2 and he hath a son, and his name `is' Saul, a choice youth and goodly, and there is not a man among the sons of Israel goodlier than he -- from his shoulder and upward, higher than any of the people.
and sons of God see the daughters of men that they `are' fair, and they take to themselves women of all whom they have chosen.
and there we saw the Nephilim, sons of Anak, of the Nephilim; and we are in our own eyes as grasshoppers; and so we were in their eyes.'
And they run and bring him thence, and he stationed himself in the midst of the people, and he is higher than any of the people from his shoulder and upward. And Samuel saith unto all the people, `Have ye seen him on whom Jehovah hath fixed, for there is none like him among all the people?' And all the people shout, and say, `Let the king live!'
And Jehovah saith unto Samuel, `Look not unto his appearance, and unto the height of his stature, for I have rejected him; for `it is' not as man seeth -- for man looketh at the eyes, and Jehovah looketh at the heart.'
And there goeth out a man of the duellists from the camps of the Philistines, Goliath `is' his name, from Gath; his height `is' six cubits and a span,
And like Absalom there was no man `so' fair in all Israel, to praise greatly; from the sole of his foot even unto his crown there was no blemish in him; and in his polling his head -- and it hath been at the end of year by year that he polleth `it', for it `is' heavy on him, and he hath polled it -- he hath even weighed out the hair of his head -- two hundred shekels by the king's weight.
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.