jehovah. “The right of the monarchy” ((meluchah)) isnot to be identified with the right of the king ((melech)), which is describedin 1 Samuel 8:11 and sets forth the right or prerogative which a despotic kingwould assume over the people; but it is the right which regulated theattitude of the earthly monarchy in the theocracy, and determined theduties and rights of the human king in relation to Jehovah the divine Kingon the one hand, and to the nation on the other. This right could only belaid down by a prophet like Samuel, to raise a wholesome barrier at thevery outset against all excesses on the part of the king. Samuel thereforewrote it in a document which was laid down before Jehovah, i.e., in thesanctuary of Jehovah; though certainly not in the sanctuary at Bamah inGibeah, as Thenius supposes, for nothing is known respecting any suchsanctuary. It was no doubt placed in the tabernacle, where the law ofMoses was also deposited, by the side of the fundamental law of thedivine state in Israel. When the business was all completed, Samuel sentthe people away to their own home.

1 Samuel 10:26

Saul also returned to his house at Gibeah, and there went withhim the crowd of the men whose hearts God had touched, sc., to give hima royal escort, and show their readiness to serve him. החיל isnot to be altered into החיל בּני, according to the freerendering of the lxx, but is used as in Exodus 14:28; with this difference,however, that here it does not signify a large military force, but a crowd ofbrave men, who formed Saul's escort of honour.

1 Samuel 10:27

But as it generally happens that, where a person is suddenlylifted up to exalted honours or office, there are sure to be envious peoplefound, so was it here: there were בליּעל בּני, worthlesspeople, even among the assembled Israelites, who spoke disparagingly ofSaul, saying, “How will this man help us?” and who brought him nopresent. (Minchah): the present which from time immemorial every one hasbeen expected to bring when entering the presence of the king; so that therefusal to bring a present was almost equivalent to rebellion. But Saul was“as being deaf,” i.e., he acted as if he had not heard. The objection whichThenius brings against this view, viz., that in that case it would read כם היה והוּא, exhibits a want of acquaintance with theHebrew construction of a sentence. There is no more reason for touching ויהי than ויּלכוּ in 1 Samuel 10:26. In both cases theapodosis is attached to the protasis, which precedes it in the form of acircumstantial clause, by the imperfect, with vav consec. According to thegenius of our language, these protases would be expressed by theconjunction when, viz.: “when Saul also went home, … there went withhim,” etc.; and “when loose (or idle) people said, etc., he was as deaf.”

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