to see · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Saul
שָׁא֑וּלsha.'Ul
H7586
Shaul · proper noun, a man's name
LORD
וַיהוָ֣הva.Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · conjunction + proper noun, a title
said
עָנָ֔הוּ'a.Na.hu
H6030
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
man
הָאִישׁ֙ha.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
spake
אָמַ֣רְתִּי'a.Mar.ti
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
reign
יַעְצֹ֥רya'.Tzor
H6113
to inclose · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
people
בְּעַמִּֽיbe.'a.Mi
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
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
Hosea 13:11 I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.
Acts 13:21 And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.
1 Samuel 3:13 For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he re…
1 Samuel 16:6-12 And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.
2 Samuel 23:6-7 But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands:
Nehemiah 13:19 And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and ch…
Nehemiah 13:25 And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye sh…
Romans 13:3-4 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 9:11-17
Here, I. Saul, by an ordinary enquiry, is directed to Samuel, Sa1 9:11-14. Gibeah of Saul was not twenty miles from Ramah where Samuel dwelt, and was near to Mizpeh where he often judged Israel, and yet, it seems, Saul had lived so very privately, and had taken so little notice of public affairs, that he had never seen Samuel, for when he met him (Sa1 9:18) he did not know him, so that there was no cause to suspect any secret compact or collusion between them in this matter. I knew him not, says John Baptist concerning Christ, Joh 1:31. Yet I do not think it any commendation to Saul that he was a stranger to Samuel. However,
1. The maid-servants of Ramah, whom they met with at the places of…
GOD REVEALS TO SAMUEL SAUL'S COMING, AND HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE KINGDOM. (Sa1 9:15-27)
Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before--The description of Saul, the time of his arrival, and the high office to which he was destined, had been secretly intimated to Samuel from heaven. The future king of Israel was to fight the battles of the Lord and protect His people. It would appear that they were at this time suffering great molestation from the Philistines, and that this was an additional reason of their urgent demands for the appointment of a king (see Sa1 10:5; Sa1 13:3).
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 9:17
Behold the man whom I spake to thee of - What an intimate communion must Samuel have held with his God! A constant familiarity seems to have existed between them.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 9:17
And when Samuel saw Saul,.... Who could not but take notice of him for his height, and which might give him a suspicion he was the man the Lord had spoken of to him; and the rather, because this was the exact time in which he was to be sent to him, and therefore he fixed his eyes upon him: and that he might be assured it was he, and be left at no uncertainty about it:
the Lord said unto him; by a still small voice, or by an impulse upon his mind:
behold the man whom I spake to thee of; yesterday, this is he:
this same shall reign over my people; be their king, as they have desired: or "shall restrain" (k) them, keep them in due bounds, in the discharge of their duty to God and man; and ke…
The Church Fathers
And when Samuel looked at Saul, the Lord said to him, etc. When John saw Jesus coming to him, instructed by the Holy Spirit, he understood him to be the Lamb of God, the one who takes away the sins of the world, the one of whom the prophet Micah speaks: And you Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for me one who will be the ruler in Israel (Micah 5:2).
In this passage it must be noted that when a pastor is chosen in the holy Church, sometimes he is ordained for himself and for the people; sometimes neither for the people nor for himself; sometimes for himself, not for the people; and sometimes indeed for the people, not for himself. For himself and the people, when a chosen preacher is given to chosen subjects: because from the very thing by which the multitude of subjects is led to the eternal homeland, gifts of merits are heaped upon the good pastor. A pastor is given neither for himself nor for the people when a reprobate populace is permitted to have a reprobate pastor, since he presides in such a way and they obey in such a way that neither he who teaches nor those who are taught deserve to arrive at eternal goods. Of whom the Lord says through Hosea: "I will give them kings in my wrath" (Hosea 13:11). For a king is given in the wrath of God when one worse than the wicked is appointed to preside over them. Such a pastor is given when such a people is taken on to be governed, who may equally be condemned by eternal punishment. A pastor is given for himself, not for the people, when a good man is placed over the wicked; as the Lord says to Ezekiel: "I am sending you to the children of Israel, to an apostate nation that has departed from me" (Ezekiel 3:3). A pastor is given for himself indeed, not for the people, when even if a chosen preacher cannot convert his hearers to God, he himself nevertheless does not lose the eternal rewards of his labor. But for the people, not for himself: when a pastor is granted to good subjects who possesses gifts by which he benefits them but does not benefit himself. Such indeed were those about whom the Lord commands the disciples, saying: "What they say, do; but what they do, do not do" (Matthew 23:3). As if He were saying: What they have received that is useful for you, take from them as though it were yours; and leave in them as though it were theirs what they possess not for your gain but for their own destruction. Saul, therefore, with the Lord rejected, is chosen, and yet is declared to be one who will free the people of the Lord from the hand of the Philistines, because Almighty God often benefits His good faithful ones through those prelates who do not please Him in the exercise of that same prelacy. "And when Samuel looked upon Saul, the Lord said: Behold the…
Dictionary and topics
Herdsman — In Egypt herdsmen were probably of the lowest caste. Some of Joseph’s brethren were made rulers over Pharaoh’s cattle (Gen. 47:6, 17). The Israelites were known in Egypt as “keepers of cattle;” and…
Benjamin · .Saul, the first king of Israel, from — .Saul, the first king of Israel, from
Benjamin, Tribe Of · Furnished the first king to Israel — Furnished the first king to Israel
King · Divinely authorized — Divinely authorized
Kings · God reserved to himself the choice of — God reserved to himself the choice of
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).
When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord answered him, sc., in reply to the tacit inquiry, 'Is this he?' "Behold, this is the man of whom I spake to thee." עצר, coercere imperio.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 9:16
God’s directive to anoint him (by pouring olive oil on the head) marked Saul’s elevation in status and consecration for a special purpose (see Exod 30:22-33; Lev 8:12; 1 Kgs 19:16; Isa 45:1). • He will rescue them: As they had requested (1 Sam 8:20; cp. Judg 13:5). David eventually subdued the Philistines (2 Sam 5:17-25; 8:1; 21:15, 18-22). • for I have . . . heard their cry (cp. Exod 3:7-9): The Philistines were again threatening to conquer Israel and demand homage from them as vassals.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 9:17
Will rule over My people. Will restrain [=will rule], similar to 'restrained [עָצוּר] and let free.'9Devarim 32:36. This is the function of the ruler, to restrain the people during war, that they not scatter or spread out one from another, and10In the time of peace… to restrain each one from doing evil.11The phrase may be translated as “he will restrain them [the Philistines] from [attacing] My people”.—Radak In our language, we call מַעֲצוֹרdestenir, in O.F.
