1 Samuel 9:14

_AND THEY WENT UP INTO THE CITY: AND WHEN THEY WERE COME INTO THE CITY, BEHOLD, SAMUEL CAME OUT AGAINST THEM, FOR TO GO UP TO THE HIGH PLACE._ Samuel came out against them, for to go up to the high place. Such were the simple manners of the times, that this prophet-the chief man in Israel-was seen going to preside at a high festival, undistinguished, either by his dress or equipage, from any ordinary citizen....

11-17 The very maid-servants of the city could direct to the prophet. They had heard of the sacrifice, and could tell of the necessity for Samuel's presence. It is no small benefit to live in religious and holy places. And we should always be ready to help those who are seeking after God's prophets. Though God had, in displeasure, granted Israel's request for a king, yet he sends them a man to be captain over them, to save them out of the hand of the Philistines. He does it, listening graciously to their cry....

Verse 1 Samuel 9:14. _COME OUT AGAINST THEM_] Met them....

EXPOSITION SELECTION OF SAUL AS KING BY THE VOICE OF PROPHECY. GENEALOGY OF SAUL (1 Samuel 9:1). 1 SAMUEL 9:1 A MAN … WHOSE NAME WAS KISH. The genealogy of Saul is rendered obscure by the Hebrew custom of abbreviating such records by the omission of names. The family documents were no doubt kept in full, but when transcribed, as here and in the First Book of Chronicles, only a summary is given, and as the omitted links are not always the same, great difficulty is necessarily the result. The most satisfactory genealogy is that given b

AND THEY WENT UP INTO THE CITY,.... Saul and his servant went up the hill to the city of Ramah: and WHEN THEY WERE COME INTO THE CITY; were within it, within the walls of it; BEHOLD, SAMUEL CAME OUT AGAINST THEM; came out of a door of his house upon them, just as they came up: or "to meet them" i; his way to the high place lay where they were coming; unless it can be thought he went out purposely to meet them, having, as in the following verse, an intimation, that about that time one from the tribe of Benjamin, who should be king, would come to him, and so made this his way, knowing that one coming from that tribe must come that way; but it seems most likely that this was his readiest way: FOR TO GO UP TO THE HIGH PLACE; or place of sitting down, or feasting, as the Targum, 1 Samuel 9:12. i לקראתם "in occursum eorum", P

2. THE STORY OF SAUL AND HIS ANOINTING Chapter S 9:1-10:16 _ 1. Saul the son of Kish and the lost asses (1 Samuel 9:1)_ 2. Samuel and Saul (1 Samuel 9:11) 3. Saul anointed King (1 Samuel 9:25; 1 Samuel 10:1) And now the Lord gives them a king according to their choice. “He should possess all the natural attractions and martial qualities which the people could desire in their king; he should reflect their religious standpoint at their best; but he should also represent their national failings and the inmost defects of their religious life; that of combining zeal for the religion of Jehovah, and

1 SAMUEL 9:1 TO 1 SAMUEL 10:16. SAMUEL ANOINTS SAUL AS KING. (J), taken from one of the oldest narratives (see Introduction, p. 273). Note the absence of any connexion with the Deuteronomic narrative in the previous chapter also the inconsistencies; in 1 Samuel 7:13 the Philistines were permanently disposed of; in 1 Samuel 9:16; 1 Samuel 10:5, they are oppressing Israel and have a garrison in the heart of the country; in our present narrative we have no trace of hostility to the Monarchy. This section preserves important features of primitive religious l

OUT AGAINST. opposite, so as to meet them....

Inquiry for the seer 11. _as they went up_ AS THEY WERE ASCENDING BY THE ASCENT TO THE CITY. The Hebrew has a peculiar construction, the repetition of which is characteristic of this chapter. Cp. 1 Samuel 9:5_; 1Sa 9:14; 1 Samuel 9:17; 1 Samuel 9:27_. _young maidens going out to draw water_ Cp. Genesis 24:15; Genesis 29:9 ff.; Exodus 2:16; John 4:7. The well was in the

BEHOLD, SAMUEL CAME OUT AGAINST THEM, &C.— _Samuel met them, as he was about to ascend the high place._ Houb. _God told Samuel in his ear,_ in the next verse, signifies that he privately revealed to him. REFLECTIONS.—Few would have looked for a king chosen from such an employment as that of Saul; but God's choice is often marvellous in our eyes. We have here. 1. Saul sent to seek his father's asses which were strayed. Agreeable to the simplicity of those times, when no man was too great to mind his own affairs, Kish sends his son with a servant in quest of the strayed asses; and his son, forward to obey his parent's orders, and industrious in his business, immediately sets himself to make search after them. 2. Their search was long and fruitless; and Saul, apprehensive that his father would be uneasy at his absence, resolves to give over and return. Dutiful children will always thus te...