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 10:8 And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices o…
1 Samuel 7:16 And he went from year to year in circuit to Beth-el, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places.
1 Samuel 5:3 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they…
1 Samuel 10:24-25 And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the LORD hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the peopl…
1 Chronicles 12:38-39 All these men of war, that could keep rank, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel: and all the rest also o…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 11:12–end
We have here the improvement of the glorious victory which Saul had obtained, not the improvement of it abroad, though we take it for granted that the men of Jabesh-Gilead, having so narrowly saved their right eyes, would with them now discern the opportunity they had of avenging themselves upon these cruel enemies and disabling them from ever straitening them in like manner again; now shall they be avenged on the Ammonites for their right eyes condemned, as Samson on the Philistines for his two eyes put out, Jdg 16:28. But the account here given is of the improvement of this victory at home.
I. The people took this occasion to show their jealousy for the honour of Saul, and their resentment…
SAUL CONFIRMED KING. (Sa1 11:12-15)
the people said . . ., Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us?--The enthusiastic admiration of the people, under the impulse of grateful and generous feelings, would have dealt summary vengeance on the minority who opposed Saul, had not he, either from principle or policy, shown himself as great in clemency as in valor. The calm and sagacious counsel of Samuel directed the popular feelings into a right channel, by appointing a general assembly of the militia, the really effective force of the nation, at Gilgal, where, amid great pomp and religious solemnities, the victorious leader was confirmed in his kingdom [Sa1 11:15].
Next: 1 Samuel Chapte…
Renew the kingdom - The unction of Saul, in the first instance, was a very private act; and his being appointed to be king was not known to the people in general. He had now shown himself worthy to command the people; and Samuel takes advantage of this circumstance to gain the general consent in his favor. Josephus says that Saul was anointed a second time at this convocation.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 11:14
The Church Fathers
And all the people went to Gilgal, etc. Upon hearing the exhortation of their spiritual teachers, the people grew in faith and in the knowledge of the truth, and in the revelation of the heart, illuminating themselves by humbling and despising themselves, sought the glory of Christ in everything, and exalted his name among each other, and for the peace of the Church offered whatever they could of their devotion before the Lord.
But Samuel said to the people who were coming: Let us go to Gilgal, etc. With the heretics vanquished, condemned, or corrected, any perfect teacher says to the Church subject to him: Come, with the face of the heart unveiled, let us contemplate the glory of the Lord. For Gilgal is indeed called revelation. And the more we are renewed in the spirit of our mind in the knowledge of him who created us, the more we see the dangers of those we have conquered; because remaining in oldness, they did not want to reveal their way to the Lord and hope in him, nor to supplicate him confidently, and say: Reveal our eyes, that we may behold the wonders of your law (Psalm CXVIII).
16. If therefore we apply all things in the manner in which they occur above in the ordaining of the king to the custom of the holy Church, her rulers are ordained with great subtlety. For first the king to be chosen was shown to the prophet, then he was sought as though unknown; afterward he was even found by lot, hidden at home, revealed by the Lord, raised up by the people, and received by all into royal dignity. What then is it that they still proceed to Gilgal, so that there the kingdom might be renewed? But with great discernment the king is sought and found, because the affairs of the Churches are most lofty, which if the weak and unskilled undertake, they are crushed by the very magnitude of the matters. Therefore with attention and most subtle investigation one is sought out who may be placed over so great an eminence. He who is truly to be greatly commended is not established by the judgment of those seeking, but when he is found vigorous in the very exercise of the highest ministry. Well therefore, with the king now triumphant and established, it is said: 'They went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord': because when the preacher's strength is recognized, he is honored in the minds of his hearers. Indeed we go to Gilgal, that is "the wheel," when through sacred eloquence we examine the work of our teacher, and there we make him king before the Lord: because him whom we perceive to be worthy of approval, we judge to be worthy of so great an eminence. Therefore Saul is said first to have been chosen by the people, and at last established as king in Gilgal before the Lord: because although a pastor may be chosen in the holy Church with much gravity of counsel, whether he is by merit what he is by rank is not known unless it is made manifest by the strength of his works. Let it therefore be said not of another, but of that one [perhaps "another" is superfluous] who shone forth with a great victory: 'All the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord', so that the dignity of the supreme pontiff may not consist in the ambition of high office, but in the summit of virtue. And indeed they go to Gilgal, so that he may not dare to judge from the highest place, to whom the hidden precepts of Sacred Scripture are unknown. And the king is established before the Lord: because then the teacher is honored by the…
Dictionary and topics
Jabesh — Dry. (1.) For Jabesh-Gilead (1 Sam. 11:3, 9, 10). (2.) The father of Shallum (2 Kings 15:10, 13, 14), who usurped the throne of Israel on the death of Zachariah.
Saul — Asked for. (1.) A king of Edom (Gen. 36:37, 38); called Shaul in 1 Chr. 1:48. (2.) The son of Kish (probably his only son, and a child of prayer, “asked for”), of the tribe of Benjamin, the first…
Samuel · Renews the kingdom of Saul — Renews the kingdom of Saul
Statecraft · .Samuel — .Samuel
Tact · Of Saul, in managing malcontents — Of Saul, in managing malcontents
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).
Then said Samuel to the people,.... Agreeing to what Saul had said, and in order to put them off from demanding the lives of the offenders, and willing to take them while they were in a good disposition:
come, and let us go to Gilgal; which was the nearest place to them, on the other side Jordan, from which they now were, and where the children of Israel first encamped when they passed over Jordan, where the tabernacle and ark first were, and an altar was built, and where meetings used to be held on certain occasions; all which might be reasons why Samuel proposed to go to this place. According to Bunting (d), this place was thirty six miles from Jabeshgilead:
and renew the kingdom there;…
Samuel turned this victory to account, by calling upon the people to go with him to Gilgal, and there renew the monarchy. In what the renewal consisted is not clearly stated; but it is simply recorded in Sa1 11:15 that "they (the whole people) made Saul king there before the Lord in Gilgal." Many commentators have supposed that he was anointed afresh, and appeal to David's second anointing (Sa2 2:4 and Sa2 5:3). But David's example merely proves as Seb. Schmidt has correctly observed, that the anointing could be repeated under certain circumstances; but it does not prove that it was repeated, or must have been repeated, in the case of Saul. If the ceremony of anointing had been performed, it…
renew the kingdom: “Renew” indicates that someone or something had deteriorated or had been damaged (cp. Ps 51:10). Whatever effect the scoundrels (1 Sam 10:27; 11:12) might have had in undermining the people’s confidence was now rectified by Saul’s victory over the Ammonites.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 11:14
And Shmuel said, "…and renew the kingdom there." Because at first there was opposition in the matter, but now they unanimously agreed.9 Shmuel merely invited them to Gilgol; it was not a command. See above 9:9 for a similar expression וְנֵלְכָה. However, now that Shaul saved the people of Yoveish Gilad from the Ammonites; all the people rallied behind him and accepted him as their king.
