(2) When thou art departed from me to day, then . . .--Here follows Samuel's careful description of the three signs which should meet the future king as he went from Ramah to his father's home in Benjamin. Each of these tokens, which were to strengthen the young Saul's faith, contained a solemn lesson, the deep meaning of which, as his life went on, the future sovereign would be able to ponder over. Each of the three signs from heaven met him at one of the sacred spots which were so plentifully dotted over these southern districts of Canaan, memorable for the life-stories, first of Abraham and the patriarchs, and then of the warrior-chieftains of the Israel of the conquest. The selection of localities famous as homes of prayer, or sacred as the resting-place of the illustrious dead, taught the eternal truth "that help comes from the holy place." At the sepulchre of Rachel, the loved ancestress of the warlike tribe of Benjamin, to which the new king belonged, men should meet him on his homeward journey with the news that the lost asses which he had gone to seek were found again. This showed him that henceforth in his new life he was to dismiss all lower cares, and give himself up alone to higher and more important matters. A king must take counsel and thought for the weal of a whole people; he must put aside now and for ever all consideration for himself and his family, all anxiety for the mere ordinary prosperity of life. God, who had chosen him, would provide for these things, as He had now done in the case of the lost asses. Further on in his journey, when he reached the terebinth-tree of Tabor, three men on a pilgrimage to the great Beth-el sanctuary would meet him, and would offer him some of the loaves which they proposed offering at Beth-el. The signification of this peculiar gift was that some portion of the products of the soil, which had hitherto been appropriated exclusively to the service and support of the sanctuary, in future should be devoted to the maintenance of the anointed of the Lord. The third sign which he should perceive would meet him as he approached his home, which was situated near a famous holy place of prayer, known as the "Gibeah," or "Hill of God." A number of prophets belonging to one of the "schools" of the prophets founded by Samuel, coming from the altar on the "hill of God," where sacrifice had just been offered, would meet him. They would be plunged in prophetic raptures, he would hear them chanting hymns to the Eternal, accompanied by the music of their instruments. A new and mighty influence, Samuel told the astonished Saul, would, as he met this company of singers, come upon him, and involuntarily he who evidently had never joined before in any of these solemn choruses would sing his part with the rest. The new influence, said the old seer, which would then come upon him would be the Spirit of the Lord, and from that moment he would be a changed man. Never in his after days of glory and might was the king to forget how, in a moment, the Divine power had swept down and given him--the ignorant shepherd, the humble vine-dresser, the heir to a few asses and sheep, to some fields of corn or vineyards--wisdom, power, and a mighty kingdom. He must remember that in a moment the same Divine power might wing away from him its solemn flight; that was the lesson of the third sign which was to meet him on his homeward journey.
The LXX. and Vulg. have a somewhat long addition to 1 Samuel 10:1. It is, however, manifestly an explanatory gloss, and is made up from 1 Samuel 10:16-17 of 1 Samuel 9.
(2) Thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre.--This tomb of the loved wife of the patriarch does not thus appear to have been very far from Ramah, whence Saul started. The words of Jeremiah 31:15, which speak of the future massacre of the Bethlehem innocents by Herod, connects Ramah and Rachel's tomb: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping: Rachel weeping for her children."
At Zelzah.--This locality has never been identified. Some have supposed it was the same as Zela in Benjamin. the place where the bodies of Saul and Jonathan were eventually buried. The LXX. curiously render it as though it were a verb, "dancing (lit. springing) vehemently," or, as Ewald would translate the Greek words, "in great haste," of course, with reference to the two men who brought Saul the news of the recovered asses.
Verse 2. - The first sign - Thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre. In Jeremiah 31:15 (quoted in Matthew 2:18) Rachel's sepulchre is connected with Ramah, but in Genesis 35:19 it is placed near Bethlehem. The whole of the geography of Saul's wanderings is very obscure, but Wilson ('Lands of the Bible,' 1:401) places Zelzah at Beit-jala, to the west of Bethlehem, in the neighbourhood of the Kabhet Rahil, or Tomb of Rachel, Though both are now in the tribe of Judah, yet by a slight rectification of the frontier, in conformity with Joshua 18:11-28, Zelzah would be on the border of Benjamin, and there may have been local reasons for Saul and his companion not taking the most direct route for Gibeah. The news given by these men, that the asses were found, would set Saul's mind at rest, and, freed from lower cares, he would be able to give his thoughts entirely to preparation for the higher duties that were before him. For an interesting note upon the journey of Saul home see Wilson, 2:36.
10:1-8 The sacred anointing, then used, pointed at the great Messiah, or Anointed One, the King of the church, and High Priest of our profession, who was anointed with the oil of the Spirit, not by measure, but without measure, and above all the priests and princes of the Jewish church. For Saul's further satisfaction, Samuel gives him some signs which should come to pass the same day. The first place he directs him to, was the sepulchre of one of his ancestors; there he must be reminded of his own mortality, and now that he had a crown before him, must think of his grave, in which all his honour would be laid in the dust. From the time of Samuel there appears to have been schools, or places where pious young men were brought up in the knowledge of Divine things. Saul should find himself strongly moved to join with them, and should be turned into another man from what he had been. The Spirit of God changes men, wonderfully transforms them. Saul, by praising God in the communion of saints, became another man, but it may be questioned if he became a new man.
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 to it; and besides, as these two tribes were contiguous, and this city being on the borders of both, it might be said at one time to be in the border of Benjamin, and at another in the border of Judah, or in Judah, without any contradiction. Of Zelzah we nowhere else read, but it is plain it was near the sepulchre of Rachel, and perhaps nearer than Bethlehem. The Arabic geographer (a) speaks of Rachel's grave as in the midway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem; and says there were twelve stones upon it, and a stone arched vault over it; and the same is affirmed by Benjamin of Tudela (b), who makes it to be but half a mile from Bethlehem. Jarchi would have Zelzah to be the same with Jerusalem, which is not probable:
and they will say unto thee, the asses which thou wentest to seek are found; as Samuel had before told Saul they were, 1 Samuel 9:20.
and, lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses; or had left all thoughts about them, and concern for them, not minding whether he heard of them or not, and this before they were found; or otherwise it would have been no strange thing to drop all thoughts about them, when they were found:
and sorroweth for you; for Saul, and his servant; such was the anxiety and distress of his mind lest any evil should befall them, having been gone so long in quest of the asses, that he had as it were forgot them, and lost all care and concern about them, in comparison of his son and servant; but especially his sorrow rose high for his son, as follows:
saying, what shall I do for my son? though he was concerned for his servant, yet most for his son; he might have another servant, and not another son, and Saul seems to be his only one, which made his grief for him the greater, see 1 Chronicles 8:33. Now as these were contingent events here foretold, as meeting with two men at a certain place described, the words related expressly they should say to him when he met them, and these exactly coming to pass, would most clearly prove Samuel to be a true prophet, and confirm Saul in the belief of what he had said and done to him concerning the kingdom. Another sign follows.
(z) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 82. fol. 71. 4. R. Isaiah, Jarchi, Kimchi, Abarbinel, & Abendana in loc. (a) Chinat. 3. par. 5. (b) ltinerar. p. 47.
The LXX. and Vulg. have a somewhat long addition to 1 Samuel 10:1. It is, however, manifestly an explanatory gloss, and is made up from 1 Samuel 10:16-17 of 1 Samuel 9.
(2) Thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre.--This tomb of the loved wife of the patriarch does not thus appear to have been very far from Ramah, whence Saul started. The words of Jeremiah 31:15, which speak of the future massacre of the Bethlehem innocents by Herod, connects Ramah and Rachel's tomb: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping: Rachel weeping for her children."
At Zelzah.--This locality has never been identified. Some have supposed it was the same as Zela in Benjamin. the place where the bodies of Saul and Jonathan were eventually buried. The LXX. curiously render it as though it were a verb, "dancing (lit. springing) vehemently," or, as Ewald would translate the Greek words, "in great haste," of course, with reference to the two men who brought Saul the news of the recovered asses.
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 to it; and besides, as these two tribes were contiguous, and this city being on the borders of both, it might be said at one time to be in the border of Benjamin, and at another in the border of Judah, or in Judah, without any contradiction. Of Zelzah we nowhere else read, but it is plain it was near the sepulchre of Rachel, and perhaps nearer than Bethlehem. The Arabic geographer (a) speaks of Rachel's grave as in the midway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem; and says there were twelve stones upon it, and a stone arched vault over it; and the same is affirmed by Benjamin of Tudela (b), who makes it to be but half a mile from Bethlehem. Jarchi would have Zelzah to be the same with Jerusalem, which is not probable:
and they will say unto thee, the asses which thou wentest to seek are found; as Samuel had before told Saul they were, 1 Samuel 9:20.
and, lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses; or had left all thoughts about them, and concern for them, not minding whether he heard of them or not, and this before they were found; or otherwise it would have been no strange thing to drop all thoughts about them, when they were found:
and sorroweth for you; for Saul, and his servant; such was the anxiety and distress of his mind lest any evil should befall them, having been gone so long in quest of the asses, that he had as it were forgot them, and lost all care and concern about them, in comparison of his son and servant; but especially his sorrow rose high for his son, as follows:
saying, what shall I do for my son? though he was concerned for his servant, yet most for his son; he might have another servant, and not another son, and Saul seems to be his only one, which made his grief for him the greater, see 1 Chronicles 8:33. Now as these were contingent events here foretold, as meeting with two men at a certain place described, the words related expressly they should say to him when he met them, and these exactly coming to pass, would most clearly prove Samuel to be a true prophet, and confirm Saul in the belief of what he had said and done to him concerning the kingdom. Another sign follows.
(z) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 82. fol. 71. 4. R. Isaiah, Jarchi, Kimchi, Abarbinel, & Abendana in loc. (a) Chinat. 3. par. 5. (b) ltinerar. p. 47.