1 Samuel 9:4

4 et per terram Salisa et non invenissent transierunt etiam per terram Salim et non erant sed et per terram Iemini et minime reppererunt

1 Samuel 9:4 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 9:4

And they passed through Mount Ephraim
The mountainous part of that tribe, which lay contiguous to the tribe of Benjamin, where it might be supposed the asses had strayed to:

and passed through the land of Shalisha;
a tract in the tribe of Benjamin, so called from some illustrious person, prince, and duke of it; in it very probably was the place called Baalshalisha; ( 2 Kings 4:42 ) and which perhaps is the same Jerom calls ^F24 Bethshalisha; and says there was a village of this name in the borders of Diospolis, almost fifteen miles distance from it to the north, in the Tamnitic country; though Bunting ^F25 says it was situated in Mount Ephraim, eight miles from Jerusalem to the northwest:

but they found them not;
the asses, neither in Mount Ephraim, nor in the land of Shalisha:

then they passed through the land of Shalim
which some take to be the same with Salim, where John was baptizing, ( John 3:23 ) but Jerom says ^F26 it was a village on the borders of Eleutheropolis, to the west, seven miles distant from it:

and [there they] were not;
the asses could not be found there:

and he passed through the land of the Benjamites;
or rather of Jemini, which was in Benjamin, so called from a famous man of that name; for it cannot be thought they should pass through the whole tribe of Benjamin in one day. And, according to Bunting ^F1, from Gibeah, the native place of Saul, through the mountain of Ephraim, and the land of Shalisha, to the borders of Shalim, were sixteen miles; and from thence to Jemini, in the tribe of Benjamin, sixteen more:

but they found them not;
the asses.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 De loc. Heb. fol. 89. K.
F25 Travels of the Patriarchs p. 129.
F26 De loc. Heb. fol. 94. L.
F1 Travels of the Patriarchs p. 126.

1 Samuel 9:4 In-Context

2 et erat ei filius vocabulo Saul electus et bonus et non erat vir de filiis Israhel melior illo ab umero et sursum eminebat super omnem populum

3 perierant autem asinae Cis patris Saul et dixit Cis ad Saul filium suum tolle tecum unum de pueris et consurgens vade et quaere asinas qui cum transissent per montem Ephraim

4 et per terram Salisa et non invenissent transierunt etiam per terram Salim et non erant sed et per terram Iemini et minime reppererunt

5 cum autem venissent in terram Suph dixit Saul ad puerum suum qui erat cum eo veni et revertamur ne forte dimiserit pater meus asinas et sollicitus sit pro nobis

6 qui ait ei ecce est vir Dei in civitate hac vir nobilis omne quod loquitur absque ambiguitate venit nunc ergo eamus illuc si forte indicet nobis de via nostra propter quam venimus