15 Now the day before Saul came, the word of God had come to Samuel, saying,
And Samuel said to Saul, The Lord sent me to put the holy oil on you and to make you king over his people, over Israel: so give ear now to the words of the Lord.
Then at their request for a king, God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the family of Benjamin, who was their king for forty years.
And he said to him, Far be the thought: you will not be put to death: see, my father does nothing, great or small, without giving me word of it: would he keep this secret from me? It is not so.
For you, O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, have clearly said to your servant, I will make you the head of a family of kings: and so it has come into your servant's heart to make this prayer to you.
The secret of the Lord is with those in whose hearts is the fear of him; he will make his agreement clear to them.
Certainly the Lord will do nothing without making clear his secret to his servants, the prophets.
And said to them, Go into the little town opposite: and when you come to it, you will see a young ass with a cord round his neck, on which no man has ever been seated; let him loose, and come back with him. And if anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? say, The Lord has need of him and will send him back straight away. And they went away and saw a young ass by the door outside in the open street; and they were getting him loose.
And he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, Go into the town, and there will come to you a man with a vessel of water: go after him; And wherever he goes in, say to the owner of the house, The Master says, Where is my guest-room, where I may take the Passover with my disciples? And he will take you up himself to a great room with a table and seats: there make ready for us. And the disciples went out and came into the town, and saw that it was as he had said: and they made ready the Passover.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Samuel 9
Commentary on 1 Samuel 9 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 9
Samuel had promised Israel, from God, that they should have a king; it is strange that the next news is not of candidates setting up for the government, making an interest in the people, or recommending themselves to Samuel, and, by him, to God, to be put in nomination. Why does not the prince of the tribe of Judah, whoever he is, look about him now, remembering Jacob's entail of the sceptre on that tribe? Is there never a bold aspiring man in Israel, to say, "I will be king, if God will choose me?' No, none appears, whether it is owing to a culpable mean-spiritedness or a laudable humility I know not; but surely it is what can scarcely be paralleled in the history of any kingdom; a crown, such a crown, set up, and nobody bids for it. Most governments began in the ambition of the prince to rule, but Israel's in the ambition of the people to be ruled. Had any of those elders who petitioned for a king afterwards petitioned to be king, I should have suspected that person's ambition to have been at the bottom of the motion; but now (let them have the praise of what was good in them) it was not so. God having, in the law, undertaken to choose their king (Deu. 17:15), they all sit still, till they hear from heaven, and that they do in this chapter, which begins the story of Saul, their first king, and, by strange steps of Providence, brings him to Samuel to be anointed privately, and so to be prepared for an election by lot, and a public commendation to the people, which follows in the next chapter. Here is,
1Sa 9:1-2
We are here told,
1Sa 9:3-10
Here is,
1Sa 9:11-17
Here,
1Sa 9:18-27
Providence having at length brought Samuel and Saul together, we have here an account of what passed between them in the gate, at the feast, and in private.