1 Samuel 10

1 Samuel 10:17-27

The Election at Mizpah (10:17-27)

Suddenly the scene changes from Gibeah to Mizpah, and we return to the other and later tradition already partly recorded in chapter 8. Samuel called the people together at Mizpah, addressing them in terms with which that chapter has already made us familiar and treating the desire for a human king as a direct rejection of the direct kingship of God himself. Reluctantly he summoned them before God according to their tribes, that the divine choice might be made known by the casting of the lot. The lot fell on Benjamin, and when the clans of the tribe of Benjamin presented themselves, the lot fell on the clan of Matri. From this clan, the family of Kish was chosen, and finally the lot fell on Saul. He is represented as upstanding and warrior like in appearance, so that the people hailed him with acclamation, after he had been discovered hiding among the baggage and was brought before them.

That he hid among the baggage raises difficulties, as does the mode of the oracular divination by which his hiding place was discovered. He must have appeared in person for the lot to fall on him, and surely immediate acclamation as king would have followed. Some interpreters, in consequence, dismiss verses 21b and 22 from the text.

The method of sacred lot was used much in this period of Hebrew history. It was associated with the ephod and also the Urim and Thummim. As noted in the Book of Judges, the ephod was sometimes an image but it might also have been a special priestly L garment or an appurtenance associated with the sacred dice (Judges 8:27; Judges 17:5). These latter were apparently Urim and Thummim. They may have been two stone tablets, one face of each black and the other white. When cast, the decisions “yes” and “no” would be associated with the turning up on each of the same colored face, but if one came up white and the other black no decision could be determined.

Saul was proclaimed king; Samuel outlined the duties and rights of kingship to the assembled people; and the people were sent home.