36 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And one of the same place answered, and said,.... One of the same city, and in the same company, that expressed their admiration at what was come to Saul, and at what he did, and wondering how he came into such company, and to have such a gift, who was of so mean an education: but who is their father? the father of the prophets; their fathers were...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when he had made an end of prophesying,.... For, as Procopius Gazaeus observes, he had not the gift of prophecy always; it did not continue with him, but, like that of the seventy elders in the times of Moses, it was designed to make him respectable among the people, and to be taken notice of as a person that God had honoured with a peculiar...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Saul's uncle said unto him, and to his servant, whither went ye?.... Since they had been absent so long a time. This was his father's brother, as the Targum, and so Aquila; whose name was Ner, the father of Abner, 1 Samuel 14:50 who met with him at the high place, or found him in the city, in his father's house it may be. Josephus (g) says,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Saul's uncle said, c. l On hearing he had been with Samuel, and perceiving so great an alteration in Saul, perhaps he began to suspect something about the kingdom it being what everyone was talking of, and expecting every day to hear from Samuel who should be king, according to the Lord's appointment: tell me, I pray thee, what Samuel said...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Saul said unto his uncle,.... In answer to his question: he told us plainly the asses were found; or "in telling told us" (h); not only plainly in so many words, but he affirmed it with the greatest certainty that the asses were found, and we need not give ourselves further trouble about them: but of the matter of the kingdom, whereof Samuel...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Samuel called the people together unto the Lord at Mizpeh. Not that in Gilead, but in the tribe of Benjamin, where the people had been before convened on a certain occasion, 1 Samuel 7:5 and the people called together could not be every individual of the nation, but the heads and elders of the people, their representatives, and who were...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And said unto the children of Israel,.... In the name of the Lord, using the phrase which the prophets used when they spoke in the name of the Lord: thus saith the Lord God of Israel; the great Jehovah, the Being of beings, the covenant God of his people Israel: I brought up Israel out of Egypt; when in bondage there, with a mighty hand and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And ye have this day rejected your God,.... As their king, by desiring another to be set over them; who himself saved you out of all your adversity and your tribulations; that they had been in at any time in Egypt, in their passage through the wilderness to Canaan, and after they were settled there: ye have said unto him, [nay], but set a king...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when Samuel had caused all the tribes to come near,.... The heads and representatives of them, to the place where the lots were cast: the tribe of Benjamin was taken; the lot fell upon that tribe for the choice of a king out of it; not the tribe of, Reuben, who was the firstborn, nor the tribe of Judah, to whom the kingdom was promised, but...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families,.... By the heads of them, to have lots cast for them, out of which of the families the king should be chosen: the family of Matri was taken; that is, by lot; the lot fell upon that family for the choice of a king out of them: in the account of the families of the tribe of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore they inquired of the Lord further,.... Or again, by lot, by which they knew who the person was the was chosen king, but they did not know where he was, and therefore inquire further how they must come at him; and this inquiry was made either before the high priest by Urim and Thummim, or by Samuel the prophet of the Lord: and the inquiry...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they ran and fetched him thence,.... Being in haste to see their king elect, and proclaim him: and when he stood among the people; being brought among them, and presented to them: he was higher than any of the people, from the shoulders, and upwards; which made him look very graceful and majestic; height of stature, and a comely form, as...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Samuel said to all the people, see ye him whom the Lord hath chosen,.... For the choice being made by lot, the disposal of which is of the Lord, it is properly attributed to him, and the people could not object to it, but must allow it was the Lord's doing. Eupolemus (k), an Heathen writer, says, that Saul was made king by Samuel by the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, e.] According to Ben Gersom, he laid before them the power a king had over his people, and the punishment he might inflict upon them, if they rebelled against him and some think this is the same he delivered in 1 Samuel 8:10 concerning the arbitrary power of their kings, and how they would be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Saul also went home to Gibeah,.... His native place, where was his father's house, to which he retired; where were no royal palace, or princely court, nor any of the ensigns of kingly majesty; and whither it does not appear that he was followed by the nobility or princes of the tribes, only accompanied by a few men, as next observed: and there...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But the children of Belial said,.... Wicked, dissolute, lawless persons; men without a yoke, as the word signifies, who did not care to be under the yoke of government, at least not under the yoke of Saul; and these might be men of wealth, and of larger tribes, and better families than Saul was of, and therefore envied him, and thought themselves...