1 Samuel 9: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Saul, a tall young man from the tribe of Benjamin, goes looking for his father's lost donkeys and cannot find them. His servant suggests asking a man of God in a nearby town, and they meet Samuel, whom the LORD had told the day before that he would send a man from Benjamin to be anointed leader over Israel. Samuel tells Saul the donkeys are found, seats him in the place of honor at a feast, and keeps him overnight. As Saul leaves the next morning, Samuel sends the servant ahead so he can tell Saul a message from God.

Claim by Claim

1. 9:1
   • There was a man of Benjamin.
   • His name was Kish.
   • Kish was the son of Abiel.
   • Abiel was the son of Zeror.
   • Zeror was the son of Bechorath.
   • Bechorath was the son of Aphiah.
   • Aphiah was a Benjamite.
   • Kish was a man of substance, either a mighty warrior or a man of wealth.
2. 9:2
   • Kish had a son.
   • The son's name was Saul.
   • Saul was a choice young man.
   • Saul was good-looking.
   • There was no man among the children of Israel better-looking than Saul.
   • From his shoulders upward Saul was taller than all the people.
3. 9:3
   • The female donkeys belonging to Kish, Saul's father, were lost.
   • Kish said to his son Saul to take one of the servants with him.
   • Kish told Saul to get up and go.
   • Kish told Saul to search for the donkeys.
4. 9:4
   • Saul passed through the hill country of Ephraim.
   • He passed through the land of Shalishah.
   • They did not find the donkeys.
   • They passed through the land of Shaalim.
   • The donkeys were not there.
   • He passed through the land of the Benjamites.
   • They did not find the donkeys.
5. 9:5
   • They came to the land of Zuph.
   • Saul said to the servant who was with him to come and return home.
   • Saul said his father might stop worrying about the donkeys.
   • Saul said his father would then become anxious about them.
6. 9:6
   • The servant said to Saul that there is a man of God in this city.
   • The servant said the man is honored.
   • The servant said everything the man says surely comes to pass.
   • The servant proposed that they go there now.
   • The servant said perhaps the man would tell them the way they should go.
7. 9:7
   • Saul said to his servant that if they go, they have nothing to bring the man.
   • Saul said the bread was gone from their vessels.
   • Saul said there was no gift to bring to the man of God.
   • Saul asked what they had with them.
8. 9:8
   • The servant answered Saul again.
   • The servant said he had a quarter shekel of silver in his hand.
   • The servant said he would give it to the man of God.
   • The servant said the man would tell them their way.
9. 9:9
   • Formerly in Israel, a man going to inquire of God would say, Come, let us go to the seer.
   • The one now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.
10. 9:10
    • Saul said to his servant that his word was good.
    • Saul said, Come, let us go.
    • They went to the city where the man of God was.
11. 9:11
    • They were going up the ascent to the city.
    • They found young women coming out to draw water.
    • They asked the young women whether the seer was there.
12. 9:12
    • The young women answered them.
    • They said the seer was there.
    • They said he was ahead of them.
    • They told them to hurry.
    • They said he had come to the city that day.
    • They said there was a sacrifice for the people that day at the high place.
13. 9:13
    • The young women said that as soon as they entered the city they would find him.
    • They said they would find him before he went up to the high place to eat.
    • They said the people would not eat until he came.
    • They said he blesses the sacrifice.
    • They said that afterward the invited guests eat.
    • They told them to go up now.
    • They said that about this time they would find him.
14. 9:14
    • They went up to the city.
    • As they were entering the middle of the city, Samuel was coming out toward them.
    • Samuel was on his way up to the high place.
15. 9:15
    • The LORD had revealed to Samuel one day before Saul came.
16. 9:16
    • The LORD said he would send Samuel a man from the land of Benjamin about this time tomorrow.
    • The LORD said Samuel was to anoint him as leader over the LORD's people Israel.
    • The LORD said the man would save the LORD's people from the hand of the Philistines.
    • The LORD said he had looked upon his people.
    • The LORD said the reason was that their cry had come to him.
17. 9:17
    • Samuel saw Saul.
    • The LORD said to Samuel that this was the man of whom he had spoken to him.
    • The LORD said this man would rule or hold authority over his people.
18. 9:18
    • Saul approached Samuel in the middle of the gate.
    • Saul asked Samuel to tell him where the seer's house was.
19. 9:19
    • Samuel answered Saul.
    • Samuel said he was the seer.
    • Samuel told Saul to go up before him to the high place.
    • Samuel said they would eat with him that day.
    • Samuel said he would send Saul away in the morning.
    • Samuel said he would tell Saul everything that was in his heart.
20. 9:20
    • Samuel said the donkeys lost three days ago should not occupy Saul's mind.
    • Samuel said the donkeys had been found.
    • Samuel asked to whom all the desire of Israel belongs.
    • Samuel said it belongs to Saul and to all his father's house.
21. 9:21
    • Saul answered Samuel.
    • Saul asked whether he was not a Benjamite.
    • Saul said Benjamin was the smallest of the tribes of Israel.
    • Saul said his clan was the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.
    • Saul asked why Samuel spoke to him in this way.
22. 9:22
    • Samuel took Saul and his servant.
    • Samuel brought them into the hall.
    • Samuel gave them a place at the head of those who were invited.
    • Those invited were about thirty men.
23. 9:23
    • Samuel told the cook to bring the portion he had given him.
    • Samuel said he had told the cook to set that portion aside.
24. 9:24
    • The cook took up the thigh and what was on it.
    • The cook set it before Saul.
    • Samuel said, Behold what has been reserved.
    • Samuel told Saul to set it before him and eat.
    • Samuel said it had been kept for Saul for this appointed time.
    • Samuel said this was so from the time he said he had invited the people.
    • Saul ate with Samuel that day.
25. 9:25
    • They came down from the high place into the city.
    • Samuel spoke with Saul on the roof.
26. 9:26
    • They rose early.
    • At the break of dawn Samuel called to Saul on the roof.
    • Samuel told Saul to get up so that he could send him away.
    • Saul got up.
    • Both of them, Saul and Samuel, went outside.
27. 9:27
    • They were going down at the edge of the city.
    • Samuel told Saul to tell the servant to pass on ahead of them.
    • The servant passed on.
    • Samuel told Saul to stand still for a while.
    • Samuel said he would make Saul hear the word of God.

Words Worth Explaining

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

9:1

The King James "a mighty man of power" translates a Hebrew phrase (gibbor hayil) that covers several kinds of standing at once: physical strength, fighting ability, wealth, and social importance. Here it most likely means Kish was a substantial landowner of good standing rather than a soldier. The chain of fathers is given because a man's identity in ancient Israel was fixed by his clan and tribe, which determined where he lived, whom he could marry, and what land he inherited.

9:2

"Goodly" in 1611 meant good-looking, and "a choice young man" means one picked out as the best of his generation. Height and appearance were what people of the time expected in a leader, so the description is presenting Saul as someone who looks the part.

9:3

Donkeys were the main pack and riding animals of ordinary life, and a herd of them was valuable property, losing them was a serious loss, not a minor inconvenience, which is why the search goes on for three days across a wide stretch of country.

9:4

Ephraim, Shalisha, and Shalim are places near Saul's home. Saul and the servant walked for days looking in each one.

9:5

Zuph is also the name of one of Samuel's ancestors, and Samuel's home town is called Ramathaim-zophim earlier in the book, so the district is associated with his family.

9:6

"Man of God" was a standard title for someone recognized as speaking on God's behalf. It says nothing about the man's own nature; it identifies his role, roughly as we might say "a holy man."

9:7

Bringing a gift was the normal courtesy when approaching anyone of standing to ask a favor, including a seer. Saul's worry is about etiquette and obligation, not about buying an answer. The bread they set out with would have been their whole travel supply.

9:8

Before coins were minted, silver was weighed out by the shekel, a unit of about eleven or twelve grams. A quarter shekel is a small piece of metal, perhaps two or three grams, a modest courtesy gift, not a large payment.

9:9

This verse is an aside from a later editor, inserted for readers of his own day who no longer recognized the older word "seer" used in the story. It is the kind of explanatory note a copyist adds inside the text itself.

9:11

The well or spring usually lay outside the city walls, and fetching water was work done by women, generally in the morning and evening. Travelers arriving at a town would meet the local women there before meeting anyone else.

9:12

A "high place" was an open-air worship site, usually on a hill or raised ground outside or above the town, with an altar and often a hall for the shared meal. Before the temple in Jerusalem was built these were ordinary places of worship throughout Israel. A sacrifice of this kind was also a feast: an animal was killed, a portion was burned on the altar, and the rest was cooked and eaten by the invited worshipers. So "there is a sacrifice today" means, in practical terms, that a large communal dinner is about to happen.

9:13

The blessing was spoken over the food before anyone could begin, which is why the whole company waits for the one who will pronounce it. Guests were formally invited to such a meal, so the crowd is a defined list of people, not whoever happened to be passing.

9:14

In 1611 "against" could mean toward. Samuel was walking out to meet them, not going out to fight them.

9:15

The Hebrew idiom is literally "the LORD had uncovered Samuel's ear", the picture is of pushing aside someone's hair or headcloth to speak where only they can hear. It means a private disclosure.

9:16

Anointing meant pouring olive oil over the head. It was the public ceremony that installed someone in an office, kings and priests both, and marked them as set apart for it. The Hebrew word for such a person, mashiach, "anointed one," is the word that comes into English as "messiah." The title given here is not the ordinary Hebrew word for "king" but a different word (nagid) meaning something like "designated leader" or "the one appointed in front." The story keeps the two words distinct, and the difference between them is left unresolved. The Philistines were a people settled along the coastal plain south-west of Israel, organized around five cities. They were Israel's dominant military rival at this period, better equipped and holding territory that pressed in on the Israelite hill country.

9:17

The Hebrew verb translated "reign over" or "rule" here normally means "restrain" or "hold in check." Its exact force in this sentence is uncertain; it may carry the sense of governing, or of keeping the people in order.

9:18

The gateway of a walled city was a deep structure with chambers and benches, and it served as the town's public space, where legal cases were heard, business settled, and news exchanged. Meeting someone "in the gate" means meeting them in the busiest public place.

9:19

"All that is in thine heart" is not about feelings. In Hebrew the heart is where a person thinks and decides, so Samuel is promising to tell Saul what is on his mind.

9:20

"The desire of Israel" points back to the people's demand, in the previous chapters, for a king to rule them like the nations around them. Samuel is telling Saul, without yet saying it plainly, that this demand now rests on him.

9:21

Benjamin was the smallest of the twelve tribes, and the book of Judges records a war that had nearly destroyed it. Saul's reply is the conventional protest of unworthiness, but it also states a real fact about his family's standing.

9:22

"Parlour" in 1611 English meant a hall or large room for receiving people, not the small front room the word suggests today. This is the dining hall attached to the worship site. Seating at a formal meal was ranked, and the place nearest the host was the position of honor. Putting an unknown young man there in front of thirty invited guests is a deliberate public statement.

9:24

The thigh or upper leg was the choice cut, and by law it was normally the portion reserved for the priest. Setting it aside in advance for a guest, and then giving it to him in front of everyone, is a mark of high honor. Samuel's words in this verse are difficult in the Hebrew and the ancient versions differ; the general sense is that the portion was deliberately kept back for Saul, but the exact wording is uncertain.

9:25

Houses had flat roofs reached by an outside stair, used for sleeping, drying produce, and private conversation. Going up to the roof is going somewhere to talk out of earshot, and it is also where a guest would be given a bed.

9:26

"The spring of the day" is the King James phrase for first light, and "abroad" here means outside, not overseas.

9:27

"That I may shew thee the word of God" means so that I can deliver God's message to you. Samuel sends the servant on ahead so that what follows has no witnesses.