1 Samuel 11:1
INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 11
This chapter relates the distress the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead were in on account of the Ammonites, 1Sa 11:1 upon which they sent messengers to Saul, whose spirit was immediately stirred up to help them, 1Sa 11:4, and prepared for it, and came up soon enough for their relief, and slew their enemies, 1Sa 11:7, which gained him much honour and reputation among the people, and occasioned the renewal of the kingdom to him, 1Sa 11:12.
Ver. 1. Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabeshgilead,.... A month after, as in the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, that is, a month after Saul was chosen king; so Josephus {p}: this prince was preparing for war against Israel before, which they hearing of, requested they might have a king to go before them in battle, 1Sa 12:12 but now he actually marched from his own country, and besieged Jabeshgilead, a city in the land of Gilead, from whence it had its name, and lay in the half tribe of Manasseh, on the other side Jordan, see Jud 21:8. It lay near to the Ammonites, and was part of the country they laid claim to in the times of Jephthah, which they now renewed, and attempted to gain it by force. This Nahash was king of the Ammonites, as he is called in the Targum, and by Josephus {q}, and so in the Arabic version, see