1 Samuel 10:17

17 And Samuel called together the people to the Lord in Mizpeh; (And Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpeh;)

1 Samuel 10:17 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 10:17

And Samuel called the people together unto the Lord at
Mizpeh.
] Not that in Gilead, but in the tribe of Benjamin, where the people had been before convened on a certain occasion, ( 1 Samuel 7:5 ) and the people called together could not be every individual of the nation, but the heads and elders of the people, their representatives, and who were summoned by the orders of Samuel; perhaps by an herald making proclamation and cry of the same, as the word signifies; and these were gathered together to the Lord, to have the following affair transacted before him, and under his guidance and direction; the priest perhaps being here with the Urim and Thummim, as Kimchi thinks, and who also conjectures that the ark might be brought hither at this time, the symbol of the divine Presence; though wherever the church and people of God were gathered together in his name, in a solemn manner, there the Lord was.

1 Samuel 10:17 In-Context

15 And the brother of Saul's father said to him, Show thou to me what Samuel said to thee. (And the brother of Saul's father said to him, Tell thou to me what Samuel said to thee.)

16 And Saul said to his uncle, Samuel showed to us, that the she-asses were found. But he showed not to his uncle of the word of the realm, that Samuel spake to him. (And Saul said to his uncle, Samuel told us that the female donkeys were found. But he did not tell his uncle what Samuel had said to him about the kingdom/about becoming king.)

17 And Samuel called together the people to the Lord in Mizpeh; (And Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpeh;)

18 and he said to the sons of Israel, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, I led Israel out of the land of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of (the) Egyptians, and from the hand of all the kings that tormented you.

19 And today ye have cast away your Lord God, which alone saved you from all your evils and [your] tribulations (who alone saved you from all your evils and your tribulations); and ye [have] said (to him), Nay, but ordain thou a king upon us. Now therefore stand ye before the Lord by your lineages, and by (your) families.