“Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He will save my people out of the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked upon my people, because their cry has come to me.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 16. Ruler. Hebrew Nagid, “Leader.” Septuagint “Archon.” Chal. “King.” The Israelites demanded a king, to lead them, and to fight for them; and Homer (Iliad iii.) gives this idea of the chief magistrate, “a good king and stout warrior,” which Alexander so much admired.—Philistines. They had been repressed by Samuel; but they had begun to gain the ascendancy, so as not to suffer the Israelites to have a blacksmith among them, and so forth Saul gained some victories over them, and over the other enemies of his people, towards the beginning of his reign. Calmet. 13. and 14. Calmet.—To me. God threatened that he would not hear them, when they should grow weary ( Bible.) of their king. Calmet. 8:18. But he protects his people against the efforts of their foreign enemies. Menochius.—Oppression of the innocent cries to heaven for vengeance. Worthington.