1 Samuel 10:24

24 Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see him ¹whom the LORD has chosen? Surely there is no one like him among all the people." So all the people shouted and said, "²Long live the king!"

1 Samuel 10:24 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 10:24

And Samuel said to all the people, see ye him whom the Lord
hath chosen
For the choice being made by lot, the disposal of which is of the Lord, it is properly attributed to him, and the people could not object to it, but must allow it was the Lord's doing. Eupolemus ^F11, an Heathen writer, says, that Saul was made king by Samuel by the counsel or will of God; and Samuel appeals to their eyes for the goodness of the choice, a better could not have been made:

that there is none like him among the people?
so graceful, so stately, so prince like and majestic; they wanted to have a king like such the nations had; and Saul was such an one, had all the outward appearance of grandeur that could be wished for, and which in other nations recommended persons to the imperial dignity:

and all the people shouted;
made a general ado:

and said, God save the king;
or "let the king live" ^F12; they owned and saluted him as their king, and prayed he might live long to reign over them; the Targum is, "let the king prosper"; let his reign be prosperous and glorious, and let him enjoy all health and happiness, peace and prosperity.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 30. p. 447.
F12 (Klmh yxy) "vivat rex", Pagninus, Montanus

1 Samuel 10:24 In-Context

22 Therefore they inquired further of the LORD , "Has the man come here yet?" So the LORD said, "Behold, he is hiding himself by the baggage."

23 So they ran and took him from there, and when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward.

24 Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen? Surely there is no one like him among all the people." So all the people shouted and said, "Long live the king!"

25 Then Samuel told the people the ordinances of the kingdom, and wrote them in the book and placed it before the LORD . And Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his house.

26 Saul also went to his house at Gibeah; and the valiant men whose hearts God had touched went with him.

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 17:15; 2 Samuel 21:6
• 2. 1 Kin 1:25, 34, 39

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "May the king live"