1 Samuelchapter 10
27 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 1 Samuel Overview.
This chapter makes Saul king in two stages, first in private and then in public. It was told to Israelites who had asked for a king and were now handed one. The first hearers knew the roads and landmarks of Benjamin, and they read the signs through places they had walked. It is a narrative with a prophetic word at its centre, and it tells of the Spirit of God coming on a man. Listen for the signs and whether each one comes true. Watch where Saul is when the lot falls, and how the crowd divides at the close.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who had just been handed the king they demanded
- What
- Samuel anoints Saul in private, the signs he gives come true, and Saul is chosen by lot and presented to the people at Mizpah.
- Where
- A road outside Ramah, Rachel's tomb, the oak of Tabor, Gibeah with its Philistine outpost, and the assembly at Mizpah.
- When
- About 1050 BC, in the days after the meeting at Ramah.
- Why
- To show that the LORD Himself set the king the people demanded in office and equipped him with His Spirit.
Historical context
Samuel acts here on a word given him the day before, and Saul is a man of Benjamin who has just been told privately what he is. The time is about 1050 BC, in the days after the meeting at Ramah.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The ground is Benjamin's own: a road outside Ramah, Rachel's tomb at Zelzah, the oak of Tabor, the hill of God at Gibeah, and then Mizpah. The occasion is the installation of the king the elders had asked for at 8:5.
Anointing was how an office was conferred, perfumed olive oil poured on the head to set a man apart, and the title the anointed one comes from that act. A first hearer read the three signs through geography he knew, and knew that three men going up to Bethel with kids, loaves and wine were carrying a standard set of pilgrim offerings. Prophetic activity in that period was often communal and musical, whole companies moving together with harp, tambourine, flute and lyre.
The detail nobody could ignore stands in the same verse as the third sign, a Philistine garrison at Gibeah, an enemy post inside the new king's own tribal territory. Casting lots at Mizpah was the accepted way of putting a decision beyond human manipulation, so it produced a candidate nobody could accuse Samuel of choosing. Samuel then writes the rights and duties of the kingship in a book and lays it before the LORD, in a region where a king's word normally was the law.
Significance
God gives another heart to the man the nation should not have asked for, and the Spirit rushes on him. First hearers were being told that God equipped the king they had demanded.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter also sorts the people at once. Some shout for the king, and some worthless men ask how this man can save them and bring no gift. Saul held his peace, and the book will remember that he did not always.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi is the only commentator the corpus carries with text on this chapter, in the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., under CC-BY. On the sign at Rachel's Tomb he raises the difficulty that the tomb stands within the border of Judah, at Bethlehem (Rashi on I Samuel 10:2:1). His answer, from the Tosefta of Maseches Sotah, is that the men are by the tomb now and will be met inside the border of Benjamin (same ref). On the plain of Tabor he gives the place in one phrase, and on the hill of God he names Kiriath-jearim, where the ark then rested (Rashi on I Samuel 10:3:1 and 10:5:1). On the signs he says they are given as proof, so that the kingship would be fulfilled as surely as they came (Rashi on I Samuel 10:7:1). On the going down to Gilgal he reads it as an instruction for the time after the reign begins (Rashi on I Samuel 10:8:1). On the changed heart he gives the sense as "a spirit of royal power" (Rashi on I Samuel 10:9:1). On the saying about the father of the prophets he asks whether prophecy is hereditary (Rashi on I Samuel 10:12:1). On Saul's silence to his uncle he says he "possessed a discretionary nature", and points to Maseches Megillah 13b (Rashi on I Samuel 10:16:1). On the lot falling to Saul he describes how it was cast, the names written on pieces of parchment and placed in a box (Rashi on I Samuel 10:21:1). The prophet put in his hand and drew one out, and the lot fell to Saul although he was not there (same ref). The hiding among the baggage is the chapter's best known tradition. Rashi gives the plain sense first, that Saul hid in the room where newcomers had put their baggage, running from the high position (Rashi on I Samuel 10:22:1). He then gives the Midrash Aggadah of Rabbi Tanchuma, which reads the word for the baggage as the Urim and Tummim (same ref). On that reading Saul said he might be unworthy of the place, and would wait until the Urim and Tummim were asked (same ref). Radak, Malbim and Metzudat David comment at fourteen verses, and the corpus holds no English version of any of them, so they stand as citations. They are Radak on I Samuel 10:1:1, 10:4:1, 10:6:1, 10:11:1, 10:13:1, 10:14:1, 10:17:1, 10:18:1, 10:19:1, 10:24:1 and 10:25:1. Beside them stand Malbim on I Samuel 10:10:1 and 10:15:1, and Metzudat David on I Samuel 10:20:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-four of them Midrash and six Talmud, each a locator without text. The anointing draws Bereshit Rabbah 70:12, Midrash Lekach Tov on Ruth 1:14:2, Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 4:27:4, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 27:26:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 29:11:1. The sign at Rachel's Tomb draws Bereshit Rabbah 82:9, and the plain of Tabor draws Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 25:1. The going down to Gilgal draws Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 8:10:1, Midrash Shmuel 24:7, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 4:2, Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 2:1 and Midrash Tehillim 7:20. The saying about Saul among the prophets draws four locators. They are Midrash Tehillim 108:3, Sifrei Zuta 27:16:3, Sifrei Zuta; Midrashah shel Lod, Style of Sifrei Zuta and the Tannaim Mentioned in It 49 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 776:6. Saul's silence about the kingship draws Bereshit Rabbah 71:5, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 1:25, Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:32, Esther Rabbah 6:12 and Megillah 13b:6. Verse 18 draws Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 546:1, and the lot itself draws Menachot 109b:19. The hiding among the baggage draws Avot DeRabbi Natan 10:3, Avot DeRabbi Natan 10:4, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 20:3 and Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 12:4. Verse 23 draws Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yevamot 8:3. Verse 24 draws Bamidbar Rabbah 3:2, Kohelet Rabbah 3:15:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 23:24:1 and Midrash Shmuel 8:2. Verse 25 draws Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Chukat 22:1, Pesikta DeRav Kahana 4:5, Pesikta Rabbati 14:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 759:7. The men who despised him draw Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 2:4, Ein Yaakov, Yoma 2:4, Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 3:1 and Yoma 22b:20. The rabbis teach in these places, and this site reports them as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Samuel 10:2:1, 10:3:1, 10:5:1, 10:7:1, 10:8:1, 10:9:1, 10:12:1, 10:16:1, 10:21:1 and 10:22:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Samuel 10:1:1, 10:4:1, 10:6:1, 10:11:1, 10:13:1, 10:14:1, 10:17:1, 10:18:1, 10:19:1, 10:24:1 and 10:25:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Malbim, Malbim on I Samuel 10:10:1 and 10:15:1, cited only; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Samuel 10:20:1, cited only.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A vial of oil and three signs on the road home
Samuel's oil names Saul captain over God's inheritance, a private word to one man, not yet a public coronation before Israel. The same two stage shape marks David: a hidden anointing at 16:13, then a public installation at 2 Samuel 2:4 over Judah and 5:3 over all Israel. The kiss that follows is an act of homage, the first allegiance paid to the man just set apart, and it matches the ordinary greeting of a subject before his lord.
1 Samuel 10:1
“But it was only a vial of oil that he anointed him with, the vessel brittle, because his kingdom would soon be cracked and broken, and the quantity small, because he had but little of the Spirit conferred upon him to what David had, who was therefore anointed with a horn of oil, as were Solomon and Jehu with a box of oil.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Samuel 10:1
“These sacred unctions then used, pointed at the great Messiah, or anointed One, the King of the church, and High-priest of our profession, who was anointed with the oil of the spirit without measure, above all the priests and princes of the Jewish church. Kissed - As a testimony of his sincere friendship and affection to him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 10:2-4
Signs confirm the private word before Saul reaches home: two men at Rachel's tomb tell him the donkeys are found, and three men going up to Bethel give him bread. A third sign follows at Gibeah of God. Each sign falls on ground his own tribe knows, so the confirmation is local and checkable.
1 Samuel 10:2
“Rachel’s sepulcher - This was nigh to Bethlehem. See Gen 35:19. At Zelzah - If this be the name of a place, nothing is known of it. The Hebrew בצלצח betseltsach is translated by the Septuagint ἁλλομενους μεγαλα, dancing greatly: now this may refer to the joy they felt and expressed on finding the asses, or it may refer to those religious exultations, or playing on instruments of music, mentioned in the succeeding verses.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 10:2
“When thou art departed from me to-day--The design of these specific predictions of what should be met with on the way, and the number and minuteness of which would arrest attention, was to confirm Saul's reliance on the prophetic character of Samuel, and lead him to give full credence to what had been revealed to him as the word of God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Bethel was the place of Jacob's vision in Genesis 28, and John Wesley notes it still held a high place for sacrifice while the ark and the tabernacle stood apart. Adam Clarke reads the goats, loaves and wine as the parts of one offering. The men were going to worship.
Adam Clarke notes that the greeting is literally an inquiry after Saul's peace, the salute that marks a stranger as a friend. Matthew Henry notes that the loaves were meant for the sacrifice at Bethel. Two of them go to Saul.
1 Samuel 10:4
“And they will salute thee - ושאלו לך לשלום veshaalu lecha leshalom, “And they will inquire of thee concerning peace,” i.e., welfare. In the East, if this salutation be given, then the person or persons giving it may be reckoned friends; if the others return it, then there is friendship on both sides. Salaam alicum, Peace to you! is the mode of compellation: Alicum essalaam, To you be peace! is the return. If you give the former and receive not the latter, you may expect hostility.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 10:5-7
Gibeah of God lies “where the Philistines have an outpost”, at the edge of the enemy's hold on Saul's land. This “group of prophets” appears here first and returns under Samuel at 19:20, and later under Elijah and Elisha. The Spirit of the LORD rushing on Saul so he is “transformed into a different person” marks God fitting a man for a work he did not choose.
1 Samuel 10:5
“Prophets - By prophets he understands persons that wholly devoted themselves to religious studies and exercises. For the term of prophesying is not only given to the most eminent act of it, foretelling things to come; but also to preaching, and to the making or singing of psalms, or songs of praise to God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 10:5
“The company of prophets were, doubtless, the pupils at this seminary, which had probably been instituted by Samuel, and in which the chief branches of education taught were a knowledge of the law, and of psalmody with instrumental music, which is called "prophesying" (here and in 1Ch 25:1, 7).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The Spirit of the LORD rushes upon Saul here and again at 11:6, and Albert Barnes notes that the same verb is used of fire breaking out. John Wesley reads the change into a different person as new skill, courage and wisdom for the office of king. The Spirit comes upon him suddenly.
1 Samuel 10:6
“Will come - Hebrew. will leap, or rush upon thee. Another man - That is, thou shalt be suddenly endowed with another spirit, filled with skill of divine things, with courage, and wisdom, and magnanimity; and other qualifications befitting thy dignity.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
John Wesley notes that the Hebrew reads do what your hand finds to do. He takes it as readiness for public service once the people own Saul's call, and Adam Clarke as leave to act in anything his office requires. The ground given is God's presence.
1 Samuel 10:7
“Thou do as occasion serve thee - After God has shown thee all these signs that thou art under his especial guidance, fear not to undertake any thing that belongs to thy office, for God is with thee. What a number of circumstances thus precisely foretold! Does not this prove that Samuel was under the continual inspiration of the Almighty?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 10:7
“Thou do - Hebrew. do what they hand findeth to do; that is, as thou shalt have a call and opportunity. He doth not intend that he should take the kingly government upon him, before his call to it was owned by the people, but that he should dispose his mind to a readiness of undertaking any public service when he should be called to his office.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Samuel's order, “Wait seven days until I come to you”, is a plain command with a plain deadline. The book keeps it for chapter 13, where Saul breaks it and offers the burnt offering himself. The command comes at the outset of his reign, before Saul has done anything wrong, and its weight falls on it only in hindsight.
1 Samuel 10:8
“Seven days shalt thou tarry - I will come to thee within seven days, offer sacrifices, receive directions from the Lord, and deliver them to thee. It is likely that these seven days referred to the time in which Samuel came to Saul to Gilgal, offered sacrifices, and confirmed the kingdom to him, after he had defeated the Ammonites. See 1Sa 11:14, 1Sa 11:15.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Another heart: is Saul also among the prophets?
Here “God changed Saul’s heart” to fit him for the office. Wesley read this as a gift of extraordinary qualification for government, given for the hour, since Saul's later course shows it did not last. At 13:14 the book speaks of a man after God's own heart, setting a given heart here against a heart proved wanting there.
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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 10:10-13
Saul prophesies among the prophets exactly as the sign promised. Onlookers ask, “Is Saul also among the prophets”, and a local man's reply, “And who is their father”, makes the question a proverb. The question returns at 19:24, when the Spirit drives him to strip and lie prophesying all day and night, so the proverb brackets his reign between one meaning and its reversal.
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.”
Matthew Henry notes that Saul had lived near this company of prophets without joining them, so those who had known him were astonished to see him prophesying. He compares Paul in Acts 9. Tertullian sets beside it a later change in Saul, worked by an evil spirit.
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.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · ON THE SOUL 11.5-6patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 10:11
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The man's question about the prophets' father has two readings. John Wesley takes the father for God, who inspires every prophet and can inspire Saul. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown note that the Septuagint reads his father, and Adam Clarke that it adds the name of Kish.
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke takes the high place here for the home of Saul's family, and the next verse finds Saul talking with his uncle. The sign has run its course.
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 10:14-16
Saul's uncle asks after the donkeys, and Saul answers only about the donkeys, keeping back the larger matter. The silence is his own choice, since the text says plainly that “Saul did not tell his uncle what Samuel had said about the kingship”. Gill read the reticence as modesty proper to a man not yet installed before the people, in contrast with the later Saul.
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 more voice on this verse
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Tell me: The uncle presses for Samuel's words. John Gill suggests that the uncle had heard where Saul had been, saw a change in him, and suspected news of the kingdom, since all Israel was waiting for Samuel to name a king.
1 Samuel 10:15
“And Saul's uncle said, &c. l On hearing he had been with Samuel, and perceiving so great an alteration in Saul, perhaps he began to suspect something about the kingdom; it being what everyone was talking of, and expecting every day to hear from Samuel who should be king, according to the Lord's appointment: tell me, I pray thee, what Samuel said unto you; the earnestness with which he put this question seems to confirm the above conjecture.”
Saul tells the truth about the donkeys and keeps the kingship to himself. Matthew Henry notes that many men would have proclaimed such news from the housetop. Saul kept it in his own breast.
Chosen by lot, and found hiding among the baggage
1 Samuel 10:17-19
Samuel gathers the people at Mizpah and rehearses the exodus before he says one word about a king: “I brought Israel up out of Egypt”. Verse 19 repeats in public what God told Samuel privately at 8:7, “today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your troubles and afflictions”. No one at the casting of lots that follows can say the choice was sprung on them.
Samuel speaks for the LORD, the God of Israel, and names the exodus and every rescue from the kingdoms that oppressed Israel before he names the king. Adam Clarke hears the rebuke of 8:7 again. Gregory the Dialogist notes that the benefits come first so the people would feel their sin more heavily.
1 Samuel 10:18
“I brought up Israel out of Egypt - These are similar to the upbraidings in 1Sa 8:7, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Samuel names the request for a king a rejection of the God who saves them from all their troubles. John Wesley notes that the lot let every tribe and clan see whom the LORD had chosen. Albert Barnes notes that the word behind clans is thousands.
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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
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 10:20-22
The lot narrows from tribe to clan to man and discloses a choice God had already made known to Samuel at 9:15-17. When Saul is missing, they inquire again and the LORD answers, “he has hidden himself among the baggage”. It is the first inquiry of the LORD answered in these two books, and Saul's last inquiry at 28:6 meets silence.
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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Albert Barnes notes that the clan of Matri appears only here among the clans of Benjamin. Matthew Henry recalls that Jacob had given the rule to Judah, so a king from the tribe of Benjamin would soon give way. Adam Clarke puts Saul's hiding down to modesty or fear.
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.)”
The LORD answers the inquiry directly, and John Wesley holds it came through the Urim and Thummim or through Samuel's prayer. Albert Barnes pictures the baggage of all the people gathered in one place, as in a camp. Saul already knew the LORD had chosen him.
1 Samuel 10:22
“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.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3322: “Hiding Among the Stuff” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
2 more voices on this verse
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.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 1, Chapter 3patristic
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 10:23-24
Saul stands “a head taller than any of the others”, as chapter 9 described him, the very trait Israel prized in a king like the nations. The shout “Long live the king” appears here for the first time in Scripture. The words return at Second Samuel 16:16, spoken by Hushai as he deceives Absalom, setting an honest shout at Saul's coronation beside a flattering one.
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.”
Samuel said to all the people: Long live the king renders the Hebrew yechi hammelech, which Adam Clarke translates may the king live. With the shout all the people accept Saul as king, as John Wesley notes. John Gill notes the LORD chose him by lot.
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Samuel explains “the rights of kingship” and writes them on a scroll before the LORD, a second document beside his catalogue of a king's demands at 8:11-18. Deuteronomy 17:14-20 had already limited a king's horses, wives and wealth, and this scroll acts as Israel's copy of that law. The scroll is never quoted again in Samuel, yet it shows the monarchy was meant to answer to law.
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 more voice on this verse
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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 10:26-27
whose hearts God had touched: Saul goes home to Gibeah with “the men of valor whose hearts God had touched”, while “some worthless men” ask how he can save them and bring him no gifts. Saul meets the contempt with silence, the same restraint David later shows toward Saul at 24:6 and 26:9. The chapter closes on a king with support from some, scorn from others, and the self control to answer neither.
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."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The gift the worthless men withheld was the token of homage a subject owed a king, as Albert Barnes explains. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown add that Eastern kings lived on such presents. Saul waited, and Nahash gave him his moment in chapter 11.
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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
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.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
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.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative prose in two installations, a private anointing with its signs and a public choosing by lot, joined by a deposited written charter, as Blaikie classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The signs given and the signs met | Verses 2 to 6 set out three signs in advance, the two men at Rachel's tomb, the three men going up to Bethel, and the company of prophets at the hill of God. Verses 9 to 13 report the third one met in the same terms it was promised. The account states the word first and the event second, so a reader measures one against the other.John Gill, Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Samuel 10:2 to 4. | 1 Samuel 10:2, 1 Samuel 10:3, 1 Samuel 10:5, 1 Samuel 10:10 |
| Is Saul also among the prophets | The question is asked by men who knew Saul at verse 11, answered with a saying about the prophets' father at verse 12, and recorded as a proverb. It comes back word for word at 19:24, when Saul lies stripped and prophesying before David at Naioth. The one sentence brackets his whole reign, and it carries a different weight at each end.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, 1864, on 1 Samuel 10:11 and 12. | 1 Samuel 10:11, 1 Samuel 10:12, 1 Samuel 19:24 |
| The lot narrowed in three steps | Verses 20 and 21 walk the choosing down through three named stages, the tribe of Benjamin, then the clan of Matri, then Saul son of Kish. The method is one Israel trusted to put a decision beyond a man's reach. It discloses at Mizpah the choice God had already made privately at 9:15 to 17.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, 1864, on 1 Samuel 10:20 to 22. | 1 Samuel 10:20, 1 Samuel 10:21 |
| The LORD speaking in the first person at Mizpah | Samuel gathers the nation and quotes God's own speech at verses 18 and 19, the deliverance out of Egypt first and the rejection second. Verse 19 restates in public what God had said to Samuel privately at 8:7, that in asking for a king they have rejected the God who saved them. The public rehearsal comes before the lot, so nobody at the casting can say the terms were hidden.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on 1 Samuel 10:17 to 19. | 1 Samuel 10:18, 1 Samuel 10:19, 1 Samuel 8:7 |
The structure
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
Six units. The anointing and the kiss at verse 1. The three signs promised, verses 2 to 8. The signs met and the proverb, verses 9 to 13. The uncle's question and Saul's silence, verses 14 to 16. The assembly at Mizpah and the lot, verses 17 to 24. The written charter and the divided response, verses 25 to 27.
The two firsts this chapter carries
The shout at verse 24 is the first place in Scripture this acclamation for a king stands. Its only other occurrence is at 2 Samuel 16:16, in Hushai's mouth as he deceives Absalom. The book sets the honest cry at Saul's coronation beside its one echo in a lie.
Verse 22 is the first time in these two books that anyone enquires of the LORD and receives a direct answer. The pattern runs through both books and ends at 28:6, where Saul enquires and receives nothing. Keil and Delitzsch read the two verses as the opening and the close of one line.
The historical value
Samuel writes the manner of the kingdom in a book and deposits it at the sanctuary, so Israel's monarchy begins under a written instrument. The book's own dossier carries the Ugaritic and Alalakh royal administrative texts of about 1400 to 1200 BC, palace records of conscription, forced labour, seizure of fields and a tenth taken as revenue. The dossier's verdict is that Samuel's warning at 8:11 to 17 matches those documents item by item. Deuteronomy 17:14 to 20 had already limited what a king of Israel might multiply. The book Samuel writes here puts that limit in the nation's hands with a king standing in front of it.
What the chapter hands forward
Saul holds his peace at verse 27 when the worthless men despise him. Albert Barnes and John Gill both read the restraint as real, and the same restraint is what David shows toward Saul at 24:6 and 26:9 when he calls him the LORD's anointed. The chapter closes on a king with support from some, scorn from others, and the self control to answer neither.
Keep studying
Studies1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
John Gill, Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Samuel 10:2 to 4; the book page's own guide, src/components/book/guides/1-samuel/Book1SamuelGuide.tsx, the act entry for 8:1 to 15:35 and W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel, Expositor's Bible, 1887, on 1 Samuel 10.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3322: “Hiding Among the Stuff” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 5; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Tertullian, ON THE SOUL 11.5-6 and W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).