1 Sam. X. 12. Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also
among the prophets ?
PROVERBS are short and weighty sentences, comprising in few words some great and important truth. Of this kind was that which David addressed to Saul : " Mine hand shall not be upon thee : as saith the proverb of the ancients. Wickedness pro- ceedeth from the wicked ^" Of this kind were all
a 1 Sam. xxiv. 12, 13.
the Proverbs of Solomon. But sometimes they are brief sayings referring to some particular event, which they serve at once both to commemorate and improve. The most remarkable of any in the Bible, is that which was used to commemorate God's inter- position in behalf of Isaac, to preserve him from being offered up in sacrifice by his father's hand, and at the same time to shew what interpositions all God's faithful and obedient people may expect in the very moment of their greatest necessity : " In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen ;" or, as it should rather be translated, " In the mount (the mount of difficulty) the Lord shall be seen''." The proverb in our text is of a less serious kind : yet it is very instructive, as shewing, that God will impart his blessings to whom- soever he will, and not unfrequently to those who we should, humanly speaking, say, were least likely to receive them.
Upon the people of Israel desiring to have a king over them, God appointed Saul to be their king. But, when Samuel announced to Saul the purpose of God respecting him, Saul could not believe it. Samuel, however, gave him signs, whereby he should infallibly know the truth of what had been declared. The first was, that he should find two men by Eze- kiel's sepulchre, who should announce to him, that his father had found the asses, for the loss of which he had been grieved; and that he was now sorrowing for him, whom he had sent to search for them. The next was, that in the Plain of Tabor he should meet three men going up to Bethel with three kids, and three loaves of bread, and a bottle of wine, to offer to the Lord ; and that two of the loaves they should give to him. The third was, that, on his arriving at the hill of God, where was (or rather had been) a garrison of the Philistines, a company of prophets should come down with different instruments of music, and should prophesy ; and tliat " the Spirit of the Lord should come down on ///;;/, and he should prophesy with them, and be turned into another
^ Gen. xxii. 14.