For Teaching

1 Samuel 10: What the Passage Says

101 claims across 27 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 1 Samuel 10 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Samuel pours oil on Saul's head to set him apart as ruler over Israel, and tells him three signs that will meet him on the road home, including a group of prophets among whom he will prophesy. The signs happen, and Saul prophesies, but he keeps the news about the kingship from his uncle. Samuel then gathers Israel at Mizpah, tells them that in asking for a king they have rejected their God, and the lot falls on Saul, who is found hiding among the baggage; all the people shout for him, though some worthless men despise him and bring him no gifts.

Claim by Claim

10:1
- Samuel took the flask of oil.
- Samuel poured the oil on Saul's head.
- Samuel kissed Saul.
- Samuel asked, as a question expecting agreement, whether it was not the case that the LORD had anointed Saul.
- Samuel said the LORD had anointed Saul as leader over the LORD's inheritance.
10:2
- Samuel said that when Saul departed from him that day, Saul would find two men by Rachel's tomb.
- Samuel said Rachel's tomb was in the territory of Benjamin, at Zelzah.
- Samuel said the two men would tell Saul that the donkeys he went to seek had been found.
- Samuel said the two men would tell Saul that his father had left off concern about the donkeys.
- Samuel said the two men would tell Saul that his father was anxious about them.
- Samuel said Saul's father was saying, 'What shall I do about my son?'
10:3
- Samuel said Saul would pass on from there and go further.
- Samuel said Saul would come to the great tree of Tabor.
- Samuel said three men would meet him there.
- Samuel said the three men were going up to God at Bethel.
- Samuel said one of them was carrying three young goats.
- Samuel said another was carrying three loaves of bread.
- Samuel said another was carrying a skin of wine.
10:4
- Samuel said the three men would greet Saul.
- Samuel said they would give Saul two loaves of bread.
- Samuel said Saul would take the bread from their hand.
10:5
- Samuel said that after that Saul would come to the hill of God.
- Samuel said a Philistine garrison was at that place.
- Samuel said that when Saul came to the city there, he would encounter a band of prophets.
- Samuel said the prophets would be coming down from the high place.
- Samuel said a harp, a tambourine, a flute, and a lyre would be in front of the prophets.
- Samuel said the prophets would be prophesying.
10:6
- Samuel said the Spirit of the LORD would rush upon Saul.
- Samuel said Saul would prophesy with the prophets.
- Samuel said Saul would be turned into another man.
10:7
- Samuel said that when these signs came to Saul, Saul should do whatever his hand found to do.
- Samuel said God was with Saul.
10:8
- Samuel told Saul to go down ahead of him to Gilgal.
- Samuel said he himself would come down to Saul.
- Samuel said he would come down to offer burnt offerings.
- Samuel said he would come down to sacrifice peace offerings.
- Samuel told Saul to wait seven days until Samuel came to him.
- Samuel said he would tell Saul what Saul should do.
10:9
- When Saul turned his shoulder to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart.
- All those signs came to pass that day.
10:10
- They came to the hill.
- A band of prophets met Saul.
- The Spirit of God rushed upon Saul.
- Saul prophesied among the prophets.
10:11
- All who had known Saul previously saw him.
- They saw that Saul was prophesying with the prophets.
- The people said to one another, 'What is this that has happened to the son of Kish?'
- The people said, 'Is Saul also among the prophets?'
10:12
- A man from that place answered.
- The man said, 'And who is their father?'
- Because of this it became a proverb.
- The proverb was, 'Is Saul also among the prophets?'
10:13
- Saul finished prophesying.
- Saul came to the high place.
10:14
- Saul's uncle spoke to Saul and to his servant.
- Saul's uncle asked where they had gone.
- Saul answered that they had gone to seek the donkeys.
- Saul said that when they saw the donkeys were nowhere, they came to Samuel.
10:15
- Saul's uncle asked Saul to tell him what Samuel had said to them.
10:16
- Saul said to his uncle that Samuel had told them plainly that the donkeys were found.
- Saul did not tell his uncle the matter of the kingship that Samuel had spoken of.
10:17
- Samuel summoned the people to the LORD at Mizpah.
10:18
- Samuel spoke to the children of Israel.
- Samuel said this was what the LORD, the God of Israel, said.
- The LORD said he brought Israel up out of Egypt.
- The LORD said he delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians.
- The LORD said he delivered them from the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed them.
10:19
- Samuel said that on that day they had rejected their God.
- Samuel said their God was the one who saved them from all their calamities and distresses.
- Samuel said they had told God, 'No, set a king over us.'
- Samuel told them to present themselves before the LORD by their tribes.
- Samuel told them to present themselves by their thousands.
10:20
- Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near.
- The tribe of Benjamin was taken.
10:21
- Samuel brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its families.
- The family of Matri was taken.
- Saul the son of Kish was taken.
- They sought Saul.
- Saul was not found.
10:22
- They inquired of the LORD again.
- They asked whether the man had yet come there.
- The LORD answered that Saul had hidden himself among the baggage.
10:23
- They ran and took Saul from there.
- Saul stood among the people.
- Saul was taller than all the people from his shoulders upward.
10:24
- Samuel spoke to all the people.
- Samuel asked whether they saw the one the LORD had chosen.
- Samuel said there was none like Saul among all the people.
- All the people shouted.
- The people said, 'Long live the king.'
10:25
- Samuel told the people the ordinance of the kingship.
- Samuel wrote it in a book.
- Samuel laid the book before the LORD.
- Samuel sent all the people away, each to his own house.
10:26
- Saul also went to his house at Gibeah.
- Men of valor went with Saul.
- God had touched the hearts of those men.
10:27
- Worthless men said, 'How can this one save us?'
- They despised Saul.
- They brought Saul no gift.
- Saul kept silent.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1: Anointing meant pouring perfumed olive oil on a person's head. It was the formal public act that installed someone in an office, especially king or priest; the Hebrew word for one so treated is 'messiah,' simply 'anointed one.' 'His inheritance' is a standard phrase for Israel as the people and land that belong to the LORD as his own share.
10:2: Rachel was Jacob's wife and the mother of Benjamin, ancestor of Saul's tribe; her tomb was a well-known roadside landmark. Zelzah is otherwise unknown. 'The border of Benjamin' means the edge of the territory allotted to that tribe, tribal land divisions were the basic map of the country.
10:3: 'Going up to God at Bethel' means traveling to worship at the shrine there; 'going up' is the standard expression for a journey to a place of worship, regardless of the actual slope. The goats, bread and wine are the materials of an offering, being carried for sacrifice and the meal that went with it. A 'skin' of wine is a container made from a whole animal hide, sewn shut.
10:4: The two loaves are part of what the men are carrying to the shrine, so handing them over is more than ordinary politeness: they give away goods already set aside for the offering.
10:5: The Philistines were a people settled in the cities of the coastal plain to the southwest; at this period they dominated Israel militarily and kept armed posts inside Israelite territory, which is what the 'garrison' or outpost is. A 'high place' was an open-air hilltop shrine with an altar, the usual site of local worship. A 'company of prophets' was an organized band who lived and traveled together; their 'prophesying' here is ecstatic, music-driven behavior, loud inspired utterance and movement, rather than the foretelling of events. The four instruments are stringed instruments, a hand drum, and a reed pipe.
10:6: The Hebrew verb translated 'come powerfully on' describes a sudden, forcible rush. In this book it marks a temporary seizure that gives a person capacity for a particular task, and it is used of Israel's earlier warrior-leaders. 'A different man' refers to a change in what he is able to do and how he behaves, not to a change of identity.
10:7: The instruction is deliberately open: 'do whatever the moment calls for' is as unspecific in Hebrew as in English, and no particular act is named.
10:8: Gilgal was a long-established gathering and sacrifice site in the Jordan valley near Jericho. A burnt offering was an animal burned whole on the altar; a peace offering was an animal of which only certain parts were burned, the rest eaten as a shared meal by the worshipers.
10:9: In Hebrew the 'heart' is the seat of thought, will and decision, closer to what English calls the mind, not the emotions in particular.
10:11: People were commonly identified by their father's name; 'the son of Kish' simply means Saul. The onlookers' question expresses astonishment, and possibly mockery, that a man of Saul's family and standing should be found behaving this way.
10:12: The point of the retort is unclear and was probably meant to be sharp rather than plain. 'Who is their father?' may mean that prophetic bands are not a matter of family descent, so Saul's ancestry proves nothing; or it may be asking who the leader of this particular company is. The ambiguity is in the Hebrew itself.
10:17: Mizpah was a town a few miles north of Jerusalem regularly used for national assemblies.
10:18: Long before this, the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. God brought them out and made them free.
10:19: 'Clans' (King James 'thousands') are the subdivisions of a tribe, a group of related families, also functioning as a military unit of a nominal thousand men. 'Stand before the LORD' means line up in these groupings for the selection that follows.
10:20: 'Picked out' translates a word meaning 'taken' or 'caught' by lot. The people are sorted by casting sacred lots, narrowing the field step by step, tribe, then clan, then family, then individual. The outcome was understood as the LORD's choice rather than chance.
10:22: To 'ask the LORD' in this setting means putting a question that can be answered yes or no through the sacred lot handled by a priest. The 'baggage' is the gear, packs and supplies of the assembled crowd, piled at the edge of the gathering.
10:23: Physical size counted as a mark of fitness to lead an army, so Saul's height is presented as part of his qualification, not just a detail of description.
10:24: 'Long live the king' (King James 'God save the king') is the fixed acclamation shouted when a king was installed.
10:25: 'The rules and rights of the kingship' means the terms of the office, what the king may claim and what is required of him. Writing it down and laying it 'before the LORD' means depositing the scroll at the sanctuary, the way a permanent legal document was kept on record.
10:26: Gibeah was Saul's home town, a few miles north of Jerusalem. The Hebrew behind 'brave men' can mean fighting men, or men of substance and standing in the community; both senses are possible here.
10:27: 'Worthless men' renders the Hebrew idiom 'sons of Belial,' meaning good-for-nothings or troublemakers; Belial is not a name here but a word for worthlessness. Bringing gifts to a new ruler was the recognized way of acknowledging his authority, so withholding them was a public refusal to accept him. Some ancient copies read, instead of 'but Saul said nothing about it,' words meaning 'about a month later,' joining this verse to the events of the next chapter.

Read 1 Samuel 10