1 Samuel 13:1-7

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:1-7

We are not told wherein it was that the people of Israel offended God, so as to forfeit his presence and turn his hand against them, as Samuel had threatened (1 Sam. 12:15); but doubtless they left God, else he would not have left them, as here it appears he did; for, I. Saul was very weak and impolitic, and did not order his affairs with discretion. Saul was the son of one year (so the first words are in the original), a phrase which we make to signify the date of his reign, but ordinarily it... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:1

Saul reigned one year ,.... "Or the son of a year in his reigning" F19 בן שנה שאול במלכו "filius anni Saul in regnando ipsum", Montanus. ; various are the senses given of these words: some interpret them, Saul had a son of a year old when he began to reign, Ishbosheth, and who was forty years of age when his father died, 2 Samuel 2:10 , others, who understand the words of Saul himself, think there is an "ellipsis" or defect of the number, and that it may be supplied, that... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:2

Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel ,.... Out of the 300,000 that went with him to fight the Ammonites, and returned with him to Gilgal, where he now was, and had stayed as may be supposed about a year, since now he had reigned two years. These 3000 men some of them doubtless were appointed as a guard about his person, and the rest were a standing army to preserve the peace of the nation, to protect them from their enemies, to watch the motions of the Philistines, and to be ready on... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:3

And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba ,.... Not the same with Gibeah of Benjamin, as Jarchi; for it can hardly be thought that Jonathan should place himself with his thousand men where the Philistines had a garrison; or that if this was the same with that in the preceding verse, that it should be called by another name in this; but Gibeah and Geba were two places, as Kimchi observes, both indeed in the tribe of Benjamin, and it is very probable not far from one... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:4

And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines ,.... For though it was smitten by Jonathan, yet it was by the order of Saul, and so ascribed to him; it seems to be a concerted thing to fall upon the garrisons of the Philistines, and get them out of their hands, and so deliver Israel entirely from them; but it was not wise for Saul, if he had such a scheme in his head, to disband his large army, as he had lately done: and that Israel also was had in... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:5

And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel ,.... To prevent their further encroachments on them, and designs against them; for they perceived they intended to cast off their yoke, and free themselves entirely from them: thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen ; it may seem incredible that so small a people as the Philistines were, who only were possessed of five cities, or lordships, with the villages belonging to them, except what they had taken... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:6

When the men of Israel saw they were in a strait, for the people were distressed ,.... By reason of the vast army that the Philistines brought into the field, greatly superior to theirs, and were likely to be encompassed by them on every side; so that nothing but destruction was expected, which gave them the utmost anxiety and uneasiness; though Abarbinel refers this last clause, not to the people of Israel, but to the people of the Philistines, and takes it in this sense: for the people... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:7

And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead ,.... As far off as they could from the Philistines, who lay on the west of the land of Israel, and these countries were to the east. Kimchi observes, that the land of Reuben is not mentioned, which was on the other side Jordan also; because that was nearer to it than what was inhabited by Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; and therefore they chose to go further, thinking themselves there safer: as for Saul, he was... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Samuel 13:1

Saul reigned one year - A great deal of learned labor has been employed and lost on this verse, to reconcile it with propriety and common sense. I shall not recount the meanings put on it. I think this clause belongs to the preceding chapter, either as a part of the whole, or a chronological note added afterwards; as if the writer had said, These things (related in 1 Samuel 12:1-25) took place in the first year of Saul's reign: and then he proceeds in the next place to tell us what... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Samuel 13:2

Two thousand were with Saul - Saul, no doubt, meditated the redemption of his country from the Philistines; and having chosen three thousand men, he thought best to divide them into companies, and send one against the Philistine garrison at Michmash, another against that at Beth-el, and the third against that at Gibeah: he perhaps hoped, by surprising these garrisons, to get swords and spears for his men, of which we find, ( 1 Samuel 13:22 ;), they were entirely destitute. read more

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