Discovery Box1 Samuel 10:1--11:15
Context10:1 Then Samuel took a small container of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s 1 head. Samuel 2 kissed him and said, “The Lord has chosen you 3 to lead his people Israel! You will rule over the Lord’s people and you will deliver them from the power of the enemies who surround them. This will be your sign that the Lord has chosen 4 you as leader over his inheritance. 5 10:2 When you leave me today, you will find two men near Rachel’s tomb at Zelzah on Benjamin’s border. They will say to you, ‘The donkeys you have gone looking for have been found. Your father is no longer concerned about the donkeys but has become anxious about you two! 6 He is asking, “What should I do about my son?”’
10:3 “As you continue on from there, you will come to the tall tree of Tabor. At that point three men who are going up to God at Bethel 7 will meet you. One of them will be carrying three young goats, one of them will be carrying three round loaves of bread, and one of them will be carrying a container of wine. 10:4 They will ask you how you’re doing and will give you two loaves of bread. You will accept them. 10:5 Afterward you will go to Gibeah of God, where there are Philistine officials. 8 When you enter the town, you will meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place. They will have harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres, and they will be prophesying. 10:6 Then the spirit of the Lord will rush upon you and you will prophesy with them. You will be changed into a different person.
10:7 “When these signs have taken place, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God will be with you. 9 10:8 You will go down to Gilgal before me. I am going to join you there to offer burnt offerings and to make peace offerings. You should wait for seven days, until I arrive and tell you what to do.”
10:9 As Saul 10 turned 11 to leave Samuel, God changed his inmost person. 12 All these signs happened on that very day. 10:10 When Saul and his servant 13 arrived at Gibeah, a company of prophets was coming out to meet him. Then the spirit of God rushed upon Saul 14 and he prophesied among them. 10:11 When everyone who had known him previously saw him prophesying with the prophets, the people all asked one another, “What on earth has happened to the son of Kish? Does even Saul belong with the prophets?”
10:12 A man who was from there replied, “And who is their father?” Therefore this became a proverb: “Is even Saul among the prophets?” 10:13 When Saul 15 had finished prophesying, he went to the high place.
10:14 Saul’s uncle asked him and his servant, “Where did you go?” Saul 16 replied, “To look for the donkeys. But when we realized they were lost, 17 we went to Samuel.” 10:15 Saul’s uncle said, “Tell me what Samuel said to you.” 18 10:16 Saul said to his uncle, “He assured us that the donkeys had been found.” But Saul 19 did not tell him what Samuel had said about the matter of kingship.
10:17 Then Samuel called the people together before the Lord at Mizpah. 10:18 He said to the Israelites, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt and I delivered you from the power 20 of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that oppressed you. 10:19 But today you have rejected your God who saves you from all your trouble and distress. You have said, “No! 21 Appoint a king over us.” Now take your positions before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans.’”
10:20 Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen by lot. 10:21 Then he brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its families, and the family of Matri was chosen by lot. At last Saul son of Kish was chosen by lot. But when they looked for him, he was nowhere to be found. 10:22 So they inquired again of the Lord, “Has the man arrived here yet?” The Lord said, “He has hidden himself among the equipment.” 22
10:23 So they ran and brought him from there. When he took his position among the people, he stood head and shoulders above them all. 10:24 Then Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one whom the Lord has chosen? Indeed, there is no one like him among all the people!” All the people shouted out, “Long live the king!”
10:25 Then Samuel talked to the people about how the kingship would work. 23 He wrote it all down on a scroll and set it before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away to their homes. 10:26 Even Saul went to his home in Gibeah. With him went some brave men whose hearts God had touched. 10:27 But some wicked men 24 said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and did not even bring him a gift. But Saul said nothing about it. 25
11:1 26 Nahash 27 the Ammonite marched 28 against Jabesh Gilead. All the men of Jabesh Gilead said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us and we will serve you.”
11:2 But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “The only way I will make a treaty with you is if you let me gouge out the right eye of every one of you and in so doing humiliate all Israel!”
11:3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Leave us alone for seven days so that we can send messengers throughout the territory of Israel. If there is no one who can deliver us, we will come out voluntarily to you.”
11:4 When the messengers went to Gibeah (where Saul lived) 29 and informed the people of these matters, all the people wept loudly. 30 11:5 Now Saul was walking behind the 31 oxen as he came from the field. Saul asked, “What has happened to the people? Why are they weeping?” So they told him about 32 the men of Jabesh.
11:6 The Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and he became very angry. 11:7 He took a pair 33 of oxen and cut them up. Then he sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, who said, “Whoever does not go out after Saul and after Samuel should expect this to be done to his oxen!” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out as one army. 34 11:8 When Saul counted them at Bezek, the Israelites were 300,000 35 strong and the men of Judah numbered 30,000. 36
11:9 They said to the messengers who had come, “Here’s what you should say to the men of Jabesh Gilead: ‘Tomorrow deliverance will come to you when the sun is fully up.’” When the messengers went and told the men of Jabesh Gilead, they were happy. 11:10 The men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will come out to you 37 and you can do with us whatever you wish.” 38
11:11 The next day Saul placed the people in three groups. They went to the Ammonite camp during the morning watch and struck them 39 down until the hottest part of the day. The survivors scattered; no two of them remained together.
11:12 Then the people said to Samuel, “Who were the ones asking, ‘Will Saul reign over us?’ Hand over those men so we may execute them!” 11:13 But Saul said, “No one will be killed on this day. For today the Lord has given Israel a victory!” 11:14 Samuel said to the people, “Come on! Let’s go to Gilgal and renew the kingship there.” 11:15 So all the people went to Gilgal, where 40 they established Saul as king in the Lord’s presence. They offered up peace offerings there in the Lord’s presence. Saul and all the Israelites were very happy.
[10:1] 1 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:1] 2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Samuel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:1] 3 tn Heb “Is it not that the
[10:1] 4 tn That is, “anointed.”
[10:1] 5 tc The MT reads simply “Is it not that the
[10:2] 6 sn In the Hebrew text the pronoun you is plural, suggesting that Saul’s father was concerned about his son and the servant who accompanied him.
[10:3] 7 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[10:5] 8 tn Or “sentries.” Some translate “outpost” (NIV) or “garrison” (NAB, NRSV, NLT) here (see 1 Sam 13:3). The noun is plural in the Hebrew text, but the LXX and other ancient witnesses read a singular noun here.
[10:7] 9 sn In light of Saul’s commission to be Israel’s deliverer (see v. 1), it is likely that some type of military action against the Philistines (see v.5) is implied.
[10:9] 10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:9] 11 tn Heb “turned his shoulder.”
[10:9] 12 tn Heb “God turned for him another heart”; NAB, NRSV “gave him another heart”; NIV, NCV “changed Saul’s heart”; TEV “gave Saul a new nature”; CEV “made Saul feel like a different person.”
[10:10] 13 tc Two medieval Hebrew
[10:10] 14 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:13] 15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:14] 16 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:14] 17 tn Heb “And we saw that they were not.”
[10:15] 18 tc In the LXX and Vulgate the pronoun “you” is singular, referring specifically to Saul. In the MT it is plural, including Saul’s servant as well.
[10:16] 19 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:18] 20 tn Heb “hand” (also later in this verse).
[10:19] 21 tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew
[10:22] 22 tn Or “baggage” (so many English versions); KJV “stuff”; TEV “supplies.”
[10:25] 23 tn Heb “the regulation of the kingship.” This probably refers to the regulations pertaining to kingship given to Moses (see Deut 17:14-20).
[10:27] 24 tn Heb “sons of worthlessness” (see 2:12).
[10:27] 25 tc In place of the MT (“and it was like one being silent”) the LXX has “after about a month,” taking the expression with the first part of the following chapter rather than with 10:27. Some Hebrew support for this reading appears in the corrected hand of a Qumran
[11:1] 26 tc 4QSama and Josephus (Ant. 6.68-71) attest to a longer form of text at this point. The addition explains Nahash’s practice of enemy mutilation, and by so doing provides a smoother transition to the following paragraph than is found in the MT. The NRSV adopts this reading, with the following English translation: “Now Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was left of the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But there were seven thousand men who had escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh-gilead.” This reading should not be lightly dismissed; it may in fact provide a text superior to that of the MT and the ancient versions. But the external evidence for it is so limited as to induce caution; the present translation instead follows the MT. However, for a reasonable case for including this reading in the text see the discussions in P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 199, and R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 103.
[11:1] 27 sn The name “Nahash” means “serpent” in Hebrew.
[11:1] 28 tn Heb “went up and camped”; NIV, NRSV “went up and besieged.”
[11:4] 29 tn Heb “to Gibeah of Saul.”
[11:4] 30 tn Heb “lifted their voice and wept.”
[11:5] 31 tn Or perhaps, “his oxen.” On this use of the definite article see Joüon 2:506-7 §137.f.
[11:5] 32 tn Heb “the matters of.”
[11:7] 34 tn Heb “like one man.”
[11:8] 35 tc The LXX and two Old Latin
[11:8] 36 tc The LXX, two Old Latin
[11:10] 37 tn The second masculine plural forms in this quotation indicate that Nahash and his army are addressed.
[11:10] 38 tn Heb “according to all that is good in your eyes.”
[11:11] 39 tn Heb “Ammon.” By metonymy the name “Ammon” is used collectively for the soldiers in the Ammonite army.
