1 Samuel 10:10

And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) To the hill.—“To the hill:” more accurately rendered, to Gibeah. This was the home of Saul; the estate of the house of Kish lay evidently in the immediate vicinity of Gibeah, henceforward to be known as Saul’s royal city, “Gibeah of Saul.” “As he walked, the Spirit of God came upon him,” we read. The coming of the Spirit of God upon him may be looked on as the sequel of that Divine gift of the new heart bestowed on him in the early morning, when he left Ramah. The changed heart was a fit home for that Divine Spirit which came on him in the eventide, as he drew near to his ancestral city.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:9-16 The signs Samuel had given Saul, came to pass punctually; he found that God had given him another heart, another disposition of mind. Yet let not an outward show of devotion, and a sudden change for the present, be too much relied on; Saul among the prophets was Saul still. His being anointed was kept private. He leaves it to God to carry on his own work by Samuel, and sits still, to see how the matter will fall.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Seven days shalt thou tarry ... - The appointment here made is not to be confounded with that mentioned in marginal reference.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9-11. when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart—Influenced by the words of Samuel, as well as by the accomplishment of these signs, Saul's reluctance to undertake the onerous office was overcome. The fulfilment of the two first signs [1Sa 10:7, 8] is passed over, but the third is specially described. The spectacle of a man, though more fit to look after his father's cattle than to take part in the sacred exercises of the young prophets—a man without any previous instruction, or any known taste, entering with ardor into the spirit, and skilfully accompanying the melodies of the sacred band, was so extraordinary a phenomenon, that it gave rise to the proverb, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" (see 1Sa 19:24). The prophetic spirit had come upon him; and to Saul it was as personal and experimental an evidence of the truth of God's word that had been spoken to him, as converts to Christianity have in themselves from the sanctifying power of the Gospel.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Then the accomplishment of the two former signs is supposed, and this only of the third is expressed, because this was more eminent and public than the former: the other were only transient acts, which passed in private between two or three persons meeting together, and passing by one another; but this was a more permanent and more notorious sign, done in a more solemn manner, and before many and very considerable witnesses.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

When they came thither to the hill,.... Or, to Gibeah, as the Targum, and so Josephus (e):

behold, a company of prophets met him; as foretold, 1 Samuel 10:5,

and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he prophesied among them; the spirit of prophecy, as the Targum, and he sung praises among them; he joined with them in their psalmody, and performed it as regularly as if he had been brought up with them. The Jews say (f) he prophesied of the world to come, of Gog and Magog, and of the rewards of the righteous, and of the punishment of the wicked.

(e) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 4. sect. 2.) (f) Hieron. Trad. Heb. fol. 75. H.

Geneva Study Bible

And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. to the hill] Rather, to Gibeah. See note on 1 Samuel 10:5. The narrator cursorily mentions the fulfilment of the first and second signs, but relates the fulfilment of the third in detail, because it has an important bearing on Saul’s preparation for his new office.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 10, 11. - To the hill. Hebrew, "to Gibeah," his home. He prophesied. Took part in prophetic exercises (see on Ver. 5). On seeing this, the people of Gibeah, who knew him beforetime, - Hebrew, "from yesterday and the day before," but equivalent to our phrase "for years," - asked in surprise, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? What makes him thus act in a manner unlike all our long past experience of him? Is Saul also among the prophets? From this question two things are evident: the first, that the schools founded by Samuel already held a high place in the estimation of the Israelites; the second, that Saul had not shared in that education which so raised the prophets as a class above, the mass of the people. Probably also Saul s character was not such as would have made him care for education. A young man who, while living in his neighbourhood, knew so little about Samuel (1 Samuel 9:6), could not have had a very inquiring or intellectual frame of mind. Of course Samuel could not, by gathering young men together, and giving them the best education the times afforded, gain for them also the highest and rarest of gifts, that of direct inspiration. Even when Elisha, the friend and attendant upon Elijah, asked his master for an elder son's portion of the Divine spirit, Elijah told him that he had asked a hard thing (2 Kings 2:10). The disparity then that the people remarked between Saul and the prophets was that between a rich young farmer's son, who had been brought up at home, and cared only for rustic things, and these young collegians, who were enjoying a careful education (comp. John 7:15). How good that education was is proved by the fact that at David's court all posts which required literary skill were held by prophets. No man could found schools of inspired men; but Samuel founded great educational institutions, which ended by making the Israelites a highly trained and literary people. Saul's prophesying was not the result of training, but came to him by a Divine influence, rousing the slumbering enthusiasm of an energetic but fitful nature. 1 Samuel 10:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The third sign is the only one which is minutely described, because this caused a great sensation at Gibeah, Saul's home. "And they (Saul and his attendant) came thither to Gibeah." "Thither" points back to "thither to the city" in 1 Samuel 10:5, and is defined by the further expression "to Gibeah" (Eng. version, "to the hill:" Tr.). The rendering ἔκειθεν (lxx) does not warrant us in changing שׁם into משּׁם; for the latter would be quite superfluous, as it was self-evident that they came to Gibeah from the place where they had been in the company of Samuel.