1 Chronicles 10:14

And enquired not of the Lord. — Saul had, in fact, enquired of Jehovah before resorting to the witch of En-dor, “but the Lord answered him not, neither by the dreams, nor by the Urim, nor by the prophets” (1 Samuel 28:6). We shall not be reading a meaning of our own into the text if we say that Saul’s natural impatience (1 Samuel 13:13) on this occasion betrayed him again; he at once despaired of help from his God, instead of seeking it with self-humiliation and penitence. His character is consistently drawn throughout the history. The sin that ruined the first king was essentially that which led to the final ruin of the nation, viz., unfaithfulness to the covenant-God. The same word characterises both. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 10:13 with 1 Chronicles 5:25; 1 Chronicles 9:1.)

Therefore he slew him. — God acts through the instrumentality of His creatures. In this case He employed the Philistines, and the suicidal hand of Saul himself; just as He employed the Assyrian conquerors of a later age to be the scourge of guilty peoples (Isaiah 10:5), and raised up Cyrus to be His servant, who should fulfil all His pleasure (Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1).

Turned the kingdom unto David. — By means of the warriors of Israel (1 Chronicles 12:23). This sentence shows that 1 Chronicles 10 is transitional to the history of David as king.