1 Samuel 9:13

13 As soon as you enter the city, you will find him, before he goes up to the high place to eat; for the people will not eat till he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice; afterward those eat who are invited. Now go up, for you will meet him immediately."

1 Samuel 9:13 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 9:13

As soon as ye come into the city, ye shall straightway find
him
By which it seems that the house of Samuel was at that end of it at which they entered; and with which agrees what is observed in the preceding verse, that "he was before them", his house was in sight of them:

before he go up to the high place to eat;
intimating they would, if they made haste, come up to him before he got thither to sit down and eat with the people; for if they did not, they would not be able to see him and speak with him for some time, if on that day:

for the people will not eat until he come;
partly out of affection and veneration for him, being their chief magistrate, as well as seer or prophet, and partly for the reason following:

because he doth bless the sacrifice;
ask a blessing upon it, upon the meat of the peace offerings before it was eaten; for as this was usually done at every common meal, then much more at such a solemn festival as this. Jarchi gives us the form of blessing used on such an occasion,

``blessed art thou, O Lord our God, the King of the world, who hath sanctified us by his commandments, and hath commanded us to eat the sacrifice:''

and "afterwards they eat that be bidden"; for when a man offered his peace offerings, he not only had his family with him, but invited his friends, and the poor, and the fatherless, the strangers, and the Levites, to partake with him, see ( Deuteronomy 12:18 ) ( 14:29 ) ( 16:11 ) , the number of the guests at this time, see in ( 1 Samuel 9:22 ) .

Now therefore get ye up;
ascend the hill as fast as ye can:

for about this time ye shall find him;
that is, by the time they could get up the hill into the city they would find him coming out of his house to go to the sacrifice: or "as this day" ^F8; so sure as the day is, so sure shall ye find him.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (Mwyhk) "invenietis cum tam certo quam certum est hunc diem esse", Drusius; so Jarchi.

1 Samuel 9:13 In-Context

11 As they went up the hill to the city, they met young maidens coming out to draw water, and said to them, "Is the seer here?"

12 They answered, "He is; behold, he is just ahead of you. Make haste; he has come just now to the city, because the people have a sacrifice today on the high place.

13 As soon as you enter the city, you will find him, before he goes up to the high place to eat; for the people will not eat till he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice; afterward those eat who are invited. Now go up, for you will meet him immediately."

14 So they went up to the city. As they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place.

15 Now the day before Saul came, the LORD had revealed to Samuel: