1 Samuel 9:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 9:2
And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
name
וּשְׁמ֤וֹu.she.Mo
H8034
an appellation · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Saul
שָׁאוּל֙sha.'Ul
H7586
Shaul · proper noun, a man's name
man
בָּח֣וּרba.Chur
H970
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
goodly
וָט֔וֹבva.Tov
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · conjunction + adjective, masculine singular absolute
children
מִבְּנֵ֥יmi.be.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
goodlier
ט֣וֹבTov
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute
person
אִ֛ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
shoulders
מִשִּׁכְמ֣וֹmi.shikh.Mo
H7926
the neck (between the shoulders) as the place of burdens · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
Genesis 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
Numbers 13:33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in the…
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth…
2 Samuel 14:25-26 But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head th…
1 Samuel 17:4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
Jeremiah 9:23 Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in…
1 Samuel 10:23-24 And they ran and fetched him thence: and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 9:1-2
We are here told, 1. What a good family Saul was of, Sa1 9:1. He was of the tribe of Benjamin; so was the New Testament Saul, who also was called Paul, and he mentions it as his honour, for Benjamin was a favourite, Rom 11:1; Phi 3:5. That tribe had been reduced to a very small number by the fatal war with Gibeah, and much ado there was to provide wives for those 600 men that were the poor remains of it out of that diminished tribe, which is here called, with good reason, the smallest of the tribes of Israel, Sa1 9:21. Saul sprang as a root out of a dry ground. That tribe, though fewest in number, was first in dignity, God giving more abundant honour to that part which lacked, Co1 12:24. His…
Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly--He had a fine appearance; for it is evident that he must have been only a little under seven feet tall. A gigantic stature and an athletic frame must have been a popular recommendation at that time in that country.
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 9:2
From his shoulders and upwards - It was probably from this very circumstance that he was chosen for king; for, where kings were elective, in all ancient times great respect was paid to personal appearance.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 9:2
And he had a son whose name was Saul,.... Of this name was the great apostle of the Gentiles before his conversion, and was of the same tribe also; but very different in stature; he was a little man, this a large tall man, like his father perhaps:
a choice young man, and a goodly; 1 Samuel 2:1 of a goodly aspect, a comely man, tall and well shaped, in the prime of his age, a very agreeable person, one among a thousand:
and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he; meaning not for the endowments of his mind, or his moral character and behaviour. There might be as good, or better men than he, on such accounts, but for his outward appearance, his bodily shape, and…
The Church Fathers
But it must be asked why the same Saul is said to be chosen and good, who is declared to be the son of a harsh man. But he is called chosen not according to grace, but according to judgment. He is also called good so that the disposition of divine equity may be commended. For even the evils that we often suffer on account of our sins, because they are inflicted on us through divine justice, are good. Whatever is just is certainly good. For by the justice of God, reprobate pastors are permitted to ascend to the governance of the holy Church; but those who are evil through iniquity are good by divine disposition; and those who are now chosen by the hidden ordering of God will ultimately be condemned at the universal judgment. Therefore, let the reprobate pastor be called chosen, because it is decreed by God's indignation that he should exist; and let him be called good, because he is justly permitted. Likewise, because he is provided as more useful than others for carrying out divine judgments, no one among the sons of Israel is said to be better than he. He is also recorded as standing out above all the people from the shoulder and upward, because he who follows the ways of carnal men in his manner of living strives mightily to do what another cannot do. For the carnal ruler stands out above the entire people from the shoulder and upward, since in external matters he is strong beyond comparison.
And he had a son named Saul, etc. For he who is of the earth is from the earth, and speaks of the earth: he who comes from heaven is above all; who did not commit sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth (John III; 1 Peter II). But also the name Saul, which means "desired" or "petition," most fittingly applies to Christ, who is always implored with great desire by the saints and is asked to be present. Likewise, the name of his father Cis, that is, "stern," also alludes to mysteries; whether it signifies God the Father, or David, or Abraham, or any other of the fathers, from whom Christ is according to the flesh. For that nature is stern, which not only cannot be conquered or changed, but also cannot be comprehended by any created nature. It is stern in the strictness of judgment to the reprobate, but through the grace of mercy is kind to the good. For it is said of these: "How good is God to Israel, to those who are pure in heart" (Psalm XXII)! But of those, it is said: "Your almighty word leapt down from heaven, from the royal throne, as a stern warrior into the midst of the land of destruction" (Wisdom XVIII); and in temptations, the faithful hearts of the good are stern, to whom under the guise of Ezekiel it is said: "Behold, I have made your face stronger than their faces, and your forehead stronger than their foreheads; like adamant, harder than flint have I made it" (Ezekiel III).
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…
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…
Benjamin, Tribe Of · Furnished the first king to Israel — Furnished the first king to Israel
Kish · 1. Father of Saul — 1. Father of Saul
Saul · .A Benjamite, — .A Benjamite,
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 the Lord had instructed Samuel to appoint a king over the nation, in accordance with its own desire, He very speedily proceeded to show him the man whom He had chosen. Saul the Benjaminite came to Samuel, to consult him as a seer about his father's she-asses, which had been lost, and for which he had been seeking in all directions in vain (Sa1 9:1-14). And the Lord had already revealed to the prophet the day before, that He would send him the man who had been set apart by Him as the king of Israel; and when Samuel met with Saul, He pointed him out as the man to whom He had referred (Sa1 9:15-17). Accordingly, Samuel invited Saul to be his guest at a sacrificial meal, which he was about…
All these words can also be understood as words of praise, by which, while the person of the king to be appointed is commended, the intention of those requesting a king is confounded. For they say: "A king shall be over us, and he shall judge us, and he shall fight our battles for us" (1 Sam. 8). He is called chosen and good, and that there was no one better than he among the sons of Israel, so that all good qualities might excel in the person of the requested king; but when he proves insufficient for what the people had proposed, human presumption is confounded, so that it wastes away in defeat. And indeed, as I said above, the king who is chosen to go before the people and fight their battles, when he is abandoned by divine help, perished overwhelmed in battle, and for the people whom he had led into those same battles, he became a cause not of salvation but of death. What, then, would the people attribute to God if he who had been chosen as king by God's judgment had not proven so suitable for carrying out what the people wanted? He can also be understood as chosen and good, as he is described, not as he was foreseen to be in the future. He is therefore called chosen and good, so that he is understood to have been chosen as such by the Lord—he who through disobedience was later rejected. For this reason, logic itself demands that what is said about him as chosen and good up to the time of his rejection, we should understand in a favorable sense.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).