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1 Samuel 9:25

in 1 Samuel 9

And after they had come down from the high place into the city, Samuel spoke with Saul on the roof of his house.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And when they were come down from the high place into the city, he communed with Saul upon the housetop.

KJV

And when they were come down from the high place into the city, Samuel communed with Saul upon the top of the house.

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This verse in 1 Samuel 9

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Upon the top of the house - All the houses in the East were flat-roofed; on these people walked, talked, and frequently slept, for the sake of fresh and cooling air.

This site's exposition

Samuel spoke with Saul on the roof

on 1 Samuel 9:25-26

The night's conversation happens on the housetop, the cool open-air gathering place of an ordinary house, and Samuel uses the whole night to prepare Saul for what the morning will bring. They rise early and walk out together, an unremarkable start to a day that will end with a private anointing the town never sees. Nothing marks this scene as unusual yet, which is exactly how the chapter wants a coronation to arrive, on an ordinary errand's last ordinary morning.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Gregory the Dialogist

Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 4 · Written before 604.

proposed

There follows: "And they went down from the high place into the town, and Samuel spoke with Saul on the rooftop. And Saul made his bed on the rooftop, and slept." Whoever is raised to the height of pastoral care must have in that very sublimity of his office both loftiness in his own life and compassion for the weakness of others. Therefore let Saul ascend with Samuel, and let him descend into the town. Let the ruler know how to conduct lofty matters; let him know how to arrange common ones.

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Samuel · Written before 735.

proposed

And he spoke with Saul in the upper room, etc. John spoke with the Lord in the light of His known divinity. For certainly the upper room (which takes its name from the fact that by its height it first receives the rays of the …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

And these beginnings would have been very hopeful and promising if it had not been that the sin of the people was the spring of this great affair. 1 Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-run:34w-of-62

And when they came down from the high place into the city,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Samuel communed with Saul upon the top of the house--Saul was taken to lodge with the prophet for that night. Before retiring to rest, they communed on the flat roof of the house, the couch being laid there (Jos 2:6), when, doubtless, Samuel revealed the secret and described the peculiar duties of a monarch in a nation so related to the Divine King as Israel.

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֵּרְד֥וּand they went down

    vaiyereduH3381 →381 times

  • מֵהַבָּמָ֖הfrom the high place

    mehabamahH1116 →102 times

  • הָעִ֑ירthe city

    hairH5892 →1090 times

  • וַיְדַבֵּ֥רand he spoke

    vaydaberH1696 →1141 times

  • עִם־with

    ʾim-H5973 →1050 times

  • שָׁא֖וּלSaul

    shaulH7586 →402 times

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • הַגָּֽג׃the roof

    hagagH1406 →

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

7 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Acts 10:9The next day at about the sixth hour, as the men were approaching the city on their journey, Peter went up on the roof to pray.5 worksDeuteronomy 22:8If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.5 worksNehemiah 8:16And the people went out, brought back branches, and made booths on their own rooftops, in their courtyards, in the court of the house of God, and in the squares by the Water Gate and by the Gate of Ephraim.3 works2 Samuel 11:2One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.3 worksMatthew 24:17Let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve anything from his house.3 worksMatthew 10:27What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.2 works
The other 1 cross-references, with their words ▾
Jeremiah 19:13The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Matthew 10:27

    What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.

    it leads to

    • Acts 5:20

      “Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.”

    • John 16:13

      However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to…

    • John 16:1

      “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.

    • Proverbs 1:20–23

      Wisdom calls out in the street, she lifts her voice in the square;

  • Through

    2 Samuel 11:2

    One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.

    it leads to

    • Matthew 5:28

      But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

    • Psalms 119:37

      Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.

    • 1 John 2:16

      For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

    • Job 31:1

      “I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About 1 Samuel

Anointing of David by Samuel, Félix-Joseph Barrias, 1842, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. Public domain.
Anointing of David by Samuel, Félix-Joseph Barrias, 1842, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. Public domain.
1 Samuel: the study guide →Read 1 Samuel 9 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, Commentary on Samuel; Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 4; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).

Read on in 1 Samuel 9 →