1 Samuel 10:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 10:2
When thou art departed from me to day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel’s sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say unto thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found: and, lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses, and sorroweth for you, saying, What shall I do for my son?
along with · preposition + preposition + pronominal suffix
day
הַיּוֹם֙hai.yOm
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
find
וּמָצָאתָ֩u.ma.tza.Ta
H4672
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
two
שְׁנֵ֨יshe.Nei
H8147
two · noun, common both genders dual construct
men
אֲנָשִׁ֜ים'a.na.Shim
H582
a man in general (singly or collectively) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Rachel’s
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 9:3-5 And the asses of Kish Saul’s father were lost. And Kish said to Saul his son, Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go seek the…
Genesis 35:19-20 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem.
Joshua 18:28 And Zelah, Eleph, and Jebusi, which is Jerusalem, Gibeath, and Kirjath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the…
1 Samuel 10:16 And Saul said unto his uncle, He told us plainly that the asses were found. But of the matter of the kingdom, whereof Samuel spake, he told…
Jeremiah 31:15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 10:1-8
Samuel is here executing the office of a prophet, giving Saul full assurance from God that he should be king, as he was afterwards, according to these prophecies which went before of him.
I. He anointed him and kissed him, Sa1 10:1. This was not done in a solemn assembly, but it was done by divine appointment, which made up the want of all external solemnities, nor was it ever the less valid for its being done in private, under a hedge, or, as the Jews say, by a fountain. God's institutions are great and honourable, though the circumstances of their administration be ever so mean and despicable. 1. Samuel, by anointing Saul, assured him that it was God's act to make him king: Is it not becau…
When thou art departed from me to-day--The design of these specific predictions of what should be met with on the way, and the number and minuteness of which would arrest attention, was to confirm Saul's reliance on the prophetic character of Samuel, and lead him to give full credence to what had been revealed to him as the word of God.
Rachel's sepulchre--near Beth-lehem (see on Gen 35:16).
Zelzah--or Zelah, now Bet-jalah, in the neighborhood of that town.
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 10:2
Rachel's sepulcher - This was nigh to Bethlehem. See Gen 35:19.
At Zelzah - If this be the name of a place, nothing is known of it.
The Hebrew בצלצח betseltsach is translated by the Septuagint ἁλλομενους μεγαλα, dancing greatly: now this may refer to the joy they felt and expressed on finding the asses, or it may refer to those religious exultations, or playing on instruments of music, mentioned in the succeeding verses.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 10:2
When thou art departed from me today,.... Not as soon as he was departed, for he had some few miles to go from Ramah to Rachel's grave near Bethlehem:
thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre, in the border of Benjamin, at Zelzah; the Jews move a difficulty here, that Rachel's sepulchre should be said to be in the border of Benjamin, when it was by Bethlehemephrath, in the tribe of Judah, Genesis 35:19 and which they solve by observing, that these men were now, at the time Samuel was speaking, by the grave of Rachel, but as they were coming on he would meet them at Zelzah, in the border of Benjamin (z); but there is no need of this, Rachel's grave was not at Bethlehem, but in, the way…
The Church Fathers
When you depart from me today, you will find two men, etc. When Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, departed from the Jordan from John, he found the people long lost by deceit, but now confirmed by faith and operation. He found them indeed, recalling them to the way of salvation; and this ceased gradually, and as the synagogue's carnal observance was to be dying and burying, from which he himself was willing to receive flesh. For Rachel was the mother of Benjamin, from the tribe from which Saul originated. He found those whom the Lord would save; and as if in the noonday of new love, in the fervor and light of knowledge shining from the heavenly realms, within the bounds of grace and truth, which in comparison to the law given through Moses is like the right hand to the left. Hence rightly Benjamin is interpreted as the son of the right hand. The believing people, found in this manner, mercifully confessed by Christ, giving thanks for his benefits, because their souls, once wandering like brute animals, were now redeemed by heavenly grace through him who came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke XIX). They also confessed the mysteries of faith which they had learned, that by the dullness of fools' sluggishness, the Almighty Father, being solicitous for his Son and those believing in him, did not allow them to be disturbed by his passion and to fall from faith until the completion of the dispensation of the same passion and the celebration of the glory of the resurrection, he more fittingly commanded that the unclean souls either of Jews or Gentiles, which he had temporarily neglected, be sought and saved; so that those already partially found might be perfectly gathered by their Lord to the manger.
4. For it is as if He says to the humble shepherd, trembling at so great a ministry: You tremble for this reason, because you do not know whether what has been done concerning you is from God; but because you can know this, you ought not to tremble. Therefore this shall be a sign to you that not man, but God has anointed you as ruler: namely, those two men will say to you: The donkeys which you went to seek have been found. As if He were saying: If you find those two men, and they tell you this, know that God, not I, has appointed you as ruler. What then do these two men signify to us, except certain perfect preachers of holy Church? They are two, because they are perfect in both precepts of charity; men, because they are strong in holy conduct. They are said to be found near the tomb of Rachel, because through devotion to the contemplative life they are separated from worldly pursuits; and while they seek the gain of souls, they are not buried. For it is the undoubted opinion of the venerable fathers that Rachel signifies the beauty of the contemplative life. Therefore the men stand near the tomb of Rachel, because perfect teachers so devote themselves to heavenly contemplation that they also bear the care of holy Church. They stand near the tomb of Rachel, because they direct the course of good works through the power of contemplation, and because they do nothing in action except what they arrange through contemplation. And because in the very height of heavenly contemplation they strive to maintain not their own presumption but the rule of holy Church, the tomb of Rachel is described as being in the borders of Benjamin. As I have already said, in Benjamin, who is called the son of the right hand, the Redeemer of the human race is signified. The borders of Benjamin, therefore, are the rules of the Holy Scriptures, concerning which borders it is written: Do not transgress the boundaries which your fathers have set (Prov. 22:28). Because, therefore, the holy preachers, when they see the highest things through contemplation, do not depart from the rule of faith, the tomb near which they stand is rightly said to be in the borders of Benjamin. These men indeed leap over great pits at midday, because through the fervor of perfect charity, in which they have been taken up, they despise all the heights of the world that are seen. For whatever is perceived as…
Dictionary and topics
Zelzah — (shadow), a place named once only, (1 Samuel 10:2) as on the boundary of Benjamin close to Rachel’s sepulchre, five miles southwest of Jerusalem.
Rachel · Her — Her
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
רָחֵ֛לra.Chel
H7354
Rachel · proper noun, a woman's name
sepulchre
קְבֻרַ֥תke.vu.Rat
H6900
sepulture · noun, common feminine singular construct
border
בִּגְב֥וּלbig.Vul
H1366
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Benjamin
בִּנְיָמִ֖ןbin.ya.Min
H1144
Binjamin · proper noun, a man's name
Zelzah
בְּצֶלְצַ֑חbe.tzel.Tzach
H6766
Tseltsach · preposition + proper noun, a place name
say
וְאָמְר֣וּve.'a.me.Ru
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
asses
הָאֲתֹנוֹת֙ha.'a.to.nOt
H860
a female donkey (from its docility) · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
wentest
בְּלֶכְתְּךָ֤be.lekh.te.Kha
H1980
to walk (in a great variety of applications · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
seek
לְבַקֵּ֔שׁle.va.Kesh
H1245
to search out (by any method · preposition + verb, piel infinitive construct
found
נִמְצְא֤וּnim.tze.'U
H4672
properly · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person common plural
father
אָבִ֙יךָ֙'a.Vi.kha
H1
father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
left
נָטַ֤שׁna.Tash
H5203
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
care
דִּבְרֵ֣יdiv.Rei
H1697
a word · noun, common masculine plural construct
asses
הָאֲתֹנ֔וֹתha.'a.to.Not
H860
a female donkey (from its docility) · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
sorroweth
וְדָאַ֤גve.da.'Ag
H1672
be anxious · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
saying
לֵאמֹ֔רle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
do
אֶעֱשֶׂ֖ה'e.'e.Seh
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
son
לִבְנִֽיliv.Ni
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
To confirm the consecration of Saul as king over Israel, which had been effected through the anointing, Samuel gave him three more signs which would occur on his journey home, and would be a pledge to him that Jehovah would accompany his undertakings with His divine help, and practically accredit him as His anointed. These signs, therefore, stand in the closest relation to the calling conveyed to Saul through his anointing.
Sa1 10:2
The first sign: "When thou goest away from me to-day (i.e., now), thou wilst meet two men at Rachel's sepulchre, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say unto thee, The asses of thy father, which thou wentest to seek, are found. Behold, they father…
These three “signs” were to convince a reluctant Saul (9:21) that he had in fact been chosen to be king.
10:2 Rachel’s tomb at Zelzah: See Gen 35:16-20; the precise location is unknown.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 10:2
By Rochel's Tomb, at the border of Binyomin. Isn't Rochel's Tomb within Yehudah's border, in Beis Lechem? [The answer is that] they are now by Rochel's Tomb, but, 'when you will meet them, you will find them within Binyomin's border, in Tzeltzoch.' Thus was taught by the Tosefta of [Maseches] Sotah.111:7.
Tzeltzoch is a combination of the words צֵל לַצַּח of the Holy One, Blessed is He, Who is pure and ruddy;2Shir Hashirim 5:10. and this is Yerusholayim.
And is worrying about you. Has fears concerning you; every expression of דְּאָגָה [worry] is an expression of fear; dementer in O.F.