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Biblion Bible Commentary

Read the introduction to 1 Samuel · About this commentary

Turned Into Another Man

1 Samuel 10:1-16

1 Then Samuel took the vial of oil and poured it on his head, then kissed him and said, “Hasn’t Yahweh anointed you to be prince over his inheritance? · WEB

Oil, three signs, a new heart, and a proverb — everything Saul needs is given him, including the Spirit, before he has done anything at all.

Then Samuel took the vial of oil and poured it on his head, then kissed him and said, "Hasn't Yahweh anointed you to be prince over his inheritance?" 1 Samuel 10:1.

The anointing is private — one prophet, one young man, a roadside at dawn — and its wording keeps the ownership straight: the inheritance is God's, and Saul is set over it as steward. Anointing is the book's central act; the word behind it will become messiah, and every later scene of oil poured on a head takes its meaning from this economy of stewardship.

"Then Yahweh's Spirit will come mightily on you, then you will prophesy with them and will be turned into another man" 1 Samuel 10:6.

Three signs are promised and all three land the same day 1 Samuel 10:9: the men at Rachel's tomb who close the donkey errand, the three pilgrims bound for Bethel with bread, the band of prophets with lute and tambourine coming down from the high place. Their function is confirmation for a man who will need it later — and the third goes further than confirmation. God gave him another heart; the Spirit comes mightily and the farmer's son prophesies. Every resource for the office is issued in advance and none of it is earned. What Saul does with equipment he did not deserve is the rest of his story, and the same Spirit's departure will mark its turn 1 Samuel 16:14.

One instruction is planted in the middle of the signs and left ticking: Go down ahead of me to Gilgal... Wait seven days, until I come to you 1 Samuel 10:8. It is not for today. It is the test Saul fails three chapters on 1 Samuel 13:8–9, issued before he has done anything wrong at all.

"What is this that has come to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?" 1 Samuel 10:11.

The neighbors' astonishment hardens into a proverb, and the tone is not admiration but disbelief — everyone who knew him knew this was out of character. The retort Who is their father? 1 Samuel 10:12 makes the sharper point: prophecy has no pedigree, so a farm boy among prophets proves nothing about the farm boy and everything about the Spirit.

But concerning the matter of the kingdom, of which Samuel spoke, he didn't tell him 1 Samuel 10:16.

And then the uncle asks, and Saul mentions the donkeys. The reticence is attractive — no grasping, no announcement — and it is also the first showing of a trait that will not stay attractive: Saul manages information. The man who hides the kingdom from his uncle will shortly hide from the kingdom itself.

settled What this mark means