And Samuel called the people together unto the LORD to Mizpeh; And Samuel called the people together unto the LORD to Mizpeh;
Samuel called the people together ... to Mizpeh - a shaft-like hill near Hebron, 500 feet in height. The national assemblies of the Israelites were held there. A day having been appointed for the election of a king, Samuel summoned a public convention, and, after having charged the people with a rejection of God's institution, and a superseding of it by one of their own, proceeded to the nomination of the new monarch. Since it was of the utmost importance for the preservation of the established theocracy that the appointment should be under the divine direction and control, the determination was made through the miraculous lot, by the people, as represented by their heads or delegates, tribes, families, and individuals, being successively passed, not en masse, but by their representatives, until Saul was found. His concealment of himself must have been the result either of innate modesty or a sudden nervous excitement under the circumstances. When dragged into view, he was seen to possess all those corporeal advantages which a rude people desiderate in their sovereigns, and the exhibition of which gained for the prince the favourable opinion of Samuel also. 'Thus a king was elected by the express declaration of the divine oracle, raised from an obscure family (1 Samuel 9:21), in a mode so remarkable that he himself, as well as the entire nation, should know and feel that he derived his authority solely from that appointment' (Graves, 2:, p. 156).
In the midst of the national enthusiasm, however, the prophet's deep piety and genuine patriotism took care to explain "the manner of the kingdom" - i:e., the royal rights and privileges, together with the limitations to which they were to be subjected; and in order that the constitution might be ratified with all due solemnity, the charter of this constitutional monarchy was recorded and laid up "before the Lord" - i:e., deposited in the custody of the priests, along with the most sacred archives of the nation. The same safeguard against royal usurpation, by the deposit of the charter limiting the royal prerogative, was taken in the case of his successors (cf. 2 Samuel 5:3; 1 Kings 12:4; 2 Kings 11:17). It is evident from all this that the Hebrews were only the vicegerents of Yahweh: the executive power only was committed to them, while Yahweh reserved to Himself all legislative authority.