1 Samuel10chapter 10

1 Samuel 10:9

“23. For the heart is changed to another when it is directed toward desiring better things; the heart is also changed when it is abandoned to evil. But in the case of Saul, who was first good and afterward evil, how this ought rather to be understood literally is not very clear. But if it is said with reference to his advancement, he had a changed heart, because he who had been searching for donkeys was now thinking about the governance of a kingdom.”

1 Samuel 10:9

“A new fire was kindled in his breast, such as he had never before been acquainted with: seeking the asses is quite out of his mind, and he thinks of nothing but fighting the Philistines, redressing the grievances of Israel, making laws, administering justice, and providing for the public safety; these are the things that now fill his head.”

1 Samuel 10:10

“When they came thither to the hill,.... Or, to Gibeah, as the Targum, and so Josephus (e): behold, a company of prophets met him; as foretold, 1Sa 10:5, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he prophesied among them; the spirit of prophecy, as the Targum, and he sung praises among them; he joined with them in their psalmody, and performed it as regularly as if he had been brought up with them.”

1 Samuel 10:11

“It is possible for an evil spirit to influence a person. The spirit of God later turned Saul into another man, that is, into a prophet, when people said, "What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?" But the evil spirit also turned him into another man, in other words, into a renegade. For some time Judas was numbered among the chosen [apostles], even becoming the keeper of the purse. He was then not yet a traitor, but he was dishonest.”

1 Samuel 10:11-12

“Though this school of the prophets was near his father's house, yet he had never associated with them, nor shown them any respect, perhaps had sometimes spoken slightly of them; and now to see him prophesying among them was a surprise to them, as it was long after when his namesake, in the New Testament, preached that gospel which he had before persecuted, Acts ix.”

1 Samuel 10:12

“But who is their father? - The Septuagint, in its principal editions, adds ου Κεις; is it not Kish? This makes the sense more complete.”

1 Samuel 10:13

“He came to the high place - I suppose this to mean the place where Saul’s father lived; as it is evident the next verse shows him to be at home.”

1 Samuel 10:14

“And Saul's uncle said unto him, and to his servant, whither went ye?.... Since they had been absent so long a time. This was his father's brother, as the Targum, and so Aquila; whose name was Ner, the father of Abner, 1Sa 14:50 who met with him at the high place, or found him in the city, in his father's house it may be.”

1 Samuel 10:14

“Saul’s uncle - The word דוד dod signifies a beloved one, love, a lover, friend, etc.; and is the same as David. It is supposed to mean uncle here; but I think it means some familiar friend.”

1 Samuel 10:17

“31. Mizpah, as I said, is interpreted as "watchtower." In the ordination of the king, the people are called to Mizpah, because those who come together to ordain a pastor of holy Church are taught to attend to his spiritual qualities, not his carnal ones. To watch, indeed, is to recognize the preacher to be ordained through the standard of sacred Scripture. For sacred Scripture is the mirror of the elect. A pastor is known as if through a mirror, when he is shown by his conduct to be such as is proclaimed in sacred eloquence.”

1 Samuel 10:19

“For the use of “thousand” as equivalent to “family,” see 1Sa 23:23; Jdg 6:15 margin. In Num 1:16 it may mean whole tribes.”

1 Samuel 10:19

“He tells them in plain terms, " You have this day rejected your God; you have in effect done it: so he construes it, and he might justly, for your so doing, reject you." Those that can live better by sense than by faith, that stay themselves upon an arm of flesh rather than upon the almighty arm, forsake a fountain of living waters for broken cisterns.”

1 Samuel 10:20

Caused ... to come near ... was taken - The Hebrew phrases are exactly the same as in Jos 7:16-17, where the King James Version renders the first has “brought.”

1 Samuel 10:20

“Benjamin - Which tribe was now preferred before Judah, because the kingdom was freely promised by God to Judah, and was to be given to him in love; but now the kingdom was in a manner forced from God, and given them in anger and therefore conferred upon an obscure tribe.”

1 Samuel 10:21

“The family of Matri - This name occurs nowhere else among the families of Benjamin, or in the genealogy of Saul. (See 1Sa 9:1 note.)”

1 Samuel 10:21

“When the tribe of Benjamin was taken, they might easily foresee that they were setting up a family that would soon be put down again; for dying Jacob had, by the spirit of prophecy, entailed the dominion upon Judah. Judah is the tribe that must rule as a lion;”

1 Samuel 10:22

“Commonly in the school of adversity the heart is subdued under discipline, while, on sudden attainment of supreme rule, it is forthwith changed and becomes elated through familiarity with glory. Thus Saul, who had before fled in consideration of his unworthiness, no sooner had assumed the government of the kingdom than he was puffed up; for, desirous of being honoured before the people while unwilling to be publicly blamed, he cut off from himself even him who had anointed him to the kingdom.”

1 Samuel 10:22

“The Lord answered - What a continual access to God! and what condescension in his attention to all their requests! The stuff among which he had secreted himself may mean the carts, baggage, etc., brought by the people to Mizpeh.”

1 Samuel 10:22-23

“SAUL seems to have known that he was the elect person, having already been secretly anointed by Samuel and, therefore, while the voting was going on and while the lots were being cast, he hid himself. The Lord answered, "Behold, he has hid himself among the stuff. And they ran and fetched him from there." We hardly know why Saul did this.”

1 Samuel 10:23

“And they ran and fetched him thence,.... Being in haste to see their king elect, and proclaim him: and when he stood among the people; being brought among them, and presented to them: he was higher than any of the people, from the shoulders, and upwards; which made him look very graceful and majestic; height of stature, and a comely form, as Kimchi observes, recommend to royal dignity; and make the people stand more in awe of a prince, and have always been reckoned among all other nations to make a prince venerable; see Gill on 1Sa 9:2.”

1 Samuel 10:24

“God save the king - There is no such word here; no, nor in the whole Bible; nor is it countenanced by any of the versions. The words which we thus translate here and elsewhere are simply יחי המלך yechi hammelech, “May the king live;” and so all the versions, the Targum excepted, which says, May the king prosper! The French Vive le roi! is a proper version of the Hebrew.”

1 Samuel 10:25

The manner of the kingdom - i. e., the just prerogative of the kingdom, the law, or bill of rights, by which the king’s power was limited as well as secured. It is not improbable that what Samuel wrote was simply a transcript of Deu 17:14-20, which he “laid up before the Lord,” i. e., placed by the side of the ark of the covenant with the copy of the Law (see Deu 31:26). It would be ready for reference if either king or people violated the “law of the kingdom.”

1 Samuel 10:25

“He had before told them the manner of the king ( ch. viii. 11 ), how he would abuse his power; now he tells them the manner of the kingdom, or rather the law, or judgment, or constitution, of it, what power the prince might challenge and the utmost of the property the subject might claim.”

1 Samuel 10:26

“39. If a plain historical narrative is sought, what could ever have been stated more clearly? But if we attend to the force of each individual word, great things are enclosed within this simplicity of words. For the people are said to have been dismissed to their home, but the king is reported not to have been dismissed to his home, but to have gone away.”

1 Samuel 10:26

“A band of men - Not a military band, as I imagine, but some secret friends, or companions, who were personally attached to him. Others think that all the men fit to bear arms are intended; but this seems inconsistent with the life that Saul led for some time afterwards; for he appears to have gone into his agricultural concerns, and waited for a call from the Divine providence. See 1Sa 11:5.”

1 Samuel 10:26

And Saul also went home to Gibeah--near Geba. This was his place of residence (see Jud 20:20), about five miles north of Jerusalem. there went . . . a band of men, whose hearts God had touched--who feared God and regarded allegiance to their king as a conscientious duty. They are opposed to "the children of Belial."

1 Samuel 10:27

“Presents - The מנחה mı̂nchāh was the token of homage and acknowledgment from the subject to the sovereign, and from the tributary nation to their suzerain. (See 2Sa 8:2, 2Sa 8:6; Jdg 3:17-18; 1Ki 4:21; 2Ki 17:4, etc.; Psa 72:10; Isa 16:1.) Saul dissembled his resentment, and waited for the favorable tide which soon came with the invasion of Nahash.”

1 Samuel 10:27

“And they despised him, and brought him no presents--In Eastern countries, the honor of the sovereign and the splendor of the royal household are upheld, not by a fixed rate of taxation, but by presents brought at certain seasons by officials, and men of wealth, from all parts of the kingdom, according to the means of the individual, and of a customary registered value.”

1 Samuel 10:27

“This was an evidence both of his humility, and the mercifulness of his disposition. So Christ held his peace, in the day of his patience. But there is a day of recompense coming.”