The Man Chosen To Be King (1 Samuel 9:1-2).
‘ Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a Benjaminite, a mighty warrior (man of valour).'
We note that as with Samuel in 1:1 we are first introduced to his father. We learn that Saul's father was of sound lineage and had been a great warrior. Just the kind of man who would produce a worthy war-leader. The Hebrew could also mean a ‘wealthy man' as well as ‘a great warrior', and he was that as well, but in the light of the context ‘great warrior' seems to be the more important emphasis. We might, however, accept both and paraphrase as ‘a successful man both in war and in wealth'. The contrast with Elkanah and Hannah is significant. What had made them stand out was their godliness and piety. What made Saul's father stand out was his military prowess and his wealth. There is in this a hint of what was to come.
‘And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a young man and well-fashioned (goodly), and there was not among the children of Israel a better built (goodlier) person than he. From his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.'
This worthy man had a son whose name was Saul. He was a stout young man, well built, and towering above his contemporaries, and among the children of Israel there was ‘none better'. At least in appearance and build it was clear that he would make an ideal king.
A question that does arise here is as to how old Saul was at this time. The answer is probably that he was nineteen (see below), or possibly in his early twenties. This is suggested by a number of factors:
1). If his reign lasted roughly forty years (Acts 13:21) it would mean that if he was nineteen when he commenced he was still fighting Philistines in his late fifties (1 Samuel 31:1-7). That is feasible. Anything older than that would not fit in with the picture that we have there.
2). He had a number of sons, one of whom was Jonathan (compare 1 Samuel 14:49) who must have died at around forty years of age, at which point David was around thirty (2 Samuel 5:4). This would tie in with the fact that Saul's fourth son Ishbaal (Ishbosheth) died at roughly 42 years of age (2 Samuel 2:10), which would mean that he was approximately 35 years of age when Saul died. (Note. In the early days the use of ‘baal' which means ‘lord' was used in names in order to indicate YHWH. Later writers changed it to ‘bosheth' which means ‘shame' because it was connected with the Canaanite god Baal)
3). Jonathan had a son who was five years old when he died (2 Samuel 4:4). His name was Meribaal (Mephibosheth). 1 Chronicles 8:34; 1 Chronicles 9:40 seem to suggest that Meribaal was his only son. This might therefore suggest that Jonathan was even younger than forty when he died.
4). The writer tells us that Saul was ‘one year old' when he became king. In ancient terminology that would translate as not yet quite having reached maturity (see introduction to 1 Samuel 13). This would indicate that Saul was fairly young when he became king, possibly less than twenty years old (the age at which an Israelite became liable for conscription). See Exodus 38:26; Leviticus 27:3; Leviticus 27:5; Numbers 1:3 ff; Numbers 14:29; Numbers 26:2). Reigning for ‘two years' would on the same basis suggest that he did not reach the ‘third age', which would be 60. The practise continued through the ages and in the last century anthropologists cite the case of an old man in Malacca who when asked his age proudly stated that he was ‘three years old'. What he meant was that he was in the third stage of life.