Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,
Saul reigned one year - literally, a son of a year (was) Saul in 'reigning;' i:e., he had been a king for a year. The transactions recorded in the eleventh and twelfth chapters were the principal incidents comprised in the first year of Saul's reign; and the events about to be described in this passage happened in the second year. Some writers, however, regard the text as mutilated and defective in this first verse. The 'Hexapla' of Origen has this Greek reading-`Saul was (thirty) years old when he was made king, and he reigned-years in Israel,' the blank number being filled up by Houbigant, Wall, and others, as 'forty' (cf. Acts 13:21: Josephus, 'Antiquities,' b. 6: ch. 14:, sec. 9, where it is said that Saul lived eighteen years while Samuel was alive, and twenty two after that prophets death, = forty). The Septuagint omits the first verse altogether.