Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?”
Samuel wore no robes, no retinue, no badge of office; he looked like a porter, not a prophet, so Saul never guessed who he was. Yet great worth hides often under mean appearance. Samuel knew his man before his man knew Samuel; so it is with all whom God calls to glory, He knows them first.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 Samuel 9:18-27
Saul grasped at once what Samuel meant: kingship. But he balked. Benjamin was the smallest tribe, his family the least in Benjamin; how could he, a nobody from nobody, be chosen? He thought Samuel jested with him, not spoke in earnest.
AI summary
And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, &c.--By selecting a king from this least and nearly extinct tribe (Jdg 20:46-48), divine wisdom designed to remove all grounds of jealousy among the other tribes.