Further Details About Saul And His Leading General Who Was Related To Him (1 Samuel 14:49-52).
Saul's ancestry was given in 1 Samuel 9:1. Now we are given his family details, after which we are also given the details of his commander in chief's family, partly because they were related to Saul, and partly because of Abner's loyal support, both in Saul's own battles, and as preparing the way for what Abner would later seek to do for Saul's son, Ishbaal (Ishbosheth). See 2 Samuel 2:8 ff.
‘Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishvi, and Malchi-shua; and the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the first-born Merab, and the name of the younger Michal, and the name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz.'
At this stage Saul had at least three sons. Jonathan (gift of YHWH) was the firstborn. Then came Ishvi. This could be another name for Abinadab (see 1 Samuel 31:2), for it was not uncommon for a man to have two names. Alternately Ish-vi is possibly another way of expressing Ish-yah, ‘man of YHWH', which could well then have been expressed as Ish-baal/Esh-baal (man of the Lord) in order to avoid using the name of Yah, being later expressed by writers as Ish-bosheth (2 Samuel 2:8) because bosheth means ‘shame'. The reason for this last was in order to express shame at the use of Baal's name, although when Saul used the word it did not have the same connotation, and even Hosea could think of God as ‘baali' (Hosea 2:16). We know nothing of Malchi-shua, except that he fell fighting alongside Saul, but the names of the two daughters will occur later in relation to David. 1 Chronicles 8:33; 1 Chronicles 9:39 list Saul's sons as Jonathan, Malchi-shua, Abinadab and Esh-baal.
‘And the name of the captain of his host was Abner the son of Ner, Saul's uncle. And Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel.'
We now learn that Abner was the commander in chief of Saul's army. He was on the whole a loyal and good man. His details are recorded here both because he was a relative of the king, and in order to demonstrate that Saul did not achieve what he did on his own. He had solid support from his family. It is also preparing the way for his later activities in supporting Ishbaal (Ishbosheth) against David.
‘ And there was fierce war against the Philistines all the days of Saul, and when Saul saw any mighty man, or any valiant man, he took him to him.'
In order to make sure that we are not deceived by what has been said earlier we now learn that the Philistines were the one foe that Saul never finally quelled, for although sometimes defeated they soon came back again and occupied at least part of Israel. As a result Saul had continually to maintain a small standing army, both in readiness to deal with their forays, and in order, when they became something more serious, to prevent them taking over Israel completely. That is why we learn here that, with that in mind, he was always on the look out for good recruits. Thus whenever he came across a mighty man or a valiant man he attached him to his standing army.