15 Now Jehovah had apprised Samuel one day before Saul came, saying,
and says to them, Go into the village which is over against you, and immediately on entering into it ye will find a colt tied, upon which no [child] of man has ever sat: loose it and lead it [here]. And if any one say to you, Why do ye this? say, The Lord has need of it; and straightway he sends it hither. And they departed, and found a colt bound to the door without at the crossway, and they loose him.
And he sends two of his disciples, and says to them, Go into the city, and a man shall meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him. And wheresoever he enters, say to the master of the house, The Teacher says, Where is my guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples? and *he* will shew you a large upper room furnished ready. There make ready for us. And his disciples went away and came into the city, and found as he had said to them; 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.