Who is their father? — As an instance of the extreme surprise with which the association of Saul with the sons of the prophets was witnessed by the inhabitants of Gibeah — an association apparently very foreign to his old habits and to the manner of life of his family — a short dialogue between two of the citizens of Gibeah is here related: a conversation important, owing to the words uttered by the second citizen in reply to the amazed question, “What is this that is come unto the son of Kish?” The reply gives us some insight into the deep conviction entertained by the ordinary Israelite of the days of Samuel that the invisible God was ever present, working in the midst of His chosen people.
The reply of the second citizen has been well explained by Von Bunsen: — “Is the son of Kish, then, a prophet?’ asks the first citizen, surprised, apparently, that one so undistinguished, that one so unlikely to train up a “son of the prophets,” should have a son associated in this peculiar and sudden manner with a chosen band of scholars and teachers. To this question the second citizen replied — no doubt, pointing to the honoured group from the prophet schools of Gibeah — “Do you wonder that the son of so rough and uncultivated a man as Kish should receive the Divine gift which we all love so well and admire so greatly? Who,” pointing to the group singing on the hill-side, “who is their father?” They owe their power of persuasive speech, their gift of holy song, to no accident of birth. Surely Saul, like them, may have received the same power as a gift of the Eternal, not as a patrimony. Owing to this obvious meaning not having occurred to them, the LXX., “Vulgate, and Syriac Versions alter the original into, “Who is his (instead of their) father?” in other words, “Who is Saul? and who is his father, Kish?” But the Hebrew text and the English Version, as explained above, gives an admirable sense, and teaches besides a great spiritual lesson.