1 Samuel 13:1

SAUL'S DYNASTY FORFEITED BY HIS SIN

This chapter is the subject of an incredible number of contradictory opinions that it has evoked from the scholars, translators and commentators who have written about it. There is hardly any firm opinion expressed by any writer which has not been vigorously denied and contradicted by another. The problem begins with 1 Samuel 13:1.

Before going into a detailed study of the chapter, however, we wish to point out that the big point in the chapter is crystal clear, the rejection of Saul's dynasty because of his sin. That is the principal truth of the chapter; and all of the rest of it is of little or no importance whatever.

On 1 Samuel 13:1.

KJV ... Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel, etc.

ASV ... Saul was forty years old when he began to reign; and when he had reigned two years over Israel, etc.

NIV ... Saul was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned over Israel forty-two years.

RSV ... Saul was ... years old when he began to reign ... and two years over Israel. etc.

Douay Version of the Old Testament ... Saul was a child of one year when he began to reign, and he reigned two years over Israel.[1]

Good News Bible ... This version omits the verse altogether.

Some Greek manuscripts and other versions such as the Syriac, the Septuagint (LXX) and the Arabic even have other renditions of the passage.

Since the greatest scholars on earth do not know for sure what the passage means, we pray that this writer will be forgiven for making no comment whatever.

Only a few writers have expressed confidence in what is meant. Adam Clarke, for example, stated that, "The first clause in 1 Samuel 13:1 belongs to the preceding chapter and carries the meaning that what is related there took place in the first year of Saul's reign; and that the second clause means that the events of 1 Samuel 13 took place in the second year of his reign.[2] This appears to be an improbable solution.

However, it does not seem at all likely that the inspired author here was attempting to give the age of Saul at his accession to the throne and the number of years that he reigned, following the pattern in the records of numerous kings of Israel in 1Kings, as most current scholars seem to believe.

One thing that makes such a view untenable is that, "The word for years in 1 Samuel 13:1 is that which is always used when the total number is less than ten,"[3] thus practically forbidding its application to the length of Saul's reign.

That Saul indeed reigned forty years is the conclusion from a very reasonable deduction. "2 Samuel 2:10 relates that Saul's son Ishbosheth succeeded him on the throne at the age of forty; and since Ishbosheth is not mentioned at all among the sons of Saul as they are recorded in 1 Samuel 14:49 (with the conclusion that Ishbosheth was born after Saul came to the throne); therefore Saul reigned forty years. This writer accepts this as true because the Apostle Paul accepted this as the length of Saul's reign (Acts 13:21), as did Josephus. "Saul reigned eighteen years while Samuel was alive and twenty-two years after Samuel's death."[4] Our own conviction is that one statement from the Apostle Paul is of more value than a library of writings by uninspired men.