1 Samuel 9 is the ninth
chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
of the
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
or the first part of the
Books of Samuel
The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books ( Jo ...
in the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
'' Samuel
Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bib ...
, with additions by the prophets
Gad and
Nathan,
but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter describes the meeting between
Saul
Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered tri ...
and Samuel which led to Saul's first anointing as king (1 Samuel 10:1–16), within a section comprising 1 Samuel 7–15 which records the rise of the monarchy in Israel and the account of the first years of King Saul.
Text
This chapter was originally written in the
Hebrew language
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserve ...
.
It is divided into 27 verses.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
are of the
Masoretic Text
The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...
tradition, which includes the
Codex Cairensis
The Codex Cairensis (also: ''Codex Prophetarum Cairensis'', ''Cairo Codex of the Prophets'') is a Hebrew manuscript containing the complete text of the Hebrew Bible's Nevi'im (Prophets). It has traditionally been described as "the oldest dated He ...
(895),
Aleppo Codex
The Aleppo Codex ( he, כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, romanized: , lit. 'Crown of Aleppo') is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the ...
(10th century), and
Codex Leningradensis
The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its colopho ...
(1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...
including 4Q51 (4QSam; 100–50 BCE) with extant verses 6–8, 10–12, 16–24.
[Dead sea scrolls - 1 Samuel]
/ref>
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
known as the Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...
(originally was made in the last few centuries BCE) include Codex Vaticanus
The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...
(B; B; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus
The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...
(A; A; 5th century).
Analysis
This chapter introduces Saul, who was to be the first king of Israel, as a resolution to the request of king left unfinished in previous chapter. The narrative bears some features of folk-tales: a young man setting out to find his father's missing donkeys comes out as designated king. Saul's search led him to the prophet Samuel, who privately anointed Saul as king and provided three signs as confirmation to its legitimacy, all of which were fulfilled in 1 Samuel 10:2–7. Throughout the account, Saul appeared to be humble, but also showed lack of confidence and perhaps doubts about his calling to kingship.
Saul's genealogy (9:1–2)
The listing of Saul's ancestry in the beginning of this chapter recalls the opening of the Books of Samuel ( 1 Samuel 1:1) which delineates Samuel's genealogy. In both genealogies Samuel and Saul are listed in the sixth position. The connection of Samuel's name to the word "asked" (Hebrew: ''shaul'') in 1 Samuel 1:28 may also relate to the name of Saul (Hebrew: ''shaul'') Saul's genealogy has two noteworthy features:
# Saul's father has an attribute of a "man of standing" (see 1 Samuel 9:1), so Saul came from a well-to-do family.
# Saul is from the tribe of Benjamin
According to the Torah, the Tribe of Benjamin () was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The tribe was descended from Benjamin, the youngest son of the patriarch Jacob (later given the name Israel) and his wife Rachel. In the Samaritan Pentate ...
, which descended from Jacob
Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. ...
's youngest son, Benjamin
Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thi ...
, and not long before this time had almost been annihilated because of their horrific actions (Judges 19–21).
These may emphasize God's direct participation in the events that Saul, a youth belonging to the smallest of the Israel tribes and the humblest of families (9:21) was endowed with extraordinary characteristics (9:2) to be elected as the first king of Israel.
Verse 1
:''Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.''
*Cross reference: ; ; ; ; [Exell, Joseph S.; Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice (Editors)]
On "1 Samuel 9".
In: ''The Pulpit Commentary
The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible created during the nineteenth century under the direction of Rev. Joseph S. Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones. It consists of 23 volumes with 22,000 pages and 95,000 entri ...
''. 23 volumes. First publication: 1890. Accessed 24 April 2019.
*"Of Benjamite": in Hebrew is written (''ketiv'') as and read (''qere'') as .[1 Samuel 9:1 Hebrew Text Analysis](_blank)
Biblehub
*"A Benjamite": in Hebrew is written as , ''- ''
*"A mighty man of power": attributed to Kish
Kish may refer to:
Geography
* Gishi, Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, a village also called Kish
* Kiş, Shaki, Azerbaijan, a village and municipality also spelled Kish
* Kish Island, an Iranian island and a city in the Persian Gulf
* Kish, Iran, ...
, Saul's father; translated from Hebrew , '' '', which may mean (1) a valiant man, as in , or (2) a wealthy man as in , or the combined idea of personal valor and family importance ("a man of standing" in NIV), rendered in the Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...
, "a powerful man",Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges is a biblical commentary set published in parts by Cambridge University Press from 1882 onwards. Anglican bishop John Perowne was the general editor. The first section published was written by theologi ...
1 Samuel 9
Accessed 28 April 2019.
Some ancestors seem to omitted, among whom are Matri, mentioned in 1 Samuel 10:21;
and Jehiel, mentioned in 1 Chronicles 9:35 (cf. 1 Chronicles 8:29), who was described as the first settler and coloniser of Gibeon, and as husband of Maachah, a daughter or granddaughter of Caleb.[Keil, Carl Friedrich; Delitzsch, Franz]
Accessed 24 Juni 2018. An ancestor of Saul could have been among the 600 men of Benjamin who escaped to the rock Rimmon during the slaughter of the whole tribe by the other tribes of Israel (Judges 20:47–21:1).[
]
Samuel and Saul meet (9:3–27)
Saul was told by his father, Kish, to look for their stray donkeys, so he and a servant went through the hill country of Ephraim until they arrived in the land of Zuph (9:5). The servant persuaded Saul to visit a nameless seer (9:6–10), who was unfamiliar to them (cf. 9:18), and turned out to be Samuel (9:14, 19). A day before Samuel had been told by YHWH that the chosen man would come to him (9:16). God commanded Samuel to anoint Saul not as "king" (Hebrew: ''melek''), but "ruler" (Hebrew: ''nagid''; "prince"), in contrast to the instruction for Samuel to anoint David as "king" in . After God clearly point Saul to Samuel ("Behold the man"; , the prophet introduced himself to Saul as the seer and demonstrating his credential by saying accurately about Saul's donkeys. Saul was invited by Samuel to a meal and given a choice of meat which had been set aside for Saul beforehand, again indicating that the meeting was not coincidental. This "pre-coronation meal" was similar to the one organized later when Samuel anointed David (a meal and invited guests; 9:22). Samuel did not use the occasion of the dinner to anoint Saul, but waited instead to the next morning (as described in 1 Samuel 10).
Verse 3
:'' Now the donkeys of Kish, the father of Saul, were lost. And Kish said to his son Saul, "Take now one of the servants with you, and arise, go find the donkeys."''
*"Donkeys" the Hebrew word denotes "female donkeys", can be used for riding () and kept for breeding; they were not as confined as the males, so they could stray away.[Exell, Joseph S.; Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice (Editors)]
On "1 Samuel 9".
In: ''The Pulpit Commentary
The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible created during the nineteenth century under the direction of Rev. Joseph S. Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones. It consists of 23 volumes with 22,000 pages and 95,000 entri ...
''. 23 volumes. First publication: 1890. Accessed 24 April 2019.
*"Servants": translated from a Hebrew plural noun derived from the root word , which literally means "young boy",[1 Samuel 9:3 Hebrew Text Analysis](_blank)
Biblehub but in this context, it implies "servants" and need not to be young of age.
The Syriac Peshitta
The Peshitta ( syc, ܦܫܺܝܛܬܳܐ ''or'' ') is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition, including the Maronite Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, ...
version has additional words: "''So Saul arose and went out. He took with him one of the boys and went out to look for his father’s donkeys''."
Verse 5
:''When they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, "Come, let us return, lest my father cease caring about the donkeys and become worried about us."
*"Land of Zuph": a district where Samuel's city, Ramathaim-Zophim
Ramathaim-Zophim ( he, רמתיים־צופים), also called Ramah () and Ramatha in the Douay–Rheims Bible translation (Ramathaimsophim in the Vulgate), is a city from the Hebrew Bible, the home town and resting place of prophet Samuel. The ...
, was located (cf. 1 Samuel 1:1), in similar locality as Mount Ephraim; probably so named after Zuph or (Zophai in ).[ Seligsohn, M., "Zuph", ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', 1906]
/ref>
Verse 27
:''As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us.” And he went on. “But you stand here awhile, that I may announce to you the word of God.”''
*"And he went on": This statement is found in Masoretic Text, as well as an Old Latin manuscript, and the Syriac Peshitta, but generally missing from Greek Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...
version, except of Origen
Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and the ...
.
*"Awhile":or "now"[Note on 1 Samuel 9:27 in NKJV]
See also
*Related Bible parts: 1 Samuel 1
1 Samuel 1 is the first chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, w ...
, 1 Samuel 8
1 Samuel 8 is the eighth chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, w ...
, 1 Samuel 10
Notes
References
Sources
Commentaries on Samuel
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General
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External links
* Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
translations:
*
Shmuel I - I Samuel - Chapter 9 (Judaica Press)
Hebrew text and English translation ith_Rashi's_commentary.html"_;"title="Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentary">Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentaryat_Chabad.org
*_Christian_
Christians_()_are_people_who_follow_or_adhere_to_Christianity,_a__monotheistic_Abrahamic_religion_based_on_the_life_and_teachings_of_Jesus_Christ._The_words_''Christ''_and_''Christian''_derive_from_the_Koine_Greek_title_''Christós''_(Χρι�_...