1 Samuel 10:1
IS IT NOT BECAUSE ... - Samuel answers Saul’s tacit or expressed wonder, by telling him why he did as he did. (Compare 1 Samuel 9:21.)... [ Continue Reading ]
IS IT NOT BECAUSE ... - Samuel answers Saul’s tacit or expressed wonder, by telling him why he did as he did. (Compare 1 Samuel 9:21.)... [ Continue Reading ]
How should Saul know that what Samuel said was the word of the Lord? Samuel gives him a sign, “Thou shalt find two men,” etc. (Compare Judges 6:36; Isaiah 7:11; John 6:30; Mark 11:2; Mark 14:13, etc.) ZELZAH - A place absolutely unknown.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PLAIN OF TABOR - It should be “the oak or terebinth”” of Tabor” (Judges 4:11 note). It has been ingeniously conjectured that “Tabor” is either a different form of “Deborah,” or a corruption of it, and that the “oak,” or “terebinth of Tabor,” is the same as “Allon-bachuth,” the oak under which De... [ Continue Reading ]
HILL OF GOD - Rather, “Gibeah” of God, and so in 1 Samuel 10:10. Two things are clear; “one” that Saul had got home when he got to Gibeah of God, for there he found his uncle, and no further journeying is so much as hinted at, and the same word “Gibeah” describes his home at 1 Samuel 10:26. The “oth... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL COME UPON THEE - The word rendered “come,” means to “come” or “pass upon,” as fire does when it breaks out and spreads Amos 5:6; hence, it is frequently used of the Spirit of God passing upon anyone. (See Judges 14:19; Judges 15:14; below 1 Samuel 10:10; 1 Samuel 11:6; 1 Samuel 16:13.) SHALT BE... [ Continue Reading ]
SEVEN DAYS SHALT THOU TARRY ... - The appointment here made is not to be confounded with that mentioned in marginal reference.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WHO IS THEIR FATHER - This is a very obscure phrase. If by “father” be intended the head or leader (compare 1 Chronicles 25:6; 2 Kings 2:12) of the prophets, the question means: “What kind of leader can they have to admit such a person as Saul into the company?” Some versions read “Who is his fa... [ Continue Reading ]
From the order of the narrative, and the mention of Saul’s servant, it looks as if Saul found his uncle at the high place. Perhaps some solemnity similar to that mentioned in 1 Samuel 9:19 was going on at this time, in which the prophets had been taking part.... [ Continue Reading ]
For the use of “thousand” as equivalent to “family,” see 1 Samuel 23:23; Judges 6:15 margin. In Numbers 1:16 it may mean whole tribes.... [ Continue Reading ]
CAUSED ... TO COME NEAR ... WAS TAKEN - The Hebrew phrases are exactly the same as in Joshua 7:16, where the King James Version renders the first has “brought.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FAMILY OF MATRI - This name occurs nowhere else among the families of Benjamin, or in the genealogy of Saul. (See 1 Samuel 9:1 note.)... [ Continue Reading ]
AMONG THE STUFF - Rather, “the baggage.” The assembly was like a camp, and the baggage (impedimenta) of the whole congregation was probably collected in one place, where the wagons were arranged for protection.... [ Continue Reading ]
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 Deuteronomy 17:14, which he “laid up before the Lord,” i. e., placed by... [ Continue Reading ]
A BAND OF MEN - Rather, “the host,” “men of valor,” There seems to be an opposition intended between the “valiant men” and the “children of Belial” (1 Samuel 10:27).... [ Continue Reading ]
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 2 Samuel 8:2, 2 Samuel 8:6; Jdg 3:17-18; 1 Kings 4:21; 2 Kings 17:4, etc.; Psalms 72:10; Isaiah 16:1.) Saul dissembled his resentment, a... [ Continue Reading ]