The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 161

CHAPTER IX. rendering of tho Chaldee, and 1•irtually of the Septuagint, which gives well-grown. This SELECTION OF SAUL AS KING BY THE is the preferable translation ; for the wcrd YOICE OF PROPHECY. GENEALOGY OF SAUL con~!antly occurs ??upled with virgin (Detit. (Ycrs. 1-27). Ver. 1.-A man . . . whose xxxu. 26 ; Isa. lxu. 6, &c.), for one in the i,ame was Kish. The genealogy of Saul is full flower of I;Uanhood. Saul could not n•n<lered obscure by the Hebrew custom of therefore, havo been the runner of eh. v. 12; ahbre1iating such records by the omission though, as wo read that Jonathan his son was of names. The family documents were no a grown man two or three. years afterwards ,loubt kept in full, but when transcribed, as (eh. xiii. 2), he must have been at least here and in the First Book of Chronicles, thirty-five years of age, after making allow- only a summary is given, and as the omitted ance for tho early period at which the Jews links are not always the same, great difficulty married. His noble appearance and gigantic is necessarily the result. The most satis- stature were well fitte:l to impress and over- factory genealogy is that given by Schaff from awe a semi-barbarous people, who were better a comparison of Gen. xlvi, 21 ; 1 Sam. ix. I ; able to form an estimate of his physical xir. 51 ; 1 Chron. vii. 6-8 ; viii. 29-33 ; qualities than of the high mental and moral ix. 35-39, and is as follows: 1. Benjamin; gifts rossessed by Samuel. . :2. Becher; 3. Aphiah, perhaps same as Ver. 3.-The asses ofXisli. ... were lost. Abiah; 4. Bechorath; 5. Zeror, or Zur; So strangely fo the trivial ever united with 6. Abiel; 7. Ner; 8. Kish; 9. Saul. Very events most solemn and wejghty,, that Saul many links, however, are omitted, among set out upon this journey, in which he was \Yhom must be placed Jifatri, mentioned in to find a kingdom, with no other object than 1 Sam. x, 21; and Jehiel, mentioned in to look for some lost asses-Hebrew, "she. 1 Chron. ix. 35 (ani see ibid. viii. 29). He asses." As used for 1iding (Judges x. 4), tho is described as the first settler and coloniser ass was valuable, and as these were probably of Gibeon, and as husband of Maachah, a kept for breeding, they were allowed mere daughter or granddaughter of Caleb. The liberty than the males, and so strayed away. spelling of his name 'lrith an 'ain forbids our Ver. 4.-Mount Ephraim. Though Gibeal1, confounding him 'lrith Abiel, as is done by Saul's home, was in Benjamin, it was situ- Schaff and most commentators, and whom, ated on this long mountain range (eh. i. I). apparently, he preceded by many generations. The land of Shalisha. I. e. Three-land, and In the two places referred to above a large probably, therefore, .the region round Baal; family of sons is ascribed to him ; but as, first shalisha. It takes its name from the three of all, the lists do not agree, as, moreover, valleys which there ,onverge in the great they are said to dwell with their brethren in Wady Kurawa. The land of Shalim. I. e. .Jerusalem (1 Chron. viii 32), and as Ner, of jackals ; probably the same as tho land the father of Kish, is mentioned in the of Shual, also= jackal-land (eh. xiii. 17). second list, it is pretty certain that we are The very name shows that it was a wild, not to regard them as his actual children, uninhabited region. The derivation hollow- but as the leading names among his pos- land is unt.enable. terity. The fearful cruelty recorded in Ver. 5.-The land of Zuph. See on eh. i. Judges xx. 48 may well account for the 1. This Levite ancestor of Samuel had pro- hopeless entanglement of Benjamite genea- bably occupied and colonised this district logies. A.n ancestor of Saul must, of course, after the disasters recorded in the last chap- have been among the 600 who· escaped to ters of the Book of Judges. Lest my father; the rock Rimmon, but he could have saved &c. A mark of ~ood feeling on Saul's part, only his own life. A mighty man of power. and a proof of the affectionate terms on which Really, "of wealth." Saul, like David after- Kish and his family lived, warcls, 1rns sprung from an affluent family, Ver. 6.-In this city. Probably Rama- whose lanclecl property was situated at Gibeah, thaim-zophim, i. e. Ramah, Samuel's dwell- aLout four miles north of Jerusalem, after- ing-place and property. Confessedly, how- wards known as Gibeah of Saul. ever, Saul's route hither and thither in Yer. 2. -He had a son, whose name was search of lost cattle is very obscure, and it is Saul. I. e. asked, a name usually given to difficult to reconcile this identification with a firstl,orn so11. A choice young man. This the statement in eh. x. 2, that Re.chel's is a double translation of the Hebrew word, sepulchre lay on the route between this an<l rnnsequently one half or other must be city and Gibeah of Saul. Nevertheless, wrong. It may either be a participle, elect Ramah was certainly: in tho land of Zuph, or clwfre, and is so reuderecl by the Syriac whence too it took its longer name (see on 11.nd Vulgate; or an adjective, youn'J, the eh. i. 1) ; and it is remarkable that Jeremiah en. 1x. 1-27.J THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. 159