The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Saul Chosen as King
1 Samuel 9:1–27 — Saul Chosen as King. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1Now there was a Benjamite, a powerful man, whose name was Kish son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah of Benjamin.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî- ’îš mib·bin- gib·bō·wr ḥā·yil yå̄·mīn ū·šə·mōw qîš ben- ’ă·ḇî·’êl ben- ṣə·rō·wr ben- bə·ḵō·w·raṯ ben- ’ă·p̄î·aḥ ben- ’îš yə·mî·nî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-there-came-to-be a-man from-Ben-yamin, and-his-name Qish, son-of Abi-el, son-of Tseror, son-of Bekorath, son-of Aphiach, son-of a-man-of-Yemini: a-mighty-one of-force.
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The Heb. may mean either ( a ) a valiant man , as in ch. 1 Samuel 16:18 , or ( b ) a wealthy man as in Ruth 2:1 . Perhaps the ideas of personal valour and family importance are both included hereCambridge alone states the ambiguity as ambiguity; the others resolve it and then argue.
The family was of high consideration in the tribe of Benjamin, and therefore Saul's words must be set down among the common forms of affected humility, which Oriental people are wont to use
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 but a man of great strength, an able bodied man, and of great natural fortitude, and courage of mindGill takes Saul's self-description in v. 21 as decisive and reads ḥayil as bodily strength; JFB, quoted above, takes the opposite view of the same two words.
2And he had a son named Saul, choice and handsome, without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the people.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·lōw- hā·yāh ḇên ū·šə·mōw šā·’ūl bā·ḥūr wā·ṭō·wḇ wə·’ên ’îš ṭō·wḇ mim·men·nū mib·bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl miš·šiḵ·mōw wā·ma‘·lāh gā·ḇō·ah mik·kāl hā·‘ām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-to-him there-was a-son, and-his-name Shaul: choice and-good; and-there-was-no man of-the-sons-of Israel better than-him; from-his-shoulder and-upward, high above-all the-people.
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This is a double translation of the Hebrew word, and consequently one half or other must be wrong
whose name was Saul ] Heb. Shâûl = “asked.” It occurs as the name ( a ) of an Edomite prince ( Genesis 36:37-38 ); ( b ) of a son of Simeon ( Genesis 46:10 ); ( c ) of a Kohathite in the genealogy of Samuel ( 1 Chronicles 6:24 ); ( d ) of Saul of Tarsus, “who is also called Paul” ( Acts 7:58 , &c.); and thus it became “the most distinguished name in the genealogies of the tribe of Benjamin,” in the N.T. as well as in the O.T.
No one equalled him in beauty. "From his shoulder upwards he was higher than any of the people." Such a figure as this was well adapted to commend him to the people as their king (cf. 1 Samuel 10:24 ), since size and beauty were highly valued in rulers, as signs of manly strength
So that it might seem that God approved their request in appointing such a personGeneva writes “it might seem,” not “it was so.” The gloss is carefully hedged: the outward fitness of Saul is precisely what will prove no proof at all.
3One day the donkeys of Saul’s father Kish wandered off, and Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants and go look for the donkeys.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·’ă·ṯō·nō·wṯ šā·’ūl ’ă·ḇî lə·qîš wat·tō·ḇaḏ·nāh qîš way·yō·mer ’el- bə·nōw šā·’ūl qaḥ- nā ’a·ḥaḏ mê·han·nə·‘ā·rîm wə·qūm ’it·tə·ḵā ’eṯ- lêḵ baq·qêš ’eṯ- hā·’ă·ṯō·nōṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-the-she-donkeys of-Qish, father-of Shaul, wandered-off-and-were-lost; and-Qish said to-Shaul his-son: Take, I-pray, one of-the-lads with-thee, and-arise, go, seek-out the-she-donkeys.
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So strangely is the trivial ever united with events most solemn and weighty, that Saul set out upon this journey, in which he was to find a kingdom, with no other object than to look for some lost asses
Asses were there of great price, because of the scarcity of horses, and therefore were not thought unworthy to be sought by Saul, especially in these ancient times, when simplicity, humility, and industry were in fashion among persons of quality
All these circumstances were means to serve God's providence, by which Saul (though not approved by God) was made kingGeneva's parenthesis is the sharpest sentence in the chapter's commentary: providence carried Saul to the throne, and approval is a different thing from providence.
4So Saul passed through the hill country of Ephraim and then through the land of Shalishah, but they did not find the donkeys. He and the servant went through the region of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then they went through the land of Benjamin, and still they did not find them.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·ya·‘ă·ḇōr bə·har- ’ep̄·ra·yim bə·’e·reṣ- šā·li·šāh wə·lō mā·ṣā·’ū way·ya·‘ă·ḇōr ḇə·’e·reṣ- ša·‘ă·lîm wā·’a·yin way·ya·‘ă·ḇōr way·ya·‘aḇ·rū bə·’e·reṣ- yə·mî·nî wə·lō mā·ṣā·’ū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-crossed-over into-the-hill-country-of Ephraim, and-crossed-over into-the-land-of Shalishah, and-they-found-not; and-they-crossed-over into-the-land-of Shaalim, and-nothing; and-he-crossed-over into-the-land-of Yemini, and-they-found-not.
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Having been sent out by his father to search for his she-asses which had strayed, Saul went with his servant through the mountains of Ephraim, which ran southwards into the tribe-territory of Benjamin (see at 1 Samuel 1:1 ), then through the land of Shalishah and the land of Shaalim, and after that through the land of Benjamin, without finding the assesK&D's route reconstruction runs for a page of topography and is frankly conjectural; Cambridge concedes that “Saul's route cannot be traced with any certainty.”
The land of Shalim. I.e. of jackals; probably the same as the land of Shual, also = jackal-land ( 1 Samuel 13:17 ). The very name shows that it was a wild, uninhabited region
so called because three valleys there united in one, or one divided into three
5When they reached the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant, “Come, let us go back, or my father will stop worrying about the donkeys and start worrying about us.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hêm·māh bā·’ū bə·’e·reṣ ṣūp̄ wə·šā·’ūl ’ā·mar lə·na·‘ă·rōw ’ă·šer- ‘im·mōw lə·ḵāh wə·nā·šū·ḇāh pen- ’ā·ḇî yeḥ·dal min- hā·’ă·ṯō·nō·wṯ wə·ḏā·’aḡ lā·nū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
They came into-the-land-of Tsuph, and-Shaul said to-his-lad who-was with-him: Come, and-let-us-turn-back, lest my-father cease from-the-she-donkeys and-be-anxious for-us.
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Saul’s tender regard for his father’s feelings here is a favourable indication of characterEllicott is quoting Dr. Kitto, not speaking in his own voice.
A mark of good feeling on Saul's part, and a proof of the affectionate terms on which Kish and his family lived
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
6“Look,” said the servant, “in this city there is a man of God who is highly respected; everything he says surely comes to pass. Let us go there now. Perhaps he will tell us which way to go.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hin·nêh- nā way·yō·mer lōw haz·zōṯ bā·‘îr ’îš- ’ĕ·lō·hîm wə·hā·’îš niḵ·bāḏ kōl ’ă·šer- yə·ḏab·bêr bō·w yā·ḇō·w nê·lă·ḵāh šām ‘at·tāh ’ū·lay yag·gîḏ lā·nū ’eṯ- ’ă·šer- dar·kê·nū hā·laḵ·nū ‘ā·le·hā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-said to-him: Behold, I-pray, a-man-of-God is in-this city, and-the-man is-weighted-with-honour; all that he-speaks coming it-comes. Now let-us-go there; perhaps he-will-tell-us our-way on-which we-have-gone.
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Many will consult a man of God, if he comes in their way, that would not go a step out of their way to get wisdom
It seems strange that Saul apparently knows nothing about Samuel. But the days of Samuel’s greatest activity were long past, and he had for some time been living in comparative retirement
Nearly all the commentators suppose it to have been Ramah, Samuel's home. But this assumption has no foundation at all in the text, and is irreconcilable with the statements respecting the returnK&D is arguing against Ellicott, Gill and Pulpit, who all read the unnamed city as Ramah. The text never names it, and this unit does not settle the question.
7“If we do go,” Saul replied, “what can we give the man? For the bread in our packs is gone, and there is no gift to take to the man of God. What do we have?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hin·nêh nê·lêḵ šā·’ūl way·yō·mer lə·na·‘ă·rōw ū·mah- nā·ḇî lā·’îš kî hal·le·ḥem mik·kê·lê·nū ’ā·zal ’ên- ū·ṯə·šū·rāh lə·hā·ḇî lə·’îš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm māh ’it·tā·nū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Shaul said to-his-lad: And-behold, if-we-go, what shall-we-bring to-the-man? For the-bread has-gone-from our-vessels, and-a-gift there-is-none to-bring to-the-man-of-God. What is-with-us?
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It would seem at first strange that one like Samuel should be approached by presents, but the custom of offering gifts was in many cases an act of respectful homage to a superior rather than a mere fee
The word is rare, and apparently is the technical name for a fee of this kind, half payment and half gift
A word occurring here only, to denote the present with which one approaches a great man
8The servant answered him again. “Look,” he said, “I have here in my hand a quarter shekel of silver. I will give it to the man of God, and he will tell us our way.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
han·na·‘ar la·‘ă·nō·wṯ ’eṯ- šā·’ūl way·yō·sep̄ hin·nêh way·yō·mer nim·ṣā ḇə·yā·ḏî re·ḇa‘ še·qel kā·sep̄ wə·nā·ṯat·tî lə·’îš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm wə·hig·gîḏ lā·nū ’eṯ- dar·kê·nū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-the-lad added to-answer Shaul and-said: Behold, there-is-found in-my-hand a-quarter of-a-shekel of-silver; and-I-will-give it to-the-man-of-God, and-he-will-tell us our-way.
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Probably the shekel, like our early English silver coins, was divided into four quarters by a cross, and actually subdivided, when required, into half and quarter shekels
A small present, but as acceptable as the widow’s mite, being all they had left on their journey
It very well marks the eagerness of the servant that he is ready to part with the considerable sum of money in his possession in order to consult the seerPulpit reads the coin as a large sum, Barnes and JFB as about sixpence; the honest position is that, as Cambridge says, “we have no clue to its real value in the time of Samuel.”
9(Formerly in Israel, a man on his way to inquire of God would say, “Come, let us go to the seer.” For the prophet of today was formerly called the seer.)
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lə·p̄ā·nîm bə·yiś·rā·’êl kōh- hā·’îš bə·leḵ·tōw liḏ·rō·wōš ’ĕ·lō·hîm ’ā·mar lə·ḵū wə·nê·lə·ḵāh ‘aḏ- hā·rō·’eh kî lan·nā·ḇî hay·yō·wm lə·p̄ā·nîm yiq·qā·rê hā·rō·’eh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
To-the-face-times in-Israel, thus said the-man in-his-going to-inquire-of God: Come, and-let-us-go as-far-as the-seer; for the-prophet of-today was-called to-the-face-times the-seer.
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This verse was evidently inserted in the original book of memoirs of the days of Samuel by a later hand
Was called a seer, because he did discern and could discover things secret and unknown to othersPoole canvasses three possible authors for the note, a later writer, Samuel himself, or Saul's aged servant, and does not finally choose.
Probably nâbî designates the prophet as the inspired interpreter of the will of God : rôeh and chôzeh refer to the method of communication by dream and vision
we have a narrative couched in the very language of his times; for the writer of the gloss contained in this verse was displeased at Samuel being called a roehPulpit uses the gloss as evidence for the antiquity of the surrounding narrative: the glossator disliked the old word but would not remove it.
10“Good,” said Saul to his servant. “Come, let us go.” So they set out for the city where the man of God was.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ṭō·wḇ də·ḇā·rə·ḵā way·yō·mer šā·’ūl lə·na·‘ă·rōw lə·ḵāh nê·lê·ḵāh way·yê·lə·ḵū ’el- hā·‘îr ’ă·šer- šām ’îš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Shaul said to-his-lad: Good is-thy-word. Come, let-us-go. And-they-went to-the-city where the-man-of-God was.
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thou hast well spoken; it is a good proposal thou hast made, and thou art very generous to give all thou hast to the man
Still, the impression which the narrative leaves on the mind is that it was Samuel’s usual residence—“Ramah.” We know Samuel had built an altar to the Lord at Ramah ( 1Samuel 7:17 ); on the day of Saul’s arrival there was a great sacrifice taking place on the altar of the high place of the city. Again, in this nameless city the seer had a house of his ownEllicott argues for Ramah from the altar of 7:17, the house of vv. 18 and 25, and the servant's familiarity; K&D (quoted at v. 6) argues the opposite from the same verses. The text names no city.
11And as they were climbing the hill to the city, they met some young women coming out to draw water and asked, “Is the seer here?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hêm·māh ‘ō·lîm bə·ma·‘ă·lêh hā·‘îr wə·hêm·māh mā·ṣə·’ū nə·‘ā·rō·wṯ yō·ṣə·’ō·wṯ liš·’ōḇ mā·yim way·yō·mə·rū lā·hen hă·yêš hā·rō·’eh bā·zeh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
They were going-up in-the-ascent of-the-city, and-they found young-women going-out to-draw water; and-they said to-them: Is the-seer in-this-place?
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on their way they met a band of young maidens going out to the well, which, like all similar places in Palestine, was beyond the precincts of the town
R. Akiba (e) makes this observation, that whenever a man meets maidens coming out of a city before he goes into it, it is a token of prosperity to himGill is reporting a rabbinic tradition as tradition, not as a claim of the text; he lists Abraham's servant, Jacob and Moses as its other instances.
12“Yes, he is ahead of you,” they answered. “Hurry now, for today he has come to the city because the people have a sacrifice on the high place.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hin·nêh yêš lə·p̄ā·ne·ḵā wat·ta·‘ă·ne·nāh ’ō·w·ṯām wat·tō·mar·nāh ma·hêr ‘at·tāh kî hay·yō·wm bā lā·‘îr kî lā·‘ām ze·ḇaḥ bab·bā·māh hay·yō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they answered them and-said: Behold, he-is before-thy-face. Hurry now, for today he-came to-the-city, for a-sacrifice is-for-the-people today in-the-high-place.
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Every word spoken by the girls of Ramah, loving to chatter and exhibit their local knowledge and their interest in their great fellow-citizen, the seer and judge, to whom they, in common with the inhabitants of Ramah, were, no doubt, much attached, was remembered in after time by Saul and his companion
near the altar which Samuel built for this kind of use, 1 Samuel 7:17 , by Divine dispensation, as was there noted; otherwise to sacrifice in high places was forbidden by the law, after the building of the tabernaclePoole states the difficulty rather than hiding it: the sacrifice is lawful here only by express divine dispensation.
Bamah (in the singular) does not mean the height or hill generally; but throughout it signifies the high place, as a place of sacrifice or prayer
13As soon as you enter the city, you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people will not eat until he comes, because he must bless the sacrifice; after that, the guests will eat. Go up at once; you will find him.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kə·ḇō·’ă·ḵem hā·‘îr kên tim·ṣə·’ūn ’ō·ṯōw bə·ṭe·rem ya·‘ă·leh hab·bā·mā·ṯāh le·’ĕ·ḵōl kî hā·‘ām lō- yō·ḵal ‘aḏ- bō·’ōw kî- hū yə·ḇā·rêḵ haz·ze·ḇaḥ ’a·ḥă·rê- ḵên haq·qə·ru·’îm wə·‘at·tāh yō·ḵə·lū ‘ă·lū kî- ’ō·ṯōw ḵə·hay·yō·wm tim·ṣə·’ūn ’ō·ṯōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
As-you-enter the-city, so you-shall-find him before he-goes-up to-the-high-place to-eat; for the-people will-not eat until his-coming, for he blesses the-sacrifice; afterward the-called-ones eat. And-now go-up, for at-this-very-day you-shall-find him.
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Pronounces a blessing or thanksgiving over the sacrificial feast. Cp. Luke 9:16 with John 6:11The Gospel cross-references are Cambridge's own, printed against this verse.
The pious custom of asking a blessing on meals, our Lord's "giving of thanks," is inherited by us from the Jews
By this phrase we see that the high place was in the highest part of the city
14So Saul and his servant went up toward the city, and as they were entering it, there was Samuel coming toward them on his way up to the high place.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·ya·‘ă·lū hā·‘îr hêm·māh bā·’îm bə·ṯō·wḵ hā·‘îr wə·hin·nêh šə·mū·’êl yō·ṣê liq·rā·ṯām la·‘ă·lō·wṯ hab·bā·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-went-up to-the-city. They were entering into-the-midst of-the-city, and-behold, Shemuel going-out to-meet-them, to-go-up to-the-high-place.
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Saul comes before Samuel, bashfully pursuing his humble quest, in apparent unconsciousness of the power slumbering within him of aspiring and attaining to the highest place; the great seer receives him in a way quite different from all that he could have hoped or fearedEllicott is quoting Ewald here, not writing in his own voice.
Met them directly in his way to the sacrifice. For so God, in his providence, had disposed things
Rather, as they were coming into the midst of the city, behold Samuel was coming out to meet themCambridge's retranslation is offered precisely to dissolve the apparent clash with v. 18; K&D reaches the same result without changing the text.
15Now on the day before Saul’s arrival, the LORD had revealed to Samuel,
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yō·wm ’e·ḥāḏ lip̄·nê šā·’ūl lê·mōr ḇō·w- Yah·weh gā·lāh ’eṯ- ’ō·zen šə·mū·’êl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-YHWH had-uncovered the-ear of-Shemuel one day before the-coming of-Shaul, saying:
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Think of the chain of ordinary events which brought Saul to the little city,-the wandering of a drove of asses, the failure to get on their tracks, the accident of being in the land of Zuph when he got tired of the search, the suggestion of the servant; and behind all these, and working through them, the will and hand of God, thrusting this man, all unconscious, along a path which he knew not
The image is taken from the action of pushing aside the head-dress, in order the more conveniently to whisper some words to the ear
In a private manner, whispering in his ear, telling him in a free, familiar, friendly way, as a secret
16“At this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you are to anoint him ruler over My people Israel; he will save them from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to Me.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kā·‘êṯ mā·ḥār ’eš·laḥ ’ê·le·ḵā ’îš mê·’e·reṣ bin·yā·min ū·mə·šaḥ·tōw lə·nā·ḡîḏ ‘al- ‘am·mî yiś·rā·’êl wə·hō·wō·šî·a‘ ’eṯ- ‘am·mî mî·yaḏ pə·liš·tîm kî rā·’î·ṯî ’eṯ- ‘am·mî kî ṣa·‘ă·qā·ṯōw bā·’āh ’ê·lāy
Literal — word-for-word from the original
At-this-time tomorrow I-will-send to-thee a-man from-the-land-of Binyamin, and-thou-shalt-anoint him for-leader over My-people Israel, and-he-shall-save My-people from-the-hand of-the-Philistines; for I-have-looked-upon My-people, for his-cry has-come to-Me.
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As the Philistines wanted to tread in the footsteps of the Egyptians, it was necessary that Jehovah should also send His people a deliverer from these new oppressors, by giving them a king
yet he was so gracious as to make those kings instruments of their deliverance from the oppression of their cruel neighbours
Despite their wickedness, yet God was ever mindful of his inheritance
17When Samuel saw Saul, the LORD told him, “Here is the man of whom I spoke; he shall rule over My people.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·šə·mū·’êl rā·’āh ’eṯ- šā·’ūl Yah·weh ‘ā·nā·hū hin·nêh hā·’îš ’ă·šer ’ā·mar·tî ’ê·le·ḵā zeh ya‘·ṣōr bə·‘am·mî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Shemuel saw Shaul, and-YHWH answered him: Behold the-man of-whom I-said to-thee: this-one shall-restrain among-My-people.
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It was a word which—looking on to Saul’s future reign—represented it as a stern, severe rule
A peculiar word, contrasting the restraints of a settled government with the license of the time in which “every man did that which was right in his own eyesCambridge hears order where Ellicott hears severity. The lexicon (“to inclose”) will bear either, and this unit does not choose.
When Samuel saw the young stranger, struck by his towering height, he wondered within himself whether this were the destined hero who was to win freedom for Israel
18Saul approached Samuel in the gateway and asked, “Would you please tell me where the seer’s house is?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl ’eṯ- way·yig·gaš šə·mū·’êl bə·ṯō·wḵ haš·šā·‘ar way·yō·mer nā hag·gî·ḏāh- lî ’ê- zeh hā·rō·’eh bêṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Shaul drew-near to-Shemuel in-the-midst of-the-gate and-said: Tell me, I-pray, where-is this, the-house-of the-seer?
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one knows not which to wonder at most, the simplicity and humility of Samuel to be in so plain an habit, unattended by servants, and yet going to a public festival, so that he seemed to be no other than a common man
i.e. the gateway, where they would naturally halt to inquire for the Seer’s house
And through this gate Samuel seems now to have been passing to go to the high place, which probably was without the city; and there he makes a stand, to hear what these persons now approaching to him were about to speak
19“I am the seer,” Samuel replied. “Go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today. And when I send you off in the morning, I will tell you all that is in your heart.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ā·nō·ḵî hā·rō·’eh šə·mū·’êl ’eṯ- šā·’ūl way·yō·mer way·ya·‘an ‘ă·lêh lə·p̄ā·nay hab·bā·māh wa·’ă·ḵal·tem ‘im·mî hay·yō·wm wə·šil·laḥ·tî·ḵā ḇab·bō·qer ’ag·gîḏ lāḵ wə·ḵōl ’ă·šer bil·ḇā·ḇə·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Shemuel answered Shaul and-said: I am the-seer. Go-up before-me to-the-high-place, and-you-shall-eat with-me today; and-in-the-morning I-will-send-thee-off, and-all that is-in-thy-heart I-will-tell thee.
Where the English smooths the original
The desiring the young stranger to precede him to the public place of sacrifice was a sign of distinguished honour from one of Samuel’s rank to a young unknown wayfarer like Saul
simply the thoughts of thy heart generally. Samuel would make these known to him, to prove to him that he was a prophet
May we not suppose that Saul at his plough like Joan of Arc with her flock had been brooding over the oppression of his country, and cherishing a vague desire to liberate it?Cambridge poses this as an open question, not a claim; the text records nothing of Saul's inner life before this meeting.
20As for the donkeys you lost three days ago, do not worry about them, for they have been found. And upon whom is all the desire of Israel, if not upon you and all your father’s house?”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·lā·’ă·ṯō·nō·wṯ hā·’ō·ḇə·ḏō·wṯ lə·ḵā šə·lō·šeṯ hay·yō·wm hay·yā·mîm ’al- tā·śem ’eṯ- lib·bə·ḵā lā·hem kî nim·ṣā·’ū ū·lə·mî kāl- ḥem·daṯ yiś·rā·’êl hă·lō·w lə·ḵā ū·lə·ḵōl ’ā·ḇî·ḵā bêṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-as-for-the-she-donkeys, the-lost-ones to-thee three days ago: do-not set thy-heart to-them, for they-have-been-found. And-to-whom is-all the-desirable-thing of-Israel? Is-it-not to-thee and-to-all the-house-of thy-father?
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is not all that Israel desires, but all that Israel possesses of what is precious or worth desiringK&D, the Vulgate and Luther read the phrase as Israel's treasures; Geneva reads it as Israel's wish. The Hebrew construct will carry both.
that honour is designed for thee, and, after thy death, for thy family or posterity, if by thy sin thou dost not cut off the entail
This must have satisfied Saul that he was a prophet, as he hereby showed that he knew for what Saul came to him, though he had not told him
21Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjamite from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of Benjamin? So why would you say such a thing to me?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl way·yō·mer way·ya·‘an ’ā·nō·ḵî hă·lō·w ḇen- yə·mî·nî miq·qa·ṭan·nē šiḇ·ṭê yiś·rā·’êl ū·miš·paḥ·tî haṣ·ṣə·‘i·rāh mik·kāl miš·pə·ḥō·wṯ ḇin·yā·min šiḇ·ṭê wə·lām·māh dib·bar·tā kad·dā·ḇār haz·zeh ’ê·lay
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Shaul answered and-said: Am-I-not a-son-of-Yemini, from-the-smallest of-the-tribes of-Israel? And-my-clan the-least of-all the-clans of-the-tribes of-Binyamin? And-why hast-thou-spoken to-me according-to-this-word?
Where the English smooths the original
Nothing could be more improbable, humanly speaking, than that this weak tribe should give a ruler to the mighty tribes of Joseph and Judah
By selecting a king from this least and nearly extinct tribe (Jud 20:46-48), divine wisdom designed to remove all grounds of jealousy among the other tribesJFB elsewhere calls Saul's humility “affected”; here he treats the same smallness as divine strategy. Both claims are his.
but could not believe that one of so small a tribe, and which sprung from the youngest son of Jacob, and of so mean a family, would be raised to such dignity
22Then Samuel took Saul and his servant, brought them into the hall, and seated them in the place of honor among those who were invited—about thirty in all.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šə·mū·’êl ’eṯ- way·yiq·qaḥ šā·’ūl wə·’eṯ- na·‘ă·rōw way·ḇî·’êm liš·kā·ṯāh way·yit·tên lā·hem mā·qō·wm bə·rōš haq·qə·rū·’îm wə·hêm·māh kiš·lō·šîm ’îš
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Shemuel took Shaul and-his-lad and-brought-them into-the-chamber, and-gave them a-place at-the-head of-the-called-ones: and-they were-about thirty men.
Where the English smooths the original
He honoured his servant for Saul’s sake; thereby both giving all the guests occasion to think how great that person was, or should be, whose very servant was advanced above the chief persons of the city
The toil-worn but noble-looking traveller found himself suddenly seated among the principal men of the place and treated as the most distinguished guest
Only the more distinguished citizens would be specially invited to the chamber. The rest would feast in the open air outside
23And Samuel said to the cook, “Bring the portion I gave you and told you to set aside.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šə·mū·’êl way·yō·mer laṭ·ṭab·bāḥ tə·nāh ’eṯ- ham·mā·nāh ’ă·šer nā·ṯat·tî lāḵ ’ă·šer ’ā·mar·tî ’ê·le·ḵā śîm ’ō·ṯāh ‘im·māḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Shemuel said to-the-cook: Give the-portion that I-gave to-thee, of-which I-said to-thee: Set it beside-thee.
Where the English smooths the original
The very piece of meat set before Samuel at the Ramah banquet was no chance piece, but one which, owing, no doubt, to its being considered the choicest, had been carefully set aside for him when the sacrificial feast was being preparedEllicott writes “before Samuel,” which appears to be a slip for Saul; his point, that the portion was reserved in advance, is unaffected.
And Samuel had commanded the cook, before they sat down, not to set one dish upon the table, but to keep it till he called for it
do not bring it in with the rest, but keep it in the kitchen till called for
24So the cook picked up the leg and what was attached to it and set it before Saul. Then Samuel said, “Here is what was kept back. It was set apart for you. Eat, for it has been kept for you for this occasion, from the time I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul dined with Samuel that day.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
haṭ·ṭab·bāḥ ’eṯ- way·yā·rem haš·šō·wq wə·he·‘ā·le·hā way·yā·śem lip̄·nê šā·’ūl way·yō·mer hin·nêh han·niš·’ār śîm- lə·p̄ā·ne·ḵā ’ĕ·ḵōl kî šā·mūr- lə·ḵā lam·mō·w·‘êḏ lê·mōr qā·rā·ṯî hā·‘ām šā·’ūl way·yō·ḵal ‘im- šə·mū·’êl ha·hū bay·yō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-the-cook lifted-up the-leg and-what-was-upon-it and-set it before Shaul. And-he-said: Behold, the-kept-back: it-is-set before-thee. Eat, for to-the-appointed-time it-has-been-guarded for-thee, saying: I-have-called the-people. And-Shaul ate with Shemuel on-that day.
Where the English smooths the original
Samuel's name is not given in the Hebrew, and though inserted by the Septuagint and Vulgate, it is so only by a manifest error. The Syriac and Chaldee, like the Hebrew, make the cook the speakerPulpit (Dean Payne Smith) is arguing that the whole speech belongs to the cook; Ellicott quotes the same argument approvingly at this verse.
Rather, And the cook heaved the leg. The right leg was the priest’s portion ( Leviticus 7:32 ), which Samuel had received
As a secret symbol or sign of that burden which was to be laid upon Saul, and of that strength which was necessary for the bearing of it; the shoulder being both the seat of burdens, and the subject of strengthPoole's symbolic reading depends on the older rendering “shoulder”; the Hebrew noun is the leg.
In any case, however, the leg, as the largest and best portion, was to be a piece of honour for Saul (see Genesis 43:34 ). There is no reason to seek for any further symbolical meaning in itA direct refusal of the reading Poole offers above. Both are printed here so the reader can weigh them.
25And after they had come down from the high place into the city, Samuel spoke with Saul on the roof of his house.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yê·rə·ḏū mê·hab·bā·māh hā·‘îr way·ḏab·bêr ‘im- šā·’ūl ‘al- hag·gāḡ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-came-down from-the-high-place to-the-city, and-he-spoke with Shaul on the-roof.
Where the English smooths the original
the causes of the impotency of Israel to oppose their enemies, the necessity of a religious change in the people, and of a leader thoroughly obedient to the LordEllicott is quoting Otto von Gerlach's reconstruction of a conversation the text does not report. It is conjecture, and Ellicott presents it as such.
The Vulgate adds here, Saul prepared him a bed on the top of the house, and slept, an addition which Houbigant approves
The top of the house was flat, after the manner, Deu 22:8 ; and so fit for walking, and for secret prayers
26They got up early in the morning, and just before dawn Samuel called to Saul on the roof, “Get ready, and I will send you on your way!” So Saul got ready, and both he and Samuel went outside together.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yaš·ki·mū way·hî ka·‘ă·lō·wṯ haš·ša·ḥar šə·mū·’êl way·yiq·rā ’el- šā·’ūl hag·gå̄ḡ lê·mōr qū·māh wa·’ă·šal·lə·ḥe·kā šā·’ūl way·yā·qām šə·nê·hem hū ū·šə·mū·’êl way·yê·ṣə·’ū ha·ḥū·ṣāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-rose-early; and-it-came-to-pass as-the-dawn was-going-up, Shemuel called to-Shaul on-the-roof, saying: Arise, and-I-will-send-thee-off. And-Shaul arose, and-the-two-of-them went-out, he and-Shemuel, outside.
Where the English smooths the original
Saul, evidently weary after the exciting scene and revelations of the day before, slept soundly, probably heavily, on his couch spread on the roof of the prophet’s house
he called from below within the house up to the roof, where Saul was probably sleeping upon the balcony
Neither of them being able to sleep, as Abarbinel supposes; not Samuel for thinking what he was to do the next morning, anoint Saul king over IsraelGill reports Abarbinel's explanation of the early rising as a conjecture of a named Jewish commentator, not as the text's own statement.
27As they were going down to the edge of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us, but you stay for a while, and I will reveal to you the word of God.” So the servant went on.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hêm·māh yō·wr·ḏîm biq·ṣêh hā·‘îr ū·šə·mū·’êl ’ā·mar ’el- šā·’ūl ’ĕ·mōr lan·na·‘ar wə·ya·‘ă·ḇōr lə·p̄ā·nê·nū wə·’at·tāh ‘ă·mōḏ kay·yō·wm wə·’aš·mî·‘ă·ḵā ’eṯ- də·ḇar ’ĕ·lō·hîm way·ya·‘ă·ḇōr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
They were going-down at-the-edge of-the-city, and-Shemuel said to-Shaul: Say to-the-lad that-he-pass-on before-us; and-he-passed-on. But-thou, stand now, and-I-will-cause-thee-to-hear the-word of-God.
Where the English smooths the original
Which Samuel hitherto endeavoured to conceal, lest he should be thought now to impose a king upon them, as before he denied one to them: and that it might appear by the lot mentioned in the next chapter, that the kingdom was given to Saul by God’s destination, and not by Samuel’s contrivance
Perhaps Saul was the only one who ever went out to seek asses, and literally found a kingdom; but many have set out and moved their dwellings to seek riches and pleasures, who have been guided to places where they found salvation for their souls
When new duties are imposed by God, He never forgets to bestow the gift of new powers
And while on the human side Saul proved not unworthy of a royal crown, in his relation towards God he failed, because he let self-will and earthly policy prevail in his heart over obedience and trust in GodPulpit is reading back from the whole reign; nothing in chapter 9 itself accuses Saul.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The chapter opens with a genealogy and a body. Kish is גִּבּוֹר חָיִל, and the commentators cannot agree what that means: Cambridge states the ambiguity plainly, that the Hebrew may mean a valiant man or a wealthy man; K&D decides for property, “not a brave man, but a man of property, as in Ruth 2:1”; Gill decides the opposite, denying riches and reading bodily strength, on the ground of Saul's own protest in v. 21; JFB decides for wealth and dismisses Saul's protest as “common forms of affected humility.” ⚙ The unit will not adjudicate. What it notices instead is that the verse names the smallest tribe twice, at the head (Binyāmîn, H1144) and at the tail (yᵉmînî, H3227), wrapping this powerful man inside the tribe that Judges 20 nearly erased, a point Barnes and Poole both press.
Then the son, and the name is the argument. שָׁאוּל is a passive participle, “asked for”; Cambridge glosses it “asked,” K&D “prayed for,” sending the reader to Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:17, 27. ⚙ Israel asked for a king in chapter 8 and God gave them a man named Asked-For. The physical description is all surface and all height: bāḥûr (selected), ṭôwb (good), and gābōah (H1364), whose lexicon entry already contains the word “arrogant.” Pulpit admits the English is a double translation and that “one half or other must be wrong.” Geneva, shrewdly, writes only that “it might seem that God approved their request in appointing such a person.” It might seem. The measurement is taken from the shoulder up, šᵉkem, the place where burdens are laid.
The kingdom begins with strays. אָבַד (H6), “properly, to wander away,” takes the she-donkeys out of Kish's stable, and Kish sends his son with the imperative בַּקֵּשׁ (H1245), a Piel whose lexical range is “to search out by any method, specifically in worship or prayer.” ⚙ From the first command, the vocabulary of the errand and the vocabulary of the oracle are the same vocabulary, which is why the narrator must stop in v. 9 and define what it meant to “go and inquire of God.”
Verse 4 repeats עָבַר four times and לֹא מָצָאוּ twice: crossing, crossing, crossing, and nothing. Then the provisions give out with אָזַל (H235), a rare verb of things walking away, and the two men stand at the edge of Zuph with nothing to eat and nothing to give. Pulpit puts the irony exactly: “Saul set out upon this journey, in which he was to find a kingdom, with no other object than to look for some lost asses.” Geneva puts the theology: “All these circumstances were means to serve God's providence, by which Saul (though not approved by God) was made king.” That parenthesis is the most important six words any of these commentators writes about this chapter.
⚙ Watch the keyword turn. Twice in v. 4 they do not find; in v. 8 something is found (Niphal, נִמְצָא) in the servant's hand; in v. 13 the girls promise “you will find him”; in v. 20 Samuel reports the animals “have been found,” again Niphal, again with no finder named. The searching in this chapter never succeeds. The finding happens to them.
It is worth saying who moves the plot: an unnamed servant. He proposes the detour, he knows of the man of God, he pays. Ellicott notes he is a naʻar, “the ‘servant,’ not ‘slave,’” trusted with the purse and free to argue with his master. Henry turns it on the reader instead: “Many will consult a man of God, if he comes in their way, that would not go a step out of their way to get wisdom.”
Verse 9 is a note in the margin of Israel's own vocabulary: the man now called נָבִיא (H5030) was formerly called רֹאֶה (H7203), the seer. Ellicott says outright that the verse “was evidently inserted in the original book of memoirs of the days of Samuel by a later hand”; Barnes calls it “manifestly a gloss”; Cambridge agrees it is an addition, placed here rather than after v. 11 “to avoid interrupting the narrative.” Benson and Gill offer the alternative, that Samuel himself, writing in old age, could call his own youth “beforetime,” and Poole adds a third possibility, that the words belong to the elderly servant. Pulpit draws the conclusion that cuts both ways: the gloss proves that the narrative around it preserves “the very language of his times,” since the glossator “was displeased at Samuel being called a roeh, but did not dare to alter it.”
⚙ Whoever wrote it, the note does a theological job. It tells us that the title under which Saul approaches Samuel, seer, a man you consult about livestock for the price of a broken coin, is an obsolete and diminished word for what Samuel actually is. Saul comes looking for a fortune-teller and meets the last judge of Israel. Cambridge's distinction is the careful one: “nâbî designates the prophet as the inspired interpreter of the will of God; rôeh and chôzeh refer to the method of communication by dream and vision.”
The girls at the well are the chapter's most human page. Ellicott hears them: “Every word spoken by the girls of Ramah, loving to chatter and exhibit their local knowledge … was remembered in after time by Saul and his companion.” They send the strangers up to the בָּמָה, and K&D insists on the technical sense: “Bamah (in the singular) does not mean the height or hill generally; but throughout it signifies the high place, as a place of sacrifice or prayer.” Poole registers the discomfort honestly: the altar there was built by Samuel “by Divine dispensation … otherwise to sacrifice in high places was forbidden by the law, after the building of the tabernacle.”
The narrative stops dead and tells us what happened the day before: גָּלָה אֶת־אֹזֶן, the LORD uncovered the ear of Samuel. Ellicott: “The image is taken from the action of pushing aside the head-dress, in order the more conveniently to whisper some words to the ear.” Maclaren refuses to let this be a political memoir: “It gives in the strongest form the fact of a revelation, both as to its origin and its secrecy,” and then lists the machinery God used, “the wandering of a drove of asses, the failure to get on their tracks, the accident of being in the land of Zuph … and behind all these, and working through them, the will and hand of God.”
God's own stated reason is the one sentence of the chapter that reaches back into the Torah: צַעֲקָתוֹ בָּאָה אֵלָי, “their cry is come unto me.” K&D: “this is word for word the same as in Exodus 3:9 … As the Philistines wanted to tread in the footsteps of the Egyptians, it was necessary that Jehovah should also send His people a deliverer from these new oppressors, by giving them a king.” ⚙ The monarchy God refused in chapter 8 as a rejection of Himself, He grants in chapter 9 in the vocabulary of the Exodus. Both things are said by the same book about the same institution, and the unit does not dissolve the tension.
The title given is not “king” but נָגִיד (H5057), “a commander as occupying the front,” and the verb of his office is וְהוֹשִׁיעַ (H3467), “he will save.” Then, when Samuel sees him, God's word is יַעְצֹר (H6113, ʻātsar, “to inclose”). Ellicott: it “should rather have been translated, ‘shall control,’ or ‘shall restrain.’ It was a word which … represented it as a stern, severe rule.” Cambridge softens it into something almost hopeful: “contrasting the restraints of a settled government with the license of the time in which ‘every man did that which was right in his own eyes.’” K&D gives it in two Latin words: coercere imperio.
At the feast the honours are theatrical and deliberate. Poole notices that even the servant is seated high, “thereby both giving all the guests occasion to think how great that person was … whose very servant was advanced above the chief persons of the city.” The reserved שׁוֹק is set before Saul, and here the commentators divide sharply. Poole reads a sign: the shoulder is “both the seat of burdens, and the subject of strength.” K&D refuses: “There is no reason to seek for any further symbolical meaning in it.” Cambridge settles the ritual question, that the heaved leg was “the priest's portion (Leviticus 7:32), which Samuel had received,” and gave away. And the speaker of v. 24 is disputed at the level of the consonants: Pulpit and Cambridge both observe that Samuel's name is not in the Hebrew at all, and that the Syriac and Chaldee make the cook the speaker.
They come down from the high place and go up onto the roof, and the narrator tells us they talked and does not tell us what was said. Ellicott, following von Gerlach, guesses at “the causes of the impotency of Israel to oppose their enemies … and of a leader thoroughly obedient to the Lord.” Gill guesses differently. ⚙ The honest reading is that the text withholds it: the one long private conversation between the last judge and the first king is a blank in Scripture, and every filling of it is conjecture, which Benson effectively concedes by noting that the Septuagint and Vulgate found the verse so awkward they rewrote it as “they spread a bed for Saul on the housetop, and he slept.”
Then כַּעֲלוֹת הַשַּׁחַר, as the dawn came up, the same verb ʻālāh that has carried them up the hill, up to the high place, up to the roof. The servant is sent ahead with וְיַעֲבֹר, the chapter's crossing-verb, one last time, and Saul is told to עֲמֹד, to stand. Everything that has moved for twenty-seven verses stops, and Samuel says וְאַשְׁמִיעֲךָ אֶת־דְּבַר אֱלֹהִים, “and I will cause thee to hear the word of God.” Henry's summary is the one that has kept preachers busy for three centuries: “Perhaps Saul was the only one who ever went out to seek asses, and literally found a kingdom.” Pulpit's is the one that keeps the book honest: “while on the human side Saul proved not unworthy of a royal crown, in his relation towards God he failed.”
⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text and against the named voices above. The chapter is built on a single grammatical habit: the verbs that matter are passive, and the people who search never find. Twice the travellers do not find (v. 4). Then silver is found in a hand (v. 8, Niphal). Then the animals have been found (v. 20, Niphal), with no finder named anywhere in the sentence. The ear of the prophet is uncovered (v. 15) by someone else. The portion has been kept (v. 24, Qal passive participle) before the guest knew there was a feast. And the man himself is named Asked-For, a passive participle, because he is the answer to somebody else's petition rather than the author of his own rise.
Set that against what the chapter says about height. The one qualification recorded of Saul is measured from the shoulder up, and the adjective used, gābōah, carries “elated” and “arrogant” inside it in the lexicon. Israel got exactly what it looked at. God's own description of the man, given twice in secret, uses two different words, and neither is “tall”: he is nāgîd, the one who stands in front, and he will save. The gap between how the people see their king and how God describes him is opened here, in chapter 9, before Saul has done anything at all, and 1 Samuel 16:7 will simply say out loud what this chapter has already built into its grammar.
So the reading offered is this. The monarchy that chapter 8 calls a rejection of God is, in chapter 9, carried forward entirely by God's own hand, and the narrative proves it not by argument but by syntax: no human being in this story accomplishes anything. Kish loses his animals. Saul wants to turn back. The servant's plan is to buy directions. The girls only know the timetable. Samuel does not choose the man; he is told. Geneva's parenthesis holds the whole thing together, that providence made Saul king “though not approved by God,” and the two halves of that sentence must both be believed. A thing can be given by God, warned against by God, and used by God, all at once. Whoever reads this chapter as either a straightforward blessing or a straightforward mistake has flattened it. The text is doing something harder: it is showing a sovereign God answering a prayer He had already called a rejection, and doing it so thoroughly that a broken quarter-shekel and a stray she-donkey are load-bearing.
The searching in this chapter never succeeds; the finding happens to them. (This line is the tool's own reading, not a verse of Scripture.)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The genealogy of v. 1 is cross-checked by two other passages that name the same men with the same rare vocabulary. 1 Samuel 14:51 shares אֲבִיאֵל (H22), a name standing in only three verses of the canon, together with קִישׁ (H7027) and שָׁאוּל; 1 Chronicles 26:28 sets Kish beside Saul and Samuel in a list of dedicated things. The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes. ⚙ The link is nominal rather than allusive: these are the same persons named again, not a later writer quoting an earlier one, and the badge below says so. The value of the thread is the friction it creates, since 1 Chronicles 8:33 and 9:39 make Ner the father of Kish. Barnes, Gill, K&D, Ellicott and Pulpit each repair the line differently, K&D by treating Ner as a remoter ancestor, Gill by reporting Kimchi's two-son solution, Pulpit by conceding that “the fearful cruelty recorded in Judges 20:48 may well account for the hopeless entanglement of Benjamite genealogies.” No harmonisation here is certain, and this unit records the disagreement rather than picking a winner.
1 Samuel 14:51 · 1 Chronicles 26:28
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes with 1 Samuel 14:51 — H22 ʼĂbîyʼêl (in 3 vv, rare), H7027 Qîysh (in 17 vv), H7586 Shâʼûwl (in 335 vv); with 1 Chronicles 26:28 — H7027 Qîysh (in 17 vv), H7586 Shâʼûwl. The rare lexeme H22 carries the verbal tier; the link is one of naming the same persons, not of citation
רֹאֶה (rôʼeh, H7203) is genuinely rare, standing in eleven verses in all, and this unit alone accounts for four of them (vv. 9 twice, 11, 18, 19). The Verifier finds its other homes: 1 Chronicles 9:22 and 29:29, where the Chronicler applies it to Samuel by name, and Isaiah 30:10, where a rebellious people say to the seers “see not.” ⚙ So the narrator's aside in v. 9 can be tested against the canon rather than merely believed: the word really does drop out of use and really does reappear, and Cambridge notes precisely that it “apparently … fell out of popular use after Samuel's time, but was revived as a classical word by the compiler of Chronicles.” Isaiah 30:10 shows the darker afterlife of the title, the seer commanded to stop seeing. Set beside the servant's confidence in v. 6 that “all that he saith cometh surely to pass,” the Isaiah verse is the negative print of the same office.
1 Chronicles 9:22 · 1 Chronicles 29:29 · Isaiah 30:10
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H7203 rôʼeh (in 11 vv, rare) with all three refs; 1 Chronicles 9:22 additionally shares H8050 Shᵉmûwʼêl (in 120 vv), 1 Chronicles 29:29 additionally shares H5030 nâbîyʼ (in 288 vv). Rare lexeme, repeatedly attested: a real verbal link, not a quotation
1 Samuel 10:2 shares this unit's controlling nouns and verbs: אָתוֹן (H860, in 28 verses), בָּקַשׁ (H1245) and בִּנְיָמִין (H1144). It is the same errand, resumed on the far side of the oil: Saul is told that two men by Rachel's tomb will tell him the animals are found and that his father has stopped worrying about them and started worrying about him, which is word for word the fear Saul voiced in 9:5. ⚙ No quotation is being claimed; this is one narrative continuing, and the badge is tiered accordingly. What the link does establish is that the donkeys are not a discarded pretext. The text keeps returning to them, and Cambridge uses the return to argue that Saul “did not go straight home, but was sent by the prophet out of his way.”
1 Samuel 10:2
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H860 ʼâthôwn (in 28 vv), H1245 bâqash (in 215 vv), H1144 Binyâmîyn (in 160 vv). Shared narrative and vocabulary within one continuous story; no quotation claimed
God's stated ground for sending Saul is כִּי בָּאָה צַעֲקָתוֹ אֵלָי (v. 16), and beside it, רָאִיתִי אֶת־עַמִּי, “I have looked upon My people.” K&D states flatly that the first clause “is word for word the same as in Exodus 3:9,” and reads the second like Exodus 2:25 and 3:7: “God's looking was not a quiet, inactive looking on, but an energetic look, which brought help in trouble.” Cambridge records that the Septuagint reads “I have looked upon the affliction of my people,” closer still to Exodus 3:7, and suggests the word “might easily have fallen out of the Hebrew text.” ⚙ The link is attested three ways: by a named commentator's verbatim claim, by an ancient version's reading, and by the Verifier, which on a direct check of 1 Samuel 9:16 against Exodus 3:9 returns the shared lexemes tsaʻăqâh (H6818, in 20 verses) and râʼâh (H7200). The relatively rare cry-word plus K&D's word-for-word judgement is what carries the verbal tier here; the second reference, Exodus 2:25, is K&D's parallel for the looking-clause and is not separately computed. The theological weight is considerable: the institution chapter 8 called a rejection of God's kingship is here introduced with the vocabulary of the Exodus, and K&D draws the conclusion, that the Philistines “wanted to tread in the footsteps of the Egyptians.”
Exodus 3:9 · Exodus 2:25
basis: Verifier (direct pair check, 1 Samuel 9:16 ↔ Exodus 3:9): shared Hebrew lexemes H6818 tsaʻăqâh (in 20 vv, relatively rare) and H7200 râʼâh (in 1200 vv). K&D independently states the clause is “word for word the same as in Exodus 3:9”; Cambridge records the Septuagint's “affliction of my people,” matching Exodus 3:7. The rare cry-lexeme together with the verbatim identity of the clause carries the verbal tier. The second ref, Exodus 2:25, is K&D's parallel for the looking-clause and was not separately computed
Two of this unit's least conspicuous words meet again in a single verse of the Song of Moses. אָזַל (H235), the rare verb for the bread that has “gone” from the travellers' packs (v. 7), stands in only four verses in all; עָצַר (H6113), the verb God uses in v. 17 for what Saul will do to His people, “restrain, inclose,” is the verb of Deuteronomy 32:36's “none shut up or left.” The Verifier confirms both lexemes are shared with Deuteronomy 32:36. ⚙ Honesty requires the downgrade: the senses genuinely diverge, since ʼāzal there describes strength gone and here describes provisions gone, and ʻātsar there is a passive idiom for the remnant while here it is an active verb of rule. So no quotation and no allusion is claimed. What the pairing does supply is a lexical picture of the condition in which Israel's deliverers arrive: everything spent, nothing shut up, no gift in hand, which is exactly where Deuteronomy says the LORD begins to vindicate His people.
Deuteronomy 32:36
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H235 ʼâzal (in 4 vv, rare) and H6113 ʻâtsâr (in 45 vv). Both lexemes are uncommon, but the senses diverge in the two contexts, so the verbal/quotation tier is deliberately withheld
Gill records that Kish “is the man the apostle calls Cis, Acts 13:21,” and Cambridge records that the name Shâûl “became the most distinguished name in the genealogies of the tribe of Benjamin, in the N.T. as well as in the O.T. (Php 3:5),” where another Benjamite named Saul counts his pedigree and calls it loss. Gill notices the physical joke at 9:2: the apostle “was of the same tribe also; but very different in stature; he was a little man, this a large tall man.” ⚙ This is a cross-Testament link, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's number can be computed and no verbal tier is available however explicit the apostolic reference is. It is tiered structural. The substance is real: Paul's sermon at Antioch cites this chapter's genealogy by name and then moves past it, from the son of Kish to David to the promised Saviour, which is the same direction 1 Samuel itself travels.
Acts 13:21 · Philippians 3:5
basis: Cross-Testament (Greek ↔ Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible by definition, so no verbal tier. Recorded basis: Gill identifies Kish with the “Cis” of Acts 13:21; Cambridge links the name Shâûl to Saul of Tarsus at Philippians 3:5. Explicit NT reference to this genealogy, tiered structural because the languages differ
Samuel's riddle in v. 20 turns on חֶמְדַּת יִשְׂרָאֵל (ḥemdaṯ, H2532, “delight, that which is desirable”). K&D refers the phrase to Haggai 2:7 and argues it is “not all that Israel desires, but all that Israel possesses of what is precious or worth desiring,” with the Vulgate's optima quaeque Israel and Luther's “the best in Israel” behind him. Cambridge paraphrases in the same direction: “is not the best that Israel has to give at thy service?” Geneva goes the other way, reading it as the thing Israel wants: “Whom does Israel desire to be their king, but thee?” ⚙ The Verifier, checked directly on this pair, does return a shared lexeme, chemdâh (H2532, in 23 verses), so the lexical link is real. The thread is nonetheless flagged, because the messianic rendering of Haggai 2:7 (“the desire of all nations shall come”) is itself long contested, since the Hebrew verb there is plural and many read ḥemdāh as the treasures of the nations rather than as a person. Anyone building on this link should check Haggai 2:7 directly before leaning on it.
Haggai 2:7
basis: Verifier (direct pair check, 1 Samuel 9:20 ↔ Haggai 2:7): shared Hebrew lexemes H2532 chemdâh (in 23 vv) and H1004 bayith (in 1709 vv); K&D independently refers ḥemdâh here to Haggai 2:7. The lexical link is therefore real, and the flag is not about it. Flagged because the rendering of Haggai 2:7 is disputed (personal “desire of nations” versus the desirable things of the nations), and because the sense of ḥemdaṯ Yisrāʼêl here is itself contested between K&D/Cambridge and Geneva
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
God's commission in v. 16 has three parts: anoint him נָגִיד (H5057, the one who stands in front), וְהוֹשִׁיעַ (H3467, “he will save”) My people from the hand of the Philistines, for their cry has come to Me. ⚙ Every term is messianic in shape: an anointed one, standing in front of the people, who saves them because God has heard a cry. The root yāšaʻ, “to be open, wide or free,” is the root from which the names Joshua and Jesus are built, and the Exodus formula K&D identifies behind the verse makes the pattern explicit, a deliverer sent because a cry came up. Then v. 17 gives the word God actually attaches to this particular anointed man: יַעְצֹר, he will restrain, which Ellicott says “represented it as a stern, severe rule” and K&D renders coercere imperio. The saviour-word is promised; the ruling-word given is a word of coercion. Pulpit's closing note on the chapter records how it ended: “in his relation towards God he failed, because he let self-will and earthly policy prevail in his heart over obedience and trust in God.” The apostolic reading moves in exactly this direction, from the son of Kish, past him to David, and past David to the Saviour promised of his seed, which is the argument of Acts 13:21-23, the very passage Gill cites for this chapter's genealogy. This is the ancient and widely-held Christian reading of Saul: a true anointed head, given by God, who shows by failing what the office requires and what no son of Kish could supply.
Acts 13:21-23 · 1 Samuel 16:7
The girls at the well explain the whole protocol of the high place in one line: “the people will not eat until he comes, because he must bless the sacrifice; after that, the הַקְּרֻאִים will eat” (v. 13). The last word is a Qal passive participle of qārāʼ (H7121): literally the called ones, the same participle that returns in v. 22 for those seated in the hall. Cambridge glosses the blessing as “a blessing or thanksgiving over the sacrificial feast” and sends the reader straight to Luke 9:16, John 6:11 and Matthew 26:26. Pulpit says the same from the other end: “The pious custom of asking a blessing on meals, our Lord's ‘giving of thanks,’ is inherited by us from the Jews.” ⚙ So the shape is already fixed here, centuries before the upper room: a sacrifice offered, a mediator who blesses it, and a company who cannot eat until he does, and who are defined by nothing except having been called. The cross-reference is not this unit's invention; it is Cambridge's, printed against this verse, and the reading it supports is as old as the church's reading of the Gospels.
Luke 9:16 · Matthew 26:26
Samuel, or the cook (the Hebrew of v. 24 names no speaker, and Pulpit and Cambridge both note that Samuel's name is supplied only by the Septuagint and Vulgate), sets the reserved leg before Saul with the words שָׁמוּר לְךָ לַמּוֹעֵד, “it has been kept for thee for the appointed time.” Šāmûr is a Qal passive participle of šāmar, “properly, to hedge about as with thorns,” and môʻêḏ (H4150) is “properly, an appointment.” The order of events is the point: the portion was hedged off and set aside on the day before Saul arrived, while he was still crossing borders after donkeys. Ellicott, quoting Ewald, reaches for the same figure: “a portion other and higher than that of ordinary men had been long reserved for him by heaven.” ⚙ This unit offers, and marks as its own novel extension rather than as anything the commentators claim, the further step: the guests at that table are literally the called ones, and the meal they are called to has a share prepared before they knew of it, which is the grammar of Matthew 25:34 (“prepared for you from the foundation of the world”) and of the supper to which the called are summoned in Revelation 19:9. K&D would refuse this, and his refusal deserves printing beside it: “There is no reason to seek for any further symbolical meaning in it.” Poole, reading the shoulder as a sign of the burden and the strength to bear it, would allow it. The reader should weigh both.
Matthew 25:34 · Revelation 19:9
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Text. The Hebrew of this chapter is unusually contested at four points, and this unit has left every one of them open rather than choosing. (1) v. 1: the genealogy collides with 1 Chronicles 8:33 and 9:39, where Ner begets Kish. Barnes, Gill (reporting Kimchi), K&D, Ellicott and Pulpit each reconcile it differently, and Pulpit concedes the Benjamite lists are a “hopeless entanglement.” (2) v. 21: K&D judges שׁבטי בן “unquestionably a copyist's error,” and Cambridge notes that the Septuagint and all ancient versions read the singular “tribe.” (3) v. 24: the Hebrew supplies no speaker; the Septuagint and Vulgate insert Samuel, while the Syriac and Chaldee make the cook the speaker, and Pulpit calls the inserted name “a manifest error.” Cambridge holds the following clause is “most likely corrupt.” (4) v. 25: the Septuagint reads “they spread a bed for Saul on the housetop and he slept” where the Hebrew has “he talked with Saul upon the roof.” Benson reports that Houbigant approved the change; K&D defends the Masoretic text at length and notes the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic and Jerome all support it. Smaller variants: v. 8, Cambridge records the Septuagint's “And thou shalt give it”; v. 16, Cambridge records the Septuagint's “the affliction of my people”; v. 18, Ellicott records the Septuagint's “in the midst of the city” for “in the gate.”
The unnamed city. The text never names the town. Ellicott, Gill, JFB and Pulpit read it as Ramah; K&D argues at length that it cannot be, on the ground that the servant says the man of God is in this city rather than dwells there, and that the girls say he “came to-day to the city.” Cambridge takes the middle position, that Ramah is best but that the return route of 10:2 requires Saul to have been sent out of his way. This unit records the dispute and takes no side.
Verse 9. Whether the note on “seer” and “prophet” is a later gloss (Ellicott, Barnes, Cambridge, Pulpit) or Samuel's own retrospect (Benson, Gill) or the elderly servant's remark (Poole) is not decidable from the text. Its presence is certain; its author is not.
Sources and their limits. Traditions reported by Gill are reported, not endorsed: that Saul's servant was Doeg the Edomite (also in Ellicott, from Jerome's Hebrew Traditions), that R. Akiba read meeting maidens outside a city as an omen of prosperity, that Josephus counted seventy guests rather than thirty. Ellicott's note on v. 23 says the reserved portion was set “before Samuel,” which appears to be a slip for Saul; the reader should check it. Ellicott quotes Ewald at vv. 14 and 15 and von Gerlach at v. 25, and Benson, Poole and Ellicott all reconstruct the unrecorded roof-top conversation, which Scripture does not report at all.
What this layer added. Everything marked ⚙ is machine synthesis and fallible: the reading of the passive verbs and of mâtsâʼ as the chapter's keyword, the observation that gābōah carries “arrogant” in its lexical range, the weighing of the thread tiers, and the third christological entry, which is expressly marked novel and which K&D's warning against symbolic readings of the portion directly contradicts. The interlinear, parses, Strong's numbers, lexicon glosses, commentary excerpts and thread bases are all sourced.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)