This chapter gives an account of Saul, the person the Lord had appointed to be king of Israel; it relates his descent, and describes his person, 1Sa 9:1 and how seeking his father's asses, which were lost, he providentially came to the place where Samuel dwelt, 1Sa 9:3 and being advised by his servant, and approving of his advice, he concluded to go to him, and inquire the way he should go, 1Sa 9:6 and being directed by some young maidens, they found him presently in the street going to a feast, 1Sa 9:11 and Samuel having some previous notice from the Lord of such a person's coming to him that day, when he met him invited him to dine with him, and obliged him to stay with him that day, 1Sa 9:15 satisfied him about his asses, and gave him a hint of the grandeur he was to be raised to, to which Saul made a modest reply, 1Sa 9:20 and Samuel treated him at the feast in a very respectable manner, 1Sa 9:22 and privately communed with him of things preparatory to what he was about to make known unto him, 1Sa 9:25.
Ver. 1. Now there was a man of Benjamin,.... Of the tribe of Benjamin, which had its name from the youngest son of Jacob, and one of this tribe was the first king of Israel:whose name was Kish: whom the apostle calls Cis, Ac 13:21, and Josephus Cises; his name, according to Hillerus , signifies "ensnared"; for what reason it was given him is not certain:the son of Abiel; in 1Ch 8:33, he is called Ner that begat Kish; and in this book, 1Sa 14:50 Ner and Kish are represented as brethren, the sons of Abiel: to reconcile this, it may be observed, that Ner being the elder brother, on the death of his father Abiel, had the care and bringing up of his younger brother Kish; and therefore when he is said to beget him, the meaning is, not that he was the parent of him, but the bringer up of him; or rather, as Kimchi thinks, Abiel had two sons, one of which was Ner; and that he had two sons, one that was called after his own name Ner, who was the father of Abner; and the other Kish, the father of Saul:the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite; of these persons we nowhere else read:a mighty man of power; not a man of riches, or of authority, neither a wealthy man, nor a magistrate, for his family was mean and contemptible, 1Sa 9:21 but a man of great strength, an able bodied man, and of great natural fortitude, and courage of mind.
Antiqu. l. 6. c. 4. sect. 1. Onomastic. Sacr. p.