1 Samuel 9:7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man?— Such as are prejudiced against the sacred history, and unacquainted with eastern customs, may be ready, from the donations to the prophets, to imagine that they were a mercenary set of people, and rudely to rank them with cunning men and fortune-tellers, who will not from principles of benevolence reveal those secrets, or foretel those future events, of the perfect knowledge of which they are supposed to be possessed, without demanding of the anxious inquirer a large reward. This, however, will make impressions on none but those who know not the Oriental usages, which Maundrell long since applied with such clearness and force to the present passage, that he has sufficiently satisfied my mind upon this point. I shall first give Maundrell's words, and then add a few remarks of my own. "Thursday, March 11. This day we all dined at Consul Hastings' house, and after dinner went to wait upon Ostan, the bassa of Tripoli, having first sent our present, as the manner is among the Turks, to procure a propitious reception. It is counted uncivil to visit in this country without an offering in hand. All great men expect it as a kind of tribute due to their character and authority, and look upon themselves as affronted, and even defrauded, when this compliment is omitted. Even in familiar visits amongst inferior people, you shall seldom have them come without bringing a flower, or an orange, or some other such token of their respect to the person visited; the Turks in this point keeping up to the ancient Oriental custom, hinted 1 Samuel 9:7. If we go (says Saul), what shall we bring the man of God? there is not a present, &c. which words are questionless to be understood in conformity to this eastern custom, as relating to a token of respect, and not a price of Divination." See Journey from Aleppo, p. 26. Maundrell does not tell us what the present was which they made Ostan. It will be more entirely satisfying then to the mind to observe, that in the East they not only universally send before them a present, or carry one with them, especially when they visit superiors, either civil or ecclesiastical; but that this present is frequently a piece of money, and that of no very great value. So Bishop Pococke tells us, that he presented an Arab sheik of an illustrious descent, on whom he waited, and who attended him to the ancient Hierapolis, with a piece of money which he was told he expected; and that in Egypt an aga being dissatisfied with the present he made him, he sent for the bishop's servant, and told him, that he ought to have given him a piece of cloth; and if he had none, two sequins, worth about a guinea, must be brought to him, otherwise he should see him no more: with which demand he complied. In the one case a piece of money was expected, in the other two sequins demanded. A trifling present of money to a person of distinction among us would be an affront: it is not so, it seems, in the East. Agreeably to these accounts of Dr. Pococke, we are told in the Travels of Egmont and Heyman, that the well of Joseph in the castle of Cairo was not to be seen without leave from the commandant; which having obtained, they in return presented him with a sequin. See Observations, p. 233.