1 Samuel 9:21

_AND SAUL ANSWERED AND SAID, AM NOT I A BENJAMITE, OF THE SMALLEST OF THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL? AND MY FAMILY THE LEAST OF ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN? WHEREFORE THEN SPEAKEST THOU SO TO ME?_ Am not I a Benjamite ... By selecting a king from this least and nearly extinct tribe (Judges 20:1), divine wisdom designed to remove all grounds of jealousy among the other tribes....

18-27 Samuel, that good prophet, was so far from envying Saul, or bearing him any ill-will, that he was the first and most forward to do him honour. Both that evening and early the next morning, Samuel communed with Saul upon the flat roof of the house. We may suppose Samuel now convinced Saul that he was the person God had fixed upon for the government, and of his own willingness to resign. How different are the purposes of the Lord for us, from our intentions for ourselves! Perhaps Saul was the only one who ever went out to seek asses, and literally found a kingdom; but many have set out and moved their dwellings to seek riches and pleasures, who have been guided to places where they found salvation for their souls. Thus they have met with those who addressed them as if aware of the secrets of their lives and hearts, and have been led seriously to regard the word of the Lord. If this...

Verse 1 Samuel 9:21. _AM NOT I A BENJAMITE_] This speech of Saul is exceedingly _modest_; he was now becomingly humble; but who can bear _elevation_ and _prosperity_? The tribe of Benjamin had not yet recovered its strength, after the ruinous war it had with the other tribes, Judges 20:29-7....

The tribe of Benjamin, originally the smallest of all the tribes Numbers 1:36, if Ephraim and Manasseh are reckoned as one tribe, had been nearly annihilated by the civil war recorded in Judges 20. It had of course not recovered from that terrible calamity in the time of Saul, and was doubtless literally much the smallest tribe at that time. Nothing could be more improbable, humanly speaking, than that this weak tribe should give a ruler to the mighty tribes of Joseph and Judah....

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 SAUL ANSWERED AND SAID, AM NOT I A BENJAMITE,.... Or the son of Jemini, the name of one of his ancestors, see 1 Samuel 9:1 or rather, as the Targum, a son of the tribe of Benjamin: OF THE SMALLEST OF THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL? having been greatly reduced, even to the number of six hundred men, by the fatal war between that tribe and the rest, on account of the Levite's concubine, and is called little Benjamin, Psalms 68:27. AND MY FAMILY THE LEAST OF ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN? the smallest in number, had the least share of authority in the tribe, and of land and cattle, wealth and substance: WHEREFORE THEN SPEAKEST THOU SO TO ME? Saul presently understood Samuel's meaning, that he should be chosen king of Israel, the affair of a king be

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

AM NOT.... ? Figure of speech _Erotesis._ App-6. THE SMALLEST. Very true, since the events recorded in Judges 20:35. SO TO ME. according to this word....

Saul entertained by Samuel 15. _Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear_ Lit. "had uncovered Samuel's ear," a figure of speech said to be derived from the practice of removing the hair or a corner of the turban from another's ear in order to whisper a secret into it....