(21) And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? wherefore then speakest thou so to me?
No doubt Saul had heard that Israel was to have a king, for Gibeah of Saul the residence of Kish, was not above twenty miles from Samuel's house at Ramah. But though he had heard of this intended thing, he could not have had the most distant idea of being the person, unless by divine intimation as Samuel had it. And the whole life of Saul manifests, that this communion with God he was a stranger to. Benjamin was the youngest of the tribes of Israel, and by the event of that unhappy war recorded in Judges, (Judges 20:48.) the whole tribe was much reduced.