John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 11 This chapter relates the distress the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead were in on account of the Ammonites, 1 Samuel 11:1 upon which they sent messengers to Saul, whose spirit was immediately stirred up to help them, 1 Samuel 11:4, and prepared for it, and came up soon enough for their relief, and slew their enemies, 1 Samuel 11:7, which gained him much honour and...
John Gill
And he took a yoke of oxen,.... Of his own or his father's, which he had just followed out of the field, and for which chiefly that circumstance is mentioned: and hewed them in pieces; as the Levite did his concubine, Judges 19:29 and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers; some carrying a piece one way, and some another, throughout all the tribes; for to them...
Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have the first-fruits of Saul's government, in the glorious rescue of Jabesh-Gilead out of the hands of the Ammonites. Let not Israel thence infer that therefore they did well to ask a king (God could and would have saved them without one); but let them admire God's goodness, that he did not reject them when they rejected him, and acknowledge his wisdom in the choice of the...